Thread: The .45-70 Govt turns 150 next year

I have just re read the Trapdoor Springfield book and realised that the .45-70 Govt turns 150 next year

Now I'm pretty sure there will be a hell of a lot of .45-70 owners on the forum and I think this is a massive milestone that i hope will be celebrated with due respect

I have finished one 45-70 build and very nearly finished another this year
Have another started and stalled

Looking at buying an original 1874 model Trapdoor Springfield rifle also

This one is my new old total rebuild

I bet there are some good lookers out there

.45 caliber service rifle cartridge approved by the Secretary of War on May 20 1873

I had an original TD Springfield. I found it horrible and not worth all the hype.

Aweful trigger,kicked like a mule due to the stock design. Easy to reload for and quite accurate though with a Buffington rear sight.45/70 is a good round though just not in aTD imho.

Crikey you sure know how to piss on someone’s fireworks eh

Maybe the old timers were just harder than you. In fact I’d wager they were harder than all of us put together, plus they usually didn’t know any better. A hard kicking rifle? A man’s rifle!

I like @akaroa1 ‘s pics of his amazing handiwork so I hope to see more of that kind of thing in this thread.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Crikey you sure know how to piss on someone’s fireworks eh

Maybe the old timers were just harder than you. In fact I’d wager they were harder than all of us put together, plus they usually didn’t know any better. A hard kicking rifle? A man’s rifle!

I like @akaroa1 ‘s pics of his amazing handiwork so I hope to see more of that kind of thing in this thread.

I see your point but its important not beleive the hype.

As for you calling me soft? I never told you about the time I skinned a Grizly Bear with a sharp clam shell? Bear was still alive at the time.

@norsk the Trapdoor Springfield is my least favorite of the well known early service single shots

But I should own one as representative of a type

Originally Posted by akaroa1

@norsk the Trapdoor Springfield is my least favorite of the well known early service single shots

But I should own one as representative of a type

Fair enough. Good thing is that most of them seem to have good bores and most that I have seen are in good general shape.

Originally Posted by norsk

Fair enough. Good thing is that most of them seem to have good bores and most that I have seen are in good general shape.

I'm looking forward to seeing it and working out what variation it is
It's a rifle and not a carbine so might be more realistically priced and have better sights
But the price will need to be good because I have a couple of much more desirable single shots I'm chasing that will be really solid money

Weren't the TDs, like the Snyder, a conversion of an existing muzzle loader?

Originally Posted by Growlybear

Weren't the TDs, like the Snyder, a conversion of an existing muzzle loader?

Pre 1873 models were a conversion to 50-70 with a barrel liner from .58 cal barrels

Post 1873 models were new builds

So the 50-70s mostly are the barrel top sliced off for the trap door to use the existing barrel as the reciever

.45-70s all have a proper reciever with barrels screwed in as per what we are now used to

At the end of the civil war the US war dept had around 1 million serviceable .58 Springfield muzzleloading rifles and carbines
So it's a no brainer to make a conversion to metallic self contained cartridges

All the big military powers did it in one form or another at least for their first models

Greetings @akaroa1 and all,
I can't think of any other cartridge of the 45-70's age that is still easily available in factory rifles and with plentiful components as well (in normal times at least). It is also used in black powder silhouette competitions out to 500 metres using mostly black powder and plain based cast projectiles. I struggle to think of reasons I don't have one.
Regards Grandpamac.

The trapdoor is a rifle that got stuck in a timewarp. When everyone else had dropped the transitional designs in favour of dedicated single shot rifles the yanks kept churning them out. I've an 1884, the "improved " model. They are basically the same thing as the 73 with small changes to the block and extractor and the wondrous Buffington sight.
It's a rifle thats fun to shoot and quite acurate even with a lighty pitted bore, but its awkward to operate compared to the martini.
Funnily enough it attracts more attention at demonstration range days than the martinis do. People see the hammer and think it's a musket.