Sharps 1853 Nepal .54 CAL

Updated September 15, 2026

Make: Sharps Model: 1853 Nepal Caliber: .54 CAL Action: Slant Breech Barrel: 40 Bore: Frosty Serial # NSN Condition: Good Here we present an antique Nepalese Sharps Model 1853 Slant Breech Percussion Rifle. The original Sharps Model 1853 Slant Breech had a production run between 1854 and 1859 in Hartford, Connecticut. The Nepalese Sharps Model 1853 is a rare and highly intriguing piece of 19th-century military history. These weapons are .54 caliber slant-breech percussion firearms that were recovered from the Royal Nepalese Arsenal by International Military Antiques (IMA) in the late 1990s. While they are marked with Nepalese symbols (often the number 113 stamped atop the barrel), consensus among experts dictates that Nepal did not have the industrial capability to forge the high-quality steel actions found on these rifles at the time. Instead, two prominent theories explain how they ended up in the Nepalese Cache . The Confederate Surplus Theory: A popular and compelling hypothesis is that these guns were originally Confederate-made copies of the American Sharps 1853 manufactured during the American Civil War. Some examples feature stocks made of Honduran Mahogany—a material known to be repurposed from pre-war furniture by the Confederacy. The theory suggests that incomplete or captured Confederate firearms were bought as surplus after the war and sold internationally, eventually landing in Nepal where local gunsmiths completed them using native parts. The European Manufacturing Theory: Another school of thought is that these high-quality actions were commercially produced by advanced European manufacturers in Great Britain or Belgium specifically for export to foreign militaries like Nepal's. Please see photos. No FFL Needed in Most States.

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