Scoped Sharps 1874 Buffalo Rifle
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- This 1874 Sharps rifle is a great example of a been-there, done-that authentic western buffalo rifle. It was shipped from Sharps in 1879 with double set triggers, open sights, and a medium-weight .45 caliber barrel, but rebuilt by a Cheyenne gunsmith with a much heavier barrel in .40-100 caliber, and fitted with a Rice telescopic sight in a free-floating mount. While this was built just too late to have been used in the heyday of the slaughter of the wild buffalo, it is a fine example of the rifle configuration used by serious hunters and target shooters alike at that time.
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"Are you quite certain, Mr. Quigley... that you wouldn't like the bucket a bit closer?"
"Quite certain."
NICE REFRENCE.
Awesome Movie!
🖖🏻🇫🇷😎🇫🇷😇🇫🇷🖖🏻
Yes, French love guns too! 😎
Philippe FRATER it sucks how most European countries ban guns or make them hard to get and the only thing closest to them are airsoft or deactivated guns.
Mayton C Well, you have to know something. I own several guns, it's really easy to buy guns in France.
I have, 223 (Steyr AUG), 222 and 243 precision riffles and a SVD 7.62/54R. Not bad for a Frenchy no?
(No taxe stamps to buy suppressors, no waiting time...😂)
Philippe FRATER nice lucky you. Guns are a fun item and a good tool.
Not many old rifles like these catch my attention, but the sharps rifles have always been an exception. Beautiful, well made guns and the simple, yet elegant and innovative actions make these extremely interesting for me
Scoped rifles of this era are incredible. You would think that putting a scope on these old things would be pointless, but the accuracy possible might surprise you.
Scopes at this time were built for an individual. Fixed focus tuned to your eye sight. The whole subject is fasciniting by itself. Early optics such as the Gallilo sight had the advantage of gathering light for dawn and dusk shots.
TheGoldenCaulk it’s really amazing how highly accurate guns got with the advent of rifling.
The glass is often less for accuracy, more to actually see the target. The issue of long range shooting at moving targets is identifying the target in the first place. 2x is a lot better than no magnification and better sights never hurt when trying to push a gun to its limits.
+keith moore Sure, it was possible to get such shots off, the rifles back then certainly were capable of that. The question is, if you could make such shots *reliably*! And that’s where a scope comes in, because no matter how good you are, reliably making a 1 mile shot under less than optimal circumstances is basically impossible for even the best shooter. Whereas the same shooter would have less or even no trouble at all making the same shot under the same conditions with a scope.
If we consider what the goal here was (to hunt buffaloes), distance plays an important role. Buffaloes are big animals, you don’t want to get to close to a live wild one, especially one that has been scared shitless by other buffaloes around it dying, noise, blood, and so on. You want to make your shots from a safe distance. And that’s only reliably feasible with a scope.
keith moore You've "heard stories." Do you really believe a bunch of people stood around and killed 200 buffalo?
Do you realize how much ammo that would take? How many people it would take to carve up the carcass, move it, and store it? Half the meat would be wasted before they could collect everything.
I can't explain it but there's something about doing a presentation on a Sharps rifle while sitting in front of a rack full of Tommy guns that just brings a big 'ole smile to my face! :D
A "History of optics" special would be awesome... How things evolved from these early optics (or even earlier ones?) through WW1 era sniper scopes, and through today...
I'm sitting on the Green River in Mundfordville, Kentucky drinking my coffee next to a statue of a Buffalo. This used to be a crossing for them, in the old days they were even thick around here. The statue is life size, they were massive
I'm happy you can make a living doing this, and just generally doing something you're obviously very passionate about. It's kinda inspiring to see that kind of story.
It's a fine thing to see someone whom is truly passionate, and knowledgeable continuing this sort of research and preservation of knowledge! And that he is an awesome enough person to be a generally cool fellow as well.
His obvious disdain and pause when speaking of the buffalo massacre speaks to his character. Subscribed.
