Sharps rifle during the American Civil War

Sharps rifle during the American Civil War

Since earlier sniper rifles were only equipped with sights (rifle+sights remained the mainstream for a long time after World War II, and it was not until the 1970s that professional sniper gradually became the trend), rifles that were qualified to be equipped with optical sights should be accurate enough, and Sharps rifles were among the best in the mid-9th century.

Shapus was born in 1950, so he still wrapped bullets in traditional paper and fired with a fire cap. It is accurate not only because the unique hunting demand in the United States stimulates this process, but also because of its breech atresia. This structure has high locking strength and sealing performance.

Compared with the miner's rifle, the miner's rifle will slightly deform the lead warhead in the process of loading from the muzzle, and the overall diameter of the miner's warhead is smaller than the diameter of the rifling, so the positioning of the muzzle is not as accurate as that of the breech gun, and the accuracy is also compromised. The Sharps landing block is controlled by a lever, which acts as a trigger holder. When it is pulled open, the locking block descends to expose the gun chamber.

If it is a paper-wrapped bullet, blow it after opening it, insert the next bullet, and then press the ignition cap. In addition, Shipes also has a very interesting automatic filling system for ignition caps, which has a magazine for ignition caps under the hammer, and will automatically put the next ignition cap on the ignition nozzle after the hammer is opened. This design is convenient for cavalry to load on horseback, but it has many shortcomings, so it is not very popular.

Sharps has two triggers. Under normal circumstances, you only need to pull the trigger in front to fire, but the resistance of this trigger is relatively large, and pulling the trigger will affect the line of sight. Therefore, when pursuing high-precision shooting, first pull the trigger and pull the hammer to a semi-ready state. At this time, the resistance of the front trigger is very small, and it will fall off when the hammer is pressed lightly, which is one of the reasons for the high accuracy of Shipes.

Sharps rifle has a general effect in cavalry, so it was replaced by Spencer Renju rifle because of its low loading speed. However, long rifles are very popular among infantry, especially during the American Civil War, which was used by most American troops. The main disadvantage of a miner's muzzle loaded rifle is loading. Besides loading slowly, a shooter who is standing and loading is an easy target.

Shipes makes it possible to pack ammunition in the belly, and its accuracy is excellent, so it is very popular with the North Army, but it is also very expensive, almost three times that of Springfield muzzle rifles. M 1874 is a very successful model in Shipes, and it also has a name called Bison, because these rifles with double triggers and optical sights are artifacts for hunting bison, which also opens a new door for American shooting.

The optical sight of sharp instrument is not fixed, but can float back and forth freely. This kind of "floating" sight will affect the accuracy somewhat, but there is really no way. Optical sights are very fragile. If it is rigidly connected to the chassis, it will be easily damaged when sitting with the gun, so this compromise method can only be chosen.

Generally speaking, Sharps is synonymous with precision rifles in the American Western era, which mainly benefits from catching up with a golden age of breech loading and landing lock. Hunting in the westward movement gave precision rifles a commercial market. However, after the popularization of metal fixed bolt rifles represented by Mao Se M 187 1, Heaps, the only son rifle, gradually fell behind and was finally squeezed out of the market.