Cowboy Bob's Dictionary

Sharps Rifle

Sharps Rifle

In the 1990 film "Quigley Down Under," Tom Selleck portrays a long-distance rifleman named Matthew Quigley and shoots a replica model 1874 Sharps "Big Fifty" Buffalo Rifle.

In the real world, during the 1874 Second Battle of Adobe Walls, buffalo hunter Billy Dixon used a borrowed .50-90 Sharps to kill a warrior at a distance later measured by army surveyors as more than 1,500 yards.

Publicity photo for "Quigley Down Under," copyright Pathe-MGM/UA. Used under Fair Use doctrine.