Replica Sharps rifles generally come from the factory with a Lawrence ladder rear sight and a little nubbin of brass or German silver slotted into an integral boss at the end of the barrel for a front sight.  Both my Pedersoli Berdan percussion Sharps and my Garrett .45-70 carbine are fitted up this way.

Less often, the front sight will be a Rocky Mountain blade, in the usual dovetail, in front, with the Lawrence ladder in the rear.

Somebody has swapped out one of these arrangements for a modern fold-down notch rear and a shaded target front on your Armi Sport, and a tang rear and a Beech combination front on your Pedersoli army rifle.  Not exactly authentic (particularly in the case of the Armi Sport), but the originals were best suited to 18-year-old eyes, authentic as they may be.

The “safety” device on your breechblock was some expedient to comply with some importation rule du jour (or something).  If you get On Line to VTI Gun Parts, Gun Parts Corp, or other suppliers, there should be an exploded drawing somewhere that shows what the setup is. From that you could make a guess at how it functions.

Cbashooter wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2020 at 8:46pm:


My first Sharps is an IAB. Very good looking rifle. 34." 45-70, plumb brown barrel. 
First problem i had was primers backing out .012", excessive head-space. Next came the bures in the lock work that prevented sear engagement, the hammer dropped sometimes by it self when cocked. The head-space was fixed with a new breach block firing pin and transfer bar from Taylors. The large original hammer was also replaced. 
I haven't played with it much since fixed, to many toys not enough time! If you find an IAB look it over real good mechanicaly. It's not a Perdsoli and definitely not a Shiloh. I have both. But it's now a serviceable good looking rifle. 
I see Dixie Gun Works still lists a Sharps receiver in the white I'm tempted to build a 44-77.
WW

5 month update on my Pedersoli Sharps. Everything is going good so far, I have about 250 rounds through it and would have more but between the weather and being busy with other projects and work I haven't gotten around to it.

I've found that at 50 and 100 yards it really likes my 405 and 500 grain bullets cast from Lee molds both over 27 grains of IMR4198.

I just recently made a wooden wiping rod so I can shoot some of my Blackpowder loads I have from when I had my Trapdoor Springfield. One question is for those of you who used a wiping rod as opposed to a blow tube do you wipe every shot, every 5 shots?

oneatatime wrote on Feb 28^th, 2021 at 12:33am:


Thanks for the info. I'm generally only plinking so it's no big deal to wipe every shot.

Hiwall55 wrote on Feb 28^th, 2021 at 5:48pm:


My experience as well with three replicas of theirs.all three had issues with triggers and sears.its like they made the with pot metal 

Hello WW,
Not sure where you are at with the IAB. I had one and was generally satisfied with it, got rid of it to get a Garrett Sharps with double set triggers. 
If there are problems with the sear, Lee Shaver is very familiar with the imported Sharps rifles and can probably put in a new tumbler and sear and do a trigger job if you are not satisfied with the current trigger. 
If your breechblock does not have a gas block I would definitely recommend having one installed on every Sharps rifle. It prevents hot gas from hitting you in the face if you ever pierce a primer. I had it happen to me once and sent in both of my Sharps breechblocks to Lee Shaver who installed the gas block, per photo attached. 
The IAB is simply not in the same class as a Pedersoli or a US made rifle, but you can probably replace the tumbler, sear, get a trigger job done and install the gas blocks for a lot less than the cost of the other rifles, and have a decent shooter. That of course assumes that you are satisfied with the way it shoots. If not, no sense in spending more money on it, except I would install the gas block no matter what. 
Joe S