How is the bore.  This is what you imagine when you think a Sharps buffalo rifle.

That is very cool - thanks for sharing.

How neat! What does it weigh? Thanks for sharing that wonderful piece of history.

That is a true "classic" buffalo gun.  Very cool and thanks for sharing.

-Ron

Makes on wonder why anyone would now want to build an Ultralight Hunting rifle for Elk, Buffalo or anything else. 
All though these types of Rifles were probably being shot off of some type of a nature provided and readily available steady rest or even possibly using cross sticks. 
Might have been abit heavy to carry around but one would also tend to think that there might have been less suffering and wounded animals for the types of game that were being killed.
Buffalo hunters and others relying on just living on such game, I do believe were better marksman than what the current majority of the once a year hunters have now become today.   

JLouis and the group,

I would disagree about modern hunters not being as good marksmen as the old timers.
I have hunted Buffalo, both Cape Buffalo in Zimbabwe, and a couple here.  Here, one with my Shiloh 45-100 and one with my old 50-110 Winchester 1886.
Basically, for Bison you just put a big cast bullet low in the body where the heart/lung area is.  Both of mine just bled out in a minute or so.
The Cape Buffalo in Africa, if I may generalize; are dangerous.  Every year hunters and PH's die messing with the Cape.  I took a 450 Rigby bolt rifle with a 500gr Hornady soft point  loaded to 2500+/-fps.  First shot low shoulder, knocked him down at about 50 yards.  By time we tippy-toed around down wind and came up to him, he was back up.  Second shot low in the brisket with him facing me, knocked him down again at about 20 yards.  We walk up about 30 feet to his front, and I want to do the fool thing, poking him in the eye.  PH says, shoot him again.  I say why, and he says he ain't dead.  I disagree, and he says "look at his eyes...".  Say what!  Eyes are closed!  PH says he is waiting for you to get about six feet closer, then he is coming up off the ground and will stick one of those big 40"+ horns right up your posterior and throw you 20 feet up in the air.  That is the good news.  When you come down he will catch you on the other horn.  That is the bad news.  Next is when he stomps you into a puddle resembling a hairy tollhouse cookie mix.
So, I stuck another solid about 2" higher in the brisket.  Son of a B--ch; he comes up off the ground about four feet and slams back down.  Then we get the famous death bellow.  PH says, now you can go play with him.  That was the scaredest I have been since my first real close range shootout in Vietnam.
Cape Buffalo are scary once you put a bullet in one.

Robert Ruark ranked the Dangerous Five in a book.  He said Cape Buffalo are the most dangerous, since they have no weakness to exploit.  I still love his quote.  "Cape Buffalo simply look at you as if you owe them money...".

I would love to go back to Africa one more time, and hunt Cape Buffalo.  Prices are now out of my reach, $15,000 minimum.  They scare me up close.

Rich

Sorry John we have wild herds in Canada that spread out from Wood Buffalo National Park and you can get a hunting license for them. 
Many of them have never seen a human.

Also the herd in Elk Island National Park is wild and not domestic.
You can  stroll up to within 10 feet of them - if you want to risk your life.
Here is what happened to someone who walked up too close to the wild buffalo in Yellowstone Park.

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I have read books where the old buffalo hunters would drop a number of animals from one location.

Depends on what you call close range.

100 yards is close range for such a large animal.

Harder to hit a gopher at 25 yards.

Just to add to the lore of African Buffalo hunting:  One experience I had with Buffalo in Africa was my most frightening hunting event.  I was using an antique H & H 10 bore rifle (275 G FF and 1250 gr bullet) when we got up wind of a herd, 50-75, with a nice trophy bull.  The guide and I were standing in an six foot square patch of Mepne (sp) trees, really shoulder high brush, as the heard filed past us on both sides such that I could have outstretched my arm and touched one on either side.  As the got a couple feet past us they would wind us and start running.  Never got a shot at the bull that day as I was too frightened to raise my rifle and shoot with them standing so close.