I recently bought an 1873 Springfield trapdoor. The auction said that the bore was pristine (It is) and the rifle is in good working order. It also said that there was no finish on the rifle. When I recieved the rifle, I found this not to be true. It appears that it is nickle plated. I removed the barrel from the stock and the finish looks as good as the the day it was done. There are areas where the finish has come off but this is really no big issue. My question is has anyone seen a trapdoor like this before? I am new to the trapdoor scene and have only seen the blued rifles. This rifle is in great shape and I have a range day next week so I have loaded some BP rounds with 405gr RNHB bullets. Comments?
1873 Trapdoor Question
- Thread starter 358Apollo
- Start date
Hey you have a pristine barrel! What luck! 
Don't sweat the nickle plating. This rifle is about 130 years old. Just after WWI NRA members could buy the things for $5.00 from the DCM. I would say that some previous owner really took good care of it and had the thing plated.
It just to be that plating shops were in neighborhood areas, and plating was cheap.
Not any more.
Don't sweat the nickle plating. This rifle is about 130 years old. Just after WWI NRA members could buy the things for $5.00 from the DCM. I would say that some previous owner really took good care of it and had the thing plated.
It just to be that plating shops were in neighborhood areas, and plating was cheap.
Not any more.
Well, if you were totally serious, assuming there is nice smooth metal under the plating, restoration would be possible. They can deplate nickel the same way they apply it. No need to grind it off as some bubbas I have known tried! The treatment can strip down to the bare steel and then I guess you have to refinish it of course. Reblue on the steel parts except for the ones that are case colored. Someone like Doug Turnbull that does reblue and recase on say, Winchesters, etc. could do it. That gun stock looks pristine so you would maybe end up with a real trapdoor restored to look factory fresh. Now you would never want to do that to a decent original finish gun but in this case, with the excellent bore(?) and sharp details it might look great and have some value but less than a mint original finish of course. Or in any case, preserve it so it stays nice. I owned two of them in the past, that 45 70 gives your shoulder a nice push when you light one off! Would make a real eye catching display mounted on a wall rack.
Looking the second picture i can see the muzzle that show a caliber bigger than .45, it look like a .58 barrel.
But lock plate is the second relase, flat, the really first model has the 1864 lock.
Action look like a real trapdoor '73, not a first convertion from 1864 rifled musket with the trap screwed to the cutted barrel.
Rear sight is a pre-1884, the year where was adopted the Buffington style sight.
ciao
Rusty
But lock plate is the second relase, flat, the really first model has the 1864 lock.
Action look like a real trapdoor '73, not a first convertion from 1864 rifled musket with the trap screwed to the cutted barrel.
Rear sight is a pre-1884, the year where was adopted the Buffington style sight.
ciao
Rusty