• 1873 Springfield Trapdoor Rifle Value
• Uberti

Got a Dixie Gun Works catalog? Has dates of production in back, check vs. Serial Numbers of the rifles.Also there is a 'Cartiquch' on the stock, it's stamped by the inspector.I would say both made between 1884-1888, as they both have triggerguards salvaged from civil war muckets, the gov't did it to save money, the army had very low funding in the 1880's, it wasn't till the 1890's that the gov't realized the army and navy had all obsolete weapons.By the way, they ran out of civil war triggerguards in 1890 and had to make them, so they are one piece rather than two piece.

SRS stands for Springfield Research Service, a company founded in the 1970s by the late Frank Mallory. He, and a few helpers, spent YEARS of, literally, crawling through those records which were available in various repositories constituting the National Archives, looking for serial numbers of U.S. Martial arms.

PS: Shoot nothing but blackpowder in these guns, also NEVER shoot commerical 45-70 ammo w'jacketed bullets in them as it will wear the bores out in 100 rounds or less.These barrels were rolled out of 'decarbonized steel', which is a VERY SOFT steel. The first gun- The sight is correct with the breech block, but the serial number may mess that up. The breech block is 1884, cannot see the serial number to get it dated. This gun appears to be mostly correct if the serial number will confirm it being made in 1884 or after.

Does it have a two or three notch tumbler? With the 1884 breech block it should have a three notch tumbler. If not, that has been replaced. The cartouch is not readable in the pic but should be dated from 1884 or later.

Send the serial number and I can get the correct date and see if this is a proper gun or a parts gun. You second gun is obviously a chopped down musket wanting to be a carbine. There is no collector value in it. However, I can see the serial number and it was made in 1882. No carbines were made in that year. But, the breech block is dated 1873 so, this is a rebuilt or parts gun.

It has the late Buffington sight which should not be there and the trigger is from a late model after 1884. It should have a two notch tumbler. The sight was invented two years after your gun was made. Last edited by lomatil; at 12:39 PM. Reason: Made a boo-boo in the text. Hondacowboy2, I could not quite make out the first digit of the serial number on the rifle, but it appears to be a '4'. With that assumption, and what I could read of the rest of the serial, your rifle dates from 1888, and appears to be correct.

The 'carbine-ized' one does indeed date to 1882. As such, the 'MODEL 1873' on the breech-block is correct. 'MODEL 1873' (with variations: eagles, crossed swords, etc.) was used on the breech-blocks from 1873 to 1884-1885, when 'MODEL 1884' came into use. It appears from the photos that the rear sight on this one has been installed backwards: as it is, when the leaf is raised the range markings will be facing away from you when firing.

This is a simple fix: remove the two screws holding it in place, turn the sight around, and put the screws back in. Keep in mind that the Model 1884 sight (aka Buffington) was designed and graduated for use with the 500-grain lead bullet over 70-grains of Black Powder, resulting in a velocity of around 1325 fps from a 32-inch barrel (don't have the exact figures in front of me), so for point-of-aim and point-of-impact to coincide ammunition approximating this will be necessary. Other bullet and/or powder combinations, while potentially accurate (acceptable grouping), will result in p-o-a and p-o-i varying from a few inches to possibly a couple of feet, depending on the range. Personally, I reload for mine: black powder and lead bullets. I have used Pyrodex and other BP substitutes, but have found that I've gotten consistently superior results with BP, and always come back to it. The 'carbine' is going to present its own set of challenges due to the shortened barrel and altered sights (neither the front nor rear sights are original to this one). While it is likely that a suitable load for this one can be found, it's going to require a bit of experimentation: varied bullet weights and powder charges.

Anyhoo, congratulations on your acquisitions! Once you've nailed down proper ammunition, these old Springfields are a lot of fun and more often than not give superb results down range, even with less-than-pristine barrels.

Enjoy them both! But please turn the sight around on the 'carbine'! If the serial number (2 72049) is correct it was made in 1884.

However, with the space between the numbers and the small size of the '2' I would be very suspicious of someone messing with it. Of all the trapdoors I own or have seen there has never been any spaces or size differance in the serial numbers. Without a personal exam of the gun I am assumeing that the number has been messed with and the rest of it a parts gun.

I`m sure it would be a good shooter but the collector value is gone. I use 65 gr of FFg powder and a 405 gr cast lead bullet. Have also used 10 gr of Unique with the same bullet.

Never run any jacketed bullets in it because of the soft metal in the barrel. Be sure to clean it good after shooting, just as you would with a muzzle-loader.

In terms of American military long arms very little attention is given to a predecessor of the much heralded M1903 and M1 Garand, the Springfield Trapdoor. The Springfield Trapdoor was produced for over 20 years and would experience many changes throughout its life. The rifle would take its place in history just after the Civil War, despite the justifiable hesitation of many military personnel who were all too aware about the superiority of repeaters and magazine fed rifles.

