1873 Trapdoor Carbine

[Shrapnel]

I was recommended here for a SRS on this carbine, I don't know what that stands for but here it is. I came across this carbine at a gun show and bought it. I believe it was way under the money, in great original condition. I posted about it on the Shiloh Rifle Forum and they told me to come here and have it analyzed. Here are pictures, I hope to find out something about this carbine. I have already kilt a gopher with it...











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More pictures...

[Lead Snowstorm]

Neat looking piece. SRS stands for Springfield Research Service, which compiled a list of serial numbers found during records searches. Most weapons will not appear - only a small minority of numbers appear in the SRS database, and they were not issued sequentially, so a miss is as good as a mile - but it is interesting to see the configurations (carbine, rifle) of nearby weapons.

Unfortunately I?m away from my books right now so I can?t help much. But from what I recall, there are some notable features.

First, it looks like rather a low number serial. That?s interesting as the pre-LBH carbines command a premium. I don?t recall the exact serial hotspot ranges for the 7th Cav, but I know some here do.

The rear sight is also early, and also retained by the original slotless screws. That?s good.

The eagle over crossed arrows on the door and the ?1873? on the lock plate also go with early guns.

The stock does not appear that it would have been original, as in the first stock placed on the gun. Eyeballing it, it seems to have the short wrist/long comb configuration. That?s not necessarily unusual, as most of the early trapdoors were overhauled.

If possible, could we get photos of the left side of the barrel just in front of the receiver; a detail of the front sight; the muzzle crown; the underside of the stock fore-end; and the buttplate? Those will make a good start in assisting the folks here who know more than I to help with more info.

[1mark]

Is the butt plate smooth or is there a sliding door? Can you post a picture of the front of the stock at the curve.

[JimF]

Shrapnel . . . take a look here . . . .

The U.S. Springfield Trapdoor Rifle Information Center

. . . .read through everything!

[Shrapnel]

If you look closely, you can see the letters J C stamped lightly in the stock to the rear of the bottom tang.

[Shrapnel]

Neat looking piece. SRS stands for Springfield Research Service, which compiled a list of serial numbers found during records searches. Most weapons will not appear - only a small minority of numbers appear in the SRS database, and they were not issued sequentially, so a miss is as good as a mile - but it is interesting to see the configurations (carbine, rifle) of nearby weapons.

Unfortunately I?m away from my books right now so I can?t help much. But from what I recall, there are some notable features.

First, it looks like rather a low number serial. That?s interesting as the pre-LBH carbines command a premium. I don?t recall the exact serial hotspot ranges for the 7th Cav, but I know some here do.

The rear sight is also early, and also retained by the original slotless screws. That?s good.

The eagle over crossed arrows on the door and the ?1873? on the lock plate also go with early guns.

The stock does not appear that it would have been original, as in the first stock placed on the gun. Eyeballing it, it seems to have the short wrist/long comb configuration. That?s not necessarily unusual, as most of the early trapdoors were overhauled.

If possible, could we get photos of the left side of the barrel just in front of the receiver; a detail of the front sight; the muzzle crown; the underside of the stock fore-end; and the buttplate? Those will make a good start in assisting the folks here who know more than I to help with more info.

[Shrapnel]

[Shrapnel]

Neat looking piece. SRS stands for Springfield Research Service, which compiled a list of serial numbers found during records searches. Most weapons will not appear - only a small minority of numbers appear in the SRS database, and they were not issued sequentially, so a miss is as good as a mile - but it is interesting to see the configurations (carbine, rifle) of nearby weapons.

Unfortunately I?m away from my books right now so I can?t help much. But from what I recall, there are some notable features.

First, it looks like rather a low number serial. That?s interesting as the pre-LBH carbines command a premium. I don?t recall the exact serial hotspot ranges for the 7th Cav, but I know some here do.

The rear sight is also early, and also retained by the original slotless screws. That?s good.

The eagle over crossed arrows on the door and the ?1873? on the lock plate also go with early guns.

