Trapdoor Rifles

Thanks, John. Of course, I have no idea other than what I read others talk about online. It may be it was Coast Guard ships that use trap doors as line throwing guns, and not USN that I had read about sometime back.

They started their serial number block with 1001. I’ve also heard that the Navy used Trapdoors for a number of years as line throwing guns up through World War II but those were smokeless rounds, and this one still was still black powder. There is external pitting at the end of the barrel on this ri...

USN Issued early in block. Number 387 out of the 3400 that were made for the US Navy

Does anybody recognize this stock cartouche, script H ?

Yes, I watched every YouTube video that I can find over the weekend on this amazing early first ever US magazine fed rifle. I’m actually doing this research now in order to help the old gentleman that I’ll be getting the rifle back to this week. I want him to know what he has and I want to try to he...

Thank you Dick. I will look to get a copy that book. It was the stock cartouches on the fore-end that made me wonder as well if this may have been done by the Navy, or by Bubba, or by Bannermans or someone like that. Its bore does have a crown bevel at the very end which looks like it was done after...

Shortened barrel and fore stock

When I was doing online research last week on the Remington-Lee 1885 rifles I read somewhere that the US Navy had to shorten some of them to the length of their Trapdoor rifles in order to get their new Remington-Lees to fit inside some of their weapons storage lockers on US Navy ships. I cannot fin...

My early 1889 built Model 1884 also has its second P slightly out of a line so maybe that was just something that was happening during that timeframe with the inspector who was making the stamp.

Thanks John S. I just messaged you my email. I saw that the volunteer sitting in the left of the picture had the earlier trapdoor, I’m just wondering if the others may have had an 1884 model. My interest was in rifles that the Marine Corps would’ve used after the Civil War and up through World War I...