Sharps rifle

Sharps rifle
Type	Rifle, Carbine
Place of origin	United States
Service history
In service	1850–1881
Production history
Designer	Christian Sharps
Designed	1848
No. built	120,000+
Variants	Single set trigger (regular army) Double set trigger
Specifications
Weight	9.5 lb (4.3 kg)
Length	47 inches (1,200 mm)
Cartridge	.52-caliber 475-grain projectile with 50-grain (3.2 g) cartridge, later converted to .45-70 Government in 1873.
Action	Falling block
Rate of fire	8–10 shots per minute
Muzzle velocity	1,200 ft/s (370 m/s)
Effective firing range	500 yd (460 m)
Maximum firing range	1,000 yd (910 m)
Feed system	1 round
Sights	open ladder type

Sharps rifles are a series of large-bore single-shot rifles, beginning with a design by Christian Sharps in 1848, and ceasing production in 1881. They are renowned for long-range accuracy. By 1874 the rifle was available in a variety of calibers and had been adopted by the armies of a number of nations and was one of the few successful designs to transition to metallic cartridge use.

Reproductions of the Sharps rifle are currently made by different rifle companies and the rifle has become an icon of the Old West due to its use in a number of movies and books in the Western genre.

Sharps' initial rifle was patented September 12, 1848 and manufactured by A. S. Nippes at Mill Creek, (Philadelphia) Pennsylvania, in 1850.

The second model used the Maynard tape primer, and surviving examples are marked Edward Maynard - Patentee 1845. In 1851 the second model was brought to the Robbins & Lawrence Company of Windsor, Vermont where the Model 1851 was developed for mass production. Rollin White of the R&L Co. invented the knife-edge breech block and self-cocking device for the "box-lock" Model 1851. This is referred to as the "First Contract", which was for 10,000 Model 1851 carbines - of which approximately 1,650 were produced by R&L in Windsor.

In 1851 the "Second Contract" was made for 15,000 rifles and the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company was organized as a holding company with $1,000 in capital and with John C. Palmer as president, Christian Sharps as engineer, and Richard S. Lawrence as master armorer and superintendent of manufacturing. Sharps was to be paid a royalty of $1 per firearm and the factory was built on R&L's property in Hartford, Connecticut.

The Model 1851 was replaced in production by the Model 1853. Christian Sharps left the company in 1855 to form his own manufacturing company called "C. Sharps & Company" in Philadelphia; Richard S. Lawrence continued as the chief armorer until 1872 and developed the various Sharp models and their improvements that made the rifle famous. In 1874, the company was reorganized and renamed "The Sharps Rifle Company" and it remained in Hartford until 1876, whereupon it relocated to Bridgeport, Connecticut.

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Wikipedia