Some of the recent discussions here on the Sharps cartridge rifles got me to wondering who else made similar rifles? I recall reading Henry in the UK did, but there were likely others. Over in the US, de Haas's books show a Mortimer & Kirkwood and there was also a Wesson as well. Were these common, or did Sharps pretty much have the sidehammer falling block market to themselves?

asdf,
Somewhere in my reading's of Smith's Sharps Rifles (p55), I saw a passage where it was talking about the Spencer rifle/carbine repeaters and how the original was made with several Sharps parts. The connection being that Spencer learned drafting from Hezekiah Conant who all worked for Robbins & Lawrence where the Sharps were made at that time. Spencer showed his crude wooden prototype to Richard Lawrence and was given Sharps parts and encouraged to go forward with a working model asap.
There is an outfit in our midwest that sells investment cast kits for many of the classic single-shots. The Wesson is one I believe.
jp

I believe you are referring to the castings by Rodney Storie. I received information from them and have uploaded a copy of their castings catalog.

There is also a more complete version of the Wesson from Steve Earle.

Karl

Karl,
Yes the Frontier Armory was the place I was referring to earlier. That Wesson by Steve Earl is gorgeous!
Thanks for sharing... JP

Of course, there was and are many double rifles with side hammers, two to a gun. Hard to beat a side hammer for anything really. It works much better than mythology would have you believe.

Brent