Impulse buy: 1884 Trapdoor Springfield 45-70

[FatJackDurham]

Recently, I went to Kittery, you know, just to look. I wasn't going to buy anything, I swear.

In fact, if anything, I was going to get an Uberti break top revolver.

But then, I saw this 1884 Springfield Trapdoor rifle. It had a perfect bore. I mean, mint. The exterior was sanded, polished, whatever, ruined. The price was $465. I knew I was in trouble. The wood was in good condition. It had a metal cleaning rod. Clean action, spry ejector. And, value depressed in terms of historic value.

See, I recently attended a Buffalo shoot at the Dalton Gang cowboy shooting range in Dalton, NH. I had been given several beautiful High Walls, Sharps, and other rifle caliber rifles to shoot. So, I knew I needed to add a 45-70 to my burgeoning arsenal.

Surprisingly, authentic Springfield's sell for less than replicas, and occasionally are in VERY shootable condition.

None of this mattered to me. All I saw was, 45-70, shiny, price range. I'm pretty grateful I saw the Springfield before the Browning pump .22. Honestly, I don't need another .22.

The wife was not too pleased. But, what the heck. She's seeing the UPS driver, so I don't have to pretend to care what she thinks anymore.

Anyway.

The Springfield was safely tucked away in the back of the Subaru, I indulged in some Schedenfreude (look it up) on the way home, pulling the back roads with my notoriously prone to car sickness wife beside me. Some research today revealed that, A, the rifle was made in 1888, some fool had sanded every exposed piece of metal to a bright matte, and that the bore was mint, either relined or not.

I had purchased a box of Bullseye 45-70-405 ammo at Kittery, smokeless, to test the gun if I felt so inclined.

By remarkable coincidence, I felt so inclined just this afternoon.

I decided to be subtle and not bring everything I own out to the range. Turned out, it didn't matter. No one was there, so subtlety was not called for. In retrospect, the stark desolation of an empty range with no witnesses should have been heralded as a warning.

Having read the occasional post about people firing historic rifles and losing the occasional eye or occasional half a hand, etc, I decided to fire the first shot with bravado, machismo, and figeretto.

I put the Springfield on a sand bag and crawled under the shooting table.

Hey, I'm an idiot, but I ain't stupid.

Anyway, the first round didn't sound too bad. There wasn't any shrapnel or dead chipmunks in sight, so, I figured it was good to go. The second shot, I drew on the training that my U.S. Army drill sergeant had assured me was worth 100,000 dollars, and that was the reason he wanted me to die quickly, rather than to drag it out and waste taxpayer dollars, and so I, ignoring the niceties of MTA governed rules of English grammar, placed my cheek firmly against the buttstock, with my nose delicately touching the knuckle of my thumb as I focused on the front sight and placed it center mass on the target at 25 yards.

I woke up, curled in a fetal position, sucking my thumb, underneath the shooting table. A very sweet ten year old packing a ruger Buckmark told me to grow a pair and take charge of my weapon.

Maybe I hallucinated the ten year old, maybe not, but I have to say, the memory that most resembled shooting a smokeless 45-70-405 just happened to be loading for a 105mm main gun M1 Abrams main battle tank.

If you are one of those gun owners that thinks guns are cool, but has no actual military experience, let me try to help you understand the effect.

Noise. Violence. Fear. Motion. Confusion. Awe.

Lots and lots of awe.

I am serious. I've shot a few rifles, fired a few .50 cals, loaded and fired a few 105 and 120 howitzer main gun rounds, and I have to say: Placing my cheek against the Springfield buttstock and firing that SECOND round made my heart flutter just a bit.

I honestly can't believe they fought wars that way. I really feel like I would have been, like, "Here, Sitting Bull, we all have these here cannons. Do you surrender or what?"

Yah yah. I know it was the 1873 and not the 1884, but my point stands. It's a a scary thing.



The gun had a decent stock. But, the previous owner had scrubbed all metal surfaces.

The bore looked mint, but something about the muzzle makes me think it was relined.

At 50 yards, it shot about 10 inches high.



At 100 yards, with all the tears, the shaking hands and the soiled undies, it still shot 2
3 inches.



I can't wait to see how it shoots with black powder. Anyway, it seems sound enough. I'm going to score it a good buy.

[KirkD]

I had one of those once. They are a lot of fun to shoot. I bought a taller front sight to bring the POI down.

[JerryB]

Glad you had the luck to find a good shooter. I had one years ago, really enjoyed the rifle.

[hightime]

Good looking rifle. It looks like fun to shoot.

Owen

[hightime]

By the way . You need a better shop.
Although it looks like your toilet is close.

Owen

[FatJackDurham]

By the way . You need a better shop.
Although it looks like your toilet is close.

Owen

Not a Kittery fan? I was a little let down myself.

