Attachment 117852
Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Chadwick View Post
Yes, it's a Buffington sight. And I'm glad that my Trapdoor doesn't look like that - if it did, I wouldn't dare to shoot it!

Quite seriously, that is a rifle that I would only handle with gloves on. I would like to know how it was stored for the past 140-odd years, as those must have been ideal conditions.
The story behind those mint M1884 rifles which actually exist in some quantity and turn up from time to time is that when the rod-bayonet model was adopted in 1888, they took the advance production which they had on hand and set it away. Nearly all such guns have SWP/1889 cartouches and occur in the mid 400,000 range.