Just some observations. The two guns used primarily were Sharps and Remington rolling blocks with the Sharps being favored. I think it was due in large part to safety reasons. The old cartridges were Berdan primed with the primers being very soft cup percussion caps. Small ones but still percussion caps. Pressing the primer into the pocket seated it up to the anvil in the case. Removal was done with a cap awl. The Sharps had a sliding breechblock which is actually never truly "unlocked" while the Remington was NOT locked at all until the hammer actually struck the primer. At that point,its lock-up is as strong as one could ask for. Picture if you will a high primer and the buff hunter slamming the breech shut on the Remington. OR just as bad, the firing pin on the Remington frozen in fired position by debris or a burr or whatever. The round would fire in a totally unlocked breech with predictable results. The Sharps on the other hand would be nearly shut before the SLIDING breech contacted the high primer. If the round fired prematurely, the damage to the rifleman would be minimized. IMHO, both guns were very accurate rifles chambering powerful cartridges, but at that point in time, the Sharps design gave some peace of mind to men who would be shooting up to 200 rounds DAILY of some mighty powerful stuff. Any other thoughts??

I think the Sharps was the right gun at the right time, just like the Colt SAA. Sure their were contemporary guns similar in what they were designed to do, but they weren't Sharps.

The design was simple, the parts were few, the gun was easy to take down and clean/repair and that could be done in the field. Today, we aren't as sensitive about cleaning and repair as they were in those days. Black powder is very dirty and if your gun failed when you were on the plains, you were out of business.

I don't care what you say, there isn't a buffalo rifle that will even begin to look as good as a Sharps and life is to short to hunt with an ugly gun...

GREAT lookin' guns, but an ugly hunter Have you got yer Cooper Sharps running right yet??

I think you must add the Springfield in there. An awful lot of them used in the early years of the hunt. They were definitely superceded by the two you mention, but Springfields, from what I've read, were pretty common early-on.

Agree wholeheartedly about the appearance. None look as good. The analogy with the SAA is a good one too. Arguably better guns at the time, but none so when you factor in simplicity and ease-of-repair and ruggedness.

The Springfields were called "needle guns" and were rapidly dumped as the Sharps rifles came on line. The Allyn breech was never a very strong one.

One thing to add, the Sharps co. closed it's doors twice during the buffalo hunt, before they closed up for good,before the buffalo hunt was over.
Remington stayed in business.

ET, where's *My* Sharps??

Really?

Other than a slight interruption in shipping rifles during the move from Hartford to Bridgeport in about 1875 Sharps stayed in business during that time..

There is also another problem with the Rolling Blocks..

A Remington Rolling block can become and "Auto ejecting" rifle if there is a pierced primer and the gas blow by blows the hammer back far enough to unlock the breech. The same thing can happen if the breech block and hammer locking surfaces are worn or not correctly cut. I have seen this with my own eyes and it's not very amusing.

jm62,
Do you know of any good websites for Remington Rolling Blocks?
Not buying/selling, but hunting, collecting, etc/

Yes, that's true. Also, much of their use was during the market-meat-hunting years when folks like Buffalo Bill Cody were feeding railroad crews. It's just my opinion that their use was significant enough during the early years of the hide hunt, that they merit inclusion.

Well just about any BPCR website will have a lot of folks who have experience with them.. And some of them have experience with a lot of other types of BPCR rifles as well.

As far as sites with specs and history etc devoted only to Rollers, I don't know of any.

BTW, the biggest problem I personally have with Both Remington Rolling Blocks and Hepburns is not safety. It's the angle of the rear action tangs. They have so much drop you need a face shaped like an Army Mule just to see over the barrel.

For shooting comfort, I'll take a '74 Sharps,1885 Winchester or Stevens m44 over the Remingontons any day.

Jorge,

I asked ET the same question. I believe the upper one in the picture ET posted is mine, he just hasn't shipped it to me yet.

Ed

Well I forgot you know more about it than the Sharps catalogs from the day,when the front page declares new ownership/ management.....
Not even you can change the fact that Sharps went under for the last time,in 79/80, Remington kept right on chuggin along.....

Yep, that's is what the catalogs say. They did not say "going out of business" as you implied. The fact that there WERE catalogs every year in the 1870s proves my point. Sharps shipped rifles throughout the buffalo hunt.

As to Remington, they went bankrupt soon enough and changed ownership as well.. In 1888, the Remington family had to sell out to the Hartley Brothers of NYC for pennies on the dollar. Doesn't look like the Rolling block helped them very much does it?

