Shiloh Sharps: The Inside Story, Pt. 1
By Mori Shultz Microsoft windows process not responding.
Serial numbers of the New Model 1863 ranged from approximately 75,000 to 140,000. Based upon the markings and the serial number, I would guess that it was manufactured in the 1862-1863 time frame. Starting in 1867, a lot of these percussion carbines were converted to fire metallic cartidges.
- There were two official firearms issued to soldiers during the period, each with a different Custer range: the Springfield “trap-door” carbine or rifle, whose range runs from 00001 to about.
- Sharps Serial Numbers: Identifying original Berdan Sharps rifle can be confusing. There appear to be two separate serial ranges for Berdan special order rifles. 1) serial range 54390 - 57574: This an estimated serial range, documented known Berdan rifles fall in this range of serial numbers.
While driving through Montana to attendthe 2003 shoot in Broadus and then the Quigley Shoot the following week, I stopped off at Big Timber to visit the Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing Company.
Before leavingmy home in northern California, I had called the Shiloh plant and asked them if I could stop in and look over their operation in order to gather information for an article. They said that they would be happy to show me around. I arrived at their front door on a Friday, went into their showroom and introduced myself. The showroom itself was worth the trip as one entire wall was covered with various models of 1874 Sharps rifles as well as several percussion Sharps Model 1863 rifles.
The friendly personnel in the office remembered that I had requested a tour, but the person whom I had arranged it with was not there at that time.So one of the owners of Shiloh, Robert Bryan, came out and said that he would take me through the plant. When we entered the manufacturing area, I noticed how quiet it was and Bob explained that as they generally work four ten hour days and since this was Friday, no actual production work was going on. There were several men on the floor however, and I was told that these were supervisors and that they were setting up things for the next week.
The Bryan family purchased Shiloh from its founder, Wolfgang Droege, in April of 1991. (When the Bryans took over, they started serial numbering their rifles with a “B” in front of the serial number. Last year in April, they had manufactured 10,000 Shiloh rifles and then started with number 001, followed by a “B” at the end of the numbers.)But the story of today’s Shiloh Sharps rifles actually starts next door to this facility, at the Boulder River Foundry.
All Shiloh receivers, as well as other components, are cast in the Boulder River Foundry. The foundry is part of the Shiloh firm, but operates as a separate entity.It also does outside work for other companies as well. Boulder River Foundry is set up to cast in any quantity, from one piece, to thousands. The foundry itself is a very modern facility, utilizing the finest equipment and materials to create finished castings in 4140 steel that need very little finish work. The detail is so good that even the checkering on the actions sidehammer does not need to be “touched up”.
In a separate room in the foundry, a worker was making wax components using an injection mold where warm wax is forced, under pressure, into a metal mold. When the mold is taken apart, the wax part is set aside.Later, whole batches of them will be connected onto a “tree” and a pouring cup attached to the top of the tree. The molds have to be made to a size that compensates for both the amount of wax shrinkage and the shrinkage of the steel when it is cast, yielding a finished casting of the correct dimensions.
This allowance is extremely important.And a failure to calculate it properly will result in undersize parts.More than a few aftermarket gun parts companies have had this problem in the past.But NOT Boulder River Foundry.They do it right.
After the parts are treed up and the pouring cup attached, the waxes are then dipped into a tank that is full of ceramic shell in a liquid form. The batch of ceramic shell is constantly stirred by rotors to prevent it from setting up. After dipping and draining excess slurry off of the waxes, they are given a coating with a very fine zircon sand and then hung up to dry. The process of dipping and coating with the sand is repeated at least six times, building the ceramic shell coating into a very strong unit.When the batch of ceramic shells have dried completely, they are then placed into a huge steam autoclave, which is brought up to temperature.Almost instantly the wax is melted and runs out of the ceramic shell, leaving a clean ceramic shell that is then ready to be cast into. The void that was once the wax part will be filled with molten steel. After the casting is done, the ceramic shell is removed from the component, leaving the metal casting.And that only needs to have the attaching gates cut off before going into the production part of the plant. Ceramic shell casting in firearms was pioneered by Sturm Ruger in their Pine Tree Casting facility, and the end result is some of the strongest firearms in the world.
