Trapdoor Rifles

Looks like I may be able to score a Kansas marked 73 infantry rifle. It is an early first variant with correct parts. I have always wondered How these rifles used? Were they issued new to state LE or militias? Were these bought once obsolete and surplused out to say a state prison? Most eastern guns seem to be NG/militia barracks guns but what of the plains state guns, they were in the thick of conflict in the 1870’s. Maybe the answers are lost to time but I’d sure like to know if there are any good theory’s. I love marked guns and rarely buy any that aren’t marked. I missed a North Dakota marked infantry rifle with known history this weekend, super bummed. ND marked guns are very hard to find for me. Kansas is right up there too for me as my family homesteaded in KS, my father had his great grandmothers story’s of living in a sod hut and finding Indians rummaging through their barn in the 1860’s/1870’s.

Former SRS researcher, and highly respected author of may definitive books on mostly U.S. martial arms, Charles Pate has a great article posted over at SpanAmWar.com. Included is a listing (by quantity, not serial number) of 2,228 trapdoors issued to Kansas under the Militia Act of 1808, between 1878 and 1889.
I know from personal correspondence with Charlie that some serial numbers from 20th Kansas records originally believed to be for trapdoors were actually for other arms in a previously used company record book, and NOT for the 20th Kansas.

Based on the quality of the photos in the article, I suspect he got the rifle from Al Frasca.

Read the article at:
https://www.spanamwar.com/trapdoor22ndkansas.html

I’ll check it out, thanks so much!