Trapdoor Rifles

This is my Early 4 digit serial number M1873.
Anyone ever seen this letter combo that’s on top of both the block and receiver?
What about the letter B on top of the chamber flat?

Believe Dick Hosmer, not IMA. Although IMA does a pretty decent job on their very detailed descriptions, they are not experts on all things and sometimes make mistakes (as with any cataloger). Absent any documentation, the only known trapdoors which were nickel plated for service use were the M1868...

No idea on how many made, probably not many. AFAIK, NOT an SA product. Most collectors probably wouldn't want one. Poster child for scarce does NOT mean desirable/rare/valuable. That one has a repro rod to boot. Ugh... Sorry! No need to apologize, I’m just curious about why these would be nickel pl...

Couple more pics

When were these trapdoor rifles polished or are they nickel plated? Even the cleaning rod and buttplate are polished/nickel plated. Were these used for parade type formations?

And any idea how many of these were made and was this done by the military, or done later by civilians?

The Buffington might be legit. SA added them to many older arms still in service, since they were deemed to be a great improvement. The stock is either wrong, or a DIRE (as in smoke-covered battlefield!!) emergency. SA would not have put a wide-cut stock on a narrow-receiver rifle. However, B&B...

Buffington

Serial number 77199 for this trapdoor is from the 1873 early range and it’s block is 1873, but it has a Buffington rear site, and an 1888 or 1889 stock so I’m trying to figure out if this is an 1873 model that the military added the Buffington site to and put it in a 1889 stock, or would someone oth...

This is my first 1868. Is it common for there to be five different inspector stamps on the left flat of the stock? Could you show a pic of the whole flat? I’m only seeing the typical 4 cartouches so far. I went back and looked more closely and you’re correct. I think it’s just 4 cartouches now. The...

In Dick’s book on page 63 there’s a letter stamped in this location behind the rear flip site. It’s either a D or an S I think.