1883 Trapdoor Springfield

I've slowly been working my way backward through rifle development and have acquired most of the contemporaries of the Trapdoor but never really looked hard for one of these until Sunday. Prices have been more than what I wanted to spend, Cabelas had a bunch in the $800-$900 range that looked beat to crap and I wasn't going to take a chance on one of them.

Saturday, gun auction from hell and I got burned again on two rifles, second highest bidder on both. Hate that place, should stop going. Bad mood, website I check daily had an updated listing with a price reduction on a Trapdoor for $650. Looked it over, seemed OK and sent a feeler out to the guy. Got a fairly quick response, turned out he was about 20 minutes from the house. He offered to show it to me Sunday and I accepted, sent him a time period I could meet and went to bed figuring I'd have a "new" Springfield the next day. Woke up, checked my messages and the guy sends me a "showing to another guy at noon, will let you know if it falls through". Makes no sense to me as he gave no indication that anyone else was interested and he had to drive an hour to meet this guy where I was going to be at a gun shop 2 minutes from his house. In any case, I'm ticked. One oddity with the rifle was that he couldn't read the serial number. Said there was some light pitting on the lock plate and the serial was obscured. Rest of the rifle looked good so just weird. Thinking that may be why he blew me off. Went on a consolation trip to the antique dealers north of town to try to locate a bayonet for my Martini and I found this Trapdoor in a glass case, same price. Seemed like fate. Looked it over, saw no major issues. Looked to be in better condition than the one the guy had. Asked if the price was firm an was told it was discounted 10% so it came out to $585. I have not done a lot to it, cleaned some of it off but not all. Wiped the stock down with BLO. The cleaning rod is a reproduction, I know that, Serial number and cartouche are both 1883. Interior trigger parts have a lot of "J"s on them. Metal under the wood had some light pitting. Bore looks great, shiny, some slight frosting or solidified grease I haven't gotten out yet, can't really tell which but I suspect it's grease. Sharp lands and grooves. The worst of the exposed metal is the top of the butt plate. The other rifle was an 1882 according to the cartouche but without a serial number, who knows. I think I did OK. Wasn't in a bad mood anymore either.

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Congratulations!

• :cheers:

You've got a Trapdoor with the configuration that I would like to have - i.e. with the finely adjustable 1882 sight, not with the Buffington sight, which is banned by some competitions as being a peep-sight that gives the shooter an unfair advantage over the rest. And at a price that would be considered unbelievably cheap over here.

Now let me have the satisfaction of knowing that (after cleaning and inspecting it, of course) you're going to shoot it properly! No nitro, no duplex, just a case properly loaded with about 65 gn of Swiss No. 3 or 4 (2 or 1-1/2 FFg) behind a well greased 480-520gn bullet of pure lead alloyed with 5% tin (no funny wheelweights of doubtful metallurgical parentage) set to be about 1mm/0.040" off the lands and sitting on a simple ex-beermat or milk carton overpowder wad. No crimping. After first firing, the case to be just neck-sized for subsequent reloads.

Do all that and let us all know how well it shoots!

---------- Post added at 09:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 PM ----------

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

Bore looks great, shiny, some slight frosting or solidified grease

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Frosting in a BP rifle? Hardly. It'll be fossilized crud.

Thanks Patrick, always feels good to get your approval that I didn't get a piece of junk.

As for shooting, someday, but I probably shoot the least of most of the guys here. I neglected to renew my range membership last year so it's been over a year now since I've shot anything. I do need to get on that. I have a box of commercial around somewhere that I first have to verify is OK for this and then I'll have some brass to work with. I actually do have the dies already, I used to have a 45-70 that I never shot and traded for my M1 Carbine.

The stuff on the butt plate turned out to not be rust either. Surprisingly little on this. Bayonet fit's a little loose. Is snug around the front sight but just seems a little large. I assume this is probably normal? It took me a couple of days to find the bayonet. Didn't have it with the rest of them for some reason I no longer remember. Have a proper scabbard coming for it, the one it has is missing the leather.

Congrats on your purchase! You're patience was rewarded! It looks great and a good price!