bullet for trapdoor

[frosty]

Anyone on this forum shoot springfield trapdoor rifles? I own a model 1884, but it is hard to find bullets to fit the larger .463 bore...

 

[AzShooter1]

Best thing to do for the Trapdoor is to mold your own with a Lee 405 grain hollow base bullet. It will swell out when fired and fill the grooves. That's the bullet recommended in Pat Wolf's book Loading The Trapdoor and it sure worked with mine.

 

[rusty from italy]

H&R trapdoor carbine

In my Harrington & Richardson trapdoor carbine i use both the 405 grains from Lee, the flat base and the hollow base, but none have reached decent group on target, may be a wrong alloy of lead and tin or the load reduced and corn or felt wad like filler...
Or a indecent piece of iron the carbine!!
A my friend with an original 1884 fire a 500 grains spitzer loaded with 62 to 68 grains of FFg and thin felt wad, good groups with original and Pedersoli replica!
In the pic below my 1873 carbine
ciao
Rusty

 

[Cap n Ball]

I've got an 1873 model and it shoots very accurate. The 405 slug is just right. Finding good brass can be troublesome but I don't shoot it that often. I generally trim and load my own using Goex up to about 200 rounds. They say it will shoot smokeless but I'd rather not.

 

[frosty]

bullets for trapdoor

I have fired 500+ gr bullets with very poor results....Probably due to little bullet upset into the rifling(I shoot 20-1 alloy) with soft bullets, and also the fact my land to land/ bullets nose diameter measurement is around .005-.006 larger than most molds will throw. It needs to be a "bore rider" in order to prevent tumbling in the bore or keyhole downrange...One must remember, if the bullet upsets properly, it may shoot fairly well; even with undersize nose dia. Sometimes if you shallow seat the bullet to where it just engages the rifling can help too...

 

[Iggy]

If all else fails, you may want look into soft lead paper patched bullets.