Trapdoor Rifles

Thet don't get much better than that! It is a beauty.

My point on this particular musket is that if there is something a guy wants really bad, he has every right to buy it, whatever he can afford. Even if some folks will always tell him that he paid too much for a thing. He’s the owner now and he’s happy.

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.

arttodd3 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2024 4:44 pm Thet don't get much better than that! It is a beauty.

Thanks! It’s fun to hold it and examine it!
The photos that Collector’s Firearms uses are extremely sharp, so it enables one to closely examine things.

John S. wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2024 4:55 pm 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 escaped conversion, mostly from New Hampshire.

Perhaps the original flint survivors are in greater proportion among the contract muskets? I will have to take a look at Moller.

Since this musket wasn’t stamped by a government inspector, I believe it was assembled from leftover parts after the contracted 7,000 muskets were delivered.
I think that the musket was warehoused and being already obsolete when assembled, never found a buyer, then it and others must’ve been forgotten and so avoided conversion to percussion.
By the time it was discovered, maybe in a crate, all muzzleloaders were obsolete.
I wonder how many more if any of those muskets survive in the same basically unused condition today?
This is the first one that I’ve seen.

Before and after photos…

Nice job Fred!!
What are the stampings below the U.S?

I don’t know.