Howdy All,

Here are a couple pics of a old sharps I picked up recently. I think it is a midrange and is in 45-70. I think someone may have clubbed a buffalo to death with it as it was smashed through the wrist. Someone did a decent job putting it back together and it feels solid but there is a fair bit of glass in there. Other than that and the fact that I think someone cleaned the barrel with 90grit and then rubbed on some browning solution it is in very decent shape and tight. The barrel marking are still all very good. There are three cursive "L"s on the bottom barrel flat behind the serial number and if anyone knows what these mean I would appreciate your input. It has one of those neat front sights with the little sliver of elk ivory inlet into it. There are no marks on the sight unfortunately. Was hoping to see a "Cooper" stamp on it but oh well. Need to get her lettered as I suspect she may have been an award rifle with that little plaque on the side of the stock. My little boy is telling me how many buffalo he wants to shoot with it. "Just one daddy. Two are too heavy to carry." Smart Boy. Best,

Zack

westerner wrote on Jul 25^th, 2014 at 12:07am:


Hello gentlemen,
There was a long discussion about these letter 'L''s a couple of years or more ago on this Forum. Eventually it seemed to be the consensus of opinion that these rifles so marked had been through the hands of J.P.Lower of Denver, Colorado who bought large numbers of rifles and parts from the Sharps factory. Those complete rifles he bought were stamped with his full name and address, those assembled from parts were apparently just stamped under the barrel  this 'Script' letter 'L'. The number of stamped 'L''s varies from two to about seven.

Harry

westerner wrote on Jul 25^th, 2014 at 3:13am:



Hello Joe my friend,
The full name and address of J.P.Lower was stamped on Factory supplied Borchardt's, it was only apparently those that were assembled out of parts that were stamped on the barrel with the letter 'L'.

The search function doesn't work for me either.  

Harry 

At one time, I thought that the script L and the JPL were inspectors marks but now I'm not so sure.  I was looking through my Seller's book again and found two mentions of Lower's use of letters.  On page 240, Sellers mentions a rifle built for Lower by Sharps which had the monogram JPL on the bottom of the rifle.  On p 270, he mentions two 1878's made for Lower that had the script L after the serial #'s.  Maybe Sharps put the stamps on for Lower as he ordered large amounts of Sharps rifles from the factory to be sold out of his Denver shop.
I bought a Sharps 1878 action last year at the Q that has the L script in 2 places.
Here is a link to one of our discussions.  Bob
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Thanks all for the replys and thoughts. It had been so long since I had seen a #40 or #50 sight I honestly forgot they existed. I cleaned off some crud and sure enough a very faint Lyman stamp. Thanks for the ref on the Lennox brothers as well as the ref to the JP Lower discussion. It is interesting that this stamp apparently has shown up on military rifles as well as sporting rifles and also rifles not Shipped to JP Lower. One friend of mine has a very plain sharps factory sporting conversion with the stamps. I asked Dr Labowski about the stamps and he did not know for sure what they meant. I am hoping that this rifle letters but it is 15?687 with the 3rd digit a victim of the sight screw as is sometimes seen on target models. Under the forend is just 15687 with no gaps. Dr Labowski was very pleasant to talk to and very helpful. Am going to send him some pics and measurments and hope that I can find out some history on this old rifle. All the best,

Zack

I wish it was ! Its marked Lyman and looks like a #40 from my Gunsight book. still looking for a cooper with an elk tooth in it. If any of you schuetzen guys have any crusty old walter cooper 74 sharps rifles you are tired of having scratch your Ballards and High walls let me know. I have some good trading material too. Best,

Zack

Hi Kirk,

That would be great ! Hope to make the match. Depends on work. Also have two lil guys so very wife dependent but plan to be there. The rifle is up with Richard McKinney getting the half cock notch rewelded. Got the letter back on it. Left in 76 as a longrange target rifle sold to a shooter in New York. Looks like it was sent back to factory and rebarreled. Chamber cast looks like a 45-100. All the best

zack