Trapdoor Rifles

Here is a 45/70 round that was in with some old rounds.
I believe it is either a blank or at one time maybe filled with shot??
Any ideas? There is a paper wad below the crimp on the case which I did not take a picture of.

carlsr, What is the length of the case 2.1 or longer?

I didn't measure it, it belongs to my brother.

Tom Trevor wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 9:11 pm carlsr, What is the length of the case 2.1 or longer?

The one in the picture is 2.097.
He has another, which I didn't see is 2.553

Gatling blank? The mechanism required at least a "semi/psuedo-bullet form" at the front to function through the feed. Hasn't this come up before?

Dick Hosmer wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2025 12:13 am Gatling blank? The mechanism required at least a "semi/psuedo-bullet form" at the front to function through the feed. Hasn't this come up before?

Possibly Dick but if it wasn't talked about yesterday I done forgot
Thanks for the information.

Yes Dick, I recall one recently. The reason length was asked for.

It may even be a hollywood blank.

I once visited an old WW2 submarine base that had been repurposed over the years, anyways, on one beach the shoreline had tons of spent .45/70 casings. someone from the facility told me that they used that area to train ship to ship line throwing during the war and that the line throwing guns were trapdoor rifles converted to line throwing guns and that the casings on the beach were most likely used line throwing blanks.This was pre-cell phone era so no pictures lol. I have no idea if they were anything like yours but it just brought back that memory.

The story about the site being used for line throwing gun training is very plausible, and many trapdoors were converted for line throwing use during WW2.

However, my research has not turned up any verification of U.S. Navy use of converted trapdoors for line throwing. Many were U.S. Coast Guard approved for use aboard merchant ships, but U.S. Navy vessels seem to have used only the single shot Harrington & Richardson line throwing guns made on top break shotgun type actions with very heavy barrels. The official designation was "“Caliber .45 Line Throwing Gun Mark 1 Mod 1.”