I wish I had learned the bit about buffalo hunting as an act of war in school. Can't really say I'm surprised that I didn't, though. This is why I constantly see comments under these videos that go something like "I don't even like guns but I love this channel". Every video is an informative dive into the history of the weapon that is its subject, and videos about guns with important historical context are always the best.
Waring tribes used the same practice against one another long before western expansion . while a disgusting tactic it wasn't anything new. The introduction of the pony or horse to the Native Americans was the beginning of the end for the buffalo. It meant more men moving faster and traveling further for hunts.
If your interested in the Americans plains buffalo as well as the history surrounding them check out the book American Buffalo by author and Hunter Steven Rinella. It's a great and easy read filled with unbiased factual history.
Or history about how events like the Creedmoor match he spoke of had sn affect on international politics.
A few months ago I saw a video in which a guy explained how they used to make pemmican from the buffalos. Calorie heavy food which would last very well(1 to five years, but sometimes even more). So I was quite surprised when I heard people killed buffalos just for their hides and not for the meat.
I'm going to make sure it is taught when I get my degree if we are to move forward in ournsociety we must understand this countries past sins
@@chickenfishhybrid44 K
The term "Scharfschütze" in german translates litterally to "sharpshooter". Both mean a very acurate shooter but the german term goes back in the ages where crossbows a new invention. If one takes to account that older german and english were way more similar one could also think that this might have influenced the word as well.
@Koefti
The first Sharp's Rifle was patented in 1848, whereas the the first usage of "sharpshooter" in English was circa 1801.
That's obviously in English - your German explanation is perfect.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpshooter
Another “borrowed” word from German to English.
correct me if I am wrong, but "Schuetzen" means to protect/defend/guard and "Schiessen" means shoot. So a literal translation of Scharfschuetze would be "Sharpguard"
@@HarryGoulding That word has both meanings in German, including "to guard/protect". In the case of Scharfschuetze though it is definitely the meaning of shooter.
It's a bit like the ever popular (sadly) term "assault rifle" or "Sturmgewehr" in German,..a term the NAZIs came up with for the STG44 rifle. A term that is sadly still being used by propagandists (at least the English translation is).
Gewehr of course means rifle, but Sturm has a double meaning just as it has in English. It means storm,...which just as in English can mean the weather event in German too, but also as in to "storm" into or "assault" a room or building. Hence the German term Sturmgewehr has nothing to do with the weather event in this case, in this case it simply means assault rifle.
Skarpsķytte in Swedish.
I played with this in h3VR, easily my favorite rifle. So easy to understand and it seriously packs a punch!
I love the history you include with your firearm reviews. Thanks for putting forth the extra effort. Keep up the great work.
Man, what a beautiful rifle. Like the Sharps rifle used in "Quigley Down Under".
Lots of memorable lines in that movie, with very good and historically accurate technical information.
Quigley's parting line after winning the gunfight with the boss: "I said I never had much use for one... I never said I didn't know how to use it".
I fucking love that line.
You can actually see Ian pause in disgust when he was retelling the slaughter of buffaloes during this period.
Yes but good meat. I wish I lived then. Love to sport shoot.
James Givens you wished you lived then so you could help diminish the population for sport shooting lmao
As if its any less horrific than what happens now on a far larger scale to tens of billions upon billions of animals every year.
I mean how can any of you be disgusted by what you actively partake in? Sounds like you need to re-evaluate your behaviors to be more ethically consistent by going vegan.
@Zippydsm Lee "Humans are omnivores its not natural to eat only plants"
1. "Humans are omnivores" is not an argument.
2. "its not natural to eat only plants" is also not only completely false and ignorant of human biology, the word "natural" is meaningless because both good and bad things can be described as "natural." Rape is natural. Does that make rape a good thing? Of course it doesnt. Whether or not something occurs in nature is irrelevant to morality.
@Zippydsm Lee "Not at all because nature is the ultimate good"
No idea what that means. You haven't responded to a word I've just said.
