Trapdoor Rifles

I do not know how much expansion you are comfortable with, but, since this rifle is unique, the cases will "fire-form" to it, and you'll only need to neck size from now on, thus not repetitively 'working' the thicker/stronger rear of the case. To answer your other question, yes, .45-70 an...

Took one shot at the range, it fired and ejected fine, however the brass expanded more than I was hoping to see. Couldn't find much for actual chamber specs for trapdoors, and was unsure how much they increased the size to accommodate black powder fouling. Looks like whoever cut this chamber probabl...

Incidentally, I thought the same thing about the receiver/barrel overlap on the one I have - but it is well known that post-1873 steel (the process was changed) is considerably more uniform as to grain structure, hence stronger, so the point may be moot. In any event, common-sense loads should be f...

The rod is from a M1855-1861 Springfield musket. Frankly, nothing you do to this gun will be blasphemous, so do as you please and enjoy having and using it. The remaining "V" would be consistent with a M1873 .45 caliber barrel being modified to fit into the longer M1868 receiver. Since th...

Well, long story short, it's pretty well got to be a pile of parts. Not to chide, and I do NOT say it meanly, but you really should have seen the '73 sight with the long receiver as a HUGE red flag to it being any sort of "official" model. Everybody under the sun fooled with trapdoors whe...

Hey everybody. I just recently purchased a weird gun on gunbroker. Have wanted a Trapdoor for a long while, and had been looking for the older 50-70 versions. More smoke and fire seems like more fun. Won this one, and everything mostly looked correct for an 1868 model 50-70 trapdoor. It was only mis...