.40 caliber. 30.3125" octagonal barrel. SN: 44677. Blued and color casehardened finish, walnut butt with crudely checkered wrist, smooth walnut, semi-Schnabel forend. E.C. Meacham of St. Louis, MO alteration of a Civil War era percussion Sharps to cartridge with modified lock plate and breechblock and extended hammer nose. Meacham performed this work during the 1880s. Weak original Sharps markings on the lock plate and tang, barrel unmarked externally and numbered "31" underneath. Lock equipped with adjustable double-set triggers, barrel equipped with a Winchester-style elevation adjustable buckhorn rear sight and a dovetailed copper blade front sight. This gun falls outside the serial number range of typically encountered Meacham conversion rifles and may be a period attempt to replicate the Meacham work, as the hammer nose and some other small parts do not have the level of fit and finish normally associated with a Meacham altered rifle.