By Mike Nesbitt | Contributing Editor
C. Sharps Arms has made what I believe is a very good move.
While this company might be best known for the heavy “buffalo rifles” they produce, they are also offering a version of their 1885 Low-wall rifle in a lighter and shorter version. This rifle is being called the Oakley Target Rifle, somewhat named after Annie Oakley, the famous “Little Miss Sure Shot” from the Buffalo Bill Wild West Shows. Miss Oakley did shoot similar rifles in her fine marksmanship demonstrations, although this new rifle by C. Sharps Arms is not a copy of an authentic Annie Oakley gun.
While it is not an actual copy of one of Annie’s rifles, it might be even better. It has features and dimensions which should make it very attractive to shooters who would naturally favor a shorter and lighter rifle, especially the ladies.
First to be mentioned is the 24-inch-long octagon barrel. This barrel is listed as a light barrel and it is not numbered as most Highwall or Low-wall barrels are. And this rifle is available only in .22 Long Rifle caliber.
The rifle is stocked with walnut, and it has a pistol grip, a hard rubber butt plate and the length of pull, that important dimension from the trigger to the end of the butt plate is 13 inches. The standard length of pull on Highwalls or Low-walls from C. Sharps Arms is a full 14 inches or slightly more and a stock that long can be very uncomfortable to many shooters. The 13-inch length of pull should make this rifle very inviting.
Please allow me to say a few things about length of pull in general. While a long length of pull is usually comfortable only for shooters who have long arms, a short length of pull can be shot by anyone. As an example, when the military was overseeing the manufacture and issuing of the famous M-1 Garand rifle, which General Patton described as “the greatest battle implement ever devised,” it had to fit every soldier. The great M-1 had only a 12 ½-inch length of pull. Back in my earlier years, I felt that the M-1’s stock was certainly short but, at the same time, I was able to shoot it very well. I sometimes had a bruised cheek from the back of the receiver but I still could shoot it, and call my shots rather nicely.
And, to get back on track about the Oakley Target Rifle, the walnut forearm is capped with ebony. The butt stock and forearm are not checkered as standard but checkering could be ordered at additional cost. To my way of thinking, the wood on the Oakley rifles looks pretty good as is but that is a matter of personal taste.
The receivers are thinned which reduces a little weight. That also adds an attractive line to the rifles’ receivers. Most of the original Winchester Low-walls also had those lines of the thinned receivers so those characteristic lines are authentic and certainly “in style.”
Speaking of weight, by today’s standards the Oakley Target Rifles are not lightweight firearms. One of these rifles was weighed, while equipped with a tang sight, and that gun balanced the scales at almost eight pounds. However, that does show a weight reduction from the standard Low-wall by C. Sharps Arms. My own Low-wall Classic in .22 Long Rifle, fitted with a 26-inch #3 barrel, weighs an even ten pounds. That difference of two pounds will be appreciated by several shooters.
Sight Options
For sights; the Oakley Target rifles have a dovetail cut for the front sight and the barrels are drilled and tapped for scope mounts on 7.2-inch centers. It is believed that most shooters will want either a tang mounted peep sight or a barrel mounted scope for their shooting with these guns. For the peep sights, C. Sharps Arms offers sights made by Lee Shaver and, for buyers who want to install the sights themselves, the sights for the Low-walls by Montana Vintage Arms are always a good option.
The Oakley Target rifle that my pal, Allen Cunniff and I had the pleasure of doing some shooting with was equipped with a Hi-Lux “Malcom” 19th Century-style scope and that scope really impressed me. I had not seen one of the Hi-Lux scopes before and at my first peek through that tube I was surprised with its light gathering. That made shooting this .22 rifle much more pleasant, whether my targets show it or not.
Hi-Lux identifies that scope as their Malcolm 6X Short Rifle Telescope (Gen II) which has a list price of $425. There are options which can raise that price but this has me considering another rifle. To find more information about the Hi-Lux scopes, simply visit their website at hi-luxoptics.com.
The shooting that Allen and I did with the scope-sighted Oakley Target Rifle was informal, at the very best. First, Allen took control of the rifle while we were at the range and he adjusted the parallax out of the scope. He has an “eye” for such things and I’m glad he was there to do that. Then the shooting started, mainly to get the scope sighted-in so our hits might be directed to the middle of the bullseye and not just in the “ball park.”
For this shooting session, we used Eley’s “Tenex” ammunition with the patented 40-grain flat-nosed bullets. No attempt was made to compare that ammo with other loads or other brands but it certainly shot well. Allen did the shooting to get the scope aligned and then he shot for score, firing at one of the small bullseye targets that we commonly use.
Allen is a better shot than I am and I’ve had to admit that more than once. When he fired the scoped .22 “for score,” he really did a good job of it, and that target is shown in a photo with all five shots tightly clustered in the X-ring on the yellow backed target. Something like that is certainly hard to beat but even so, I was anxious to give it a good try.
My turn to try came just after that and my five shots, at the same 50 yards distance, really pleased me but I didn’t fully compete with Allen. My target also held a score of 50-5X but I’m glad that X-ring is as big as it is because I needed the whole thing. My target is the one with the Eley cartridge box in the picture.
Our shooting with the Oakley Target Rifle continued until that box of 50 cartridges was empty, just because it was so much fun. And we turned to shooting at some of the gongs on our range because getting a good “plink” with a hit on any of these steel gongs is a good report to hear, and more fun than punching paper.
Presently, I do not own a .22 rifle with a scope on it and shooting with this superb single shot with the Hi-Lux 6-power scope proved to be a real delight. Right now, I have thoughts about scoping one of my “already got” rifles rather than get a new one. Of course, if a new rifle just for scoping was on my want list, one of these Oakley Target Rifles would receive priority considerations. This particular Oakley .22 rifle was returned to C. Sharps Arms.
Another shooter who does outstandingly well with one of the Oakley Target Rifles is Kelle Davis. We might say that Kelle was the first to fall in love with this somewhat-smaller Low-wall and she bought Oakley #1. (The Oakley Target Rifles are serial numbered in a separate range. The rifle Allen and I tested was Oakley #13.) We can even say that Kelle is just the right size for this .22 single shot, standing at 5’3”, and she claims that it fits her like a glove.
The standard Oakley Target Rifle does not come with sights but it does come with options toward sight selection. Kelle opted for iron sights and she chose a Vernier tang sight from Montana Vintage Arms along with a Lee Shaver 17A Globe front sight, which is available from C. Sharps Arms.Those sights match Kelle’s eyes quite well and with her rifle, fired from a sitting position while using cross-sticks, she scored a very tight 10-shot group at 50 yards which looks like a 100-5X. The photo of that group tells the tale and Kelle did her shooting with CCI Standard Velocity .22 Long Rife ammo.
(Kelle also shoots a C. Sharps Arms 1874 Bridgeport rifle in .45-70 caliber and has shot in the Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match with it. We enjoy calling her “Krazy Kelle.”)
As previously mentioned, this particular Oakley Rifle was returned to C. Sharps Arms after being informally tested by Allen and myself. There was an urge to keep it, certainly, just like the urge to have any fine rifle, but I already own and use a Low-wall “Classic” by C. Sharps Arms in .22 Long Rifle caliber which made it rather hard to justify getting another. The price for one of these specially made .22 rifles is $2475.00 and that does not include the sights or a scope. Their price is not out of line at all, not for a hand-fitted rifle that’s made one at a time. In fact, at that price, the Oakley Target Rifle is tempting, very tempting…
