1884 trapdoor

[rockrat]

Picked up a Trapdoor at the last gun show, s/n 26x,xxx. Apears to be in decent shape for such an old gun. First Trapdoor I have owned. Has 1884 on breechblock. Fairly tight on block, good bore. Little bit of damage to stock near buttplate, about the size of a nickle. Not alot of finish left on barrel, more on action. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks

[405]

Not an expert but have two (84 and 88) and have loaded for and shot them a lot.
You can look up the DOM of the action at: http://oldguns.net/sn_php/mildateslookup.php?file=us_trapdoor.dat

But they were regularly rebuilt so who knows if it left the Springfield A. in the condition you have.

Keep the pressure down to BP pressures and you shouldn't have any problems if the gun is in otherwise shootable condition.

Slug the bore. The groove diameters are known to run from maybe .458-.462. Size bullets accordingly.

They can be very accurate. But, bullet size and alloy are important. If it has the original sights.... pinned front blade and Buffington rear.... it is likely "battlefield registered" at lowest rear sight setting to about 250 yards +/-. That can be frustrating for normal shooting. You can replace the front blade with a slightly taller one to allow for better POI=POA at 50 yards or 100 yards. enjoy!

[NickSS]

If it has buffington sights the sight when laying flat is the battle sight and I think it is set for about 275 yards with the modle 1881 cartridge which was 70 gr of black powder and a 500 gr slug. However if you raise the rear sight leaf it has settings from 100 to around 2000 yards and also automatically corrects for bullet drift as you raise the sight. Bores are geterally large as the land diameter was set at around .451" but it was anywhere for .458 to .463 groove diameter. The army wanted it to shoot black powder and keep on shooting for a lot of rounds. The deep grooves were by design. Also black powder bumps up lead bullets to fill the bore. That is what the army counted on. It works too. A friend of mine shoots a muzzle loading slug gun that takes a .451 bullet. This is a slip fit in a clean barrel and the bullet weighs about 475 gr. I have seen him shoot a perfect score at 1200 yards with that rifle so if the bullet did not bump up there is no way he could have hit it. His bullet looks like the 1881 500 gr government bullet flat base and all and he uses 20-1 alloy

[missionary5155]

I concur on the large bore... My 1884 Trap Door is.463... I finally just bought a Rapine .464 405 round nose and happily load unsized 30-1 hand greased (watching the news) boolits.
In a Winchester Case I measure 65 grains of FF Goex plus a cereal box wad and hand push the Boolit to contact. Final seating happens at loading which takes care of my powder compression. I replaced my front sight blade with a TALLER one so my "84" hits dead on at 100 ... Smacks the steel piggy´s with AUTHORITY.