It would kill buffalo by the thousands as America expanded westward and would also play a role in the wars against the Native Americans. Militarily it represents the watershed transition for U.S. Forces from the musket to the rifle. Today we find out a little bit more of this rifle, its origins, the question of its performance, and its role in history. Origins After the Civil War, the War Department wanted a breech-loading rifle. To be specific, they wanted a breech-loading rifle that would chamber a self-primed, metallic cartridge.

This led to the formation of an Army Board who, in 1865, would host trials of different rifles by makers both foreign and domestic. The idea of the Master Armorer at the U.S Armory at Springfield, Mr. Allin, was to take the existing Civil War muzzle-loaders, of which there were thousands, and convert them by adding the now well known 'trap door' to the receiver.

This appealed to the Board for a number of reasons:. It used existing materials, thereby saving money and manufacturing time. Money was even more important with the War Department's newly slashed budget.

Single shots were viewed as more reliable and rugged than repeaters or magazine rifles. It looked like proven guns of the past, especially with its pronounced hammer.

Their priority on long range accuracy over rate of fire. Single shot rifles were thought to force a more efficient use of ammunition The Springfield Model 1861 percussion rifled musket was the most used rifle by the Union in the Civil War.

1873 Springfield Trapdoor Rifle Value

It is not difficult to see its relation to the Model 1873. The Board adopted the National Armory's (a.k.a. Armory at Springfield, later just 'Springfield') design, now referred to as the 'First Allin.' However, this 'adoption' was more of a test drive than a final acceptance.

As reports came in from the field in subsequent years, the rifle would be adapted, redesigned, replaced in the field in small numbers. This went on for about 5 years from National Armory's Model 1865 to their Model 1870, until on September 3, 1872, the Board of Army Officers held another trial. This trial was designed to find a rifle with more in line with their preference toward range and power than the Model 1870 being 'test driven' by soldiers in the field.

Uberti

The Board, now known as the 'Terry Board,' was headed by Brigadier General A.H. Terry and requested roughly 100 different breech-loading rifles from various makers to put through trials. They again received both foreign and domestic submissions from some of the most prominent firearms manufacturers of the day such as: Winchester, Remington, Springfield, Sharps, Spencer, Whitney, and others.

All but 21 were rejected almost immediately and only two of those were modifications of the current.50 caliber trap door Breech from above of the Officer's Model 1875 At this point, a 'sidebar' study was held by the Terry Board. It was a separate, yet related, study to determine which combination of caliber, powder charge, and bullet weight would provide the best performance. They tested.40,.42, and.45 caliber bullets, powder amounts from 65-80 grains, several rifling variations, and bullet weights from 350-450 grains. Each variation had its own barrel and was tested with 20 shots at 6 targets 500 yards away. The winner would be barrel #16 with the #58 ammunition, which would be the 45-70-405 cartridge. We know it better as the.45-70 Government.

The round was deemed so effective that Colt would be making Gatling guns to utilize that round later that same year. It is surprising that both government and private manufacturers took so long to realize that by increasing powder and lessening bullet weight, they could produce rifles with much greater range. The development of this round and its subsequent rifle, literally made for each other, would mark the American shift from muskets to longer range rifles. By the time the.45-70 was decided upon, the Terry Board had further narrowed the field of long arms to six possible candidates. Each was altered to use this new cartridge and tested further. In the end, their bias to an older style of warfare and rifle won out and the trap door action was selected.

The preference for a powerful rifle that would be accurate at long distances also implies interesting things about the state of American conflict at that time. The Civil War having ended a short 7 years earlier, the thought was to again select a weapon that would perform nobly in a similar type of conflict. The thought of fast-moving battles against Native Americans may have been a secondary priority at that time, hence the lack of urgency to adopt repeating and magazine based rifles.

Same rifle in full. Written by Joel Kolander Note: This article incorrectly referred to the rifles in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem 'The Arsenal at Springfield' as trapdoor rifles. We were notified by several readers that those arms would have pre-dated the trapdoor rifles and that trapdoor rifles would not have even fit correctly in those massive and impressive racks. We regret the error and those references have since been omitted. SOURCES: Frasca, Albert J., and Charles R. The.45-70 Springfield: Springfield Caliber.58,.50,.45 and.30 Breech Loaders in the U.S.

Service, 1865-1893. Springfield, OH: Frasca Pub., 1997. Anonymous I enjoy shooting my trapdoors, which continue to go up in value. In the early 1900's the military and militias were finally selling off their outdated stock, which created a market glut with so little demand that in an American Rifleman magazine there was an ad for trapdoors at the price of.75 cents; and with the shipping costs of.25 cents each, your rifle could arrive at your home for a total cost of $1.00. I bought good and very good quality trapdoors, with excellent barrels in 1960 for $60 and $80. Today a common model in very good condition that we all could enjoy shooting, can cost from $700 to $2,000, but the highly collectible ones can be $5,000 to $12,000 or more, especially with custom engraving and elaborate checkering and carving.

