Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain

Jan 3^rd, 2011 at 10:15pm

Dead I Offline
Senior Member

Posts: 383

Here is my little Sharps 50/70 Carbine. It was shot once and not cleaned, so the rifling, while sharp, is rusted. Otherwise the gun is in excellent condition.

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Reply #1 - Jan 3^rd, 2011 at 10:16pm

Dead I Offline
Senior Member

Posts: 383

Here's another photo:

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Reply #2 - Jan 3^rd, 2011 at 10:18pm

Dead I Offline
Senior Member

Posts: 383

A little out of focus; sorry:

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Reply #3 - Jul 14^th, 2011 at 8:43pm

Southron Offline
Senior Member
Georgia, USA

Posts: 304

Well, Tell us how it shoots!

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Reply #4 - Jul 17^th, 2011 at 7:51pm

orsen carte Offline
New Member

Posts: 13

if anyone has a sharps for sale i would be very intersted , even if the barrel is dead

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Reply #5 - Jul 18^th, 2011 at 9:28pm

Pat in Virginia Offline
Full Member

Posts: 114

Dead I,

Yours, like mine, seems to be a conversion from a Civil War percussion carbine. Which means it probably served in two wars: yhe War Between the States and the Indian Wars in the west after that. But, you probably already knew that.

Have you ever had the serial number checked to see which units it was carried by?

Pat

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Reply #6 - Jul 20^th, 2011 at 7:04pm

Dead I Offline
Senior Member

Posts: 383

Pat in Virginia wrote on Jul 18^th, 2011 at 9:28pm:

Dead I,

Yours, like mine, seems to be a conversion from a Civil War percussion carbine. Which means it probably served in two wars: yhe War Between the States and the Indian Wars in the west after that. But, you probably already knew that.

Have you ever had the serial number checked to see which units it was carried by?

Pat

Hi Pat: Yes, my carbine was a percussion carbine and still retains the old pill primer workings. It was relined, probably by Sharps in most likely 1868/9 when they did a lot of that work. Not all were issued and this one is in such fine shape that I doubt it ever was. Bannerman sold them cheap in the early to mid 20 Century and a I suspect this was one of theirs. Someone shot it and didn't clean it. What a shame.

After the Civil War the Sharps competed with the Spencer for military use and both were issued. Both were beat out by the trapdoor however. Bloody Knife, one of Custer's favorite scouts carried a Sharps that looked like mine, probably also in 50/70.

I could have this gun relined, which would probably cost me $200 plus. I'll have to shoot it first to see if it needs it. Now all I've got to do is to get the proper bullets and cases. It is a pretty thing tho isn't it.

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Reply #7 - Jul 20^th, 2011 at 7:10pm

Dead I Offline
Senior Member

Posts: 383

I have not checked the serial number of this carbine. Sharps, according to the book of the same name made about 100,000 rifles/carbine during our CW. Again according to the same book about 10,000 GI's were allowed to buy their issue carbine/rifle. They would have remained in percussion, so mine is not one of those guns.

I also have a percussion three banded Sharps rifle. It's a .52 and is amazingly accurage for an old gun. Bore, except for just a little roughness here and there is like new. Funny thing is that it does not leak a bit of gas. Shooting a Hall will curl your hair and eyebrows. Not a Sharps.

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Reply #8 - Jul 20^th, 2011 at 7:16pm

Dead I Offline
Senior Member

Posts: 383

orsen carte wrote on Jul 17^th, 2011 at 7:51pm:

if anyone has a sharps for sale i would be very intersted , even if the barrel is dead

I have seen original Sharps carbines that look to be in pretty good condition offered for between $2 and $6K. Not cheap. Funny, but I cannot recall what I paid for mine. I think I bought it sight unseen from Dixie in 1978. I'd guess I paid $500. Strange I recall what I paid for most of my guns, but not this one. I do recall writing a check, in 1971 to a fellow in a gun show for $360 for the Sharps rifle. At the time he thought I paid too much. Not so. But isn't that the case with most old guns?

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Reply #9 - Aug 2^nd, 2011 at 9:41pm

Dead I Offline
Senior Member

Posts: 383

Here's a better image of my 50/70 Sharps. It still has it's pill primer and all of it's workings. They just ammended the bolt face to take a firing pin and shaped the hammer face. It also had a hole drilled into the face to accept a rim fire firing pin as well as a center fire one. So it would go either way. I've never seen one converted like mine. Sadly the bore is rough. I guess I could have it relined,but I hate to send off such a fine gun. I don't trust the mail. So many guns are stolen.

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Reply #10 - Jul 27^th, 2012 at 6:20pm

Hangfire Offline
Tyro

Posts: 4

If you would like to build some .50-70 cartridges for your carbine, google Buffalo Arms. They sell the brass, lead and powder you will want.

I shoot a .45-90 Shiloh Sharps that I had built about 10 years ago for a bison hunt. I am also enamored of the Sharps so to be honest, it wasn't just for the hunt. The cartridges are not hard to reload if you want to just fool around with it. Like all things, it takes a little more if you want to wring real accuracy out of it.

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Reply #11 - Dec 17^th, 2012 at 6:43am

Dead I Offline
Senior Member

Posts: 383

Here's my percussion musket:

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