None of which matters, because the '74 Sharps is twice the single shot rifle any rolling block ever was..

One thing I really liked about the Sharps rifles i have owned is that they can be torn down so easily.
My Highwalls are a PIA to disassemble, but the Sharps can be done int he field!
Cat

As per the inside page of the 1877 Sharps Rifle Co. catalog
The original company there upon dissolved and went out of existence
This new orginization , under the name of the Sharps Rifle Company,at once began in Bridgeport Conn...............
to which they removed in February ,1876, and are now prepared to execute contracts for arms in quantity
And that's a hell of a long ways from your beligerent bullshit drivel stating " They did not say "going out of business" as you implied "
So now crawl back under your friggin rock.

Dissolving a cooperation and immediately forming another to build the same product does not mean much. No matter what CORPORATE NAME they operated under or owners they had, Sharps was still a going concern all during still the buffalo hunt.

Was there ONE year during the 1870s when Sharps did not publish catalogs and ship rifles to dealers?

By your logic, Shiloh Sharps went "belly up" in 1990 when the Brian family bought Wolfe Droege out. They did not change the rifle co name, but they sure as hell had new owners. I also bet the parent corporate name changed as well. But none of that was in a catalog, so that really does not count, right?


Things must be pretty boring on your little 18 acre "Ranchette" today.. Run out of neighbors pets to shoot?

What the fugg are you talking about? I've never shot any of the neighbors pets.
You talk this igorant to people face to face or do you let the isolation of your keyboard fool you into thinking your something special.

So you DO live on a "Ranchette"...lol!!

At least you have some Sharps Catalog reprints you can read..

Good for you.

Oh your a funny little piece of [bleep]. But yeah I suppose to some this little 200 cow outfit would classify as a ranchette....
Sure do hope to get to meet you face to face soon...

200 momma cows..

Well, just one of those would take more than 18 acres to run on for a full year in Wyoming.

I guess anyone who has to take care of 200 head of momma cows in Wyoming in the winter gets a pass on being a bit "brittle" this time of year...

As to the Sharp Rifle Co being "defunct" in the 1870s, my argument still stands. They were no more "out of business" than Shiloh was in the early 1990s when they changed ownership. The money they put into developing and tooling up for the Brochardt and the Lee bolt rifles are what killed them by 1880 not the 74 rifles.

When the Bryants bought out Wofgang,stayed in the same building, kept the name the same, is a good bit different than "in 1875 worn out by expensenes and delays of these suits,(during the progress of which their production of arms had almost ceased,,,,
Never said what put them out of business, just that they did, and the fact that they closed their ceased production and closed their doors while the "hunt" was still on doesn't change.
Folks like Roberts and others thought the Borchardt to be their finest rifle.
Myself I'm partial to the 74's , the 75 is nice but not the rifle a highwall is. Rollers were the AK of the day, but the military contracts around the world and the civilian market kept Remington afloat long after Sharps closed their doors.

It takes closer to 40 acres for a cow, and the time of the year doesn't matter, never have much tolerance for jackasses.

Me neither, which is why I replied to you the way that I did.

Courtesy works both ways. You might try it sometime.

No matter how many head of cattle you claim to own.

Uhh sorry [bleep], you addressed me, I responded, and merely made the mistake of stumbling down to your worm hole level.... My mistake.

You're damn right it was a "mistake".

When you act like a crabby old man be it on a forum or in person you just might get your ass handed to you on a platter.

Do you ever do anything besides chit on other folk's threads? I dunno about Wyoming, but 200 cows around here is a ranchette.

Right here!!

I love pics of your old guns.

The one at the top is Jorge's 45/110.

Cole--Do you have that 50 shooting yet?

No, there was a major catastrophe with the Bryan's last summer and that put Kirk out of the loop as far as finishing the work with the bullet mould and reloading this cartridge. We haven't given up yet, hopefully we can complete this project this winter. I believe it is paper patch bullet. I can't wait, but I need to be patient as this is free help and I couldn't find help at any price that would be any better.

Are you duplicating the original bullet?? Does anyone else out there shoot a vintage 40/90?

Sight-in. Fresh target blew over after two shots, so I just shot in the center of the bottom of it, which was facing me. Six shots. Bottom shot was adjustment. Next five were a group.



First shot hit this gourd that was weighting the target down.



Last shot kilt this pumpkin. Dead center at about 125 paces. Punkin was already wounded, but I'm pretty sure this finished it off.

Theres a fella on the Shiloh board goes by the handle of Marathon man shoots a number of original sharps. Last year he laid out a buffalo with his 40-90.