Greetings everyone, new member here. I recently got into collecting old rifles, always something I've been interested in. I got a few "Holy Grails" quickly, Winchester 73's, an 1886, a 1892 etc and a few historic percussion pistols '59 colt pocket, '60 colt army etc etc. I'm most thrilled about a beautiful 1700 flint lock pistol with exquisite scroll work.

And... I got a couple single shot rifles. The first was a fantastic condition 1884 Springfield Trapdoor, its been a family favorite to shoot and oddly, the gun visitors always want to see when they visit.

The second, and the reason for this post is I just picked up a 1862 Sharps rifle. Its been ID'd to have been issued and used by the 62 CO E 2nd Kansas Volunteer Infantry, a unit of Black Soldiers. It was later refitted and repurposed for the Indian Wars as a 50-70 caliber gun. Really neat.

But, the rear sight it something I don't recognize. The base part of the original sharps sight is there (the dove tail portion) but something different has been screwed into the front portion, its still a flip up but not adjustable. 

Here are some pictures:

What I'm curious about is, is this a military sight of some form? Or something someone added post Indian Wars? It seems to be very old, patina'd the same as the rifle. If its not something done in the refit, I'm tempted to find an original sight to restore it to its refit configuration. 

I've never seen the type of screw that is though, I cant find any bits that fit that hole spacing, I might have to build something to fit it.

-DallanC

I can't help you with the sight identification,  but  I welcome you to the site.
I'd like to see pictures of the flintlock pistol.

Welcome to the site.   That sight looks like a Civil War Springfield musket sight.   I'd guess that it was a later add-on.   As far as I know, all the conversions used the Lawrence sight as did the rifles.  The sights remained the same on the ones converted to 50-70.

Regards,
George

I'm in the same boat. My sharps carbine had the rear sight removed and someone put a buckhorn in the dovetail. Just got the protective ear base for the doves tail for $30 , but the rear leaf assembly is a scarce item I have found. Only decently priced repro so far is a buckhorn too !.