The Non-British “English” Sharps

Often referred to as the “English Model,” the 1877 Sharps was the last of the company’s sidehammer rifles and is considered by many as perhaps the most graceful exposed hammer rifle ever produced. Originally designed in 1876 by Charles E. Overbaugh, a Sharps exhibition shooter and the firm’s chief traveling salesman, the model was the result of Overbaugh’s acute understanding of the needs of target shooters at Creedmoor, the National Rifle Association’s shooting range that had ope