Trapdoor Carbine
The 19th Century  Military Workhorse    

Original "Trapdoor Springfield" rifles are 19th century, military, black powder cartridge rifles. These particular firearms are of the caliber known as "45-70 Government", and have rifling significantly wider and deeper than that found on civilian rifles of the same caliber made by firms such as Marlin and Winchester. 

The result is rifling that is slightly over bullet diameter; standard practice is to make rifling slightly under this diameter. Thus, the tin-lead alloy bullets required must be able to expand at the base to seal in this rifling. This was accomplished in the original bullet, the M1873 405gr, by a hollow base, similar to that of the legendary civil-war "Minie" bullet. In 1881, the rifle cartridge was upgraded to a 500gr flat-base bullet, whose mass was sufficient for it to obturate in the rifling without need for a hollow base; the cartridges for the carbine continued to use the M1873 bullet.

The ammunition required for accurate shooting from these rifles must take into account this fact. The philosophy behind this rifling was that a military rifle needs to be capable of firing many rounds accurately before cleaning is needed, and it was decided to provide room, in the form of this deeper, wider rifling, for the buildup of excessive fouling produced by the black powder ammunition then in use.

With their new 1873 Springfield Trapdoor Carbines, Custer and the 7th Cavalry rode off to the Little Big Horn and into the pages of history. The powerful Trapdoor single shot rifle was also quite popular with many famous Indian warriors. Sitting Bull was carrying a Trapdoor Carbine when he surrendered to American troops at Fort Buford, North Dakota. And Geronimo was carrying his faithful Trapdoor Carbine when he turned over his arms to General Miles in 1886.

Along with seeing service on both sides during the Indian Wars in the American West, the Trapdoor was also widely used by American troops during the Spanish American War, both in Cuba and the Phillipines.
 

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