[Borregos]

Good looking rifle. It looks like fun to shoot.

Owen

+1

[M. M. Wright]

Great find and report. Thanks.

Weren't those finished bright when new?

[Pitchy]

I like it too, very nice and would love to have one.

[Sixgun]

Every guncrank needs a Trapdoor in the pile. Its kinda like-----where the guns we all like came from. You can learn a lot with these guns and most I have shot are very accurate for the sights that were put on them.

I think you did good on the buy. $400+ today don't buy much except maybe an electricity bill or so and you can always get your money back.

Fat chance it was relined as the barrels are too thin and long for a reline. Yes, it could be done but the extra work involved would cost about what 3 good trapdoors would bring. Just look at the rifling--are the grooves wide, unlike any modern rifling? Look at the breech---can you see the telltale "ring", a fine line separating the original barrel and liner?

Go shoot that baby until the cows come home--they really like 13 grains of Unique and about any cast bullet from 300 to 500 grains. --------Sixgun

[Nath]

Good write up Good rabbit gun

N.

[Cliff]

I also have such a springfield. They are great rifles and lots of fun. If you want to shoot black powder you need J.D. Wolfe's book on loading the .45-70 Goverment Cartridge. I have used a variety of loads over the years and finally got his book and followed his recipes it worked wonders for accuracy and sights. He goes into the details why this works the way it does. I am impressed by the way it is done. In some ways the .45-70 was as good as the 5.56 Nato in its day. A lot of armies around the world wanted a decent sized bullet to shoot far and take out calvary horses and so forth. They all tried different approaches and burned a lot more powder than the .45-70 did to achieve it. Anyway you can really get hooked on making up the proper loads in the proper way for that rifle. Good Luck. Just Saying..............

[FatJackDurham]

Great find and report. Thanks.

Weren't those finished bright when new?

I'm not sure. I've seen reports that say the officers rifles were bright, others that say it was a dull blue finish.

Regardless, this one has clearly been recently sanded, so I don't feel bad about planning g to rust blue it.

[olyinaz]

Love it! Thanks for the great report.

Thanks,
Oly

[model55]

Soon you will hear the call for black powder.

[Don McDowell]

That rifle was designed to shoot the 500 gr bullet. The sights are regulated to be zero'ld at 260 yds.
To make it shoot they way it was intended, prime empty cases with large pistol primers and pour in 70 grs of 2f black powder (none of the fake stuff, and white powders are just a passing fad), then place a .030 fiber wad on top the powder use your Lyman M die to compress the powder far enough to seat the Lyman 457125 bullet (or the saeco 1881) to the driving band and just enough crimp on to take the flare out of the case mouth.

[JB]

Great find and report. Thanks.

Weren't those finished bright when new?

I'm not sure. I've seen reports that say the officers rifles were bright, others that say it was a dull blue finish.

Regardless, this one has clearly been recently sanded, so I don't feel bad about planning g to rust blue it.

Other than the action, that rifle was blued originally.

[longarm4146]

i have one like you describe, also with a mint barrel. research indicates that mine has a "bannerman" replacement barrel which doesn not help the collectibility of the gun but is a big plus in the shootability. Mine shhot really well and i've shot it out way past 600 yds with the buffington sights with success......good luck with yours.

[FatJackDurham]

That rifle was designed to shoot the 500 gr bullet. The sights are regulated to be zero'ld at 260 yds.
To make it shoot they way it was intended, prime empty cases with large pistol primers and pour in 70 grs of 2f black powder (none of the fake stuff, and white powders are just a passing fad), then place a .030 fiber wad on top the powder use your Lyman M die to compress the powder far enough to seat the Lyman 457125 bullet (or the saeco 1881) to the driving band and just enough crimp on to take the flare out of the case mouth.

Excellent!

[dogngun]

I had an 1888 once, bought on a whim from a flea market stall for all of $80. I shot a lot of various ammo in it, and just for experience, shot some original 1800's BP military loads, 500 grain lead. Like getting hit in the face with a board. They were tough soldiers in them days.

I loaded a lot of .45-70 ammo, usually with the Hornady 350 grain JHP "varmint" bullets...I used them as my GP bullet, and even shot groundhogs with them...Stopped them RIGHT THERE!

They are very nice and well made old guns, but they ARE OLD GUNS...take it easy on smokeless loads...I felt safer with relatively light hand loads.

If so inclined, check the parts for numbers. A lot of the '88's were assembled from parts by Bannermann's and sold via catalog for around $10.

They are a lot of fun to shoot and they do give you respect for those old infantry soldiers who had to rely on them. You should always carry a small pocket knife when you shoot it to pry out the occasional stuck case...

mark

added: The old...like 1980's or earlier- Lee Loading Manual had a lot of good .45-70 loads that are probably not published today. That's where I got my info and I highly recommend that book if you can find one.