1884 Trapdoor Cadet Restoration

[lemmonhead]

Thought I would share my Springfield Trapdoor project I completed earlier this year.

I found this specimen locally for $200, probably a little more than I wanted to spend but I wanted a new challenge and this was a good candidate.
After doing some research I found it interesting that the Cadet model was made in lower numbers than even the carbines. Unfortunately that does not reflect in the price and Cadets have the least value of the Trapdoors.
I have restored a few 1903 Springfields, mostly stock work and piecing together missing parts, but this was going to be my first experience with metal restoration and rebluing.

Unfortunately I thought I had pictures of the entire rifle as I received it but I can't find them at this time. My apologies, I am not a very good photographer.

Here is the rifle as I received it. The stock was broken at some time and then repaired with some wood glue and a rather large brass screw that was counter sunk into the wrist. The buttplate and trigger guard had a significant amount of rust. The barrel bands were a little rusty but at some time the previous owner tried to clean the rust off of the barrel bands and lock plate leaving no original finish and not quite getting rid of all the rust. The breech block, receiver, and barrel were actually in pretty good condition with just a little surface rust on the exterior and still had some of the color case hardening. The bore is in very good condition.

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