Springfiield Model 1884 Trapdoor

[dross]

For Christmas, I got a Springfield Model 1884 Trapdoor rifle, 45-70.

Do any of you know much about this rifle? I have lots of questions for someone knowledgable.

 

[DownByTheTracks]

What would you like to know?

 

[dross]

What would you like to know?

1. The previous owner, when he was young and foolish, applied shellac to the stock. I'd like to remove it and restore the oil finish to the wood. What's the best way to do it?

2. Who, if anyone, makes a commercial load that mimics the 500 grain 1330 fps round that the sights were made for?

3. What hand loads can do the above with modern powder?

4. How do you measure the bore, since its rifling is the 3 groove type?

I may have others.

 

[DownByTheTracks]

1. Try furniture stripper. The older, the better. Once you "melt away" the crud you need to "boil" the stock. This is done by boiling towels in a pot of water and wrapping them tightly around the stock several times. This will pull out the oil and raise any dents in the wood. After that, refinishing is just a matter of how the stock was originally done. Normally just boiled linseed oil or something equivalent.

2. I don't know of anyone that produces commercial 45-70 ammo to fit the sight drop. Handloading with blackpowder is the best option.

3. As far as I know, none. The information I have on the trapdoors indicates that the actions were made of soft steel and fairly weak. Modern smokeless powder is not safe, and any handloading should be done with blackpowder.

4. The best way to measure a bore is to "slug it". Get a lead round ball a little oversized of the bore and shove it through the barrel, then mike the widest part.

 

[malern28us]

Have you checked with any of the cowboy action shooters? Might try Bitterroot Valley Ammo also.

 

[boozoo]

Don't really need stripper.... shellac dissolves in alcohol. take it all apart, start swabbing it with denatured alcohol, and it will eventually soften up and wipe off.

The oil finish is really easy.... use a boiled linseed oil or a pure tung oil, scrub the first couple of coats in with 0000 steel wool, then hand rub the last coats... leave at least 24hrs drying time in between coats.

My favorite resource for redoing stocks is here:
Surplusrifle Forum • View forum - Stock Care and Replacement Stocks

There's tons of good information in the stickies, as well as a lot of good people available to answer specifics if you need addt'l help.

 

[Hoosier8]

Don't really need stripper.... shellac dissolves in alcohol. take it all apart, start swabbing it with denatured alcohol, and it will eventually soften up and wipe off.

The oil finish is really easy.... use a boiled linseed oil or a pure tung oil, scrub the first couple of coats in with 0000 steel wool, then hand rub the last coats... leave at least 24hrs drying time in between coats.

My favorite resource for redoing stocks is here:
Surplusrifle Forum • View forum - Stock Care and Replacement Stocks

There's tons of good information in the stickies, as well as a lot of good people available to answer specifics if you need addt'l help.

Good resource. I went there to figure out how to make a repair to a check in my trapdoor stock.

Here is a source for some black powder cartridges. Powder Inc. had a sale on discontinued Pinnacle powder black powder substitute 45-70 cartridges for such a good price I almost could not pass it up so bought a couple hundred cartridges.

Ammo at Black Dawge Cartridge

My repair. It will darken as time goes on. The repaired wood check is on the left side of the picture.

 

[dross]

4. The best way to measure a bore is to "slug it". Get a lead round ball a little oversized of the bore and shove it through the barrel, then mike the widest part.

I guess the problem with this is the three groove rifling. Apparently there's a tricky way to measure that I can't find on the internet.

 

[DownByTheTracks]

I have a regular customer that hand loads black powder 45-70s and plays with the old guns a lot. I'll see if he knows the proper way to measure it.

 

[DownByTheTracks]

The lands are the tricky part to measure, but you should be able to get a reading on the groove diameter.

 

[451_Detonics]

Trail Boss would be a great powder for this, 10 grain with a 485 cast would be a very pleasant 800fps

 

[DownByTheTracks]

The Black Dawge Cartridges really looks like the way to go.

 

[nrar15]

You can check out this site. Lots of good info and great people. I found that hollow base bullets are the way to go when I had my Trapdoor real fun guns to shoot.

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