1873 With Buffington Sight

[onebadapple]

Hello! New to this board and also the Trapdoor. What I have is a model 1873(looks like 8) SN 107*** which indicates 1879 manufacture. Stock is short comb long wrist with no cartouches visible anywhere and actually the stock is near pristine which may be a replacement. The rest of the rifle is also excellent with at least 95% what appears to be original bluing and no attempted mods that I can tell. Also excellent bore and action/door tight and smooth. Alignment marks there and line up. Has the Buffington rear sight!!! From my research that sight didn’t come around ‘til the 1884. Does this make sense to anyone? Could have been refinished at some point? Maybe SA refurbish? Put together with good parts from someone’s scrap pile? I’m not a collector but was looking for a long range BP shooter without a Winchester price!

Thank You!

[John S.]

Welcome, and thanks for a good description.
Your skepticism about a 1884 sight on a rifle assembled several years earlier is good.

However, it was not unusual for units to upgrade sights to a newer pattern as the screw holes were the same for all. OF course, Bubba could have changed the sight just as easily.

With a full serial number we could check to see if there is any specific history on that rifle. Probably not, but who knows.

[Dick Hosmer]

Welcome to the group! Major problem here. 107xxx (no need to hide #, unless you think it might be stolen) will not fit a long-wrist, short-comb stock without forcing or gouging out wood. The receiver is about 1/16" too wide. Change occurred at 96300. SA would NEVER have done this, so perhaps it IS a replacement, or, as you suggest, a put-together. Since the inletting is not right, firing it, especially a lot, MIGHT cause a split. Pictures would help.

[onebadapple]

Thanks for the replies! Well…I know it’s not stolen ‘cause I just bought it from a very reputable online dealer. Complete SN 107590. The rifle wasn’t with me when I posted and could just remember the first three from looking up the date of manufacture.

Don’t have any pictures but here’s the link to the ad. If the link doesn’t work it’ll be a few days before I can get any.

https://www.gunsinternational.com/guns- ... =102579544

Could be wrong about the stock ‘cause in the pics here it appears to be the fatter wrist but sure looked like the skinnier one in hand. Definitely the same rifle!
Like I said, I’m not a collector but would good to know if the SN turned up something cool!

Thanks!!!

[Dick Hosmer]

You're good, stock-wise - that's the later one, but it appears that it has been sanded some, altering the comb profile. Thus, it just becomes a sight upgrade to an earlier rifle, perfectly acceptable and quite commonly found. Enjoy!