First Sharps Rifle

After reading Val Marlinman93's nice article about his beautiful Freund 50 caliber Sharps, I was inspired to write about my first Sharps rifle. I just finished making a new butt stock for my old Shiloh gun. Then I as a much younger man and had a new wife. I think at the time the honeymoon was over. Strolling through a surplus gun shop in Western Pennsylvania. Springfield Sporters was run by Bill Rogers a Pacific theatre veteran. I could sometimes get him to tell a War story about fighting the Japanese. Looking through his racks of imported Mausers, Enfields, and Springfields I saw a barreled action with a $35 tag on it. Turned out to be a Shiloh Sharps Farmington, NY gun. No wood or breech block, just a stripped action with a round 28" 1874 Business Rifle barrel. Bought it and took it home. Began looking at gun shows and the suttlers row at the national skirmishers events outside Winchester, Virginia. Found some Civil War surplus parts that came out of Bannermans Island. Even found an 1863 Sharps rifle buttstock with a patchbox. Found a percussion lock, lever, and trigger plate. Oh boy my first sharps was getting some parts!! Found a Civil War rear sight too. Had to work over the Civil War lock plate. Ground the tape primer parts off and did a little welding to make it look like an 1874 lock. The only thing I was missing was a center-fire breech block. Called Wolfgang Drogue who was the original founder of Shiloh Sharps long before he sold the business and it was moved to Big Timber, Montana. Wolf sold me a breech block, 45 cal extractor, and an 1874 wax cast hammer for $140. I made a forearm out of a piece of walnut and figured out how to make a tin/silver forearm tip. Loaded up some 45-70's and cast boolits and headed to the range! What a great shooter! Weighs in at 11 1/2 pounds. Several weeks ago I took it out of the safe and removed the military buttstock and decided to make a buttstock with a shotgun butt. The little Civil War rifle buttstock hurt to shoot full house 45-90's. So here are a few photos of my progress. The buttplate is an old Winchester Model 71 steel buttplate that very closely resembles the original Sharps butt plates. Built a 3/4" cast off into the buttstock. Had to heat and bend the trigger plate tang to match. I have a saw mill on the farm. Every once in awhile a nice piece of walnut gets sawn. This blank was stunning! A lot of rasping and sanding! I thank God for the trees he made and just marvel at his beautiful artwork in the wood I saw.Attachment 325355Attachment 325356Attachment 325357Attachment 325358Attachment 325359Attachment 325360Attachment 325361Attachment 325362Attachment 325363Attachment 325364Attachment 325365

??? My Sharps is a Freund Bros. built on an original 1880 Sharps delivered to Gove in Denver, not a modern Meacham.

That's a good looking rifle, and a great price you got it for!

Beautiful! You should be proud. I love my Shiloh Sharps, (2- 45-70's and a carbine percussion) I just haven't shot them in a while. Having my second neck fusion on the 15th and once that is healed I plan on getting them out and banging some steel. Thanks for sharing......

Have a bison hunt this October in South Dakota. Me and three buddies are taking our Sharps rifles and hunt em up. Also taking a portable generator. a chest freezer and all my butcher tools. Have a gringer that will grind 17 lbs of meat a minute. Will make a pile of jerky! Hope to blood up the 45-90 with the just finished buttstock. I set 3/4" cast off on the butt. Shure does point nice. Just needs a tang sight.

Well done Sir! My 1874 Shiloh Sharps Carbine will be one of the last if not the last gun I would sell.

https://i.imgur.com/6CqKLzxl.jpg

Stubshaft: I have never seen a Sharps carbine with set triggers. A most unusual find. Big buckhorn rear sight, light weight, easy to carry and will fit in a scabbard on a 4-wheeler. Guess it is 45-70 ??? Have you smoked Bambi with it ?

Shiloh offers double set triggers on the Military Carbines you have to call them if you want the double set triggers it’s not in the option list for the Carbines it’s a $220.00 option . I have one on order chambered for 40-50 SBN which also you have to call and request.

For a number of years after I stopped being a deer sniper at long range with my bolt action rifle, I started hunting with my old Marlin lever action rifles. I think the first was my 1881 Marlin in .45-70, which was overkill for deer, but certainly did a nice job. I continued on using a number of different 1893, 1894, 1889, etc. Marlins I collected, and took a buck every year at a lot closer than I did with my deer sniper rifle.
Then one year I thought taking one of my old Ballard rifles would be fun too! I have a Ballard #8 Union Hill in .38-55, but being a schuetzen rifle it has a small Farrow style buttplate. Not a big deal to me as I hold it off my upper arm as you're supposed to, and figured I'd do the same for deer.
When we got to deer camp and I opened up my gun case it got a lot of chuckles from my brother and two nephews. They all wanted to know if I'd been hitting the bottle or loaded the wrong gun in the case?
The next morning we headed to our favorite spot, and after a 1 1/2 hour hike to the top of the ridge I chose to head West, while my brother and nephew headed East. His son in law followed me and we headed for a good draw. Once there I said I was stopping at the top of the draw and just going to sit and see what came out. After about 15 minutes of sitting he laid his bolt action rifle down and relaxed, while I kept my Ballard across my lap. Soon does began coming out of the draw, and we counted 14 of them. He again laid his rifle down, but I got mine readier by chambering a cartridge, and pointing it forward towards the draw. A minute later I saw antlers appear above the crest of the draw on the far side, and raised my rifle to my shoulder. When the buck's shoulder appeared I cocked the hammer, and my nephew asked me what I was looking at just as I touched off the set trigger!
The buck was about 140 yds., and the 255 gr. bullet hit his shoulder and dropped him instantly. But as we were high fiving and celebrating the buck began kicking and we watched him roll end over end all the way to the bottom of the draw! That kinda took the life out of our celebration as we pondered the drag up out of the draw.
The big buck went over 200 pounds and was 4x5 rack. One of my best mule deer bucks ever, and sweeter having taken him with a gun made in the 1870's.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rockindaddy

Stubshaft: I have never seen a Sharps carbine with set triggers. A most unusual find. Big buckhorn rear sight, light weight, easy to carry and will fit in a scabbard on a 4-wheeler. Guess it is 45-70 ??? Have you smoked Bambi with it ?

