6/15/2023 0 Comments 1870 repeating gitbox![]() The Sharps Rifle was potent when used on the American Bison. In the West, the Sharps rifle became known as “Beecher’s Bible,” after a news item described abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher’s observation that, “You might as well read the Bible to buffaloes as to those fellows who follow Atchison and Stringfellow but they have a supreme respect for the logic Sharps rifles.” When the Civil War broke, the Sharps enterprise was producing 30,000 guns annually in a factory driven by a 250-horsepower, single-cylinder Corliss steam engine. A shipment of 200 carbines got to John Brown. Some military versions had a “coffee mill” in the buttstock (most soldiers of the day used it to grind grain).ĭuring the late 1850s, Sharps rifles were shipped by abolitionists to Kansas “Free Staters,” to get votes against slavery. The last four were “slant-breech” rifles, the breechblock operating at a 112-degree angle to the bore. Six rifles have been produced under the Sharps name: Models 1849, 1850, 185l, 1852, 18. Christian Sharps fielded several forgettable rifles before his company came up with its powerful, long-range “buffalo rifles.” The first patent model Sharps was an 1841 Mississippi rifle with a new breech that featured a vertical sliding block operated by a guard-bow finger lever. The last half of the 19th century was the most productive period in firearms history, albeit progress came in fits and starts. ![]() That expedition yielded “a few more than 1,000 buffaloes in one month.” My right hand and arm were so sore from working the gun that I was not sorry to see the remaining buffaloes start off on a brisk run …. In 1½ hours I had fired 91 shots, as a count of the empty shells showed afterwards, and had killed 79 buffaloes, and we figured that they all lay within an area of about 2 acres of ground. By the time that became hot the other had cooled, but then the powder smoke in front of me was so thick I could not see through it there was not a breath of wind to carry it away, and I had to crawl backward, dragging my two guns, and work around to another position on the ridge, from which I killed 54 more. A bullet from an overheated gun does not go straight, it wobbles, so I put that gun aside and took the other. The time I made my biggest kill I lay on a slight ridge behind a tuft of weeds l00 yards from a bunch of 1,000 buffaloes… After I had killed about 25 my gun barrel became hot and began to expand. Between 200 and 350 yards was all right…I carried a gun rest made from a tree crotch… Usually, I went to the top of some rise to spy out the herd, sneak up to within good ranges. furnished the supplies and the skinning, stretching and cooking. I furnished the team and wagon and did the killing. In 1872 I organized my own outfit and went south from Fort Dodge to shoot buffaloes for their hides. In a 1930 edition of the Kansas City Star, hunter George Reighard explained how he shot bison: ![]() Army turned a blind eye to the slaughter, as it advanced its own aim to bring recalcitrant Plains Indians to heel. It was a period of shameless killing and insatiable appetites. Sharps rifles played a signal role in the act of clearing the plains of large animals. The tight breeching held promise for hunters, because it could handle cartridges that would hit hard at long range. In 1848, he received his first patent, for a sliding breech block. The New Jersey native had apprenticed under John Hall at Harpers Ferry Arsenal. As legions of mechanics struggled with repeating actions, Christian Sharps built a stronger breechloading single-shot. Loading from the breech had been a dream long before the advent of the percussion cap. Even today, the renowned rifle is popular looking to connect with distant targets. Hunters, settlers and soldiers boosted their reach and firepower with metallic cartridges and Sharps rifles.
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