By Mike Nesbitt
First Sergeant John Ryan, M Company, 7th Cavalry, was a true hero of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
His company, commanded by Captain Thomas French, was part of the 7th Cavalry battalion which was sent with Major Reno to capture the Sioux and Cheyenne in their camps while General Custer intended to battle (and defeat) the warriors, ultimately to subdue them and take them to their assigned reservations. Reno’s attack, after crossing the Little Big Horn, was repelled and his men, after re-crossing the river, had to “fort up” as well as they could to defend themselves.
That’s where Sergeant Ryan’s rifle played a very outstanding part, certainly saving the lives of several men in that company.
One (or more) of the “hostiles” was shooting at them, with remarkable accuracy, from what has since been referred to as Sharpshooter Ridge, approximately 400 yards away. The troopers were generally armed with early versions of the Springfield Model 1873 carbines in .45-70 caliber, which, because of their lack of long-range sights and their standard issue “carbine loads,” would not reach out well enough to counter the situation. Captain French ask Sergeant Ryan if he could “do something about that.” Ryan’s rifle was a special one, a custom-built and heavy Sharps in .45-70 caliber, complete with a full-length scope above the barrel.
Ryan can be quoted, from his book “Ten Years With Custer,” how he fired a couple of shots to find the range, adjusted his scope for elevation, then fired half a dozen “well directed” shots into the area where the Indians were. That ended the sniping done from Sharpshooter Ridge.
Not long after that, Indians could be seen tearing down their lodges as they prepared to make their escape, because they knew that other “blue coats” would be coming soon. Captain French was armed with a Springfield rifle instead of a carbine, a Model 1870 trapdoor in .50-70 caliber. Because Capt. French and Sgt. Ryan had the only guns in the company with long-range capabilities, they fired at the Indians from their positions on the other side of the river. Ryan states they fired the last shots of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Ryan’s rifle was described as weighing 17 pounds in that book. In another collection of Ryan’s words, which I can’t name at this moment, he stated that the gun weighed 15 pounds. With either of those statements, obviously done from memory and possibly estimated to begin with, we can understand that his rifle was built with a heavy barrel. Ryan did say that he had the gun built, to the cost of $100 dollars, most probably by a gunsmith in Bismarck which was close to Fort Lincoln where the 7th Cavalry was headquartered. Having that rifle custom built, most probably by re-barreling a heavy barreled Sharps sporting rifle, was more than likely the fastest way to get a heavy-barreled rifle in .45-70 caliber on the frontier at that time, in the early months of 1876. Sporting rifles made in .45-70 were very few and certainly far between at that time.
Shortly after the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Sgt. Ryan left the cavalry, taking his discharge and returning to the East. His Sharps rifle was “raffled-off” which certainly gave the winner a fine rifle but also allowed Ryan to regain his personal expenses for buying the gun. That winner was contacted years later but he had sold the gun in a transaction which he couldn’t remember. So, the old Sharps owned and used by Sergeant Ryan is lost to history. We can still treasure the description of the rifle which Ryan has left us in his comments about it.
C. Sharps Arms has decided to make a rifle, limited to very few of them, honoring Sgt. John Ryan. This gun is based on the work done by Ralph Heinz in his rendition of Ryan about to take the shots at Sharpshooter Ridge which certainly saved the lives of several troopers. That painting graces the cover of the book “Custer’s First Sergeant, John Ryan” by Warren E. “Sandy” Barnard. Heinz was a member of the archaeological group which searched the battlefield area in the 1970s and he personally stood on Sharpshooter Ridge, seeing for himself the lay of the land. He also verified that empty .50-70 cases were found at that location. (In addition, he told me that some empty .44-40 cases were found there, although those might have been “added to the scene” after the battle.) Following the rifle as depicted in the Ralph Heinz painting of Sgt. Ryan is not an absolute record of the rifle that Ryan had, but it is certainly based well on the description of that gun which Ryan did leave behind.
The first of these rifles is completed and I’m lucky enough that I get to give it a workout, primarily shooting ammo with loads similar to what Ryan would have had in 1876. That means a lot of shots will be taken with the carbine load which used 55 grains of black powder under the standard (and only military bullet for the .45-70 at that time) 405-grain bullet.
