Originally Posted by
John in PA
There were some Garrett Sharps carbine replicas offered years ago, a small number were chambered in .50-70. Build quality was good. Pedersoli actually bought the tooling to make there replicas from the outfit that made the Garrett stuff.
If you happen to pop for an original Sharps percussion carbine that was armory-converted to cartridge, make sure you get one with 3-groove Springfield rifling. There were some early conversions that were converted to .50-70 rimfire, and also some that were converted to .50-70 CF, but WITHOUT relining the barrel. Those have original 6-groove percussion rifling, which is WOEFULLY OVERSIZE to be remotely accurate with a .515" bullet! So make certain the one you consider purchasing has 3-groove rifling, and has a centerfire breechblock.