As stated earlier one of the reasons why buffalo were killed was for their hides. That does not mean that buffalo coats were a fashion statement among the eastern elites. No, buffalo hides were made into flat leather industrial type belts. During the steam age ALL machinery from factory to farm used flat leather belts to transmit and moderate power to the machines. Even the most basic farm would have over 100 feet of industrial belting in use on it. A factory would have thousands of feet of industrial belting in use at any one time. Multiply those numbers by the tens of thousands of farms and factories we had all over the country and you can get an idea of the size of the market for such belting was. Buffalo hide made exceptionally strong and desireable leather for industrial belting, much stronger than what you would get from cattle. Also, unlike cattle, which are farmed and come at an expense, the buffalo were free roaming and thus free for the taking. The only cost associated with them was the cost of harvesting and prepping the hides for their journey to be processed into leather. So the near extinction of the buffalo did serve a purpose other than as an act of war. I would even dare to say that our Industrialization would have been significantly hampered without them. The use of flat belt drives in farming and industry would continue right up to and through World War Two. After the country became electrified in the 1930's-1940's (TVA, Rual Electrification Administration) Farming and Industry no longer had to depend upon lineshafts and flat belt drives for power transmission and moderation. Still the massive buffalo hunts were, and remain, a national tragedy.. It also underlines why the proper management of resources is so important. Heck the only reason we have clay pigeons today is because the passenger pigeon was shot to extinction, and like clay pigeons a vast amount of them were shot for 'sport'.
D Agnew also it was very fashionable in the NE to have coats made from buffalo.
Thank you for your knowledgeable and well thought out informative comment. Very beneficial to the entire conception of the era in retrospect.
As a kid, we used flat belts as late as the mid 1950's on our farm.
@Jenna Johnson So, where did the passenger pigeon go?
I heard once that live pigeons were shot as an Olympic sport.
I have an italian Davide Pedersoli manufactured 'Sharps 1874 Sporter' in .45/70Gov't and double set trigger, with a 6x magnification 'William Malcolm' type scope in micrometer-mount.
Those scopes are virtually parallax-free and clear at any distance, due to the few lenses being so far away from eachoder.
Davide Pedersoli made a limited number of those, when the reproduction scopes came on the market. I got the second last of those rifles that German hunting/shootingstore Frankonia had in stock.
Wonderful gun.
It works very well with my .22 single shot. Simple to adjust and right on point with elevation and windage. A great buy for any hunters or for competition.
I love the aesthetic of the hexagonal barrel, it just feels so cool when looking at an old rifle like this one.
It harkens back to American antiquity, you just picture a guy with a top hat, a bear skin coat and a big bowie knife carrying one of these in his saddle.
Obviously not a "hexagonal" barrel as you would not end up with a 'flat' on the top & bottom of the barrel with only 6 sides. It is an octagonal barrel.
Ian didn't mention another advantage of the floating scope; it won't hit you in the eye. I remember in the movie "Back To the Future 3," Doc held a rifle with this style of scope right up to his eye and I thought that would probably injury his eye if he fired it, but it turns out I was wrong.
Early scope technology is fascinating. Especially how unfamiliar with is most contemporary firearms enthusiasts, being quite rare and different from modern technology. This is the first time I've seen a free-floated scope. Fascinating.
The standard load for the late Sharps Buffalo guns, the 'Big 50', was .50-90 and topped out at .50-110. That's some serious fire power.
Not the first hunting rifle or the first sniper rifle, the Sharps rifles were iconic Western and excellent at both hunting and sniping. The iconic Sharps is truly one of the greatest firearms ever.
"It's always nice to have a fella with a big bore Sharps along, in case we get jumped by elephants or something!" Rooster Cogburn in True Grit.
White feather
From what I heard the buffalo is actually doing much better these days. That is great to see.
Also I got to agree. I like guns that have a story to tell and still work despite being over a hundred years old.
