[Jeff Higgins]

I have a real love/hate relationship with Hugo's Sharps. Compare it to the '75 action in tabby's first post - the '75 is the one they should have built, but bringing Mr. Borchardt on board spelled its demise, in favor of his own iteration of it. As a result, the Borchardt spelled the demise of the Sharps rifle company.

The Borchardt was superior to the '75 in every way but one - the world was not ready for it. The lack of an external hammer, being replaced by an internal striker, caught everyone off guard. They didn't trust it. They were used to cocking hammers to make guns fire. Not being able to see a hammer, to feel a hammer, to control a hammer, just didn't sit well with riflemen of the day. The new fangled safety - the second trigger behind the one that makes it fire - did not provide the feeling of comfort and familiarity that cocking a hammer provided. So, in the end, the Borchardt spelled the demise of one of my favorite rifle companies.

I've owned a couple of Borchardts over the years. They are not legal for NRA competition, lacking the required external hammer, so I've never owned a match version of one. My last "sporter", marked "J.P. Lower" (the famous Denver distributor back in the day) was a sporterized military carbine in .45-70. It went to a famous (now infamous) Montana gunsmith about 15 years ago to replace some broken parts. He was actually advertising Borchardt replicas at the time, and his now equally infamous brother in Wyoming was advertising Ballard replicas. I never got the rifle back, and I never heard from him again.