I finally found my Springfield trapdoor

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A few weeks ago I mentioned in this thread that I had been looking for a nice 1873 Springfield trapdoor in shooting condition to add to my eclectic pile.

After looking on line at poorly lit crappy pictures of over priced derelicts from the scrap heap with
bogus descriptions by sellers who knew little to nothing about these guns, I had just about given up.

However, there is a website run by a man who co-wrote what is supposed to be one of the seminal works on the trapdoor. Another poster mention his site in the above linked thread. As it turned out, I had discovered the site just a few weeks before and had already had a couple of conversations with the man who runs it.

Not only are the pictures of his Springfield's for sale well lit and high def, his descriptions are to the point and easily understandable even for a dummy like me. It doesn't hurt that he also "wrote the book" so to speak.

Anyway, I finally chose one from his current selection and asked him to pick out a nice bayonet and scabbard to match. It just arrived last week, and I'm tickled pink with the rifle I got. Below are some pictures.

Here was the first shot outdoors in the bright sunlight.
G851SIN.jpg
It's a model 1873 made in 1879 with a bright and shiny bore that would easily rate a 9 out of 10. The barrel has 85 to 90% bluing still present with some thinning where a spring clip front sight protector had been mounted at one time. The barrel bands, receiver, trigger guard, butt and lock plates are more like 50 to 60% blue, but those parts tend to show the brunt of the wear.

closer view
WU4uvjH.jpg


The case colors are still vivid on the protected underside of the breech block---with its upper surface having turned to a pewter/silver finish. (common occurrence) Both the inspector's date and the firing proof cartouches in the wood are easily readable-indicating that the stock has never been sanded, but is also not beat up like many. All in all---not bad for a 140 year old war horse that was handled at some point by careless infantry grunts and then lord knows who for the next 110 to 120 years. The bayonet and scabbard are also in excellent condition with the leather frog still being supple and smooth.

Using a flash indoors made the case colors on the under side of the breech block really pop
7r99Qd4.jpg

Here's a shot with some reproduction and a few period authentic props
XIqIe3s.jpg
close up of the same setting with breech open
rYV3eJH.jpg

I've got some .405 grain cast bullets on the way to reload, but in the meantime found some Black Hills brand cowboy action commercial stuff locally. A LGS had 3 dusty boxes on hand that they wanted to close out, so I got them for $20 a box instead of the usual $36 they cost on line.

I haven't been shooting since very early last year. Then I had cataract surgery, which led to some minor but on going complications. I will be going to my optometrist Friday for a new prescription, and after my new spec's are ready, I'll be off to the range to try this baby out.

Cheers
 
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That's a beauty. All of the accoutrements that you have collected for it are wonderful.
I would think that being able to display it in your home with this paraphernalia is almost as enjoyable as shooting it.
Knowing that it is in such fine shooting condition must also be very satisfying.
I wonder where it's been and what fighting it was involved in.
 
I had several of them and sold them to a friend on a installment pay plan as I knew he was a follow shooter, but having a few money problems at the time. by doing that I can borrow them any time I want to hunt with or just shoot them at the range. there is just some thing about shooting those big lead bullets that those little bitty needle nosed bullets can,t give me.
 
I have, and shoot, an 1866. A lot of fun using it.

Enjoy yours.

Al Frasca iis a truly unique individual and not afraid to share his knowledge.

Kevin
 
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I notice that you are using an original-type single-claw sling (that was made by stitching together two surplus Civil War slings) rather than the more common M1887 double-claw sling. Interesting authentic touch, given the vintage of your Trapdoor.
 
Oh and you will love the trapdoor....I just started loading for mine this spring....I now have several boxes of different recipes to test out....rain rain go away.
 
Thanks all for the nice comments

Very nice!! I love both of mine. Ballpark price for this gem?

