Nickel Plated / Polished 1873 ?

[Hammer]

When were these trapdoor rifles polished or are they nickel plated? Even the cleaning rod and buttplate are polished/nickel plated. Were these used for parade type formations?

And any idea how many of these were made and was this done by the military, or done later by civilians?

[Hammer]

Couple more pics

[Dick Hosmer]

No idea on how many made, probably not many.

AFAIK, NOT an SA product.

Most collectors probably wouldn't want one.

Poster child for scarce does NOT mean desirable/rare/valuable. That one has a repro rod to boot. Ugh...

Sorry!

[carlsr]

There are M68's in I believe the 30000 serial range that were nickel plated for trials. There's one on GB, been there a while, that is not only nickel plated but also documented.
The buyer would receive copies of the documentation.

[Hammer]

No idea on how many made, probably not many.

AFAIK, NOT an SA product.

Most collectors probably wouldn't want one.

Poster child for scarce does NOT mean desirable/rare/valuable. That one has a repro rod to boot. Ugh...

Sorry!

No need to apologize, I’m just curious about why these would be nickel plated.

IMA international military antiques inc. says that these were nickel plated at the factory for special ceremonial or parade use and this nickel plated 1873 that I see on an auction site has a serial number that’s very close to the nickel plated 1873 that IMA was selling on their site.

[Dick Hosmer]

I would respectfully disagree with IMA. SA DID do a few M1868s, for possible naval service, but I amnotaware that they did any parade guns. Are you even sure it is nickel? Some patriotic organizations have chrome-plated rifles for ceremonial use, but I've never heard of it being offered by the Armory.

[John S.]

Believe Dick Hosmer, not IMA. Although IMA does a pretty decent job on their very detailed descriptions, they are not experts on all things and sometimes make mistakes (as with any cataloger). Absent any documentation, the only known trapdoors which were nickel plated for service use were the M1868s. Exception may be some locally fancied up guns for color guards or the like, which while they might be official are certainly not arsenal or issue, and barely one step above Bubba butchery IMHO.

[Hammer]

Believe Dick Hosmer, not IMA. Although IMA does a pretty decent job on their very detailed descriptions, they are not experts on all things and sometimes make mistakes (as with any cataloger). Absent any documentation, the only known trapdoors which were nickel plated for service use were the M1868s. Exception may be some locally fancied up guns for color guards or the like, which while they might be official are certainly not arsenal or issue, and barely one step above Bubba butchery IMHO.

That’s why I really appreciate the knowledge that so many have on this discussion board. For those of us who are just now really getting interested into trapdoors, if we didn’t have your wisdom, we would only have what auction houses and other antique weapons Sellers would be stating on their website. IMA has been fairly accurate and that’s why I was just really curious.

I just found it really curious that there were two 1873s that’s serial numbers were only a couple hundred apart, and they both were nickel plated, or polished silver on all of their parts. The one that was on IMA even had its lock plate polished silver. Here’s the hyperlink to that rifle and you can see what they said in their item description that must be erroneous.

https://www.ima-usa.com/products/origin ... ed-in-1889

[Dick Hosmer]

Thanks for the info. I cannot say that SA NEVER polished a rifle for ceremonial use, but I can say it was never a standard product, and that I've never heard of it being such, at all, in over 50 years of collecting and research. I'd put the "close number" thing down as simply a coincidence. What we DO know to be true is that, when the M1888 rod-bayonet rifle came out, the stock of standard rifles, most dated 1889, were put away, brand new, in their crates of 20, some of which were not opened until the 1950s. I'd guess that any plating or polishing would have been done well after their service life. FWIW, 416000 would more likely be 1888 than 1889 - a little knock on IMA (for whom I bear no malice) right there.