The stock does not appear that it would have been original, as in the first stock placed on the gun. Eyeballing it, it seems to have the short wrist/long comb configuration. That?s not necessarily unusual, as most of the early trapdoors were overhauled.

If possible, could we get photos of the left side of the barrel just in front of the receiver; a detail of the front sight; the muzzle crown; the underside of the stock fore-end; and the buttplate? Those will make a good start in assisting the folks here who know more than I to help with more info.

[Shrapnel]

Neat looking piece. SRS stands for Springfield Research Service, which compiled a list of serial numbers found during records searches. Most weapons will not appear - only a small minority of numbers appear in the SRS database, and they were not issued sequentially, so a miss is as good as a mile - but it is interesting to see the configurations (carbine, rifle) of nearby weapons.

Unfortunately I?m away from my books right now so I can?t help much. But from what I recall, there are some notable features.

First, it looks like rather a low number serial. That?s interesting as the pre-LBH carbines command a premium. I don?t recall the exact serial hotspot ranges for the 7th Cav, but I know some here do.

The rear sight is also early, and also retained by the original slotless screws. That?s good.

The eagle over crossed arrows on the door and the ?1873? on the lock plate also go with early guns.

The stock does not appear that it would have been original, as in the first stock placed on the gun. Eyeballing it, it seems to have the short wrist/long comb configuration. That?s not necessarily unusual, as most of the early trapdoors were overhauled.

If possible, could we get photos of the left side of the barrel just in front of the receiver; a detail of the front sight; the muzzle crown; the underside of the stock fore-end; and the buttplate? Those will make a good start in assisting the folks here who know more than I to help with more info.

[Tom Trevor]

Along with a later stock the shaft breech block and extractor ride on is is from a later wide receiver post December 1878. Still a very nice carbine.

[Shrapnel]

If possible, could we get photos of the left side of the barrel just in front of the receiver; a detail of the front sight; the muzzle crown; the underside of the stock fore-end; and the buttplate? Those will make a good start in assisting the folks here who know more than I to help with more info.

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More pictures...

[Lead Snowstorm]

Looks like the barrel may be a replacement at least - I don?t believe they applied proof marks at that serial number.

I *think* the muzzle and front sight look ok. The tip of the stock also looks fine to my eyes.

But all of this nit-picking is just from the collector?s perspective. It clearly still gets the job done on varmints!

If you look closely, you can see the letters J C stamped lightly in the stock to the rear of the bottom tang.

Hopeful the true experts will chime in, but those could be subinspection stamps. Given a replacement stock, it wouldn?t necessarily have received proof and inspection cartouches, and a goodly number of the carbines I?ve seen come up for sale on the trapdoor site linked above have similar replacement stocks that have been on the gun since the Spanish-American War.

[Shrapnel]

Looks like the barrel may be a replacement at least - I don?t believe they applied proof marks at that serial number.

I *think* the muzzle and front sight look ok. The tip of the stock also looks fine to my eyes.

But all of this nit-picking is just from the collector?s perspective. It clearly still gets the job done on varmints!



Hopeful the true experts will chime in, but those could be subinspection stamps. Given a replacement stock, it wouldn?t necessarily have received proof and inspection cartouches, and a goodly number of the carbines I?ve seen come up for sale on the trapdoor site linked above have similar replacement stocks that have been on the gun since the Spanish-American War.

I think the J C stands for Jeneral Custer

[alfajim]

If we could get Mr. Hosmer to chime in here he has the serial # records and next to Al is most knowledgeable on these trapdoors

[mr.j]

The barrel was definitely replaced as it should not have the vp proof marks. Breech block may have been replaced also with a correct one of that period. Can you remove the butt plate to check if there is a hole in buttstock? The stock looks like it was possibly sanded and refinished at one point in time. I have seen rifles and carbines with the JC markings behind the trigger bar, It is the inspectors initials and does not stand for General Custer which would be G C . The crown also looks a bit thick and front sight looks a bit off but could just be the pictures.