Just under $900 for the rifle alone. After looking for weeks at rifles priced at more than twice this and in not half as good a condition, I thought it quite fair. He gets $215 to $225 for his bayonets, but they are a nice as one will find anywhere. If I polished up the brass medallion mine would look like new issue.

My gosh, that's a beautiful rifle. Is it possible to trace the history of this piece?

I sure there is, but haven't researched how to go about it. I know that people research that sort of info since there evidently are some military issue records kept somewhere--especially as early as the Spanish American war. Even thought the Krag bolt action was adopted in the early 1890's, the Springfield trapdoors still saw action in Cuba during the Spanish American war (1898) with some secondary units.

There is a guy on gunbroker who has several rifles listed along with a CD or DVD disk with photo's of various records showing who the gun was issued to at some point in the regular army, reserves, or national guard--Mostly stuff from the 1880's or later. Basically, the seller is taking a $750 rifle and almost doubling the price by adding info that it was issued to some private in Tennessee for a while.

Here's one of his listings--he has several with this type of information. It's interesting, but I'd rather spend my money for a better quality gun and learn how to track down the info myself.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/814545086

The most valuable Trapdoors are the 1873 carbine models in the serial number range from 33,000 to 43,700. This range covers the possible carbines that could have been issued to Custer's men. If one has a carbine just in this range, they can automatically add $3 to $5k to the price.

Dan Morphy auctions had two listed in an auction this past April that had been verified through forensic testing by matching up the carbines to
projectiles or empty cartridges dug up on the battlefield. One went for $70k and the other identified to Custer's trumpeter for $80k.


https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/70169688_a-the-trumpeteer-carbine-forensically-confirmed-and

Cheers
 
I own an Ideal nickel-plated bullet mold and loading tool.
Marked "45-GOV 500" it casts the 500 grain round nose military bullet.
I happened across this video of the very same:



Mine must date to around 1900 or earlier and the cavities are still fresh and free of any corrosion due to always having been kept coated with lube. I used the mold a while back and fired them with great success in a Ruger #3 carbine with wheel weight alloy bullets.

And, since it's adjustable for 405 grain bullets, you could also have fun reloading black powder cartridges as they did when your rifle was new.

It's not military I know, but it seems very suitable for your collection in my opinion.
 
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I notice that you are using an original-type single-claw sling (that was made by stitching together two surplus Civil War slings) rather than the more common M1887 double-claw sling. Interesting authentic touch, given the vintage of your Trapdoor.

Good catch. There are actually three types of single claw slings--one made just as you describe by sewing two civil war slings together, but there were also two styles made from a single strip of leather---the only difference being that the end opposite the claw has a sewn on loop on one type while the other type has a two holes using a brass stud to secure the end to the rear swivel. According to my recently acquired trapdoor book they all were probably made for some of the pre-1873 Allin conversion models, but then were also used with the 1873 model
trapdoors

My sling is one of the non-spliced repro's marked as from the Watervliet arsenal. How I ended up with it is pure serendipity. A couple of years ago, I bought a nice reproduction 1863 Springfield off of Gunbroker and then bought this very sling on eBay, which was incorrectly listed as being for the civil war rifle. When I tried to fit it on the rifle and realized that it was too long, I contacted the seller to return it for a refund and to tell him that his sling was probably made for a trapdoor. He refunded my money, but told me to just keep the sling since he didn't want to pay for having it shipped back.

As luck would have it, I now have a rifle to match the sling that I bought by pure accident.

Cheers
 
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As luck would have it, I now have a rifle to match the sling that I bought by pure accident.
That's amazing. The sling looks extremely well made.

I have two Trapdoors, both with the M1884 Buffington sight. One has the rod bayonet, and the other one doesn't. I'm using M1887 double-claw slings on them, since that seems appropriate for their later vintage.

I'm curious as to how your sling is set up. On a Civil War sling, the sewn-on loop is used to attach the sling to the lower swivel. But on yours, I see that the sewn-on loop just secures the free end to the rest of the sling. Is there some documented "proper" way to set these up?
 
very nice rifle.

