It would be going too far to describe Philip B. Sharpe as an eccentric genius. The dwindling few who remember him (or know people who knew him) describe Phil Sharpe as a strange little man who used a cigarette holder, appeared in public in a British Army sun helmet and consorted with such luminaries as Harry Pope and Maj. Douglas Wesson.

Sharpe was a writer and ballistician, an army ordnance officer, an experimenter, a sometime hunter and all-the-time shooter, and--perhaps most of all--a dreamer. He returned from a tour of duty in Europe during the second world war with a dream for a new cartridge and an entirely new, ultra-accurate bolt-action hunting rifle to shoot it.

The cartridge would be the first modern commercial 7mm magnum, based on an experimental French military round he saw while prowling the armories of Europe. Ultimately, the cartridge saw the light of day as the 7x61 Sharpe & Hart, developed in partnership with Richard Hart.

And the rifle? Well, the rifle was another matter.

Phil Sharpe was extremely well-connected. A personal friend of Doug Wesson, he is credited with developing the .357 Magnum in the 1930s, which Wesson then turned into a commercial success. As the author of The Rifle in America, every gunmaker's door was open to him. He looked around the U.S. and did not see a single rifle design with the potential to be what he was looking for.

Sharpe wanted his rifle to be highly accurate, modern and finely made: a luxury item for the cognoscenti, a rifle of long-range power and accuracy for the continent-hopping big game hunter.

Since this was 1947, Sharpe's dream bears an uncanny resemblance to that of a man on the other side of the continent from his home in Pennsylvania: Roy Weatherby in California. Weatherby's company was then in its infancy, and his cartridges were still wildcats, but the stage was set for the destinies of the two to become intertwined.

During and after the war, as he traveled around Europe investigating small-arms development by allies and enemies alike, Sharpe met Eric Saetter-Lassen, a champion rifle shooter and director of Madsen, the Danish machine-gun manufacturer. When he came home from Europe, one of the rifles that accompanied Sharpe was an unidentified but highly accurate .22 of unknown Scandinavian make. On a visit to Sharpe's home a year or two later, Saetter-Lassen identified the rifle as a Schultz & Larsen.

Schultz & Larsen of Otterup, Denmark, began business around 1900 making target barrels and grew into a small shop making complete target rifles and later pistols. During the war, it made sniper rifles, under duress, for the Wehrmacht. According to legend, the company managed to make its products almost unusable, without having the faults traced to its workmen.

Come 1945, the fine old German firms were shredded and much of Europe's gunmaking landscape had been devastated by the war. Schultz & Larsen was an exception; it was one of very few functioning makers of fine firearms in Europe.

As his plan for the 7x61 cartridge developed, Phil Sharpe met with Amund Enger of Norma Projektilfabrik. Enger became interested and agreed to produce factory brass and loaded ammunition. Sharpe sent details of his best load (a 160-grain Sierra bullet, at 3,100 fps from a 32-inch test barrel) and asked Norma to duplicate it.

The 7x61 Sharpe & Hart was now a factory cartridge. Philip Sharpe and Richard Hart formed a company, Sharpe & Hart Associates, to import rifles and ammunition from Europe, and early Norma cartridge boxes are so stamped.