Sharps Rifle was series of rifles first designed by Christian Sharps and manufactured by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company. The Sharps Rifle patented Sept. 12, 1848 and was manufactured by Butterfield & Nippes in Philadelphia. The second model used the Maynard tape primer and surviving examples are marked Maynard Gun Co., Chicoppe Falls, MA. In 1850 the second model was brought to the Robbin & Lawrence Co. of Windsor, VT where the Model 1851 was developed for mass production. Rollin White of R&L invented the knife-edge breech block and self-cocking device for the "box-lock" Model 1851. This is referred to as the "First Contract," which was for 5,000 Model 1851 carbines, of which approximately 1,650 were produced -- all in Windsor. In 1851 the "Second Contract" was made for 15,000 rifles and the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Co. was organized as a holding company with $100,000 in capital and with John C. Palmer as president, Christian Sharps an engineer, and Richard S. Lawrence as master armorer and superintendent of manufacturing. Sharps was to be paid a royalty of $1.00 per gun and the factory was built on the property of Robbins & Lawrence in Hartford, CT. The Model 1851 was replaced in production by the Model 1853. All Sharps rifles were manufactured in Windsor, VT until October 1856. Christian Sharps left the Company in 1853; Richard S. Lawrence continued as the chief armorer until 1872 and developed the various Sharp models and improvements that made the rifle famous.
 

The Model 1863 Sharps percussion rifle saw service during the Civil War but it was the Model 1874 cartridge Sharps that became the epitome of what a nineteenth century hunting rifle should be. And don't believe all buffalo hunters used the big .45 or bigger .50 caliber Sharps. Well known buffalo hunter Frank Mayer favored an eleven pound, thirty-two inch barreled .40-90 Sharps whose flat shooting characteristics allowed him to take buffalo out to 600 yards. This before the days of the sporting rifle scopes and modern smokeless ammunition. All Sharps rifles, both original and

The original Sharps Model 1874 was manufactured from 1871 to 1881 in calibers .40-90, .44-77, .45-110, .50-70, and .50-90. The action is a falling block, breech-loading, single-shot. Triggers could be single or double set and barrels could run from twenty-two inches to thirty-two inches. Just as with the modern replicas, sights were the standard hunting type or the aperture rear with a globe style front sight.

Note: Hugo Borchardt designed the last rifle made by the company; Sharps-Borchardt Model 1878. The Sharps Rifle Co. closed down in 1881.