Picked up an excellent plus 1884 rifle

[Texcl2]

It’s a model 1884 made in 1888, I fixed the title. Sorry about the confusion. I did take it out and shoot it at the 50 yard range I have at my house today, it shot my gallery rounds great! Those gallery rounds shoot well in all my rifles surprisingly. The rear sight was stuck with that reddish brown cosmoline looking grease and had a bear of a time cleaning it up to where I could move it. I love the buffington sight, it’s too bad they didn’t regulate it down to 100 yards, seems sort of silly to sight a rifle with such poor external ballistics to 200 yards, a .30-06 I get, a .45/70 not so much lol. It’s weird that the models prior and the models after were regulated to 100, even into our modern era. I wonder what the rational was. I would think the 100 yard setting would get used far more than the 1500 yard setting.

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[Chris]

my guess is its one of the very few made in 1888, Has the earlier trigger guard. Looks nice!

[arttodd3]

I believe the actual zero for the rifle is 264 yards if I'm not mistaken. This is why it shoots so high at shorter ranges. It really lobs a slug out there almost on a par with a Cohorn Mortar!

[Texcl2]

lol, you got that right.

[Dick Hosmer]

Remember, that zero was meant for FIGHTING, with a belt-buckle hold, so an enemy was pretty much toast from muzzle to 250+. If you flinched/jerked it low you still might get a ricochet.

What had to be done to put holes in the center of a piece of paper could be addressed on the target line. Entirely different thinking for the recreational plinkers of today. Just sayin'

[Texcl2]

I wonder what led to the departure from having a 100 yard setting? The previous trapdoor sights had it, then when the krag was developed it had the 100 yard setting as well. I sort of suspect that the powers that be were expecting to fight in Europe where they had been using long range volley fire. Buffington had been TDY’d overseas to inspect weapons, I believe. If you look at most of Buffington’s inventions they were related to artillery so maybe 250 yards wasn’t that far in his mind, lol. The belt buckle hold only works if your opponent is standing in front of you, lending to the volley idea maybe. Either way it’s a pretty flawed principle and for a sight with 5 sight apertures is surprising. Must not have worked out since every sight since has had a 100 yard setting. Was there a document distributed when the Buffington sight was adopted as the new standard explaining how to use it? If so where can I find it?