A description of this rifle, serial numbered as “1st Sgt-1” shown in a unique address for C. Sharps Arms on the left side of the receiver, is easy to give. It is a Hartford styled Sharps, Model of 1874, with a #1 ¾ Heavy full octagon barrel which is 30 inches long. The forearm wears the typical Hartford pewter cast-in-place nose cap and the barrel ends its octagon shape at the receiver in a Hartford collar. The receiver and butt plate are pack hardened and on the right side of the receiver the sergeant stripes are engraved into the metal along with the “diamond” which is the first-sergeant’s device. On top of the barrel is found “Calibre .45” while the “2 1/10” which indicates the case length of the cartridge is located, upside-down, on the right flat of the barrel just above the forearm. (That’s how Sharps used to indicate the caliber and case length for their rifles.) Stocks are cut from walnut selected for attractive straight grain and the rifle wears the full-length MVA (Montana Vintage Arms) Series 7000, 6-power scope.
In that configuration, complete with the scope, this first rifle weighs 14 1/4 pounds.
Preparations for making the ammunition began by casting some of the bullets using Lyman’s mold #457124 with 30-1 lead/tin alloy, which dropped those good bullets from the mold with a weight of 386 grains. Those bullets were sized to .459” and lubricated with BPC bullet lube, which is available from C. Sharps Arms. Then Starline .45-70 cases were prepared and primed with Federal’s “Gold Medal” large pistol match primers. A “carbine load” powder charge using 55 grains of Swiss 1 ½ Fg was loaded into each case, followed by a Walters’ veggie wad, and then the bullets were seated deeply enough that the powder did receive some slight compression. With those loads, the rifle was ready for its debut on the firing line.
The rifle and ammunition were taken to the shooting range virtually as soon as was possible. But before any shots were fired, I took a couple of minutes to get a “feel” for the set trigger. I wanted to know how firm the set trigger was and, if it was harder than what I prefer, I’d adjust it to my liking. The way to do that is to make very sure there is no cartridge in the chamber, then close the action and put the hammer all the way forward, so it is not at the half-cock position. With the hammer all the way forward, you can set the trigger by pulling the rear trigger back until it “clicks,” then squeeze the forward trigger until it releases. What you feel then is the trigger pull you’ll be using while shooting the gun. If adjustment is desired, that’s easy to do with a small screwdriver and the adjustment screw is on the bottom of the trigger plate, right between the triggers. In this case, no adjustment was needed.
With that done, a target was posted at just 50 yards for the first shots. Yes, you’ve got to start somewhere and I had no idea where this rifle would send those first bullets. I could have bore-sighted the gun before shooting but, in this case, didn’t do that. Perhaps because of it, my first two shots both completely missed the paper.
But those shots were not completely wasted. Observers told me where those shots had gone and that allowed me to make both elevation and windage adjustments to the scope, which resulted in getting the bullets on paper. Some additional adjustments were made and those really helped. After just one more shot, I was ready to shoot the gun for a group.
The next five shots were poured into a group that pleased me quite nicely. While it was shot at only 50 yards, with carbine loads, it still shows a lot of value. Those five shots would score 48-2X on the target and the group spread, center to center, is only 1 3/8-inches. Another bit of data about those five shots is that they were speed checked over a chronograph as having an average velocity of 1226 feet per second which gives us a rather good idea of the ballistics of the 55-grain carbine load. Not a bad load at all but perhaps out of its league for long-range shooting. With this first group to set the pace, I’m eager to get to using heavier “rifle loads” and more shooting.
This first shooting session was just a beginning, a preliminary outing, breaking trail for more shooting to come. Perhaps I’ll be able to report on some of that shooting too, with new comments about the Sergeant Ryan rifle after more experience with it is gained.
In a way, this report on the Sergeant Ryan rifle from C. Sharps Arms is actually a preview. C. Sharps Arms won’t debut the gun officially until the next Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match which will be held near Forsyth, Montana in the middle of June. Along with the rifle, C. Sharps Arms will be offering an equally-limited print of the Sergeant Ryan painting done by Ralph Heinz. Their asking price for the rifle/print combination, along with other details, will be announced at that time.
Let me guess that C. Sharps Arms will develop a list for anyone interested in getting one of these limited rifles with the accompanying limited print or for those who simply want more information about them, such as price and possible delivery time. I’m “jumping the gun” just a little bit by recommending if you want your name to appear on that list to contact C. Sharps Arms at 406-932-4353 or email them at info@csharpsarms.com.
If a rifle could be referred to as being exciting, I’d say this is an exciting rifle. It is based on the description Sergeant Ryan left behind combined with features of the Sharps rifles of that time. Being partnered with the MVA scope tops it off in more ways than one. It’s a rifle that, I will suggest, can easily perform to duplicate the shooting that Sergeant Ryan did with his gun, saving the day for himself and the men in his company, and firing what is documented as the last shots in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. If I somehow get one of these rifles, I’m sure I’ll name it “Sergeant Ryan.”
