POTD: Peregrine Silverthorne Model 33 – Benchrest for the Obsessed
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a pistol built for one of the most patient, fiddly corners of the shooting world. This is the Peregrine Silverthorne Model 33, a single-shot falling-block pistol made in small numbers in Silverthorne, Colorado in the 1980s. The falling-block action is the whole point, it gives the rigid, repeatable lockup that precision single-shot work demands.
This one is chambered for the .32 Miller Short, a wildcat made from cut-down .357 brass, and it comes with a breech seater and a 36-power scope. That gear tells you exactly what it’s for: cast-bullet benchrest shooting. The Silverthorne Model 33 is the modern descendant of old Schuetzen-rifle competition, and the technique is something most shooters have never seen. Instead of loading a finished cartridge, you push a soft cast lead bullet straight into the rifling ahead of the chamber with the breech seater, then slide a primed, charged case in behind it.
Why bother? Seating the bullet directly into the bore removes the “jump” from case to rifling and lines everything up perfectly, an accuracy trick going back to Harry Pope and the great single-shot makers over a century ago. Done right, these shooters print ten-shot groups well under an inch at 200 yards with plain lead bullets. A barrel by V. Sigman finishes it off. A niche inside a niche, and a beautifully made one.
Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!
“Scarce Peregrine Silverthorne Co. Model 33 Falling Block Benchrest Pistol with Scope.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/5032/875/peregrine-silverthorne-co-model-33-benchrest-pistol-with-scope. Accessed 25 June 2026.
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