"Better" is putting it mildly
The genetic code of so few buffalo left when their population started rising to a recovery means that the species has been so inbred they could rival a Habsburg noble
So glad that the gunsmith that worked on it had the incentive to preserve the serial number.
I also noticed the front lens tube looked adjustable. Was it for focus as well.
I'm looking at the simplicity of this scope, and mentally comparing it to the advancements of the WWI scopes like on the Lebel you recently featured, and comparing that to some of the modern scopes you've used in the Stoner project. Could you deep dive into scope technology, either here or on InRange TV?
--what were the advancements that allowed for more durability, and better retention of zero?
--what changed with glass that gave it better clarity, better light transmission, larger surface area?
--how are things hardened?
--what influenced the types of reticles used?
I'm thinking of some of the deep dives you guys did with the Faxon people
I would enjoy to see a video of Ian examining and describing the advances in scope technology from the dawn of thier use, through some fairly modern era as well! Good call, I was really intrigued by that loooooong tube as well!
This would be a cool series of vids
OMG guys. Go do some reading. Aluminum bodies, better glass composition and grinding techniques, and glass coating technologies.
Small correction, since elevation is done at the muzzle end of the scope, the more you raise it up the lower the bullet hits. It is the opposite of how a modern sight is adjusted. Imagine the scope remaining level, increase the angle up front and the muzzle drops.
Was wondering who was gonna mention that👍
Unbelievable that you kill huge buffalos and not eat the mountain of meat it leaves behind. They look quite tasty too
Well if you’re one person killing dozens of animals you can’t really eat the meat of all of them.
Bison > Beef
This wasn't just a "European" behavior- there are numerous memoirs from the period mentioning Indians who made full use of modern firearms to bring down buffalo for sport, hides, or whatever else. One soldier of the montana column, 1876 campaign wrote of the fun watching crow Indians shoot up a herd they had come across. He wasn't being judgemental, just impressed at the spectacle.
You can still eat the meat today if you want. Turner has an exclusive heard he owns and sells the meat.
Also should be noted that when traveling on trains, passengers would shoot buffalo for sport. A single trip could leaves hundreds to over a thousand buffalo dead within a few hours.
Nickofearth: This historically not true and there are plenty of 1st hand accounts from Native Americans themselves as well as archaeological evidence proving this. Thousands of buffalo would be forced off cliffs to their deaths by native tribes who only took the tongues and livers. What Ian explains in the video that the U.S. Army did warring enemy tribes did to one another as well.
How many hides do you think one Indian tribe required? Or how many tools and utensils made from bone did one family or individual need? The myth of the American Indian always using everything and being respectful of the surrounding world has been accepted for truth mostly due to movies and media like Dances with wolves. If you require more information in an easy read check out American Buffalo by the author and Hunter Steve Rinella.
Native Americans suffered from the same human condition the rest of us did having all the same emotions, to think otherwise is simply illogical.
I have a replica .45/70 of the same design. I was lucky enough to go on a buffalo hunt with my father before he passed. The accuracy of even the iron sights for the Sharpes is surprising, also actually being able to see that beast of a bullet heading down range.
Just about the best looking rifle ever made. I owned a Pedersoli copy in 45-70 Just beautiful to own and shoot. Spent many happy Sundays at Bisley with the rifle. I wish I could have afforded a genuine Sharps but the Pedersoli was a good second option ..
Born and raised in Warren Ohio! Have to look into Rice and his optics more now. Never heard of him before this. Thanks for great review as always too!
This remind me to the sniper in "3:10 to Yuma" movie
A beautiful old rifle with equally impressive optics. I hope that the new owner enjoys shooting it.
I'm a social studies teacher from Alberta Canada (just north of Montana). First of all, that photo of all the skulls wasn't from buffalo hunting. They were collected years later and crushed for fertilizer. that's why finding a buffalo skull is rare. Secondly, I went down to big timber Montana to get a factory tour and order a Shiloh Sharps rifle (my Dream Gun) and they are Amazing rifles to hold and Shoot. Also, the Louis Reill Rebellion in 1885 was mostly done with these rifles, as a Metis person it just adds to the fact I have one of these
One of these (chambered in .45-70) is featured in Craig Johnson’s excellent novel The Cold Dish. It’s practically a supporting character.
