Sharps experts Trap55

cowdoc

i was reading on FB Sharps Rifles of Montana the Austin Monk collection about a Sharps A they posted about anyways i dug mine out and done more looking and by serial num its an 1863 converted to 45-70 i removed the forearm and the old barrel ser was crossed out and changed to receiver ser num which is c 36xxx the crossed out number is 155xxx there is a number 4 farther out on bbl there is something on hammer side of bbl but can't quite make it out without magnifying glass think its a 04 ?...its a carbine and from receiver to just ahead of forearm the bbl is octagon then rest is round it has old reliable engraved on bbl and also calibre 45 and sharps rifle co hartford

any info will be greatly appreciated

rufe-snow

Off the net, ". Sharps' famous "Old Reliable" trademark began to show up on the barrels in 1876, after the company, then known as just Sharps Rifle Company, had moved to Bridgeport, Conn.".

Your carbine was rebarreled, long after the end of the war. At least 11 years according to the above. The barrel might not be a original carbine barrel?

cowdoc

thanks yep an 1863 would have been a percussion 52 cal i think

TRAP55

The C36xxxs serial number would make it a 1863 New Model Military Rifle. About 7000 made, all .52 cal.
The 155xxx barrel serial would place it in the Model 1874 range. More were made at Bridgeport than Hartford, and being half round, probably made for a Hunter model.
How long is the barrel on that?
Does the barrel just say "calibre 45"? Or 45 2 1/10th?

cowdoc

45 calibre. Not sure on length I'm in Pierre right now. But is carbine length. The forearm is cut at an angle I haven't found a pic of one quite like it Large the long military one cut down? It does have slight checkering visible No saddle ring but you can tell it was there and pry cut off or patch box

edit i measure it as 26" basically from front of falling block to muzzle so that would include threaded part of bbl

cowdoc

think I've figured it out...1874 SHARPS SPORTING RIFLE CONVERSIONS MADE BY THE SHARPS RIFLE COMPANY..the link below is to a rifle nearly identical to mine other than bbl length ... after closer looking with magnifying glass i did find 2 1/10 and i can't tell for sure if its a + or a 4 on opposite side of hammer on bbl after taking forearm of again.also looks like there is a four digit number inside forearm but can't really make it out
the {elsewhere} should be "g u n s i n t e r n a t o n a l dot com "
http://www.{elsewhere}/guns-for-sale-online/rifles/sharps-rifles-antique/superb-1874-sharps-sporter-conversion-made-by-the-sharps-rifle-co-.cfm?gun_id=100753618

TRAP55

Cowdoc, you got it figured out, sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner. Since you and I discussed this rifle years back in the chat room, there has been a bunch of info that's come out on these conversions.
Yours would have been done at Sharps, because of the Sharps marked barrel. The Meacham conversions didn't use a Sharps barrel. The 2 1/10th marking was for the Sharps 45/75 Straight Wall case. That was their "company name" for the 45/70 Government.
Before you shoot it, it's important to slug the bore, they ranged anywhere from .451 to .457

Let me know if he has anything on it!

cowdoc

Thanks Trap!! ,,, they are for sure hard to figure out... i had never thought to remove forearm till i read the Sharps Rifles of Motana on Facebook the other day and that got me to looking a lot harder and looking up info on the net and like you said i never found that info on the net back then.years ago my grandfather had local gun guy look at it and he called it a meacham which for some reason i kinda doubted for whatever reason... I'm really excited to learn this new info on it...im going to call Doc labowskie and see if he can come up with any info on it for me