From what little information I have about the Creedmoor Matches the ratio of Sharps to Remington Rifles was approximately 50:50. Some Remington users, especially Hepburn himself, obviously prefered to use his own design of action, whilst others used the Rolling Block. The latter was apparently regarded as unsafe by other competitors as it was prone to accidental discharge, possibly because of a light trigger pull or perhaps bad or unsafe gun handling. Not all very competant marksmen are necessarily safe gun handlers. 

Certainly the Sharps Borchardt 1878 rifle, (actually in production during 1877) was highly regarded and several of the British competitors bought them from the Sharps Factory after a visit during the competitions.

I'd love to see a real annual revival of such Long Range Rifle Competitions. That would really be something to watch, using original period rifles of course, and shot to the original rules as to overall weight and trigger pull.

The Creedmoor Competitions only lasted a few years and I don't recollect ever hearing of a Ballard rifle being used in them. Others may of course know differently.

Harry

The Ballard # 7s came out just a bit late to take a full share of fame in the early long range matches starting in 1874.  Ballard made many fine long range rifles. By the time they became popular in such events LR shooting was in decline. 

I used a 10 pound Sharps Borchardt rifle at 1000 yards.  Raton 1992? 3?

45/90 - 540 grain bullet, duplex load.  I was younger dumber and tougher back then.  Ron Long won the match with a Ballard 40/65.  His frog Ballard. 

                 Joe.

I read somewhere that the first year split of 50-50 Rem. vs. Sharps was because each company agreed to supply half the guns. Most likely because some shooters involved were either employees, or factory shooters for one of the two companies. 
As Don mentioned, it wasn't long before the ratio leaned hevily towards the Rolling Blocks. Hepburn didn't shoot the gun he designed, as I believe he had stopped shooting Creedmoor by the time he invented the Rem. #3., and not long after he left Rem. to go to work for John Marlin in late 1888.

Any original Long Range rifle is a valuable gun in today's market. Since the demand for those type of rifles that met all the Creedmoor rules lasted only a short period, guns built specifically to meet those rules are somewhat rare.
Rolling Block, Sharps, Ballard, are all expensive guns today in their Long Range configurations, if they're still original.

Interesting that "1 Hepburn" was used long before there was a Hepburn rifle? The patent for the Hepburn wasn't even issued until Oct. of 1879.

Good catch Val, I've got to stop using the IIRC.  I was thinking I pulled that information from Edwin Perry's first Green Book from 1877 but it was his revised book of 1880 and the match was shot in September of 1879. I should have known better as the 1877 match was shot against other countries yet.  Here's a link to the book (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) and it's really neat to see wood cuts of the rifles and scores of the shooters. If any of you like that kind of history, look at the two pages around 68-69 of the book and read the columns carefully.  It lists rifle types, grains of powder, how they were loaded and bullets used, etc. I also gave credit to Hinman for this but it was Edwin Perry.  I've been researching this a lot lately as I've started an article on my LR Borchardt and have been hoping to find a link to Albert Mitchell using it in a match. I should do a better job at writing down my sources.

oneatatime wrote on Jan 19^th, 2020 at 5:07pm:


I believe he pulled that article from the ASSRA home page and written by Richard Binger.
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The lag between the 1874 match and the 1879 patent is at least a quandary.  But for me, to suggest that Hepburn shot a rolling block that he felt compelled to boast he'd built himself seems a stretch.  Moreover, consider the following.

First, as Binger points out, there were 9 men on the 1874 American team.  Therefore, if the rifles used were split literally 50-50 between rolling blocks and Sharps side hammers, either one man had one of each type, or one had a rifle that was neither (and might well note that he'd made it himself).

Second, a note on the 1879 match cards (page 74 of Perry's book) states that whoever collected the data was "not familiar with his [Hepburn's] new rifle".  That match was held on 09/22-24/1879, two weeks before Hepburn's patent on the No. 3 rifle was granted (10/07/1879).   

Now Remington would not have been the first company to begin producing a product soon after a patent application date (here 04/21/1879).  Therefore, Hepburn could have shot one of those pre-patent No. 3s at the 1879 match.

Could the rifle Binger writes about be one of those?  Possibly, except for two things.  No other rifle like it is apparently known.  Moreover, the rifle illustrated in the patent looks exactly inside and out like the No. 3 we know and often love.  Binger's rifle doesn't, to the point that for me "Occam's Razor" suggests it truly is some type of prototype.

In short, for me, if Binger's rifle can be definitely shown to have been made by Hepburn, I'm more than happy to suggest it's not only a No. 3 prototype but quite likely a the gun Hepburn shot in the 1874 match.

Bill Lawrence

P.s.  For what it's worth, history is sometimes ironical.  John Browning's single shot - yes, that one! - and Heburn's were both issued patents on 10/07/1879 that were only 14 numbers apart (220271 and 220285, respectively).

As I mentioned in my previous note, the Hepburn patent was applied for on 04/21/1879 and was granted on 10/07/1879.  As things went back then, not quite 6 months in between was relatively quick.  But the real point is that the patent was not even applied for until the design (and likely the production layout) was at least largely finalized.  Which to me suggests that the actual development time probably extended for some considerable time beforehand, perhaps indeed several years.

Bill Lawrence

This is taken from an article written by Colonel Wingate on the first Creedmoor match. "LL Hepburn was a practical gunmaker employed by Remington. He had made with his own hands the guns which he and Fulton used." This could mean that Hepburn took over a spot on the line and built the rifles instead of other workmen and gave them his personal touch. I have pictures of Fulton's rifle when it sold at auction 9 or 10 years ago. It looks like a standard rolling block Creedmoor rifle.This makes me think that Hepburn's probably looked the same. Remember, this was the first match and the shooters only started in March with the arrival of the Sharps and the Rollers from the companys.  Did Hepburn already determine that new changes should be made in that short of a time period? Probably not . This makes me think the rifle that Richard Binger has, was not used in 1874.

Still, for all of that and as I noted, the Hepburn's 1879 patent drawing shows a rifle that looks like the one we know, not the Binger-owned prototype.  Therefore, before I'm willing to entertain that said prototype was what Heburn shot at the 1879 match, let me ask this:  Has anyone seen or heard of a Remington-made No. 3 that either has no patent date stamped thereon or is stamped with some version of "PATENT APPLIED FOR"?

Bill Lawrence