“‘Eighteen-seventy-four?’
‘Yep.’
‘.45-70?’
‘Yep.’ He handed me the rifle and crossed his arms. ‘You ever seen one up close?’
‘Not a real one.’
It was heavy, and it seemed to me that if you missed what you were shooting at, you could simply run it down and beat it to death, whatever it was. The barrel was just shy of three feet long. I gently lowered the lever and dropped the block, looking through thirty-two inches of six groove, one in eighteen-inch, right-hand twist. From this vantage point, the world looked very small indeed. The action was smooth and precise, and I marveled at the workmanship that was more than 125 years old. The design on the aged monster was a falling block, breech-loading single shot. The old-timers used to take a great deal of pride in the fact that a single shot was all it took. The trigger was a double set, and the sights were an aperture rear with a globe-style front. I pulled the weapon from my shoulder and read the top of the barrel: Business Special.
What kind of special business had Christian Sharps intended? In 1874 the rifle had been adopted by the military because it could kill a horse dead as a stone at six hundred yards-six football fields. Congregational minister Henry Ward Beecher pledged his Plymouth church to furnish twenty-five Sharps rifles for use in bloody Kansas. Redoubtably, the preacher may have done more for the cause of abolitionism with his Beecher’s bibles than did his sister Harriet with her Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But it was John Brown who brought the Sharps to a bloody birth at Harpers Ferry, and a nation’s innocence was lost at Gettysburg. After the Civil War, free ammunition had been handed out to privateer hunters to usher the vast, uncontrollable buffalo herds into extinction. Then there were the Indians. Good and bad, these actions had earned the Sharps buffalo rifle the title of one of the most significant weapons in history and in language. Sharps shooter: sharp-shooter.”
I'm in your wagon, Gun Jesus. I definitely like guns with history attached more. My grandpa's 1892 Winchesters, old S&W revolver and a very cool 32 gauge, double barrel belgian shotgun I called "peashooter" are probably the reasons I got this way. Old guns ftw!
Wonderful piece of arms history, and in fine condition to boot.
(And it made me think of Red Dead Redemption, although in that game the rifle with that type of scope was a Rolling Block.)
A fine video. I have handled scores of 19th century Sharps rifles & carbines - and have owned a few. When you pick one up you are transported into a different dimension. Few things are better.
There was a lot of hunting for leather. It was the best leather for drive belts and during the steam age everything ran on belts.
Being from Cheyenne, Wyoming it was cool to hear that this rifle came out of there!
I own a Shiloh sharps 45-70 Montana rough rider. Honestly my fav gun to shoot by a million.
Petter Harry Bergersen, Born in Oslo(at that time Christiania) Norway in 1852. He was ecucated gunsmith by trade and emigrated to America in 1876. Gun production was big at that time and Norway also tryed to make guns the best they could. Several gunsmith emigrantde to America like also Iver Johnson from Nordfjord in Norway.
The major reason the buffalo meat was abandoned was that without refrigeration, the meat spoiled in a day or so! Nothing could be done with it. The hides were dried in the sun, then sent back east to be processed into leather. The leather, as mentioned in several places, was an absolute necessity for the development of the industrial revolution in the United States. The machine shop building at the Hercules plant (now Alliant) in West Valley City (used to be Granger) still had the bearings for the overhead line drive shaft embedded in the ends of the building built around 1912.
I can’t pay attention with all the beautiful Thompson’s in the background.
So the late coming hunter with this particular rifle was one of those who ended the buffalo herds!
Grandfather has one of these in
.45-120 without the scope, it's a fun gun to shoot but the set trigger needs to be adjusted, found out most my family has poor trigger discipline when most accidentally fired it before they even brought it up to their shoulder.
