1874 Sharps Rifle "Old Reliable"

Who can resist lusting after these high quality re-make 1874 Sharps "old reliable" Rifles in .45-70! They are simply beautiful! This Fine Sharps rifle is made by Uberti Firearms, and they certainly have done a fine job of remaking this great American classic rifle. The top photo is a picture of the 1874 Sharps in .45-70 made as a commemorative of Quigley. Remember Quigley Down Under? The Sharps is the only rifle that Quigley ever used. But your average civil war time period person that used the Sharps were the buffalo hunters, soldiers and ex soldiers.
Buffalo hunters would make a stand far away from the herd and shoot at buffalo from a very long range, some were known to be able to kill hundreds before the herd spooked. What was needed for hunting buffalo efficiently was a rifle that had the best possible range, with as hard hitting bullet as possible. Buffalo are not small animals and it needs some take down power to kill a big bull buffalo and if you made just one bad shot that did not kill the animal, then that beast could make enough ruckus to spook the whole herd. The Sharps rifle provided the reliability, range, and firepower that it took to do the job, hence comes the nickname that the hunters used "old reliable".
As history tells it Billy Dixon Killed Kiowa (pronounced Key-owah) warrior at an amazing 1538 yards on June 27, 1874 at Adobe Walls, Texas! The Sharps Rifle really made it's mark in history, at Gettysburg the battle opened with one troop of dismounted union cavalry holding back the entire Rebel Army with Sharps Carbines until the Union Army was able to take possession of key points that led to the victory at Gettysburg. Taylor's Firearms decided to manufacture their remake of the 1874 Sharps Rifle in .45-70 because of the readily available supply of ammunition that is available, contrary to the original calibers. And .45-70 actually packs a bigger wallop!

Quigley Model 1874 Sharps .45-70 32" Octagon Barrel

1874 Sharps Sporting Rifle 45-70 32" Octagon Barrel

1874 Sharps Sporting Rifle 45-70 32" Octagon Barrel

1874 Sharps Cavalry Carbine 45-70 22" Round Barrel

All of these 1874 Sharps Rifles have double set triggers except the Sharps Cavalry Carbine. For those of you who don't know, double set triggers are a feature that is found on high quality long range time period rifles. How it works is you have two sets of triggers, the rear trigger fires the gun and what the front trigger is for is to lighten the amount of pull you need to make the gun go off.
A gun with finely tuned double set triggers can be fired at just the barest whisp of a touch when the forward trigger as been engaged. This makes the Sharps an even better long range rifle. and also for those of you that don't know, double set triggers actually are a thing of the past, and there were several models of the original Sharps Rifle that were equipped with double set triggers. With today's technology in sniping you can get the same performance out of a trigger without the need of an extra trigger for a safety guard, check out Savage Arms Accu-Trigger!

Check Gunbroker.com if you are interested in finding one of these collectible guns.

Adam
Lynden, WA