of these converted carbines in .50-70 Government were used during the Indian Wars in the decades immediately following the Civil War. Some Civil War–issue carbines have an unusual feature: a hand-cranked grinder in the stock. Although long thought to be a coffee mill, experimentation with some of the few survivors suggests the grinder is ill-suited for coffee. The modern consensus is that its true purpose was for grinding corn or wheat or, more appropriately, for grinding charcoal needed in the production of black powder. Unlike the Sharps rifle, the carbine was very popular, and almost 90,000 were produced. By 1863, it was the most common weapon carried by Union cavalry regiments, although in 1864 many were replaced by seven-shot Spencer carbines. Some Sharps clones were produced by the Confederates in Richmond. Quality was generally poorer, and they normally used brass fittings instead of iron. The British purchased 1,000 Model 1852 carbines in 1855 which were later used in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Sporting rifles Sharps made sporting versions from the late 1840s until the late 1880s. After the American Civil War, converted army surplus rifles were made into custom firearms, and the Sharps factory produced Models 1869 and 1874 in large numbers for commercial buffalo hunters and frontiersmen. These large-bore rifles were manufactured with some of the most powerful black powder cartridges ever made. Sharps also fabricated special long-range target versions for the popular Creedmoor style of target shooting. Many modern black powder cartridge silhouette shooters use original and replica Sharps rifles to target metallic silhouettes cut in the shapes of animals at ranges up to 500 meters. Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing Company and C Sharps Arms of Big Timber, Montana, have been manufacturing reproductions of the Sharps rifle since 1983 and 1979, respectively. Cultural significance In the 1990 Western film Quigley Down Under, Tom Selleck's title character uses a Sharps rifle chambered in the .45-110 caliber. Theater Crafts Industry went so far as to say, "In Quigley Down Under, which we did in 1990, the Sharps rifle practically co-stars with Tom Selleck." This statement was echoed by gunwriters including John Taffin in Guns and Lionel Atwill in Field & Stream, crediting the film with an impact to rival that of Dirty Harry on the Smith & Wesson Model 29. Burt Lancaster's character Valdez in the movie Valdez Is Coming (1971) uses a Sharps rifle with deadly results at almost