History - You spoke - I listened

[Bottom Dealin Mike]

Thanks to the pards on the SASS Wire, the CAS City Darksiders Den, and on my Facebook writer's page.

You told me what you thought about the level of history vs gun stuff in my lead in to an Armi Sport Sharps article I'm working on. I carefully evaluated your input and I made some changes to the lead, based on what you told me.

Here is the new lead-in to the article...as always, feed back is appreciated:

"The folks at Chiappa sent me one of their 1874 Sharps sporting rifles. It is hard to hold this beautiful rifle without having your imagination transport you back to the days of the buffalo hunters. Of course the Sharps wasn't the only gun used by buffalo hunters. Remington rolling blocks were also popular, and I suppose every rifle available in the era was pressed into service at some point. But there is no doubt that Sharps rifles were the predominant arm in the great buffalo hunt of the 1870s and early 1880s.

It was the perfect tool for the job. The original Breech loading Sharps rifle, as patented by Christian Sharps in 1848, was a breech loading rifle that employed paper cartridges. It quickly proved its superiority to the Hall breechloaders that had preceded it. Immediately after the Civil War, Sharps breechloaders were retrofitted to fire brass cartridges, and Sharps set about designing a true sporting rifle made specifically for metallic cartridges. The result was the Model 1869. It was originally produced in the .50-70 government cartridge, but the cartridge line up rapidly expended to include the .40-50, .44-60 and .44-77 cartridges.

In 1871 Sharps made some negligible external changes to the rifle, but he added chamberings for the cartridges that would be come most closely associated with the buffalo hunters; the .45-90, .45-120 and the .50-90. After Christian Sharps left the company, and it was sold to a group of investors, the rifle was re-named the Model 1874. And this is the rifle that dominated the great buffalo hunt, literally bringing millions of buffalo hide to the market.

Before 1870, buffalo were primarily hunted by both Native Americans and by frontiersmen for their meat. Most of the meat was supplied on contract to army posts, and to the construction crews of the railroads pushing into the west. There was a secondary market in buffalo robes to warm easterners' laps during cold winter carriage and sleigh rides, but buffalo robes were a low demand, luxury item back east. Hunting for meat and robes only harvested a couple of hundred thousand buffalo a year. That was a drop in the bucket for herds numbering an estimated 60 million animals.

The whole nature of buffalo hunting changed in 1870 when an English company contracted with a buffalo hunter named Charlie Wrath to supply them with 500 buffalo skins. The English company wanted to experiment with tanning the buffalo hides for industrial use. The next year a tanner in Pennsylvania discovered that buffalo leather was very tough and pliable. It was perfect for making drive belts to power industrial machinery. The Pennsylvania tannery ordered 2,000 more hides at a price of $3.50 each, and the great American buffalo hunt had begun.

Over the next 15 years the American bison population fell from 60 million to around 1,000 animals. Current scholarship is determining that illness spread from domestic cattle herds may have played a role in the decimation of the buffalo in the 1870s. But there is no doubt that hide hunting had an impact. Between 1872 and 1874 about five million hides, valued at over 17 million dollars, were shipped out of Dodge City alone. Most of them were harvested with a sharps rifle.

Sharps rifles weren't cheap. A plain Jane, 1874 Sharps Sporting Rifle cost $33, more than twice the price of an 1873 Winchester. Adding options like set triggers, extra-heavy barrels and telescopic sights could raise the price of a Sharps to astronomic levels. One hunter paid $237.60 for a heavy barreled .45-120-550 Sharps equipped with double set triggers and a telescopic sight...a lot of money for the 1870s.
But buffalo hunting was a tough way to make a living. Most hunters quit after a season or two. The high drop-out rate for new hide hunters meant there were always used rifles to be had at bargain prices. For instance, James Cook a buffalo hunter in the Texas panhandle in 1874, bought out a fellow hunter's entire outfit. He wrote that he was, "... fortunate enough to buy off one of the hunters a Sharps .44-caliber rifle, reloading outfit, belt and 150 shells. The man had used the gun only a short time and seventy-five of the shells had never been loaded. It was an elegant, fine sighted rifle with buckhorn sights." The total cost of the deal was $36, and it included the other hunter's camping gear.

With the exception of the caliber, young Jim Cook could have been describing the Armi Sport 1874 Sharps that I've been playing with lately. ...(on to the main body of the article...)"

[Fingers McGee]

Glad you kept the history Mike.

FM

[rickk]

good job Mike !

[Shotgun Franklin]

One thing I notice is that no one, that I know of, has written articles with the perspective of someone picking up a gun historically brand new.
Putting themselves in the place of a shooter at the time. Imagine a guy in 1860 buying an brand spanking Colt 1860 Army. Or a guy buying a 'New' 1873 Colt SAA, a gun that uses fixed ammo, one of those cartridge guns. What was it like to him? I already know it ain't a Ruger, why tell me that? It was a big jump for a man to walk in a gun shop with a Sharp's paper cartridge gun and walk out with a new metal cartridge Sharp's and a box of ammo.

[brazosdave]

Thanks for keeping the history Mike!

[WaddWatsonEllis]

If I enjoy the article as much as I have enjoyed the history, I would say you have a winner!

TTFN,

[Southpaw]

Great read,Thanks

[Hargrave]

Mike,

First, I loved the history ..... like many of the other readers in this forum. I think it is part of what draws us all here to talk, learn and share with like minded people.

Second, I believe this sort of "history lesson" is critical when writing an article on ANY historical reproduced firearm .... and here is why ....
  (a) those naturally interested in this gun would already have an interest in the history and that is part of the reason to buy the gun
  (b) This may encourage a new buyer to go out and invest in a historical design firearm.
  (c) Any gun built today on an "obsolete" design, has already proven it's worth. If the article is in a general gun periodical, then this gives a chance to educate the reader on the history of something and why it is being reproduced to this day.

My general feeling is that if a reader is not enjoying the history of the article, then they would not be interested in the gun it was talking about.

Not sure if this helps or is redundant, but glad I had a chance to share my opinion. Please take with a large grain of salt.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I sure like adding (or keeping) in the History lesson.

You learn something new every day.

...Or, in the words of Lazarus Long, a.k.a. Woodrow Wilson Smith:  (and told to/by the late, great Robt. Heinlein)  "You live and learn, or you don't live long."

[Jubal Wilson]

Mike,
I don't believe that Sharps ever chambered their 1874 in 45-120. Check with someone who knows for sure.
Jubal

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I'm NOT a Sharps expert, but I've heard the same;  45-120 came later.  And not by Sharps, originally.

But I've been wrong before.  My wife says I'm old, but I'm not old enough to have seen THAT originally!