When I do my daily walk, I listen to the old radio shows from the 1940s/50 on my Iphone. Yesterday I was listening an old Hoppilong Cassidy radio show and he mentioned twice, a Sharps 450 rifle. I never heard of one so, I Googled it and nil results on a Sharps 450 rifle. Is it possible that this was an old fashioned term no longer in use or, the imagination of a script writer? I tend to lean toward the latter but, then what do I know.
My guess would be some script writers dream.
The term "big 50" was thrown around quite a bit in the early 1900's and was pretty generic for Sharps no matter the actual rifle was more likely a 44..
I've got several Sharps reference books, including Seller's 'Bible' and there is no mention of a "450 Sharps".
Thanks guys, that's what I figured, a script writers error.
There is some cross-over between US and English cartridge nomenclature.
My Cartridges of the World, 3d Ed. shows ".450 Rigby Match (2.4")" as being identical to the .45-90 Cartridge. John Amber (Gun Digest) owned a Rigby-Metford-Farquhaharson rifle with cases headstamped "J.Rigby & Co. 1881". Amber apparently acquired the rifle from a Canadian shooter.
So, If a Canadian target shooter used this rifle, the existance of a Sharps target rifle in .450 Rigby Match is reasonable.
Remember that scene from Quigly DU, where ammo was being adapted from Brit stuff for his .45 Sharps?
Rigby actually bought Sharps Creedmoor rifles and took them back to England.
It's possible that the script writer had heard the term .450 Rigby Match somewhere and assumed that was a common term and used it in the script. To paraphrase ...Who knows what lurks in the minds of men......The Shadow knows ;)