My uncle worked at a plant with a central drive shaft and leather belts to the machines. He said buffalo hide belt were the best. Much thicker than cow hide belts. The industrial revolution ran on million of hide belts.
I have a cousin in Nebraska that has a lathe machine that is run by leather belts in his garage from a benchtop grinder motor. Its pretty sweet.
pass the whiskey.
Pastor Whiskey.
Sarge Sacker25 pasta whiskey
pastry whitsky
I got the reference!
An old reference, but it checks out.
This is the sniper rifle used in Darkest of Days!
With that scoped set up and specifically rebarreled for the express 40-100 cartridge, it is more likely it was a professional wolfer's rifle.
Just watched this recently. He briefly mentions a town in New York called Creedmore. It’s on Long Island near where I grew up. We all knew Creedmore is a NYS Mental Facility.
Very cool, Ian. I just picked up a Win 1886 in .40-82 with a Wm. Malcolm, Syracuse NY, 33" long scope attached. Research shows it was discontinued in 1880 at that length. Optics are decent with a tapered post reticle and 3/4" tube. Two set screws for focus and parallax. Trying to find more information on the scope.
He's been up there all morning, waiting for two idiots to line up....
+Jo Ob lol :)
In a few Louis L'Amour books, they talks about using a sharps to take out target at a mile away. I want to try and recreate that someday.
there is a group of long range shooters that duplicate the long range shooting of dixon at adobe wells. go on line for all kinds of black powder shooting, including the annual quigley shoot
Such an amazing piece of history as well as an awesome rifle
I remember reading as a child that Black Widow spider silk was the standard product for crosshairs for many decades. Just when such a thing started to be used I have no idea. Is that telescopic sight too early for such a thing ? No idea. Who knows,the owner of that rifle might possibly have known or known of Elmer Keith. Makes you wish the families had included stories from the life of the persons owning the thing. If you do not make record of the highlights,they will be irretrievably lost. Just the journey from where originally shipped to the Great Plains would have been quite a tale. Erie Canal both directions ? Quite possibly. Railroads at their height ? Very possibly. Buffalo skins one way,cartridges the other. Propped up in the corner of a saloon somewhere the owner wanted a cold beer. Campfires with buffalo hump stew the main dish. Iconic.
I Always loved old scopes and how incredibly long and skinny they are. Something about that look vs modern scopes.
I believe Ian's explanation of the scope elevation is backwards. He says adjusting the front scope mount up raises the elevation, when in reality raising any front sight lowers the elevation.
I was going to drop the same comment. I believe you are correct on this. Close range zero would be on the highest setting and then adjusting for range by setting the cam to a more narrow area of the cam
I was gonna say; if the scope wasn’t free-floating, this rifle would be single shot because you’d lose your eye after you fire.
10:20 a rifle that perfectly defines that is Ians own burnt Arisaka that has the markings of where the soldier who was sadly killed held it. Totally eerie.
have a link for that?
That picture you show at around 3:30 looks like a picture that was taken at Regina Saskatchewan Canada, it was called "Pile of Bones" before it was called Regina, the pile was actually made by the aboriginal people of the area, they believed that if they piled the bones the buffalo would never leave an area where the bones of their ancestors were. As the city was formed the bones were ground up and sold as fertilizer, great video Ian, enjoyable as always.
My guess is the rifle was fitted with the barrel in 40-100 along with the optics for longhorn sheep hunting.
Sorry to be too precise, but in the Rocky’s it’d be Bighorn Sheep. Also, bring it was refitted in Wyoming, there would also be the opportunity for hunting the Shiras Moose.
BTW, the natives of Yellowstone were often referred to other natives, explorers, chroniclers of the time as “sheep-eaters” so during the time, it is documented that the Bighorn hadn’t “retired” back into the high mountains as much as might be thought today. I imagine that in some areas, the diversity of wildlife would have been remarkable on the high plains.
Laird Cummings: I always thought, based upon mammalogy classes, that Dall were historically a species of the Canadian and Alaskan ranges and foothills. But you learn something everyday.
