difference between 1861 springfield and 1863?

Please educate me. I see advertsements of people selling 1861 springfield muskets with a date of 1863 on the lock. Are they the same or are there differences? Thanks.

some pristine 1863s ive seen, differences from a 61 is the lock and hammer are casecolored, and bands and rear sights are sometimes found blued. other than they identical in shape. there are supposedly a type I and type II 63 springfield, but dont know exactly what the differences between the 2 types are.

the pattern 1861 and 1863 were very similiar. IMHO the main difference was the 1861 has a clean our screw for the cone, (nipple). the '63's do not have the clean out screw. the shortcoming of the '61 was the path of fire from the percussion cap. it went straight down to the cleanout screw and made a left turn into the barrel to ignite the powder charge. Keep a nipple pick handy, and make sure you do a super job of cleaning. The 61's were also made as "specials", meaning they incorporated many of the characteristics of the Enfield, Colt made many of these. the dates on the lock won't neccesarily correspond with the pattern number. my 2 cents, often wrong but never in doubt! hope this helps a little.

Model 1855 - "C" shaped hammer designed to fit around the Maynard Priming System door on the lock. Rounded bolster with clean out screw. Three flat barrel bands held in place by band springs. Rammer has a swelled area to hold in the stock that is 5 inches below the tulip shaped tip. Early Models of the M55 had no patch box and used a long range rear sight. Later models adopted a patchbox and used as simpler three leaf rear sight. Made at Springfield and Harpers Ferry.

Model 1861 - Retained the "C" shaped hammer but ommited the Maynard Priming System. No Patch box. Otherwise same as Model 1855. Made at Springfield in 1861 and 1862. Made by several contractors 1862 - 1865

Model 1861 "Special". Made by Colt and two other contractors on machinery originally designed to made British Enfields. This was essentially an Enfield in disquise to adhere closer to the Springfield standard.

Model 1863 - The rounded bolster was ommited and replaced by a flat bolser with no clean-out screw. Three leaf sight was replaced by two leafs that inlude "peeps" for various ranges. The hammer was replaced with an "S" shaped hammer similar to the Model 1861 "Special". Band springs were ommited. The flat bands were replaced with narrower oval screw clamping bands. These were also inspired by those on the 1861 Special. Made at Springfield in 1863.

Model 1864 - Reports from the field indicated that the clamping bands would "jump" forward under heavy recoil. These were replaced by solid oval bands held by band springs. Otherwise, Identical to Model 1863. Made by Springfield 1864 -1865. Also produced by at least one contractor.

The 1863 was produced at Springfield armory only , they made 273,265 of them

opps forgot about the cleanout screw and the new shaped hammer.

I believe the 61 also had flat barrel bands, while the 63 had rounded ones, in addition tho the other differences noted here

Production of the various models overlapped a good bit. Contractors made mostly M-1861s throughout the war, but a few did switch to later models, such as Remington and Norris & Clements. Also, even thought the simplified 2 leaf sight was supposed to be installed on M-1863s, the 3 leaf sight is very common on them. Old stock was used until the later 2 leaf sight came into production. Even some M-1864s have the earlier sight.

Production at Springfield, from "The US Model 1861 Springfield Rifle-Musket" by Hartzler, Yantz and Whisker:

M-1861
1861 33,572
1862 173,809
1863 57,748

M-1863
1863 183,064
1864 90,201

M-1864
1864 157,463
1865 97,577

(Tried to do this as a table, but it didn't work.)

Here are a couple pictures to give you a guide to the main difference between the early and late models.

One other comment, many of the M-1863s with clamping barrel bands were broken down for parts after the war, since the stocks were easy to cut down for M-1868 and M-1870 Trapdoor conversions. The M-1864s tended to survive intact since the band spring cuts in the stocks precluded using them for later models. M-1863s are more scarce than their production numbers would lead one to believe.