---

Yup, stamped 45 2/10" it has smoked a number of Bambi's, Porky Pigs and Bill E. Goats.

yes, bill rodgers was quite the man. i spent many hours digging in his treasures, i tried to make it there at least two times a month and bought many firearms from him. did you get a chance to go into his vault in the downstairs? his boy russel seemed not to be interested in firearms to much to me. a little story that will help to date me (80 now), my son was mauled by a dog at six years old(1989) and i took him up to help him with his fear of dogs as bill had a light colored lab that laid out by the gun racks that was very friendly. and it worked my son was petting it on the his second trip., he,s 40 now and still talks about that dog who helped him. i have a picture of myself setting on a large pile of what he called junk rifles out back.

Rockindaddy, wonderful job on saving that old Shiloh. Vall, great story about that mule deer with the Ballard. The last blacktail in Oregon that I did not shoot was a candidate to roll to the bottom of a very steep ravine in the Siskiyous. Not with my dodgy old back!

Hey Marlin: That is a good hunting story! I like to take my old single shots and lever guns into the woods too to put the fur on the ground. My 1881 Marlin is marked: 40-60 Marlin. Had to ream the chamber neck to get it to shoot. I shoot 40-65 Winchester handloads. Full case load of 3031 and a Hornady 300gr 401 Winchester boolit. Smoked a nice 7 point at 140 yards. I get laughed at too by my hunting buddies.

eastbank: I really liked ole Bill Rogers. He was a little bitter after his tour with the US Marines through the Japanese islands. He lost a few good buddies. Bill hated the Japs! Said they were a non ethical soldier that would not surrender when they were beaten. Old Bill carried a Thompson throughout his tours. Said the Tommy Gun was perfect for the close in jungle fighting. I had a registered M1A1 Thompson back then and dragged it up to Penn Run, PA and showed it ole Bill. He was like a kid in a candy store. We took it out back and shot it. Bill must have had a couple hundred thousand rounds in one of his warehouses. He sent one of his workers to fetch up several hundred rounds. We did a lot of shootin that day. Of course I got several more war stories out of him. He always treated me nice. Bought a pile of guns from him.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by marlinman93

For a number of years after I stopped being a deer sniper at long range with my bolt action rifle, I started hunting with my old Marlin lever action rifles. I think the first was my 1881 Marlin in .45-70, which was overkill for deer, but certainly did a nice job. I continued on using a number of different 1893, 1894, 1889, etc. Marlins I collected, and took a buck every year at a lot closer than I did with my deer sniper rifle.
Then one year I thought taking one of my old Ballard rifles would be fun too! I have a Ballard #8 Union Hill in .38-55, but being a schuetzen rifle it has a small Farrow style buttplate. Not a big deal to me as I hold it off my upper arm as you're supposed to, and figured I'd do the same for deer.
When we got to deer camp and I opened up my gun case it got a lot of chuckles from my brother and two nephews. They all wanted to know if I'd been hitting the bottle or loaded the wrong gun in the case?
The next morning we headed to our favorite spot, and after a 1 1/2 hour hike to the top of the ridge I chose to head West, while my brother and nephew headed East. His son in law followed me and we headed for a good draw. Once there I said I was stopping at the top of the draw and just going to sit and see what came out. After about 15 minutes of sitting he laid his bolt action rifle down and relaxed, while I kept my Ballard across my lap. Soon does began coming out of the draw, and we counted 14 of them. He again laid his rifle down, but I got mine readier by chambering a cartridge, and pointing it forward towards the draw. A minute later I saw antlers appear above the crest of the draw on the far side, and raised my rifle to my shoulder. When the buck's shoulder appeared I cocked the hammer, and my nephew asked me what I was looking at just as I touched off the set trigger!
The buck was about 140 yds., and the 255 gr. bullet hit his shoulder and dropped him instantly. But as we were high fiving and celebrating the buck began kicking and we watched him roll end over end all the way to the bottom of the draw! That kinda took the life out of our celebration as we pondered the drag up out of the draw.
The big buck went over 200 pounds and was 4x5 rack. One of my best mule deer bucks ever, and sweeter having taken him with a gun made in the 1870's.

---

I loved this story! My buddy and I decided to go whitetail hunting with black powder in our cartridge lever actions. We went down Sixteen Mile Creek where the abandoned Milwaukee RR passed through the canyon. I was toting my 1886 in .50 x 2.1 and Tom had a Browning 1886 .45-70. It was a quiet, still morning and we surprised a little buck on the creek that quickly took off up the hillside. We both fired and found there was a problem. There was so much white smoke in front of us we weren't seeing the buck any more! By the time the smoke had cleared the buck was gone. Later on we did manage to score. I admit I was a little over-gunned but I was using "light" 300 grain express bullets!

Good huntin story Montana! Big gun for a whitetail buck! Nice photo too. Maybe our hunting stories will inspire other readers on this site to share their stories and photos!!! Love those 86' Winchesters! What a marvel of engineering by John Browning.

Although the .45-70 is a big cartridge for deer, it does well, and doesn't usually do as much damage as a .30-06 can do at equal distances. I expected more carnage and meat loss than what I actually saw after taking a buck with my 1881 in .45-70 cartridge.