nice

True long guns.

Nice and apparently well maintained during their entire lives to appear in such good shape after so long

Very cool finds.
I have a .45-70 Trapdoor Springfield, with the Buffington Sights and that awful Needle bayonet. Pretty accurate, even though it has the trajectory of a rainbow. The thing that always surprises me, is the quality of the machining on Sharps carbines. Really well put together. Yours looks like a Sharps Rifles musket. Once again, Very cool stuff.

It is very much the 1853 pattern, though with the crazy long barrel which was not fitted in the model. The barrel is very much Nepalese manufacture, and the ONLY markings on the whole thing is a Nepalese "35" on the barrel. Best guess is that left over (?) 1853 model parts were surplussed out and ended up in Nepal, minus barrels and fore ends, as everything receiver and south looks like proper factory production

Looks to be in great shape.

It might never have been used in original service(??) and next to never after it was brought to the US in perhaps the 1960s. IMA is offering a few more of these now (at much higher prices). It only has some minor dents, apparently due to storage and practically no wear or rust anywhere on it.

Interwesting, but all of my savings has been spent on the new computer. So things are a bit tiht until after Christmas(Still saving for a currently unobtainable Graphics gard).

There is a movie called "Valdez is coming" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt006792.....ef_=fn_al_tt_1) it's not mentioned much, but the sheriff, Valdez, was one of the Sharps shooters. dang things had a range of a Mile. if you could still see the target, you could hit it with that rifle.

That was the cartridge version, and the trick with those guns was to accurately judge the range, as the bullet was practically being lobbed out. One would be hard pressed to make a first shot hit at even 500 yards if the range wasn't guessed right.

Sounds like it would take a lot of skill to shoot accurately. which makes Teddy's feat all the more spectacular.

Great finds. Love that 1866 Trapdoor - used to have a 1868 model Had a replica Sharps Cav Carbine by Garrett in 50/70 too. Ended up selling both off some time back, just didn't have time to do the bullet casting like i used to for them. Still have a few containers of sized and lubed bullets though.

Have two 1873s, both first year production if the serial numbers are to be believed, though one was badly chopped.

My 1868 - well it was my Dad's - family member gave it to him in 1940 when he was 10 - was made in early 1869 - 3 digit serial number in the low 800's.
I used to freak folks out at the ranges in the Dallas Texas area when i'd shoot it.
'Nice replica" me: What replica - lock and stock are from 1863 and the barrel is from 1869 - was a century old when the first moon landing occurred.

The replica Sharps - odd story to that one - ran into a young guy who was selling off stuff from his late father - had no idea what he had and thought he'd get 50 bucks for it at a police buy back - Flagstaff PD was doing that for a while. I gave him 70 bucks and he handed me a big bag of loaded rounds - all Bertram brass .50/70
If I can find the pic of that one, I"ll post it. Had it with a 1858 Remington replica and a Green River trade knife - I used to joke it was the Dances with Wolves play set...

Historic pieces, for sure.

Some would argue vintage guns fixes with love and care are real art.

You know of the Apache war and the 50-70?

I'm in Central AZ and I've found fired copper cased .50/70 in some remote areas.

Very nice condition on both rifles. Love that M1866.

That's some nice hardware.

lol, people moan about assault weapons one takes getting shots once by one of these your good as dead.

I was at a gunshow in Chehalis and neeearly bought a martini henry carbine for a steal. But, with the price of the ammo, and my weak reloading set-up, I had to pass. I'm fascinated by all the old single-shot cartridge loaders in that era. Glad they're still getting love!

I've been making my own ammo for the Sniders and MH, but yes, takes some extra commitment to shoot them. I also have a rolling block and some muskets.

Good to hear from you! Stay cool!

Fun times!

Where's your silver cast round?
Okay, I know it will destroy your bore, but....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfTgzIGG8e8

Uhm? A silver round would be softer than a conventional jacketed round, but to be safe, have it fractionally undersize to just touch the rifling and paper patched for fit. The risk isn't in bore wear, but bullet resistance/bore pressure.

Ah okay. I had heard something about trace amounts of silver material accumulating in the rifling. Or something along those lines. I'm trying to recall information I heard regarding self defense against dogman and bigfoot cryptids.

In modern smokeless arms, especially rifles, silver is a great metal to use, even at jacketed bullet rifle loads. Can't confirm or deny any silver "leading", but doubt it would become an issue, as each bullet would tend to scrub out previous accumulations. I only cautioned for minimal rifling engagements in vintage BP arms as the increases resistance when fired might be a hazard.

In regards to this, I've heard something recently where I heard solid silver rounds are more prone to tumble after leaving the barrel. Unless they are not weighted correctly, I don't see how this could happen. Silver is not exactly a light metal. But I'm not knowledgeable on any type of firearms. Melee weapons are more my thing.

There is nothing intrinsic to silver to make it less stable as a bullet material. The only likely issue is that of poor manufacture, like if it was poorly cast. Bullet weight, in itself, is also not an issue. The factors for bullet stability are those of velocity versus barrel rifling twist rate and bullet length (rather than weight)

I was kinda thinking that. The issue of 'silver bullets tumble' didn't make a lot of sense. Thanks for clarifying.

no combination of words in any language can accurately express my jealousy if you actually own both of these works of art