1884 Trapdoor Range trip.

[rockrat]

Took out the old Trapdoor to see what the 460420 GB boolit would do. I had taken the gun out only once before with Trail Boss and shot a nice 3-4" group on our steel gongs (with about a 10-15mph crosswind). Velocity was only 959 fps with the Lee 340gr boolit, but the gun seemed like it wanted to do real well considering the awful trigger pull.

Bought it at our last gun show. Been looking and thinking about one for years, but never saw one I really liked. Guy had it on consignment and he said that some old lady wanted him to sell it, was her deceased husbands, been in the family for decades, may have been his grandfathers, ect. (I have heard some wild tales before ,but you never know if there might be some truth there) In decent shape, some pitting on the outside of the barrel, where it meets the wood, and some finish on the wood and some bluing left. Bore is really nice, it cleaned up well

1884 Trapdoor (made in 1884 also)


Gong shot with 13.0 Trail Boss and the Lee 340 ww @.460" LBT soft. 10-15mph crosswind. Five shots


Last gong shot with the GB 460420 WW's 409gr .461" LBT blue soft. 3 shots -- 1,215fps
24.9gr 5744 w/small piece of kleenex tamped on top of powder then 24.5gr of grits dumped on top then boolit seated and crimped. 2.557"oal. Group size is on the order of 1 & 5/8" for three shots. Shot at paper and got 2 & 1/4" group, but target isn't as clear for my older eyes, as are the gongs. Shot too many silhouettes to enjoy paper shooting.




All at 100 yds. Need another front sight blade, as I had to show daylight at the bottom of the gong to get it to hit where it did.

[13Echo]

Is that a gong or a meteor?

The Trapdoor battle sight is set for over 200yds and will give about 12 to 16" high groups at 100yds. Try using the peep on the rear sight staff set as low as it will go and still have a full aperture. It should be on target with a regulation load at about 150 yds.

You may also find the Lee 405gr Hollow Base bullet works better in the Trapdoor, especially as it is a copy of the 1873 gvt bullet and casts at a larger diameter which is a real help in the usually large trapdoor barrels.
Looks like a nice rifle.

Jerry Liles

[rockrat]

Our 100yd gongs take a real pounding. You should see the other one. Guy that usually repaired them passed away and nobody has been railroaded---err---volunteered to fix them yet.

[NickSS]

Those old trapdoors shoot very well. I know that mine does.

[Bigjohn]

Good shootin', Rockrat.

Those ol'timers sure can shoot when fed the right diet. I have never shot a trapdoor; but hope to one day. Even just once!

John

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Bought my Trapdoor 20+ yeras ago... Still it is one of my favorits...
I bought a oversized mold for mine. The Throat is in thet .462+ area. My mold drops a Pure lead 405+ at .464 and shoots nicely with most faster powders (Unique, 2400) and 2F Goex.
I also MADE an new taller front sight. Knock out the pin and the origonal taps out. Insert a new one and drill the hole. Takes near longer scrounging the metal as cutting out and filing the sight.

[oldhickory]

Good morning
Bought my Trapdoor 20+ yeras ago... Still it is one of my favorits...
I bought a oversized mold for mine. The Throat is in thet .462+ area. My mold drops a Pure lead 405+ at .464 and shoots nicely with most faster powders (Unique, 2400) and 2F Goex.
I also MADE an new taller front sight. Knock out the pin and the origonal taps out. Insert a new one and drill the hole. Takes near longer scrounging the metal as cutting out and filing the sight.

+1 on what Missionary says, I've never had a trapdoor rifle that didn't shoot well with just about any boolit, (stay away from the "j" word though).

[Larry Gibson]

Below is my H&R OM with a group shooting some commercial cast bullets. The second group is a 10 shot group at 200 yards using the Rapine 460500 out of my original TD which was made in 1884 and made into a target model. The 3rd group is another with 2 foulers then a 10 shot group. I then waited 5, 15 and 30 minutes between shots before firing an additional shot at each time. This was to see how much effect the fouling hardening was having. The 5 minute shot is the wide 9, the 15 minut shot the low 9 and the 30 minute shot the low 8 at 7 o'clock. The load was a duplex of 54 gr GOEX Cartridge over 7 gr 4759. The target is a 50 yard pistol target and the distance shot was 200 yards.

Larry Gibson

[zampilot]

I recently bought an 1888 that appears to have been someone's shooter, maybe a competition rifle. The comb has been sanded at the front to make 'thumb room', other than that it's very very clean with the best bore I've ever seen on a Trapdoor. Now to load up some 45-70, 70 gnrs GOEX 2F and some 500 grn boolits that look like the Lyman Gov't style.

[FN in MT]

Thirty years ago I had a Trapdoor but miine was a .50-70 . Even with my primitive cast loads, unsized slugs, hand lubed, no loading dies, etc. it shot amazingly well. I once VERY LUCKILY scored a center hit offhand at 80 yds at a Turkey Shoot in PA to bring home a big old white Tom for our Thanksgiving dinner!!!

The gun was the Ex-Wifes Grandfathers. We got divorced...gave her the gun back. Sadder to lose the gun than her.

FN in MT