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

@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