I chanced upon an old Sharps carbine and was fortunate enough to acquire it a couple of months ago. The factory letter than came with it gave the date of manufacture as 1876. Note that it is built on an 1863 Sharps action. These carbines are mentioned in Seller's book as one of the few 50-70's built in Bridgeport after the move. These carbines also had 25" barrels rather than the more standard 22".
The rifle is all original with the exception of a replacement hammer installed by C Sharps relatively recently. The rifle was owned by John Schoffstall, as the factory letter with it was addressed to him. The bore is in amazingly good condition, being still shiny with strong rifling. I've installed a Marbles tang sight - thanks to my local gun surgeon making me some screws to replace the existing tang screws, so I could mount it without modification to the rifle.
The bore, much to my surprise, slugs at 0.5045", and I had to have a mold made to fit it. Once I did that, it shoots really well. I haven't done any formal paper punching beyond zeroing the sights, but I can consistently ring a 14" target offhand at 100 yards. That's good enough for me to enjoy playing at our local Cody Dixon SASS matches.