Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR H&R Trapdoor Officer's Model

I am thinking about picking one of these up and was wondering if anyone has any experience with them? My main use will be for hunting. I plan to use BP and the same cast bullets I use in the Sharps. I have both greaser and paper patch molds to try.

Stay with your Sharps and save your money.

I have one that I bought on a whim a few years ago. Was one of those rare instances when the price was more than fair. Periodically, I see them for sale up here at hard-to-believe prices.

'Nevva' loaded Black Powder or cast in it. With the difficult for me to see OEM front sight and the rear tang, the rifle will hold 10 shots in about 2.25" from the bench. Load is a 300 grain Remington HP, 24(??) grains SR4759, and a WLR primer. Found the load in a 1950's Ideal-Lyman reloading manual and approximates or duplicates Black Powder velocity. I find the carbine shoots better with the cleaning rod removed. But then again, I only shoot for grouping on paper targets.

Right now the carbine is at the 'smiths for installation of a lee Shaver front globe sight and a check up on the breech block mechanism. "Range rumor" is that the locking latch or mechanism is the weak link and might need some attention. Smith agreed that it is a good idea to check it out.

In my opinion, the OEM sights not the best. Tang sight is difficult to adjust. Even though it is made form modern steels, stay within the Black powder pressures and velocity -- it is still a Trapdoor....

You have to watch the locking cam on those. They are held in place by a set screw and can come loose and rotate on the shaft. Originals are square shaft/square hole. It's possible to fire with it barely locked/unlocked. Some people drill and pin them in place. I have one & it would work well for hunting, much lighter than my Sharps

Ray Newman pretty well nailed it. A friend of mine fell into one about 20 years ago, and I fooled with it for about a week. The big problem for hunting is the crappy tang sight and lack of a ladder sight or a Buffington on the Officer's Model. As I said, if you want a hunting rifle, you already have a great one. Save your money.

They make good boat anchors....as long as you tie a 50# cinder block to 'em!!

I've owned many different single shots, but Trapdoors are an exception. If I stumbled across a fine condition original it would be nice to have just for its history, but I'd use much care in shooting. The repros have no history, and are still fussy.

No, it goes way beyongd "fussy",.... they're WEAKER,....that stupid H&R locking cam set screw is an accident looking for places to happen, and faces to hurt.

Dunno' how many here have stripped and serviced 47 of em', in one "Bang" so to speak,.......I have.

"Pretty junk" is all I have to say about them. Their overcut chambers and overly deep rim recesses just exacerbate an already potentially catastrophic situation.

As for the originals,...they will drive TACKS in a preternaturally accurate fashion, ....properly loaded for.

With the action PROPERLY set up, and with PROPERLY fire formed brass, and PROPERLY cast / lubricated bullets, one can consider the block pin a feature that keeps the block from getting lost,...and not get too concerned about blow ups.

BUT,.....you get stupid with a trapdoor, it WILL get stupid , right back in your face.

GTC

....leaving a heavily stressed breeching supported by little jewelry sized whiskers of material. One that I'd shy away from, on my most optimistic day.
NONE of the original set screw bores went through the center of that boss either,....so when I say whiskers of metal, I MEAN just that.

Your eyes,....YOU make the call, .....all I can do is advise.

GTC

I had one of the plain jane H&R trapdoor carbines when they first came out and I also had an original trapdoor rifle at the same time. I shot both quite a bit using cast bullets and smokeless loads that gave BP equivalent ballistics.

After 3 or 4 hundred rounds, I noticed that the H&R breechblock was loosening up quite a bit and recall that the locking cam seemed to be peening its recess. The original rifle was holding up just fine with the same loads.

I didn't dissect the problem very thoroughly, but it looked to me like the metallurgy, heat treating and/or manufacture of the new gun was not up to the quality of the old one.

Personally I would consider an H&R trapdoor rifle to be a collector item rather than a shooter.

You can spot the Sharps shooters here. I would agree on passing on the purchase. There is no reproduction that comes close to an original other than Shiloh, C Sharps and USFA for Colt reproductions...

Had one, sold it. I was worried about pressures. Mine had the same lock problem except it would stay locked locked closed after firing. Fortunately I have a buddy who's a gunsmith and he fixed that right away. I replaced the front sight with a 17a Globe and never liked the rear tang that was on it. It was darn near impossible to adjust it with any degree of repeatability. With the sight set up the best I ever did with it was 2 MOA at 100 yds. Looked pretty but I prefer shooting them, I got my hands on a original 1859 Sharps in .45-100 after I sold the H&R and never looked back. Here's a pic of my old H&R...