created on October 9, 1851
Hartford, Connecticut
- 1848 – Christian Sharps (1810–1874), patented his rifle
– used paper cartridges - 1850 first contract for 5,000 rifles
- 1851 manufacturing started
- second contract for 15,000 rifles
– purchased 25 acres in Hartford, Connecticut for a factory building - 1853 Christian Sharps left the Company
- 1855-1876 manufacturing was moved to Hartford
- 1872 Sharps introduced the .50-90 Sharps cartridge
- 1876 moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut
- 1878 the last rifle made y Sharps
– Sharps-Borchardt Model 1878
About Sharps Rifle Manufacturing
Christian Sharps patented his breech-loading rifle in 1848, a design that let a shooter load a paper cartridge through a dropping breechblock instead of ramming powder and ball down the muzzle. After a first contract for 5,000 rifles in 1850, the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company was organized in Hartford, Connecticut on October 9, 1851 by Samuel Robbins and Richard S. Lawrence with $100,000 in capital. Christian Sharps left the company in 1853 and later formed a separate partnership, Sharps & Hankins, in 1862.
Sharps rifles and carbines earned a reputation for accuracy and reliability, and by 1865 roughly 80,500 Sharps carbines and 9,100 military rifles had been shipped to Union troops. After the war Sharps converted to metallic cartridges and introduced the .50-90 Sharps hunting cartridge in 1872, and its heavy-caliber Model 1874 became the rifle carried by most market buffalo hunters on the Great Plains in the 1870s. The company moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1876, and its last design was the Sharps-Borchardt Model 1878 by Hugo Borchardt. As repeating rifles took over the market, the company dissolved in 1881. The Sharps name remains a symbol of single-shot accuracy for American shooters.
Key Facts
- 1848: Christian Sharps patents his breech-loading rifle
- October 9, 1851: Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company organized in Hartford
- 1865: About 80,500 carbines and 9,100 military rifles delivered to Union troops by war’s end
- 1872: .50-90 Sharps cartridge introduced
- 1876: Company moves to Bridgeport, Connecticut
- 1881: Company dissolves
Sources
- Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company, Wikipedia
- The Breechloading Sharps: History and Performance, American Rifleman
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