sharps question

[castile]

I have a question on a 1863 shaprs carbine. I have had a few and some are stamped with three letter on the saddle ring plate and the barrel just before the breach and left side of barrel, and then single letters on various parts and a cartouch under the saddle ring bar on the wood. I have also seen several with no inspector stamps on the metal parts and cartouch stamps on the wood. Why would the wood have a cartouch and no inspector or sub inspector marks on the metal parts? A 1863 was made only during the war and I was not aware that any were made for private sale and the cartouch shows it was accepted by the US Gov. Any help on this appreciated. Also a question about percussion vs conversion, which is more desirable?

 

[orpington]

I don't know the answer, but maybe you might want to try looking in Frank Sellers' Sharps Firearms book?

 

[Don McDowell]

A great many of those military carbines were bought as surplus and reworked to cartridge models to be sold to the "public" by a number of mailorder houses, Bannermans, Homer Fisher etc.
The Sharps factory in their last days did even build a few of those from parts left over and sold thru their usual outlets.
So there are a number of possibilities of markings and cartouches. The first thing to watch out for are the Italian proof marks or the obvious grinding off of those, as there have been several instances of those rifles being "antiqued" for various reasons.