A trapdoor for cadets

[Jessesky]

I picked up this Springfield trapdoor cadet rifle from an estate sale. Before now I hadn’t even realized a variant like this existed. Once I did a little research I knew I had to have it. The barrel is 29” instead of 33”, and the there are no sling swivels on the trigger guard or barrel band. There is only a stacking swivel. Chambered in the standard 45-70 govt It would be issued to institutions like West Point for cadets as the name implies. There were around 21,500 produced compared to the 340,000 rifles, 54,000 carbines, and 67,000 rod bayonet rifles. Relatively scarce. It came with an 1873 bayonet in an “NJ” instead of “US” scabbard. Likely paired after, but could it be possible this may have been issued to an institution like Princeton or another old NJ school? Likely impossible to prove that provenance. I’m curious about their old ROTC program. I haven’t an idea of it’s worth but something I’ve never seen before. I thought you’d find it interesting.

Jesse

 

[forward observer]

Very nice! Congrats--yours looks to be in pretty decent shape. I recently decided I needed to add a original trapdoor to my pile and have been on the look out for some time now. I'm looking for a standard 1873 rifle produced prior to 1880, and hope to find one in as good a condition as yours.

Since most of these were well used and then sold on the surplus market over the years and then used and abused again--finding one as nice as yours is not easy.

I purchased this inexpensive soft bound collector's guide on Amazon to help know what to look for.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/188239139X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheers

 

[Jessesky]

Very nice! Congrats--yours looks to be in pretty decent shape. I recently decided I needed to add a original trapdoor to my pile and have been on the look out for some time now. I'm looking for a standard 1873 rifle produced prior to 1880, and hope to find one in as good a condition as yours.

Since most of these were well used and then sold on the surplus market over the years and then used and abused again--finding one as nice as yours is not easy.

I purchased this inexpensive soft bound collector's guide on Amazon to help know what to look for.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/188239139X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheers

That is what I have read as well. They had relatively easy service lives and the real wear came from being surplused. You’d think all wear is considered equal. It’s interesting how once out of the military’s hands it’s not “authentic wear” in a sense.

Cheers back

 

[forward observer]

I have a novelty reprint of a 1908 Sears catalog. It's over 1000 pages of all of kinds of stuff that Sears sold mail order just after the turn of the century and lot's of fun to look through---stuff like wagons, furniture, wood fired cook stoves, and of course firearms of all kinds.

Below is a scan of the firearms section. Sorry for the quality, but it's hard to get a thick catalog to lay flat.

In the listing, they have surplus Springfield trapdoor rifles including 20 rounds of gov. surplus ammo and a bayonet for the grand price of $2.75 total. Carbines were $3.75 and also came with 20 rounds of Gov ammo. They mention that these were part of a large lot that they had just bought from the government arsenal at Rock Island.

To put that in perspective, a Winchester model 94 sporting rifle (24 inch octagon barrel in 30-30) in the same catalog was priced at $15.53

$2.75 from 1908 is equal to $75.98 in today's money
$15.53 is equal to $429

There evidently was a recession at the time since inflation for 1908 was shown at a negative 2.15 percent. I have an original Winchester catalog from 1905 and their price for the same model 94 was $18.00 from 3 years before the Sears listing. Of course Sears bought in volume and thus could discount much of their merchandise. They were sort of the mail order Walmart of the day.

Cheers

P.S. I just noticed that in the carbine listing, they state that their carbines were actually rifles that they had cut down, which unfortunately has been done to a lot of rifles.

 

[HPJeep]

Dad's got one. He said only 333 or so we're made? TheyreT not common at all. I'll have to ask him again.

 

[Pat Riot]

Maybe these folks could help you answer your questions.
http://trapdoorcollector.com/

I found the link doing a search regarding your rifle. Very nice and unique find.

 

[forward observer]

Dad's got one. He said only 333 or so we're made? TheyreT not common at all. I'll have to ask him again.

While they are not common, out of the 567,000 Springfield trapdoors produced for a 20 year period, just over 20,000 were configured as cadet models. They were produced off and on as needed I guess.

Here is the serial number data for each year broken down by how many carbines, standard rifles, and cadet rifles were produced for that year

http://gun-data.com/springfield_trapdoors.html

A gentleman named Al Frasca runs the site that Pat Riot linked, and I just happened to have talked to him on the phone last Monday and the day before on Sunday. He has several rifles for sale that are on my short list of choices, but he was in the process of updating his listings, so
he recommended that I wait.

He co-wrote the book that is generally considered the bible of the trapdoor and seemed quite willing to share his knowledge on the phone with a novice like me. I only intend to buy a single representative rifle, but I do intend to shoot it. Luckily I have 45-70 dies since I reload that caliber for a Miroku 1886, and Italian made Sharps, and an H & R. reproduction trapdoor carbine.

Cheers

 

[Speedo66]

I seem to recall that carbine and cadet models had a lighter loading made just for them, instead of full powered loads.

The rifles used a .45-70 with a 500g bullets, the shorter ones used .45-55 with a 405g projectile. Or maybe it was just the carbines......

 

[Choctaw]

That's a very cool find.