Building a Sharps Borchardt Sporter

[zrifleman]

About 20 yrs ago I aquired a Borchardt military action and was able to build with the help of Denny Hanel a gunsmith friend, a heavy octagon barreled sporter in 45-70.  I shot the rifle in matches and hunted with it for about 8 yrs then hard times came and it went. Last month I bought a military Borchardt that was broken and a little rough. Two weeks of work making new pins and screws, looking for parts, doing the radius on top and bottom of the receiver, fixing dings, and just struggling to disassemble the gun---and I have a sporting action. I ordered a Badger round barrel blank from Buffalo arms in .45 cal. 1-18 twist. After I thread and chamber to 45-70, Denny will stamp and blue the barrel properly. I think I will have Shiloh Sharps color case harden the action, butt plate and other parts. I'm going to fire blue the screws and pins myself. I haven't worked out the checkering yet. Last year I built a Sharps  74 heavy barreled 45-90. As you can tell--I'm a big Sharps fan.  Has anyone else done a similiar project?

[Ray Newman]

In 1999, Gunsmith John King (Kila MT) completed the rebuild of my Borchardt.  I have no metal working skills. The rifle was  a . 45- 27/8”, that over the years had seen way too much .45-2.1” (AKA .45 70) rounds thru it. The chamber was in bad shape along w/ some crown damage. Along the way, some Fool tried to put on a Schuetzen butt plate & did a so-so (@ best) job.

John installed a new 34” Badger barrel & chambered it to the original caliber & replicated the lettering as well as colour cased the action. He also fitted & finished the new wood (Tree Bone Carving). I was lucky in that there was no pitting, rust, or other damage to the receiver.

I retained the original caliber & it is a great rifle to shoot! If I only could see the iron sights well enough to take full advantage of them. The sights are an aperture w/ spirit level front & a Borchardt long range sight from Buffalo Arms (fabricated by Parts Unknown).

The factory records indicate that it was shipped 12/31/1879 to N. Curry & Sons in San Francisco, cal .45- 2 7/8”. It stayed in the San Francisco Bay Area until it moved w/ me to WA ST in 2001. I really would have liked to have seen what it looked like when it left the factory as the receiver & wood were marked w/ a “L”. The late Dr. Moore, @ that time the custodian of the Sharps factory records, indicated to me that the “L” was for the Lenox brothers who did custom work for Sharps.