Laird; based upon my mammalogy classes some 45 years ago, I thought I’d read that the Dall Sheep was a historical and current resident of the Alaskan and high Canadian ranges, principally the Yukon. Their current range is somewhat more limited, Primarily due to introduced diseases from domestic livestock. Perhaps I’ve not seen any current literature reflecting the historical expansion of the range.
That's true, I've only ever seen them while above 11,000 feet, but some of my miner buddies have had run ins while at 8k or so. I've heard they can be much more confrontational/aggressive in their environment as well.
With that scoped set up and specifically rebarreled for the express 40-100 cartridge, it is more likely it was a professional wolfer's rifle.
3:15 Thank you for calling out what it was!
Came for the Sharps Rifle, Drooled at all the Thompson's behind Ian.
One of the definitions of "Sharp" is "precisely".
I can see someone with a bit of quick wit coming up with "That's a sharp shooting Sharps you got there."
That rifle was manufactured in Hartford, Ct. The plan was demolished in 1966 to make way for the interstate. After Sharps moved to Bridgeport the factory was the home of Weed sewing machines, Columbia bicycles, Pope Electric Cars, and the P&W wasp aitplane engine.
thank you for everything you do
Legendary weapon. And this will go for big bucks.
Very interesting. This gun is about to appear in Hunt: Showdown. It showcases a lot of post civil war era weaponry. They already have the Sharps 1874 rifle except its called the Sparks. The developers said they will add scoped variants. I hope they watch your videos to get all the correct details and accuracy they need.
True, but the Buffalo Rifle was a Sharps
I would say the floating sight probably saved a few eyeballs aswell
Missouri boat ride in Outlaws Jose Wales was the first time I saw a Sharps rifle. Yeah Glenn Campbell had a Sharps carbine in True Grit,but he didn't do any fancy shooting.
The Army considered the buffalo herds a “moving supply depot” to the Plains Indians.
@forgottenweapons Ian, the buffalo pelts were valued because their leather was the best to use for belts in factories to drive machines
I own a Shiloh Sharps #3 sporting rifle purchased from Shiloh Rifle Co. In 2009. 45/70 caliber.
Hunt Showdown ❤
The early US calvary was issued the sharps carbine a short barreled model that was carried barrel down in a scabbard attached to the saddle. The longer rifle model was used primarily by buffalo hunters to sit or lay in one spot an shoot many buffalo. Accurate at 3000 yds.
It's a weird coincidence that this video popped up just a few hours after my uncle told me about one of these for sale today
This gun is a work of art, but also a true working tool from another time. I would have to take it hunting, it's begging to go hunting again.
Excellent video
That is a really cool rifle! *Quigley intensifies*
Does the .40-100 chambering indicate it's more likely to be a target rifle, since you mentioned it would penetrate significantly less than the heavier .40-90?
Thanks mate. :)
The Stoned Videogame Nerd would the 40-100 be more lethal at close range to buffalo
The .40-100 would have still had 1100ft-lb+, that's more than adequate for most game especially with a relatively large bullet
Laird Cummings do you think it could take out a elephant. I've always been interested in black powder cartridges that could take out a Elephant
By the time this rifle was made Shaps target rifles were chambered for the straight walled .45 cartridges with the .45-100 and .45-90 being specifically developed for target work. The .40-90 & 100 were popular during this late buffalo hunt era due to the flatter trajectory which made it easier to make long range hits on the northern herd buffalo that had learned to be a little more wary by the late 1870's.
Beautifull old rifle.
1 thing you had wrong, as im sure a few others noticed. elevating the front of the scope will Decrease the point of aim..
With that style of sight adjustment, the lowest setting is the longest range ,the opposite to rear sight adjustments as im sure you know :).
Always enjoy your videos.
