Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR Trapdoor Springfields...

...have always been sort of interesting to me. I know they are much less strong than the various falling block actions, and care is required in loading. I also gather the bore dimensions vary a lot, so it may take some development work to dial in the best shooting loads. It will take caution to ensure that a "Ruger Only" load never finds its way into the old-timer, or disaster will result

On the plus side, you have a ~130 year old rifle with some real history on it, and in good condition you are looking at getting one for a fraction of the cost of an original High Wall or Sharps. The cartridge is an effective killer, even loaded down to Trapdoor-safe levels.

I searched here for references but got no hits. If anyone can point to some good references on the care & feeding of the Trapdoor, it would be appreciated. Ditto any shared experiences for acquiring and loading them.

Shooting Buffalo Rifles of the Old West by Mike Venturino is a good place to start....

while they are weak compared to modern actions and even a Sharps, a trapdoor really isnt any weaker of a design than a whole lot of other black powder rifles of the same time.....it is more than strong enough for any black powder load....not sure why its always singled out for being weak and any one of 100 other designs arent....

Venturino's book is an okay start, but if you want THE BEST reference on shooting the trapdoors, find a copy of "Loading Cartidges for the Original .45-70 Springfield Rifle and Carbine" by J.S. and Pat Wolf.

A good read, even if you don't own a trapdoor.

If you want the absolute first and last word on trapdoors, look no further than the reprints of the US Army springfield manual.
Getting a decent trapdoor will cost about the same as one of the recent Winchester bpcr hiwalls.
They are fun old rifles, once a fella figures out what each rifle wants to be fed,they can be very accurate.
Don't sell the trapdoor action short on strength, they did fool around with rebarreling them to 30-40, but decided to go with the Krag rifle instead.

You might enjoy these articles.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=61694

very interesting stuff. I had long thought the rolling block was stronger than the Trapdoor, but it appears not to be the case.

In Pet Loads Ken Waters talked about the choice of the Army's choice of the Trapdoor over the Sharps, and he pointed out the ammunition of the day was frequently inconsistent in size. In those cases the extra camming & extraction power of the Trapdoor improved reliability.

Horsechit.

A.)The Springfield proponents had a better brand of Champagne, at fancier Whorehouses, to take the .Gov procurement people to.

B.) The design allowed a HORDE of leftover ML "Rifle Muskets" to be converted, as opposed to procuring new arms,....once the "conversion" contract ran out, the old tooling (For Stocks, Barrel bands, Trigger Guards, Locks AND Barrels) was already in place, as was a contented pool of happily employed VOTERS.

"long thought the rolling block was stronger than the Trapdoor, but it appears not to be the case."

Horsechit with calf scour poured over it, my friend.

GTC

I will allow that one of the posters on the castboolits thread made a point about the hinge pin on the Trapdoor. It fails and all bets are off.

But the destructive tests of the trapdoor were interesting. It took some stupid overloads of smokeless to blow it.

Proving that crossfirepoops doesn't know what he's driveling about.

Cross, (and others here) have more experience and knowledge with the subject of BPCR that I ever will, and more than you'll ever dream of. Shoo away and let the adults have a conversation.