This is my first post to this page. My son (14) and I have been collecting and home 'smithing for about 8 years now, mostly milsurps and anything old. We have aquired quite a collection in that time. We got our feet wet in BP with muzzle loaders and kit guns and have since graduated to Vetterli, Gras, M1871, and 71/84 etc. We recently watcted a Schuetzen Match and are interested in Sillouette, Buffalo and long ranges matches. I have been looking at H&R 1871 rifles lately and was wondering if this would be a good place to start. It seems that a new (discontinued) 38-55 rifle goes for just a little more than $300, and with H&R's barrel program I could get the 45-70 and 45 Long Colt barrels fitted to my gun for about $250 more. I'm guessing that a $600 investment would get me 3 usable calibers to start. I would love to start collecting the 'good" stuff, but I think I should make all of my mistakes on something cheap first. Any suggestions? Thanks.

An even bigger issue is sights! The H&R does not have a top tang, so it wont be easy to mount sights needed for long range work, or even 200 yd. work! I've seen a few that fellas mounted the tang sight to the wood directly, or with a insert imbedded into the wod of metal which accepted the sight base. I actually had a H&R Buffalo Classic, and I welded a top tang to the receiver to mount a tang sight, then inletted the wood around the tang.
Pluses are the price and the throughbolt that attaches the buttstock. I sold mine, as it was pretty accurate, but as Joe mentioned, the break open action is bothersome from almost any positon.

Not legal for sillywet, but you can build a decent Schuetzen on a big Martini, or Ruger No. 1 or 3, with about half the cost for the action on the hammer guns.   

David
Montezuma, IA

Thanks for all of the info and oppinions.  Since I posted this last week I have done a bit of research and found a whole new world I didn't know about.  I now know names like Pope, Ballard, Bullard etc.  Lots more homework to do.  I see some of the shortcomings of the H&R system now.  I always try to research a project before I jump in.  Is there any recomendation of a rifle that would be satisfactory for all types of matches?  I have read some guys are using Swedish rolling block rifle and shotgun receivers as a base, what do you think?  I would much rather build something than have a cookie cutter replica.  Again, thanks for the info guys!

I have actualy saw a couple of 44 1/2's on the auctions lately that were priced reasonably. The were not prety, but a centerfire rifle with a new barrel and a moderately priced tang sight could be put together on a low budget.  You could always make it pretty later, or just have fun with it as is. In the drag racing game we call it a "sleeper".