I was offended by the "careless infantry grunts" comment however and would like to point out that in my experience as both an Infantry Grunt and later as an Artillery Officer that had to work with a bunch of HQ weenies of lesser Military Occupational Skill sets that as a group Infantry take better care of their rifles than say clerks, jerks, cooks, signal men, mechanics, and cannon cockers.

The first Trapdoor I had any real hands on with had been used as a toy gun by a now former girl friend when she was a little Tom-boy as a kid and dragged through South Florida sand and brush then rode hard and put up wet.

Your's looks much nicer.

-kBob
 
That's amazing. The sling looks extremely well made.

------------------------------
I'm curious as to how your sling is set up. On a Civil War sling, the sewn-on loop is used to attach the sling to the lower swivel. But on yours, I see that the sewn-on loop just secures the free end to the rest of the sling. Is there some documented "proper" way to set these up?

In checking back to my book, the authors state that those early single claw slings were 65 inches long whether made from a single strip of leather or spliced. They don't bother to show how it is mounted. In measuring mine, it is actually 75 inches long and I remember now having trouble putting it on where I could have it tight. I think this may have been a sling that some repro seller had made and they got the length way too long. I remember around the time I bought it (2017) seeing a discussion on a ACW reenactor's forum about the market getting flooded with these over long fantasy slings marked as made by Watervliet arsenal. I knew that the trapdoor slings were longer, so that's what I assumed they were supposed to be.

There's several instructions on the internet on how to assemble the slings for the civil war 3 band muskets, but couldn't find any for the Trapdoor, so I just started looking at pictures of originals with slings mounted.

Here's one on Gun International (way over priced too) but I sort of copied how this one was done. 2nd picture down shown below.
https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...odel-1873-trapdoor-rifle.cfm?gun_id=101188703
However, I didn't bother to notice that my sewn on loop ended up much closer (10 inches obviously) to the forward sling swivel. I have an extra keeper loop on mine, so there's one at each end.
NICE-Antique-SPRINGFIELD-Model-1873-TRAPDOOR-Rifle_101069888_87874_45D41DE5722FA92D.jpg

I will admit that if I move the hook/claw to the farthest hole available without detaching it from the looped end, the sling is not loose enough to hang over the shoulder properly, and if I move it completely off the looped end and hook it in an available hole, it's way to slack to hang over the shoulder. So while it looks good, that extra 10 inches is probably the problem and I have no idea if the holes are punched in the correct positions anyway.

All I should have to do would to cut off ten inches from the end where the loop is, cut loop loose, and have a local shoe repair shop resew the loop back on or do it myself since the stitches are pretty large, then punch new holes if needed. I did leather work about 30 years ago and still have a sewing awl and a rotary leather hole punch if I can find them.

However since I don't plan to do any marching at sling arms I may just leave it alone for now.

Cheers
 
All I should have to do would to cut off ten inches from the end where the loop is, cut loop loose, and have a local shoe repair shop resew the loop back on or do it myself since the stitches are pretty large, then punch new holes if needed. I did leather work about 30 years ago and still have a sewing awl and a rotary leather hole punch if I can find them.

However since I don't plan to do any marching at sling arms I may just leave it alone for now.
Sounds reasonable.That's what I would do.
 
That looks like a very nice Trapdoor. A real buy at that price. I own two, an 1873 and an 1884. Neither is as nice as yours but both bores are decent and I shoot one or the other almost weekly. They are fairly accurate and great fun to shoot. You really need to reload if you plan to shoot it often as factory ammo is a bit expensive. If you shoot often do not use jacketed bullets as they are hard on the bore. Enjoy
 
I have had several trapdoors over the years. Mine were 1889's. The last we brought back to shooting condition. The gun was mainly dirty. I really feel that most of the depredations done to trapdoors was done by Bubba after the rifles were sold by the government.
 
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