Trapdoor Rifles

Perhaps of interest, several trapdoors up for auction at Bonhams Skinner: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/30902/historic-arms-and-militaria/?page=4 In particular I would advise caution on Lot 1108 - an 1870 carbine. The rear sight slider is the larger rifle style, and I personally have not encounter...

Hammer wrote: ↑Sat Mar 15, 2025 10:02 pm 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.

Looks good!

Hammer wrote: ↑Sat Mar 15, 2025 1:35 am I was surprised to find the letter S just behind the rear site.

My 32K serial 1868 has a "D" stamped in that spot.

Here is the date stamped on the breach block Perfect. You have a Model 1884, but ironically I would have been more critical of the gun if it had an “1884” breechblock. Because there was no change to the breechblock in the Model 1884, and because a great deal of “1873” dated blocks had already been ...

Agree with the rest, it looks quite nice. However, before saying further, there is one more little wrinkle in trapdoor production history that applies to your gun - could you let us know the date on the breechblock, or better yet a photo?

Very nice. I have one around here somewhere, got it as a companion to my refurbed 1903 NM. That rifle is one of my 'scores' - got it for the price of a decent shooter at auction because nobody removed the front sight cover to see the star gauge mark. https://i.imgur.com/xJCefRn.jpeg https://i.imgur....

I'm envious. Those things are scarcer than Officer Model trapdoors, and probably only about 10% of those on the market in flintlock configuration are original flint, not reconversions. I’d imagine much lower. At least one of my sources (Johns) thinks maybe a couple dozen Springfield examples escape...

When it comes to GB and the like, any given search mostly returns the overpriced guns that won’t sell and therefore linger on the sites. The ads where price reasonably matches condition go quickly. It doesn’t help that a couple of the bigger antique sellers routinely price their wares at twice marke...

Very cool. Can you tell what year the original musket was made (might be a remnant of the date stamped on the barrel)? Also, I 100% support you collecting the rest of the trapdoors. A collection of them all together is definitely eye-catching! https://i.imgur.com/K1kG5VF.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/OGW...