Hardbound, 400+ full-color pages. Large format: Landscape 12" by 10".Volume III of a four volume series on Sharps Firearms. This volume covers all Model 1874 variations (not covered in Volume II), Model 1875 and Model 1877 firearms. Included are chapters on Sharps metallic ammunition and reloading tools and implements.

At the outset of the American Civil War, the Union Army's sharpshooters were initially equipped with the M1855 Colt revolving rifle, but it was prone to malfunction. Instead, the North's sharpshooters preferred the Sharps rifle, an innovative breech-loading weapon capable of firing up to ten shots per minute – more than three times the rate of fire offered by the standard-issue Springfield .58-caliber rifled musket. Other Union sharpshooters were equipped with the standard-issue Springfield rifled musket or the .56-56-caliber Spencer Repeating Rifle. Conversely, the Confederacy favoured the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musket for its sharpshooters and also imported from Britain the Whitworth Rifle, a .45-caliber, single-shot, muzzle-loading weapon distinguished by its use of a twisted hexagonal barrel. Featuring specially commissioned artwork, this is the engrossing story of the innovative rifles that saw combat in the hands of sharpshooters on both sides during the Civil War.

Profusely illustrated, hard-bound edition of nearly 400 pages. Well researched study of Sharps metallic cartridge firearms up to and incxluding the Model 1874 Sporting Rifles. This volume has extensive chapters on the use of Sharps rifles to hunt buffalos in the 1870s American West.