Ok, so I'm looking for some expert opinions on this one. I recently acquired a 1884 trapdoor. The serial number is way off for that model. In some basic research I know some guns were off as the were trying out different designs? It's says model 1884, but the serial number is just over 97,000. Does anyone have any ideas what it may be? Is it a pieced together gun by someone trying to make a complete rifle? It's in pretty good shape for the age.
The "Model 1884" is on the breech block, which may have been replaced in service or post service. The original may have read "Model 1873".
Thank you for the reply Tom, it is appreciated. I am new to the trapdoor, and I thought that at first, but the Bayonet is a later model correct? I have added some pictures of the gun for more opinions.
Thanks,
DrewAttachment 86713Attachment 86714Attachment 86715Attachment 86716Attachment 86717Attachment 86718
"Trapdoor" rifles with the late rod bayonet are known as Model 1888, your rifle seems to have been rebuilt to a much later standard than the serial number indicates.
You have a perfectly correct, though never so marked, "Model 1888" rod-bayonet rifle. Normally such guns have serials over 500,000, but at the very end of production, when "sweeping out the shop" so to speak, ANY wide (96,300+) receiver was utilized. "US Model 1884" is the correct block for that version of the trapdoor.