ewmail15
Retired User
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2017
I picked up my very first pre-1890 rifle, an 1863 Sharps carbine. Found it at a garage sale, laying up against the dumpster. It was pretty rusty, especially inside the barrel, and only had the main body and trigger unit rubber banded to the barrel. There's no wood hand guard/grip or band, no wood stock or metal butt, no front/rear sights, no spring for the hammer, some screws are broken off, the thin rod with ring is missing/busted on the metal left face. Also, the hammer looks like it has too much side play and does not seem to be able to travel all the way to the cap, there's a piece missing that seems to bolt to the track below the top of the hammer (and left side is bent outward if looking forward).
Got the lever to move up and down nicely. Someone put the barrel in a vice to try to remove the pieces (?), and there are other areas as well that look like chisel marks, indicating to me that maybe this was being torn down for parts, and nothing else could be stripped from it.
I only spent $2 on it, and would just like to know if there are parts out there to make it operational, or give one the impression it would fire a round. I sent a second email to the guy who owns Lodgewood Mfg Ltd in Whitewater, WI, just an hour away from me. Waiting impatiently for a reply. Anyone else have parts I could purchase to make it complete/mechanically correct?
I'm going to dig further into its history. I can figure out online the last name of the former owner, and maybe trace it thru his lineage to one of the Wisconsin regiments. It's worth a shot, and has been a blast finding this beautiful, rusty piece of US history.
The serial number is 66934, without any letters before it. Has the Sept '48, Oct '52 and Apr '59 patent marks as well. Attached pics are really before I started trying to remove the rust. Someone at a Sharps Arms website instructed me to use Kriol and copper wool to break down the rust. If that doesn't work I'll try electrolysis.
I'll post a few more pics highlighting the repairs needed. There's also a civil war encampment/re-enactment happening at the Wade House in Greenbush, WI. Maybe some of those folks will have connections, I hope, I hope.
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