My sharps story

[bogus bill]

Read pathfinder09`s thread and didnt want to hyjack it.
In the 70s I was a guard for lockheed. We had a big strike going on and I was spending endless hours on the strike line. A wheel for lockheed decided to ride along. While we were sitting in the dark in my patrol car killing time we started talking guns. He mentioned he was thinking of selling a old civil war sharps carbine that had been in his family forever and buy a nice .357, and what kind did I think was good?
I attacked! I said I would swap him sight unseen a new S&W model 27 8 3/8" for it. A day or so later we traded. The sharps was a converted to 50-70 with a beautifull 100% lined bore. The rest of the gun was about 85%. (That was a goverment conversion).
About a year later I ran into him and he said his entire family wouldnt forgive him for that trade! I knew I was takeing it in the shorts, but said OK, bob. I will trade you back. Bob said I cant. I sold the smith! I said, OK Bob, pay me what a new one goes for. He almost did a wheelie on my head running for the credit unions ATM! Soft, aint I?

[C. Cash]

Well done!
I get weak knee'd over Sharps and Spencers myself, and it would've taken alot of effort to do what you did.

[bogus bill]

Another time I had a original 45-70 springfield rifle cut down to a carbine. This also was about 40 years ago. Since the gun wasnt any longer original I set it on my table at a gun show. I cant remember what I was asking, but a young guy came along and pulled all his money out and was almost crying he wanted it so bad! He was quite a bit short but I caved in! Hell, ya only live once! I still can hardly belive I done that, usually I wasnt THAT easy!

[kimwcook]

Geez, Bill, what do you have to sell?

[Pathfinder09]

Hi Bill,

Great story. You will be rewarded one day for your generosity. Nothing to be ashamed of at all. Good on ya.

My sharps is only a replica but it think it is going to be a hoot to shoot and develop loads for. The older I get the more I regress toward older firearms. I only hunt with iron sighted lever guns any more. A lot more fun to me.

Cheers

[Rusty]

I wouldn't mind having one myself, but not one of the Italian ones. The wife like the Quigley movie so much if I really asked her for one for Christmas or something it woud be one of the few guns she'd be enthusiastic about. She liked the movie do much she even had me get the sound track for her one year for her birthday.

[bogus bill]

Another rare old rifle I had: A guy at work had a Whitneyville armory 50 cal. of some kind. It looked like a oversized remington rolling block. That gun weighed a good 12 pounds, long octogon barrel etc. It had about a half dozen blanks on the top of the barrel. I found out he would take a winchester 94 30-30 for it. I bought a brand new one, dangeled it under his nose and we traded.
I latter took it to a gunshow and sold it to Ray Howser who at the time owned "the pony exspress", a high end gunshop that used to be at reseda calif or I belive on ventura bolivard. At the time I didnt know who he was. After buying the gun he explained that some old frontiersman must have moved the sights as his eyes aged. He said this one goes over my fireplace! This from a man who probley owned about the third biggest antique gun shop in california! It was a old buffalo rifle for shure! I am one of those guys in many old dealings that can relate to the old saying: It is better to have loved and lost, than never have loved at all!

[bogus bill]

Speaking of Quigly down under, I had a lady friend that also was a friend to tom sellick. She ran a mens big and tall store in a building that he and his brother owned in lancaster. She died on us back in 1998. Anyway I had some buddys that knew the connection. They tried to goad me into seeing if I could trade him out of that rifle! Of course, I knew it would be hopeless and wouldnt try. Tom and brother Bob tried to get Martine to work for them handeling their propertys in lancaster. Trivila: In one of his last westerns he named his girl friend Martine in the movie. They also looked similar. I lost her due to cancer too. Somewhere if I didnt throw it out after she died, I had a picture of her, Tom and his brother Bob standing together in her store. I belive Bob was even taller than Tom. He was a blond guy. Think the Sellicks father was there that day too and took the picture.

[Pisgah]

I wouldn't mind having one myself, but not one of the Italian ones. The wife like the Quigley movie so much if I really asked her for one for Christmas or something it woud be one of the few guns she'd be enthusiastic about. She liked the movie do much she even had me get the sound track for her one year for her birthday.

When thr rifle failed to turn you in to Tom Selleck, she might be disappointed.

[Birdman]

I had a crush on Sharps rifles before Quigley hit the big screen. It seems like they have always been more expensive than I can justify. And they sure ain't getting any cheaper. In the mean time I have acquired several revolvers, lever actions, a few shotguns, and even two AR 15's that don't interest me one bit. I have 4 revolvers, three levers, and two shotguns I shoot a lot and the others are just there and they really have no emotional attachment. If I add up the value of guns I don't use or care for I could buy me a Sharps, get set up to reload it (I already reload other calibers) and have the gun I have wanted for more years than I have remaining on Gods wonderful earth. Anyone care to explain that?

[Ysabel Kid]

You did the right thing - good for you!

[blueroan]

I bought a copy of Mike Venturino's SHOOTING BUFFALO RIFLES OF THE OLD WEST while recuperating from some cardiac work in 2003. I'd always wanted a BIG 50. October of 2003 I went to Big Timber and looked at Shilohs and C.Sharps....went back to Shiloh and ordered my 50/90 Long Range Express with appropriate sights and other options. The rifle arrived in February 2005.
I've been to the Quigley shoot in Forsyth Montana every year since the rifle arrived. I may not shoot worth a d***, but I have a good time there.

I shoot my Marlin Cowboy rifles a lot more, especially the 357s and 44s (cheap to shoot for a reloader who casts his own!) but the BIG 50 is my treasure. It's a once (or twice!) in a lifetime purchase. I could have bought a 45/70 clone of my 50 at Shiloh two years ago and didn't....and been kicking myself about it since. Get a catalog to look at; send a deposit (the wait is a year+) and start saving some money.