Sharps Rifles

Sharps rifles and carbines were used in the West well before the Civil War and were used by both sides during the Western Campaign. Because it was a breechloading arm the War Department was interested in these arms from their earliest developement on. There were government trials and purchases from1850 on. Both the US and British government were purchases. The Confederates in the West captured Sharps from Union supply depots, forts etc. at the beginning of the war. Sharps were also captured at some of the small forts in the El Paso- Mesilla area during the early part of the campaign.

The best reference available is the most excellent book by Frank Sellers Sharps Firearms Beinfield Publishing, Inc. North Hollywood, CA. Dixie Gunworks carries them at $45 each or order from your favorite bookseller as ISBN item 0-9608122-0-2.

The first models of the Sharps rifles, the models 1849 and 1850 were produced in small numbers and could not be considered other than as a "semi-custom" rifles that were hand finished. The slant breech Sharps were the first of the Sharps rifles to be produced on a sizeable scale. They were referred to as the slant breech because the action of the falling block was at 112 degrees from the plane of the barrel or 22 degrees off from perpendicular. The key to getting some serious production was to have the rifles built at the Robins and Lawrence factory at Windsor Vermont. However, this did not assure timelyness as the first 1851 rifles were not completed until 1853.

There were four basic models of slant breech Sharps, the 1851, 1852, 1853 and the 1855.

This is very similiar to the 1852 model the principle difference being the method of attachment of the lever pin.

The 1859 models represent the first Sharps models where thebreechblock moved perpendicular to the axis of the bore, hence the name straight breech.