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Post by Teleoceras on Oct 1, 2004 23:26:41 GMT -5
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Post by shunka on Nov 20, 2004 18:39:46 GMT -5
By golly, Tele, you are so good at stirring up a pot!
That Trapdoor Hawken is so confound fascinating, that you now have me looking around for a trapdoor action to build upon! That is such an amazing and wonderful looking combination that I cannot contain myself.
I recall in years past that hoolywierd had butchered an incredible number of full length trapdoor rifles by welding a fake frizzen, pan and flint holder onto the trapdoor's lockplate, in order to allow numerous hordes of untrained extras to rapidly shoot blackpowder blanks during large "period" battle scenes in "pre-1800" movies.
But this hawken is a thing of beauty and grace, and I think I shall need to sell off one or two underhammers to finance the construction of one!
best
shunka
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Post by Teleoceras on Nov 25, 2004 22:18:36 GMT -5
By golly, Tele, you are so good at stirring up a pot! That Trapdoor Hawken is so confound fascinating, that you now have me looking around for a trapdoor action to build upon! That is such an amazing and wonderful looking combination that I cannot contain myself. But this hawken is a thing of beauty and grace, and I think I shall need to sell off one or two underhammers to finance the construction of one! Yeah, I thought that particular gun is gorgeous! I always loved the look of a Trapdoor due to it looking so much like it's ancestral muzzleloading root. I wonder how many civilian guns were made with the mechanism? |
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Post by Savagefan on Mar 20, 2005 7:57:28 GMT -5
:)Teleoceras,
Roughly 550,000 "Trapdoor" Springfields were produced by the Springfield Armory. Most common were the Model 1884 (232,500) and the Model 1879 (160,000).
All, including a few 20 gauge "foraging" shotguns and even a few experimental .30 caliber guns in the 1890s, were originally for muilitary use. However, as with all military guns that see use as long as the "Trapdoor", surplus guns and parts were readily available, especially once improved models and features began to replace earlier versions.
Druing the 1880s and early 1890s, a few well known sporting good dealers purchased surplus guns and parts and began turning them into sporting guns. The Whitney Arms Corporation is known to have converted 300 "Trapdoor" Springfields into sporting guns for New York armsdealers "Hartley and Graham".
My understanding is that many of the surplus military guns were fashioned much after the rare "Officer's Rifle" (of which Springfield Armory only produced 477). Some others that went through the "sporter" process were totally reworked into fine sporting rifles.
I worked at Dixie Gun Works back int he 1970s, and was one of the few who cataloged the more than 500 Trapdoor rifles and carbines that Turner Kirkland had amassed. He had at least one of about every version the Springfield Armory produced. Two, that were not, stick out in my mind. And these were Belgium made sporting copies of our beloved Springfield "Trapdoor".
Toby Bridges
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