kh54
45 Cal.
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2021
- Messages
- 605
- Reaction score
- 898
Greetings and Happy New Year to all! I would like to share with y’all my recent experience with Charlie Hahn and his modification to my Sharps rifle. (I won't detail the modifications in this post as I'm sure others have done so elsewhere. In any case, you can go to his website to learn about it: Hahn Machine Works.)
I bought a lightly used IAB reproduction 1859 Sharps some time ago but I was rather disappointed and frustrated with the jamming problems that are inherent in the design. I learned of Charlie's work on reproduction Sharps rifles through other members' posts in the ML forum. Charlie was very responsive to my inquiries by both email and telephone, and based also on the positive reviews posted by others, in April of 2021 I sent my rifle to Charlie to have him do his thing. As I recall the turnaround time was only about three weeks.
Between May and October I only had the opportunity to take my Sharps to the range on three occasions, and all three occasions were nearly as disappointing and frustrating as shooting the gun had been before Charlie "fixed" it. After the third and last bad experience, I decided that there must be something wrong with me, or the gun, or both, so I contacted Charlie about my troubles to ask his advice. Charlie did not hesitate to ask me to return the rifle for him to look it over and determine what the problem or problems might be, so I sent it back to Charlie in early November.
Charlie later acknowledged that the modification was not performing properly, and as I understood his explanation, the fix required that he essentially redo everything that he had modified previously but to slightly different tolerances. Due to some miscommunication it took Charlie a bit longer to make the new repairs but he made a special effort to finish his work and return the gun to me before Christmas. (Thanks Charlie!) He also installed a Pedersoli tang peep sight for me and executed some kind of magic to make what had been a simply awful trigger perform like a match rifle. For the new repairs, sight and trigger work Charlie charged me...nothing. Zip. Nada. Zero. And he did so without me asking.
On Friday I returned from a few days away from home and finally had a chance yesterday to take the rifle to the range. In short, my 1970s vintage "It's Always Broken" reproduction is now worthy of the Sharps name. It was admired by other shooters at the range, who were also impressed by its accuracy (one-inch groups at 25 yards without yet doing any load workup). On the other hand, I was impressed by Charlie's handiwork that solves a notorious problem and makes my gun a pleasure to shoot. I plan to get more serious with this gun, and if anyone is interested, I can later share pics of my gun and Charlie's modifications.
I'm pleased to recommend Charlie Hahn and his Sharps modification to anyone who has had challenges such as mine. The modification works, and Charlie has proved to be someone who can be trusted to stand behind his work. Thanks again Charlie!
(Apologies to all for the lengthy missive!)
I bought a lightly used IAB reproduction 1859 Sharps some time ago but I was rather disappointed and frustrated with the jamming problems that are inherent in the design. I learned of Charlie's work on reproduction Sharps rifles through other members' posts in the ML forum. Charlie was very responsive to my inquiries by both email and telephone, and based also on the positive reviews posted by others, in April of 2021 I sent my rifle to Charlie to have him do his thing. As I recall the turnaround time was only about three weeks.
Between May and October I only had the opportunity to take my Sharps to the range on three occasions, and all three occasions were nearly as disappointing and frustrating as shooting the gun had been before Charlie "fixed" it. After the third and last bad experience, I decided that there must be something wrong with me, or the gun, or both, so I contacted Charlie about my troubles to ask his advice. Charlie did not hesitate to ask me to return the rifle for him to look it over and determine what the problem or problems might be, so I sent it back to Charlie in early November.
Charlie later acknowledged that the modification was not performing properly, and as I understood his explanation, the fix required that he essentially redo everything that he had modified previously but to slightly different tolerances. Due to some miscommunication it took Charlie a bit longer to make the new repairs but he made a special effort to finish his work and return the gun to me before Christmas. (Thanks Charlie!) He also installed a Pedersoli tang peep sight for me and executed some kind of magic to make what had been a simply awful trigger perform like a match rifle. For the new repairs, sight and trigger work Charlie charged me...nothing. Zip. Nada. Zero. And he did so without me asking.
On Friday I returned from a few days away from home and finally had a chance yesterday to take the rifle to the range. In short, my 1970s vintage "It's Always Broken" reproduction is now worthy of the Sharps name. It was admired by other shooters at the range, who were also impressed by its accuracy (one-inch groups at 25 yards without yet doing any load workup). On the other hand, I was impressed by Charlie's handiwork that solves a notorious problem and makes my gun a pleasure to shoot. I plan to get more serious with this gun, and if anyone is interested, I can later share pics of my gun and Charlie's modifications.
I'm pleased to recommend Charlie Hahn and his Sharps modification to anyone who has had challenges such as mine. The modification works, and Charlie has proved to be someone who can be trusted to stand behind his work. Thanks again Charlie!
(Apologies to all for the lengthy missive!)
