Need advice on 1884 springfield trapdoor

[vwood]

I just purchased a Springfield 1884 trapdoor carbine. I cast for my flintlock and reload for my modern rifles but I have no experience with black powder cartridge. I am going to buy cartridges just to get the feel of the gun but plan on casting and reloading, so any advice would be appreciated. I am planning on doing some long range shooting with it.

[dale2242]

I load 30gr 4198 and Lyman 457124 for my 1884 Trapdoor. Keep your loads light. The trapdoor was designed for BP.----dale

[13Echo]

Get Spence Wolf's book on loading for the Trapdoor. It's available from Wolf's Western Traders. Just Google that site. The two bullets I've tried that work well in my Trapdoor are the 405gr hollow base from Lee and the 881 500 gr bullet from SAECO with Goex FFg black powder. Both cast at .460 or slightly larger and are cast from a soft alloy (30:1 lead:tin).

Jerry Liles

[Ron B.]

Congrats, the Trapdoors are fun rifles!

I too am a fan of the 405 gn bullet for the Traps. I also shoot 300 gns. All my bullets are my own castings. My favorite powder for my Traps is IMR's TrailBoss. 15gns gets the job done. I recommend keeping everything around 1050--1100fps. I own 5 Traps, 4 45-70s, one 50-70. Absolutely love them. No carbines in my gun safes; but I'm looking!

One more thing; you probably know already, your present sights, unless already modified will shoot about 8 inches high. You may need to modify your front sight to put you on target.

GRB

[218bee]

First off welcome lots of good guys here. I also shoot two Trapdoors one in 45/70 and a 50/70. I shoot black only in mine and am learning how to do so all the time. For the 45/70 the Lee hollow base is a good one to start as mentioned above. Pour around 65grs of Black in case and make sure no air gap (very important with Black powder) seat boolit and see how she does. You mention "long range" not sure how long yer talkin but will need a different slug for that I suppose. But I would get the hang of it at 100-200yds first with above mentioned loads and boolit. As stated the front sight was minute of soldier at 200 yds I believe so for 50-100yds a taller sight works better. Or just aim low. Anyway have fun with the old gal and keep posting questions and results as we can all learn and discuss

[vwood]

Thanks to all . I think I will start with Spence Wolf's book and go from there. I love the black powder so I'll be stickin to that . I'm anxious to shoot her so for now I'm going to get a box of Goex Black Dawg's just to see what she's like.
Again Thanks.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I shoot an original 1873 rifle. My most accurate load is 68gn Swiss with a 420gn bullet from a Henley & Gibbs mould. This boolit mics out at .462 when cast 1:30 and is loaded unsized. The main benifet of this design is that it has an extra lube groove over designs available from Lyman or Lee

[rockrat]

I have an 1884 rifle that I played with last month. Ended up loading 24gr 5744, .030 card wad on top of powder and grits to where when I seated the boolit (460420 GB mould), I compressed the grits about 1/10 of an inch. About 2-2.5" group at 100yds , all my 55yr old eyes will do, also the heavy trigger pull didn't help.
This is a max load @ 1100fps, but grouped the best in my gun. Lubed with LBT soft @ .460"

[NickSS]

If you plan to do long range shooting you need a heavy bullet. A good one to start with is the Lyman 500 gr round nose. Cast it out of fairly soft alloy like 30-1 lead tin and size it as large as you can. Mine I size in a .459 sizer which just applies lube and does not size the bullet at all. Load about 60 gr of FFG GOEX with a card wad over the powder then seat the bullet. MAke sure you lube the bullet with black powder lube of some sort. This will give you a good starting point and experience will tell you where to go from there.

[missionary5155]

Greetings and WELCOME vwood !!!
FIRST slug the throat area. It proibably is about .460-.463. If you are not using Black you will get some dismal accuracy especially with smokeless loads. My 84 shoots best with FAT boolits in the .462+ area.
In a carbime start with the lighter boolits. The Calvary switched to 400 grainers due to recoil (men flipping off the saddle backwards) and I Personally like 350 grainers in a carbine.
13 grains Unique and a 350 grain FAT boolit and you will have a rifle ready to take on any critter 350 pounds.
Mike in Peru

[MtGun44]

Lee HB works well for the really worn and oversized bore trapdoors. I was
about to give up on one that will shoot 4" or better @ 100 with the Lee hollow base.

10-15 gr Unique is a a good load, low vel plinker.

Bill

[Larry Gibson]

Another suggestion to get Spence Wolf's book. Only thing I disagree with him on is the sizing of the bullet. He stuck with .459 as he was replicating the actual M873 loads. I use the Lee 405HB bullet "as cast" or sized to a minimum of .4615" for best accuracy as most TD barrels have groove depths in excess of .459".

As for BP I shoot a lot of duplex loads in my TDs because fouling is minima, no leading and accuracy is consistant all day long without having to wipe or clean the bore. Spence explains them in his book. I use WW cases, WLR primers, 5 gr 4759 with 49 gr Goex Cartridge on top. The 405 HB is lubed with 5/4 parts mix olive oil/beeswax and seated to slightly compress the powder. I taper crimp the case mouth onto the lead driving band as with the 4579 powder there is no need for a heavy roll crimp. Velocity is right at 1150 fps out of my carbine and the trajectory matches the M1879C Type III rear sight range markings.

Larry Gibson

[vwood]

Again thanks. It will be a bit before I'm ready to shoot . Right know I'm working on the barrel .There's a good bit of lead in her.

[singleshotman]

I used to own a Cadet rifle,it was sighted however for the carbine load. I used to use 60grains FFG and a 405 grain bullet sized to .459. I finally wore the muzzle out thru cleaning it, so i sold it. Wish i still had it.The later rifles have a pin-in-place front sight so you can make a higher front sight, but all of the carbines have removeable front sights.The only problem with trapdoors is they are like Martini's, they MUST be cleaned from the muzzle.