Thanks for shareing these beautifull and historic firearms :)
That is a very nice rifle and a good presentation. Very interesting
Ian: I don't know if you're reading this, I hope you do. I watch various youtube channels as a replacement for TV, while i'm doing chores or having dinner with my family. I would like to compliment you on your respect for history, and delicacy around otherwise unsavory aspects of world and american history. Your brief touching on the "indian wars" as they were is respectful and thoughtful. I feel you put more effort into "covering" these kinds of things (along with the fry bread video you did with carl) than most other gun enthusiast channels. Too often american history gets whitewashed (so to speak) or entirely sanitized. I agree weapons like this are primarily interesting as an inanimate story teller of the world they came from, and you do an excellent job of bringing these stories to life.
The trigger design... such cool history
Excellent idea of the "floating" scope, there are still shooters today getting hit in the eye with their scope, usually by not shouldering the piece correctly or if novice shooters, not expecting such a recoil.
Great rifle as well.
Buffalo leather drove the industrial revolution, literally as drive belts. Inferior leather is still used today on quilting machines.
It's likely we get the term "sharpshooter" from the German "scharfschütze" which dates back to at least around 1781. The term was also in use by the British army as early as 1801-1805.
I think it’s more likely we get the name sharps shooter from snipers using sharps rifles in the civil war.
Thanks for the history lesson. People always accuse Americans of suppressing the truth. I always say it depends on who you listen to, there are a lot of us who have no problems telling it like it was. There were Native Americans who shot whites on sight, they also killed each other, it wasn't called the wild west for nothing.
Your history lesson was excellent. I knew of the slaughter, but didn't realize it was militarily significant. My assumption was that, after the skins, it was to minimize the nuisance of those vast herds to settlers.
It was many things and the US military wasn't the 1st to weapons it. Waring tribes used the same practice against one another long before western expansion. while a disgusting tactic it wasn't anything new. The introduction of Horses to Native Americans also helped lead to their demise due to easier further hunts in much faster and larger numbers.
Yep. The 'Noble Savage' was greatly misunderstood. The AmerInds were faithful to their cultures and traditions, but those were pretty savage in themselves.
But hey you gotta take it into an account that these guys were the natives of the land! How'd you feel if bunch of greedy grubby handed white men came to your lands and started building cities and towns everywhere, acre by acre gnawing at your lands while stealing and taking all the resources and forcing you to go to reservations out of the way to keep to destroying and feeding of your ancestors lands...
"The Sharps company even had a Creedmoor mode"
OOOO, I can pick one of these up in 6.5? Nice!
@Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Minus price and recoil. A 6.5 is to a .223 what a 300 Win Mag is to a .308.
Contact Shiloh Sharps, for enough $ you probably could get one in 6.5cm
Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin But it’s:
- Bigger
- More expensive (both gun and ammo)
- Harder recoil
- Inherently less accurate
I totally have an 1859 new model sharps carbine (saddle ring) clearly it's a centerfire conversion though
What a gorgeous rifle
I have a Davide Pedersoli .45/70Gov't... 'Sharps 1874 Sporter' with a modern made 'William Malcolm' 6x scope on it. It is sweeeeet. 😍
Man Ian love this video the sharps 1874 is one of my dream guns thanks for this video
One of my dream rifles.
I'm really disgusted what we did with the buffalo. Wholesale slaughter, What the fuck.
Thanks for acknowledging one of the worst crimes we ever committed as a nation. We really need to remember these things and use them to guide our current reality.
No doubt. Especially since there is literally NO ONE talking about how horrible the USA has always been in "our current reality."
@@d8nh20s What are you talking about? You can't go five minutes without someone screaming that the USA is evil and terrible, and that the Founding Fathers should have been hanged by the English.
Okay, maybe the last one was an exaggeration, but still.
@@Mr-Trox Sarcasm...
Favorite of John Marston
I believe you are wrong about the elevation.
That scope because of the external adjustment is like the front sight of a rifle.
If it is shooting high you move it up.
If it is shooting left you move the sight to the left.
Greets from Canada.
Good vid.
Sorry🇺🇸🇨🇦👍
That is a really interesting rifle. A lot of history.