Idenifying a Sharps rifle

[mikejohn1]

You see, this is my father-in-law’s rifle. He found it in it’s case in the attic of a house he purchased from a bank about 10 years ago, (give or take). This winter he and I were crawling around in the attic installing some more installation when he found this ‘lump’ under some old installation. He pulled back the installation and there it was. He knows nothing about firearms and I know very little being a former U.S. Marine Tank Crewman, certainly nothing at all about black powder firearms. You really didn’t need to know any of that but I just wanted to let you know why I’m so stupid on the subject. My Father-in-law and I have really gotten interested in the sport of black powder shooting while researching what we could on this rifle. Which is only that .45/110 shells arn't sold around here.


Cal. 45-110   3- ¼
Hex Barrel

The gun barrel is stamped with ‘Old Reliable’ and Shiloh mfg. Farmingdale NY

Behind the breach are the numbers 3208

It has two triggers

There is not a scratch or blemish on the whole gun; it looks like it was made yesterday.

 

Anything you could tell us about it would be great. Like when it was made, is it worth a hill of beans or what, (not that he wants to sell it.  Also the availability of ammo? Or where I might find out this info.

Thanks for any help you can give :?

[rk4570]

It sounds like you found a Diamond in your attic!!

  Go over to  www.shilohrifles.com       They can give you the date & maybe price est. :-D

[powderburner]

It is the forerunner of the Shiloh 's made today .
  Wolfegang Droege was the maker and in the early 1980's I believe he moved to big timber  Mt. and built them there with a fello names John Schofstall . Shoftstall has the trademark on the "Old reliable " roll mark
today and runs the montana armormy and builds a 74 pattern rifle still .
the company that Droege had, sold to the Bryan family in the late 80 or early 90s  and they are operating the store now and are the owners of the Shiloh name and theirs is the Shiloh Sharps  rollmarked on the barrel
 the gun you have is made probably in the 70's sometime and the calibre marking you list doesnt sound right if it is 45-110 it should be 45 2 & 7/8  and if it is 45 3 & 1/4 it should be a 45-120 both rounds are handload only and require a lot of patience to load but are extremely accurate although heavy recoiling. www.shilohrifles.com is theur home page and if you want to find out a lot about these rifles check out their forum  it is packed with all the info you need and a lot more..............Dean