New project - 1873 trap door

[2AMMD]

Just aquired an 1873 Trap Door. Stock is very rough (lots of dings and scratches). Bore looks fine. Outside metal finish is blackish brown with no apparent deep rust pits, No ram rod on gun and hammer is broken off at the thumb area (still enough left to cock w/o trouble). Bore looks good after wire brushing. Don't think any collector value is involved, so is it ok to refinish the metal and make a new custom stock that's of my design. More interested in a shooter than a wall hanger.

Thanks for any opinions,
2ammd

[Scharfschuetze]

Looks like you've bought into a fun project. Hard to say about collector value as Trapdoors have become pretty scarce, but as you describe the rifle, it's a shooter only. I have a cut down rifle 1873 and a carbine stock blank that I'll get around to getting back on line someday too. Same as yours, no collector value but great mechanically and bore wise so it should be loads of fun down the road.

Post a photo so we can see what sights it has and what not.

[historicfirearms]

Sounds like a good project rifle. You might be able to find a replacement stock and just clean up the metal some. They still look nice, even with little finish remaining. Larry Gibson has a good thread in this section on his trapdoor loads, great advice there.

[Matt85]

trapdoors still dont have much collectors value unless they are mint condition. shooters can easily be had for 600-800 dollars which is $1000 cheaper then a pedersoli replica! i say fix it up and shoot the heck outa it.

-matt

[Roundball]

My project trapdoor was an 1889. The rifle came as a complete parts gun with dark bore and the firing pin was rusted in the breech block. I had assumed that bore was spoiled. Some Kroil was put in the bore from time to time. In the meantime, my shooting partner had come up with a 1884 that had been sporterized and made into a shotgun very poorly. We salvaged a usable breech block and a few other parts from the 1884 and rebuilt the 1889. The bore cleaned up and the gun was shootable. Later, a ramrod bayonet turned up a gun show and was used to make the rifle complete. The rifle was sound and proved to be accurate. It is a good thing when these old rifles can be brought back to life. There is enough information on this website to prevent having to re-invent the wheel getting one of this rifle shooting well.

[2AMMD]

I thank all of you for the advice. Now I do plan to clean/fix it up some and shoot it with black powder like it was made for.

[StrawHat]

If you are considering a sporter, an English style stock is quite comfortable.

http://www.treebonecarving.com/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=560&linkpath=http://www.treebonecarving.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/trapdoor.jpg&target=tlx_new

http://www.treebonecarving.com/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=560&linkpath=http://www.treebonecarving.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/trapdoorsportingjpg.jpg&target=tlx_new&title=finished Trapdoor Sporting Rifle, .45-70