1873 Springfield Trapdoor What do Look for when Buying?

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It is pretty heavily made with thick leather. Thanks for your response. It was tough installing, it came with no instructions, and the instructions I could find still confused me.
 
Thanks Iggy for the link. I measured it before I installed it. It is 65 inches long. Just pretty tight.
 
Here is a link to proper configuration of the sling.

http://www.campsiteartifacts.com/m1873springfield.html
No. That's backwards. The brass double hook should end up on the side away from the rifle. The OP has his installed correctly.

Here's the procedure: You put the tab end with the buttonholes through the lower swivel, from the outside of the rifle toward the stock. Fasten with the brass stud through the buttonholes. Pass the hook end through the upper swivel (not the stacking swivel) from the outside toward the rifle. Pass it again through the lower swivel and hook to the appropriate set of holes.

Original slings have two sewn keepers. They are made for unequal thicknesses of leather. One of them goes near the upper swivel (two thicknesses of leather). The other one goes between the brass stud and the lower swivel (four thicknesses of leather).

If the sling is long enough (as I said, my original slings have the brass hook near the lower band when in the tight "parade" position), you can loosen the sling enough for carrying simply by moving the hook to another set of holes, without reconfiguring the whole sling. Otherwise, you have to pass the brass hook back through the lower swivel and hook it to the back side of the sling. This procedure is admittedly a pain. I believe that during the life of this design, the sling was made longer because of complaints from the troops.

The standard length of the M1887 sling was 72". The earlier standard length of the single-claw design was 68". I believe there were double-claw experiments in the early 1880's that started out at 68" and evolved to the 72" M1887 standard.

Some original slings were pieced together from two surplus Civil War slings. The government was known for its penny-pinching in those days.

This same sling (with a variation in length -- 66 1/2" versus 72") was also used for the Krag rifles.

Unlike the M1907 sling, this was a carrying strap and not a shooting aid.
 
Thanks AlexanderA! The add said it was for both. So what length should it be for a Trapdoor? I have a Krag in the basement feeling slighted since it doesn't even have a sling. I could always order another and give this one the rifle feeling left out.
 
So what length should it be for a Trapdoor?
72", for that pattern sling. Don't forget the two different keepers.

I have found that vendors play fast and loose with authenticity. (Actually, it's not the vendors themselves, but their suppliers.) I once was looking for a sling for my M1842 musket. S&S Firearms had one, at their booth at the N-SSA Nationals. Fortunately I had the gun with me, so I could try the sling on it. Turned out that it was 50% too long! Ridiculously long. And the leather was way too thick. Normally S&S is pretty good about these things. They apologized and said their sling maker described it as such. Which was odd, since they sell M1842 repros and could have tried one of the slings themselves.

Where it gets really interesting is where white buff leather is involved (pre-1839). Real white buff leather is very hard to find. Most places will try to pass off dyed harness leather.

I have found through painful experience that you don't want to leave a white buff sling on your musket. There is some chemical in the buff leather curing process that rusts any steel it comes into contact with, badly and almost overnight. I don't think the original buff slings had this effect, at least not to this degree. It must be the modern curing process that tries to replicate the effect.

In the Mexican War era (late 1840's), the army still retained white buff leather equipment, but had gone to natural harness leather slings and black-dyed bayonet scabbards (although with white frogs). They didn't make the general change to black equipment until 1855. Slings were still natural russet.
 
I will get some picture posted. I have it all apart in the basement. I used the right tools for the job and used care. The blueing looks nice under the wood. The stock is supper clean under the barrel. I shot it yesterday two times using a 300 grain lead bullet and 15 grains of Trail Boss. Recoil was .223 like. I like it.
Be careful with Trail Boss. It gives pretty high pressures in rifle cartridges. I use mostly 5744, sometimes 3031. Both work well in the Trapdoor with lower pressures. Appropriate loads of course.
 
That looks to be a really fine trapdoor rifle you found. By the photos it looks like your rifle is actually a Model 1884 standard rifle, made till 1890, with a total number made around 232,000, serial number range ran from 300,000 into the 500,000's. Your stock cartouche dated 1886 is the inspectors stamp and is most likely the year it was actually approved for issue. Your rear sight is a Buffington style and should have a 'R' stamped on it, rifles were stamped with a 'R' carbines with a 'C' and the Model 1884 were suppose to get the .45-70-500 cartridge.
 
Thanks Hertzer. It has a serial number of 348xxx. Doesn't that make it an 1887 model? It does have an "R" on the rear site.
 
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