Quigley Sharps Rifle
Quigley says of his gun:
It’s a lever-action, breech loader. Usual barrel length’s thirty inches. This one has an extra four. It’s converted to use a special forty-five caliber, hundred and ten grain metal cartridge, with a five-hundred and forty grain paper-patched bullet. It’s fitted with double set triggers, and a Vernier sight. It’s marked up to twelve-hundred yards. This one shoots a mite further.Three fully functional .45-110 rifles matching the above description were built for the film in 1989 by the Shiloh Rifle Co. of Big Timber, Montana, United States. They also had a 15 1⁄4 inch length of pull to fit Selleck's tall frame, a full octagon heavy barrel with a blue finish, and weighed 13 1⁄2 pounds. Due to the weight, one of the rifles was sent back to Shiloh to be refitted with an aluminum barrel so it could be swung faster (as a club) in fight scenes. After the filming concluded, Selleck kept all three rifles, and had two of them reconditioned by Shiloh Rifle Co.
In 2006 Selleck donated one of the rifles used in filming to the NRA for a fundraising raffle. In March 2008 that rifle was sold for $69,000 through the James D. Julia auction house. The company which created the rifle for the movie (Shiloh Rifle Co.) also offers production models (1874 Sharps Buffalo – "Quigley") for sale to the public, with an approximate $3,300 price. An Italian company (Davide Pedersoli & C.) sells a copy of the Shiloh rifle under the name S.789 1874 Sharps Quigley Sporting.
An annual Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match is held in Forsyth, Montana (180 miles from Big Timber) on Father's Day weekend. The shoot is the largest of its kind in America, attended by around 600 shooters, with targets out to 800 yards.
Read more about this topic: Quigley Down Under
Famous quotes containing the words sharps and/or rifle:
“Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cooks’ own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men’s Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women’s chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“At Hayes’ General Store, west of the cemetery, hangs an old army rifle, used by a discouraged Civil War veteran to end his earthly troubles. The grocer took the rifle as payment ‘on account.’”
—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)