Shiloh Model 1877

Tradition Lives On In A Custom Rifle.

- Mike Venturino

The name Sharps elicits visions of big-bore, single-shot rifles in the hands of rough-cut western frontiersmen. No firearm in American history has received so much attention with so few made. In fact, it surprises many shooters today to learn that only about 6,000 Sharps Model 1874 Sporting Rifles were produced between 1871 and 1880. Add to that those labeled as Carbines, Mid-Range, Long Range, Schuetzen, Business, Military and Creedmoor, and the total is about doubled.

As might be obvious by the versions named above, the company tried to please everyone in need of a single-shot rifle. Four bore sizes were cataloged at one time or another: .40, .44, .45 and .50. Then they were chambered for many different cartridges collectively ranging in length from 111⁄16 to 27⁄8 inches. Some .40s and .44s were bottlenecked or straight in shape, but all .45s and .50s featured straight cases.

Starting in 1871, a shooting competition began in which the participants were far from rough-cut frontiersmen. They were the bowler-hatted, three-piece-suited crowd of the northeast. This sport consisted of flinging bullets from single-shot rifles at targets placed 800, 900 and 1,000 yards. The initial matches were held on New York’s Long Island at a range named Creedmoor, and that name caught and stuck to long-range rifle events, even to this day. Americans and the British started challenging one another, with the former favoring cartridge rifles and the latter muzzleloaders. That international rivalry made the new shooting sport headline worthy.

A then-new organization, The National Rifle Association, formulated rules for Creedmoor competition. One was that rifles could not exceed 10 pounds in weight, and another was that rifles must have single triggers as opposed to the popular double-set types. And those triggers had to be no lighter than 3 pounds.