[Jeff Higgins]

Beautiful rifle there, tabs. I can't believe a Borchardt is fetching $32k today unless it has some verifiable match history. I passed up a similar rifle about ten years ago for $1300.00 because I thought it was too much. My how times change. I currently have a J.P. Lower stamped military carbine out for refurb; got that one for $300.00...

O.k. folks, let's clear a few things up about these rifles and their chamberings. These have been a passion of mine for my entire adult (?) life. I have studied them and have shot them competitively for over 20 years. My current match rifles include an original Ballard Pacific in .45-2.1, a C. Sharps Arms model '75 Sharps in .45-2.1, and a C. Sharps Arms model '74 in .45-2.6. Not to brag myself up, but more to list some (admittedly rather dubious) qualifications, there is not a BPCR match in Washington, Oregon, or British Columbia that I have not won over those last 20 years. Mid range (out to 600 yards) or long range (out to 1,000 yards), I have been very active in this sport. Anyway, on to some clarification.

The Quigley rifle was a model '74 Sharps, 34" octagaon barrel, military buttstock, .45-2 7/8 chamber. It did not have a carbine buttstock, those are distinctly different. They had a round heel where rifles had a sharp heel. Carbines never had the carry-over patch box; that indicates a converted '63 percussion Sharps left over from the Civil War (Colonal Berdan's "Sharps Shooters" gave rise to the bastardized term "sharp shooter" still used today).

The chamberings of these rifles were listed as two numbers, the caliber of the bore and the length of the case. That was important information to help the rifleman determine what would fit his arm. The .45's for instance were listed as .45-2.1, .45-2.4, .45-2.6, and .45-2 7/8. Those are the numbers you will see actually stamped on these rifles. Upside down on the right barrel flat, so a right-hander carrying one at port arms can just flip it up and read it. These are refered to today as the.45-70, .45-90, .45-100, and .45-110. These new numbers serve as both the chambering designation and the cartridge designation. Back then these two designations were seperate and different, and far more descriptive than today.

Common cartridges for these chamberings included the .45-55-400 and .45-70-500 in the 2.1" length, for instance. This told you the powder charge and bullet weight, with the case length listed seperately. With black powder and pretty much pure lead as the common denominator in all rifle cartridges, this gave a clear indication of the expected power from any given cartridge. .45-550-100 could have been in either a 2.4" or 2.6" case; one had to pay attention.

The Borchardt in question is listed as a ".45-100". At the late date in the Sharps company's history in which this was produced, that would have been the 2.4" case. The 2.4" superceded the 2.6" very early on, say 1873-74 or so, and very few Sharps rifles were chambered in the longer 2.6" case. It is the rarest of original Sharps chamberings. Interestingly, the 2.4" and 2.6" were both loaded with 100 grains of black powder and 550 grain paper patched bullet, and to the exact same o.a.l. The 2.4" simply gripped less of the bullet.

Anyway, these things are great good fun to play with. They are a real challenge to compete with, and far more interesting than today's .300 super short fat eargeschpitzenloudenboomer ultra mags. Fun to shoot matches with, and gratifying to hunt with. I've killed everything from mulies to bear to caribou to prairie goats with these things. Just too much fun...