Shooting a Springfield Model 1873
- Thread starter RiponP90
- Start date
Jim Watson
New member
Need to find a carload of that powder stored in Alaska for the past 100 years.
Jim Watson
New member
I think the main memory would be the 7mms cracking past and wondering why I was stuck with an antique.
kilimanjaro
New member
Were you there at the time, I'm sure you would consider it a distinction without a difference, but it would have been obsolete, not an antique.
I have the 1884 Version of the Trapdoor rifle w/bayonet. Excellent shape, good bore and no broogered up screw heads.
Like all my surplus USGI Rifles, I want to shoot them. I don't want to fool with black powder on this rifle so I elected to go the smokeless route.
Wife just recently bought this for me, I didn't have any 45-70 bullets casted up so I decided to try some 255 gr. pistol bullets.
Loaded up 32 grs of 5744 powder (designed for light loads) and tried the gun out.
At 50 yards with the lowest sight settings I had to have a tad of daylight below the 8 in steel target to hit it. But at 200 yards it was right on.
The max pressure for safe shooting smokeless powder in the trap door is 18,000PSI
According to Quick Load, the above load is right around 13,000, well below safe loading pressures. The round is about 1800 fps and fairly accurate.
No recoil, easy extraction, and easy on the brass. Even my wife (who cant handle any recoil hardly) finds it pleasant to shoot except she admits the rifle is a bit heavy for her in the offhand position.
I might give it a try deer hunting with this load next year. With all the rattlers I ran across while hunting this year, I might add the bayonet do I can deal with them at distance.
I also discovered, because of the light load, its fast loading and extracting the case. I'm gonna practice a bit and see if I can get off 10 rounds in 80 seconds. If so I might give it a try in the CMP GSM matches in the "other" military category.
Its about the same length w/bayonet as my Krag w/bayonet. I wonder how it would work in 3-gun matches.
Anyway these old war horses deserve to be fired to show us they still have it in them.
Like all my surplus USGI Rifles, I want to shoot them. I don't want to fool with black powder on this rifle so I elected to go the smokeless route.
Wife just recently bought this for me, I didn't have any 45-70 bullets casted up so I decided to try some 255 gr. pistol bullets.
Loaded up 32 grs of 5744 powder (designed for light loads) and tried the gun out.
At 50 yards with the lowest sight settings I had to have a tad of daylight below the 8 in steel target to hit it. But at 200 yards it was right on.
The max pressure for safe shooting smokeless powder in the trap door is 18,000PSI
According to Quick Load, the above load is right around 13,000, well below safe loading pressures. The round is about 1800 fps and fairly accurate.
No recoil, easy extraction, and easy on the brass. Even my wife (who cant handle any recoil hardly) finds it pleasant to shoot except she admits the rifle is a bit heavy for her in the offhand position.
I might give it a try deer hunting with this load next year. With all the rattlers I ran across while hunting this year, I might add the bayonet do I can deal with them at distance.
I also discovered, because of the light load, its fast loading and extracting the case. I'm gonna practice a bit and see if I can get off 10 rounds in 80 seconds. If so I might give it a try in the CMP GSM matches in the "other" military category.
Its about the same length w/bayonet as my Krag w/bayonet. I wonder how it would work in 3-gun matches.
Anyway these old war horses deserve to be fired to show us they still have it in them.
I worked with an old West Virginia hillbilly years ago (he actually knew some of the McCoys and Hatfields), who told me that, when he was a kid, it was common practice to load trapdoors with .410 shells and use them as shotguns.
Don't know that I would want to try it now, but I suppose it's possible, given the close dimensions of the .410 to a .45-70, and the relatively low pressures involved.
Don't know that I would want to try it now, but I suppose it's possible, given the close dimensions of the .410 to a .45-70, and the relatively low pressures involved.
When you're attacking up hill across fairly open terrain against an entrenched enemy it really doesn't matter what you are carrying. One of the great tactical lessons of the Cuban Campaign was summed up by a Rough Rider who told the 71st New York as they moved up at Las Guasimas:
"You can't see 'em."
"You can't see 'em."
Dragonflydf
New member
as a caretaker of two trapdoors, take some advice, only shoot black powder loads, there is no chance of damaging a piece of history as there is when using smokeless, it is sad to see a weapon that has lasted almost 150 years destroyed because someone does not want to deal with black powder. I am a reloader and it is no harder to load black powder loads than it is smokeless, and clean up with modern powders is easy, I use a 405gr bullet over a case of triple 7.
To the original poster, after you have the rifle checked out, have it cleaned, but resist the urge to refinish it, it has a lot of years of character that is easy to wipe out along with a good chunk of it's value.
To the original poster, after you have the rifle checked out, have it cleaned, but resist the urge to refinish it, it has a lot of years of character that is easy to wipe out along with a good chunk of it's value.