Original Sharps firing pin

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A friend is looking for a firing pin for his Sharps Rifle, he is not a member of Gun Nutz so I said I would try and help him out. He provided me with some info as we had a conversation in town the other day. The info provided here was just from his memory, as he did not have the gun with him so I hope it's all correct ( I don't know a thing about Sharp's rifles).
Calibre is 50-140
1873 Old reliable
Made in Springdale, NY
Roughly a 30" octagon barrel

This is all the info provided!!
Prefer to find a source north of the border if possible, if not will go state side.
Thank-you.
 
I made one a couple of years ago but it was an incredible amount of work and to some extent they seem to fitted to individual guns. Not something I would want to do again. With a bit of luck your friend might be able to buy a workable pin from Shilo Sharps or from Pedersoli
an original pin does not have that stepped side of the pin in the photo; that was just a result of my sloppy milling. I made a couple of hollow end mills to make the cylindrical portions of the pin, if any of you are thinking of trying to make one

cheers mooncoon

L28UKSC.jpg
 
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I think his might be an early Shiloh Sharps that was made in Farmingdale New York because the originals were not made in New York also an original Sharps in 50/140 would be extremely rare as the cartridge came about at the end of the Buffalo hunting era.The early Shiloh Sharps were made with the dogleg firing pin shown but the ones made now have a different set up.Your friend can send the breech block to Shiloh Sharps and they will update it to the newer style of pin
 
I made the pin from drill rod and can't remember if I heat treated it. The colour makes me think that I must have hardened it but I also think that only the striking surface needs to actually be hard and even then, a hardened pin risks being brittle and breaking which is why I made the one above. The pin was for a Shilo Sharps and while I had the broken pin to copy, I ended up in part copying one from and original Sharps and there were some small problems of fit. The Farmingdale guns were supposed to be exact copies but on something like the pin, a few thousandths can be a work or not work situation. I once owned a Farmingdale Sharps and the firing pin in it was retained by a sliding piece of metal in a dovetail as best I remember but the original gun I copied from retained the pin with a small screw on the side of the breach. I also am fairly sure that Shilo has since gone to a 2 piece pin to get away from the breakage problem.

cheers Doug
 
Firing pin damage is common to the Sharps rifles.One of the causes is that a lot of people are unaware that before you open or close the breech you should put the hammer at half #### because with the hammer down the tip of the pin protrudes through the breech block and can be sheared off by opening and closing the breech.The gun may still fire but accuracy will be erratic.Also even with Shilohs new firing pin set up the pin is the Achilles heal of the Sharps and is known for breakage by the competition shooters who always have spare firings when they compete.Shiloh use to offer a free conversion to the new firing pins years ago I don t know if the still do.Also on the older Farmingdale Shilohs the half #### on the hammer is more like the half #### on the percussion models as the cartridge versions the hammer should just clear the firing pin on half ####.Shiloh also offers a conversion on that as well.
 
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Thanks for all the info guys.....I will certainly pass it on to my buddy and we will get that old sharps shooting again. I can get in touch with Shilo and I'm sure they can advise me further as to sending down the breechblock. I will try to get a picture of the gun in question and post it here.
 
Shiloh Sharps in Big Timber can help you. If my memory serves me right though I believe that Boomers Moulds in Regina is doing some of Shiloh Sharps warranty work for Canadian Gun owners.
So he could probably get the parts from Shiloh and put them in for you. Worth a Call.
 
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