Interesting 45-70 Story

[Southron]

About 30 or so years ago, I had a replica H & R Trapdoor Springfield Rifle. Several friends and I were shooting rifles at a range late one Saturday afternoon in the Summer. We must have had a half dozen rifles in addition to my H & R. A friend of mine was shooting his British .303 Enfield Rifle while another friend was banging away with a well used M-1 Carbine.

Guy put down his M-1 Carbine and asked me IF he could shoot my Trapdoor Springfield. I said "Sure" and informed him that a box of Remington .45-70 rounds were on the table next to it. He thanked me, picked up the TD, loaded it and "Ker.....BLOoooie."

The round sounded strange and as I was getting up to investigate, he said: "Heck...Your Trapdoor Action is STUCK!!!!!

He handed the rifle to me and it took me a couple of minutes working with the action to get it open. Then I had to run the ramrod down the barrel to dislodge the fired cartridge case.

I was wondering what was wrong until I examined the base of the fired cartridge case. The three numerals I read got me: "303"

So, while everyone says that the Trap Door Action is "Weak," I know that at least my replica H & R Trapdoor could handle a "full house" .303 British round.

Oh yes, we never found out where the bullet went, it definitely DIDN'T HIT THE TARGET!!! So, I can't recommend using .303 British ammo for a hunting round in your .45-70 TD!!!

[Major Tom]

Ya just gotta supervise dumda$$s all the time.

[Dick Hosmer]

Don't forget that the TD action, albeit a slightly beefed up version, was used - in the early 1890s - to develop the.30 cal smokeless cartridge that became the .30-40 Krag. They never had a blow-up, but the latch frequently had to be hammered open with a small lead mallet. Were you aware that the hinge pin is unnecessary, and that a TD may be safely fired without it? DON'T try it at home, but the theory is correcy, and has been tested.

In your case, despite the overload, the steel is likely a bit better, and, an awful lot of gas would have been able to vent past the bullet. That doesn't mean I'd advocate a second try, however! :-)