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1873 Trapdoor

4K views 25 replies 21 participants last post by  AZshooter 
#1 ·
Picked this rifle up for $140 a few days ago. Cleaned it up with brasswool and put a new coat of BLO on the stock and it turned out to be pretty nice for the price. Bore is rough but shootable. It cleaned up to be an attractive piece, I think I'll track down a ramrod. 1881 dated stock, though I think the 170XXX serial would put it in 1882. Still a good complete rifle for the price.
 
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#7 ·
The roughness of the bore can be minimized by using a broken case push-through extractor. They are cut with rifling grooves and when properly adjusted, will remove any corrosion that is on the lands and grooves. They are fun to shoot. You may have to raise the front sight to get it on at 100 yards.
 
#9 ·
Great deal on a fun gun to shoot, especially with black powder if you don't mind the clean up.

Where I shoot no one else uses black powder and always draws a crowd. Many have never shot one. The black powder loads seem to have more of a shove than a kick.
 
#13 ·
If it's shootable, it will be a fun rifle, and you can't beat the price!! I have a rifle and carbine, 1884 models, and shoot them all the time. I had to put taller front sights on, they would shoot 18" high at 50 yards! 40 grains of 3031 is accurate and safe to shoot! 12 grains of trail boss for a very mild load!
 
#15 ·
Musketshooter - I have a very nice 1884 that has a raised sight installed by the prior owner. The gun is very accurate and the sights are regulated perfectly for smokeless powder loads. Only issue is that now the bayonet can't be mounted because it won't clear the front sight. If the Indians attack and I run out of ammo I'll have to club them instead of stab them. It's always something.
 
#22 ·
I picked my son up a box of Hornady 45-70 govt.to try.He only fired one round but it got stuck in the chamber. The bore is looking even better and after close examination of the shell casing there seems to be a small rough spot and a couple of tiny burrs in the chamber.the empty case was not hard to remove with a cleaning rod and when reinserted ejects fine as do unfired cartridges.I will try suggestions to smooth the chamber.We plan to use lead bullets and I had read that it is not good to use jacketed bullets in these guns so I am asking if it would be ok to use the rest of the box of hornady rounds or should we pull them and reload with cast bullets.
Thanks,John.
 
#23 ·
The guns were intended to fire (like everything else of their time) lead bullets and barrels are fairly soft. Shooting jacketed nitro-powder loads will wear the rifling, but one 20 round box of Hornaday shouldn't hurt anything. I wouldn't hesitate to use them if it was mine. And reload with lead. And either BP or Triple-7.

Scrub the chamber with brass brush, possibly charged with Flitz or even Nevr-Dull. Or Brasso. Don't get too aggressive (I'd not use real fine sandpaper or emery paper myself).
 
#25 ·
Great find and a real bargain.. I have a few in 45/70 and a couple in 50/70.. I shoot them regularly, mostly with black powder or trailboss loads under 405 - 500 grain lead bullets. They are great fun to shoot, especially at big steel plates out at 300yards or so.... it takes a little time to get there but the big chunk of lead delivers a satisfying clang on arrival 😃
 
#26 ·
In January I brought home what I thought was an older Italian replica Trapdoor Carbine. New-looking metal with not even a hint of discoloration or pitting. Wood had a couple of small cracks that were easy to fix & the wood looked like it it had been previously heavily sanded.

Ends up it was an original 1873, and further searching indicates that it's likely one of the Bannerman conversions done around 1901, where rifles were cut down to the more popular carbine length. Sights were also replaced. $450 isn't the same bargain you got, but I was thinking that I was buying an older $1500 Italian replica. Original was my thrill of a lifetime!

Reloading is your best bet if you plan to shoot it a lot & black powder or Pyrodex is easiest to load. I cast the 405 gr. Lee FP and loaded up some Pyrodex RS for a trip to the range. It shoots great, although it is important (as with muzzleloaders, too) to use only non-petroleum bullet lube for easier clean-up. Petroleum lubes (Alox, for instance) react with black powder residue to build harder to remove fouling quicker.

You CAN use a variety of smokeless powders loaded within Trapdoor pressures. I recommend advice from established Trapdoor shooters on forums heavily covering Trapdoor rifles and carbines.

http://forums.thecmp.org/archive/index.php/t-122865.html
http://assra.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1316830183

IMR 3031, 2400, SR4759, Accurate 5474, and Unique get a lot of mention by experienced Trapdoor reloaders, and I would rely on their data over even published data (although most do corroborate published data). There are some discrepancies that I'm uncomfortable with: Hodgdons lists using heavier powder loads for 3031, 4895, 4198 and others, than do loads recommended by experienced shooters. OTOH, Lee loading data closely resembles, the Hodgdon's data, and Lee has always been conservative with their load data.

Trail Boss is mentioned, but not necessarily the optimum choice, since it produces lower bullet velocities at higher pressure than do any other of the powders listed (by Hodgdons data).

Over all, a lot of shooters admit that black powder is still the most fun to shoot in a Trapdoor.
 
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