In the foundry area, and induction furnace is used to melt the steel for pouring. Electric coils surround the crucible and the steel melts very fast. However, an induction furnace requires a lot of electricity to run it, so at Shiloh, they have installeda Kohler generator that puts out 375,000 watts and is powered by a 490 horsepower Detroit Diesel engine. With their own source of power, Shiloh is not subject to the vagaries of the commercial power system and has a constant and reliable source of electricity for their foundry operation. By having their own foundry, Shiloh also has complete control over the quality of their castings and the delivery time. This could be one of the reasons that Shiloh has gone from a 5 year wait for a custom built rifle, to around 11 months at this time!Frankly, I always wanted a new Shiloh Sharps but, at my age, the 5 year wait seemed a little much.
There’s a lot more to the Shiloh Sharps story.In the January-February issue of SSRJournal, Mori Shultz takes us inside the Shiloh plant for a look at how these famous rifles are assembled and finished.– Ed.
28. Sharps Model 1874 Sporting Rifle With A Desirable “J.P. Lower” Retailer marked Barrel – Serial number “157084”, 40 Sharps Caliber (40 Caliber was the most accurate and was used by a majority of competitive shooters of that era.), 28 inch octagon barrel, blue/casehardened finish, walnut stock. The chamber appears to be cut for a bottleneck cartridge, and the factory records letter states the case length is 2 5/8″. I removed the front hand-guard and the only thing stamped on the bottom of the barrel is the serial number and another number that has been marked out and appears to have been 150113, but I am not 100% sure. The forearm wood has the number 7084 stamped into it. This Bridgeport manufactured Model 1874 was made and shipped in 1876 (the model 1874 was not applied to the gun for a few years after production began). The top of the barrel is marked “SHARPS RIFLE CO. BRIDGEPORT, CONN.” ahead of the rear sight, with “J.P. LOWER” in authentic letters and “CALIBRE 40” behind the rear sight. There are two additional filler block dove tails, one about 3 1/2″ ahead of the present rear sight and one immediately behind the “40” marking. Other than the serial number on the upper tang there are no other markings. J. P. Lower was one of Sharps largest western states distributors in Denver, Colorado. The serial number is correctly marked with 6 numbers because the “C” prefix was dropped after serial number C54800. Sights are a low profile dovetail blade front sight and Lawrence patent marked folding leaf rear sight graduated to 800 yards. The barrel was blue with casehardened remaining parts. The rifle is equipped with adjustable double set triggers which are true to the letter and mounted with a smooth high gloss oil finished walnut forearm -true to the letter with a poured pewter forend which is also true to the letter and straight grip stock and steel style buttplate. This beautiful sporting Sharps rifle comes compete with 5 3/8″ X 3 1/2″ J. P. Lower advertisement.
CONDITION: Fine as partially restored. The barrel has a smooth attractive brown patina with strong traces of the original blue finish in the protected areas and most of the original thinning blue remains under the forearm. The serial number on the barrel struck and renumbered to match. The left side of the receiver shows much of the faded original case colors, with some of the casehardening pattern remaining on the right side. The lock shows strong crisp and clear markings. The bore is in 95% condition with very light pitting, but the rifling is sharp and well defined for the entire length. The forearm has a 4″ longitudinal crack which will be easy to repair. This fine Sharps rifle has survived 136 years and the rigors of time in excellent mechanical condition and carries a top value of $6,500.00. $4,800.00.
Sharps Rifle Serial Numbers
The factory letter created from Richard J. Labowskie’s Sharps order book number 3 discribes this fine rifle just as it left the factory August 17, 1876 and was shipped to John P. Lower in Denver, Colorado.
Sharps Serial Number Ranges
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