Trapdoor Rifles

An old mystery came to mind today as I was doing some organizing of my files. The late Bob Hill (Al's co-author on Book1) once told me about a carbine (I think .50 but it could have been .45) that he'd found in the possession of a little old lady in Southern CA, with a lockplate dated 1871!. He was mightily excited about it, as anyone would be, and tried for years to get her to sell it to him, but she never would. Has it ever surfaced? Has anyone (John S.) ever heard the story? Wonder where it is now? Not a pipe-dream - Bob saw and handled the gun - if the stamping had been bogus, he'd have been the first one to drop it and move on.

Dick- I have never seen, or heard of such a thing.
I wonder if anything in the Annual Report of the Chief of Ordnance (which usually included reports from the Armory) had any mention of a project or expenditure which might shed a little light?

Yeah, the RCOs would be a logical starting point - I don't have those for 1870/71/72, but I guess they're all on line now? Wish I could remember more of what he told me, but he was REALLY excited so he must have had reason to think it was a treasure. Maybe some little-known side piece at the time of the 1870 trials, which were a sham, the Allin gun WAS going to be THE "Model 1870", no matter what.