This was more common in officers' carbines because most officers ordered and paid for their own carbine, and were able to afford the cost of hiring artists to add such unique features. If a basic equation assumed that you could double your invested money every nine years; eleven decades that included high returns and economic depressions and recessions would mean that investing your $1 in a trapdoor 110 years ago, compared with reinvesting your $1 in the market, would result in a rifle worth $800 to $1,000 today versus about $1,000 in cash or much less if you lost everything during the depression. The trapdoor would have held its value, while cash, stock and bonds could have been repeatedly at risk during the 20th Century. In case our other reader does not respond, here are some helpful tips. Make sure your Trapdoor does shoot the.45-70 round. Obviously, most are designed for this cartridge, but as this collection shows there are guns that shoot other calibers.

Best to be sure. Avoid jacketed bullets and use only lead to take it easy on that barrel. The rifling is shallow enough in these rifles even when they were new. Besides, you'll actually get better accuracy in a Trapdoor using lead. You're right about not using modern ammo.

We hear that Blackhills makes a nice round with an all lead bullet and a smokeless powder that maintains the lower (safe) pressures of blackpowder rounds minus the blackpowder cleanup. Though you should be able to buy modern ammo AS LONG AS IT AS MARKED 'COWBOY ACTION SHOOTING.' Pressures should be well below 20,000 CUP. Do not put standard smokeless ammo in this rifle!

Check with a competant gunsmith that this gun is safe to fire. He'll want to check for a sound action/receiver and a smooth, round firing pin (no punctured primers). If you really want some solid information, check out 'Loading Cartridges for The Original Springfield Rifle and Carbine' by J.S. & Pat Wolf, which is readily available on Amazon.

Please take all this with a grain of salt. Only a competent gunsmith can inspect your weapon and tell you what is OK and SAFE for your weapon.

Be safe and have fun! Drew458 Lovely page you've got here, but you are 110% wrong about Longfellow and the rifle organ. Just for fun, look at your own picture of the thing, and you'll see it is filled with model 1861 Springfields, the gun used in the Civil War. Next, look at the poem and do a fast search, and you'll find that Longfellow visited the armory in 1843 and had the poem completed by 1845.

Not only is this nearly 30 years before the Trapdoor rifle existed, it's even before the Mexican American War. It's even before the era of percussion rifles; the guns Longfellow saw on his visit were model 1816 flintlock muskets. Well, to get really precise, the models 1816, 1822, 1835, 1840, and 1842 muskets were all just improvements on the original model, and while the model 1842 was actually built as a percussion firearm, it didn't enter into actual production until 1844. After Longfellow had visited. Poem or not, Trapdoor Springfields, models 1873-1884, probably never slept in the famous organ, since it was built to hold the 58' long musket. The 56' long 1861 Springfield rifles in there now only fit because a spacer board was slipped underneath.

The 52' long Trapdoors are way too short. Drew458 And a little PS. The Trapdoor Springfield used the same'outdated' black powder propellant every other firearm of it's day did; smokeless powder didn't come about until the late 1880s. And while it may have been a less than cutting edge breech design, the.45-70-405 and later.45-70-500 cartridge was far more powerful than the anemic.44 Henry or.45 Colt cartridges that the sturdiest repeaters of the day could shoot. The.45-70 was designed to kill horses and their riders at long range, and it did that just fine, sometimes at distances of 1000 yards or more.

Using it to hunt deer or buffalo would be a no-brainer. There were no repeating rifle large enough or sturdy enough to handle that kind of power until about 12 years after the round was invented. And today, 141 years after it's invention, the.45-70 is still hugely popular for short range hunting of any animal in the Western Hemisphere, from deer right up to the most giant bears. Think how 'outdated' it must be at this point, and yet it still does the job with authority.

Anonymous I have an 1873 Springfield trapdoor.45 cal. Carbine that has only the US Springfield 1873 inscription on the right side plate of the mechanism, but has no serial number there, as I understand is where they were serially numbered. However, just in front of the trigger guard there is a deeply embossed into the stock the number 43.

My guess is that the earliest production models were serially numbered in that location before the stamping into the side plate began - anyone know anything about this. Do you have a firearm, edged weapon, or military artifact you would like to consign with Rock Island Auction Company? We are always seeking consignments for upcoming auction dates. No collection is too big nor too small and we offer simple percentage contracts with absolutely no hidden fees. We can also purchase your items outright if you prefer. There is no limit to what can buy.

To start or to answer any questions, please call our Acquisitions Department at 1-800-238-8022 or email us at guns@rockislandauction.com.