Description of the Rifle and Ammunition

The single-shot Sharps rifles differed considerably from the Colts. The barrel was open at the rear and a sliding block moved vertically to cover the bore and uncover it for loading. The block carried the percussion cap cone or nipple, and was pierced with a channel which angled into the position coincident with the axis of the bore and just behind the cartridge when inserted.
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Sharps breechblock was lowered to expose bore and chamber at back, allowing rapid reloading with a combustible glazed linen cartridge. Sharps primer was column of copper wafers in front of hammer which were mechanically fed to nipple at instant hammer fell. Sharpshooters used Sharps rifles but name was old term for accurate marksmen.

Thus the flash from the cap, when struck by the hammer on the side of the gun, was carried into the chamber to fire the cartridge.
The breechblock was moved up and down by a lever below the arm, which was curved as a trigger guard. A few of these rifles are known which are fitted with double triggers. In these, the second trigger is pulled back and clicked. This makes the front trigger “set,” just as a mouse trap is set. When the front trigger is touched, the rear trigger is released and under spring tension it flies up and strikes the sear which holds the hammer cocked. This fires the gun, and since a very light touch is all that is necessary, the aim is not disturbed.
Cartridges used with the Sharps were made of linen, rolled into a tube, glued, and filled with powder with a bullet at one end. When the breech was closed while being loaded, a sharp knife edge on top of the breechblock sheared off the rear of the cartridge, exposing the powder to the flash from the cap. The skin cartridge used was a transparent envelope round made from gold beaters’ skin, the tissue lining of intestine. This, when wet, could be shaped and stretched, much as wet leather is handled. When dry it was stiff like rawhide. Moulded into capsule form, skin cartridges were used like the linen cartridges in the Sharps.

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Civil War Guns

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