I went out today with a friend and had the opportunity to shoot his original trapdoor Cadet rifle.

Using Pyrodex loads, 405 grain bullets and the original open sights, I hit the 500 yard gong with the third shot! Kinda neat since I'd not shot it before, and it IS a gen-yoo-wine antique. Who needs a forty-leven powerscope! "Course the gong IS 4'x4'!

I've got a friend with one of those. He had the stock refinished and the gun reblued so it would look like new. It's just a safe queen now.

Sure sounds like you had fun with that old gun. I shot his once, but just at plinking ranges. That was about five years ago and it's never been fired again. I tried to talk him out of getting it refinished, but it's what he wanted. It's sure shiny now with an epoxy stock finish ala Weatherby and a modern bright shiny blue job.

Belle
The Trapdoor is a great gun.
My Carbine was made in 1888,but still has the 1879 rear sight.
I bought it at a A Sporting Goods store for $12.75,awhile back.
I sent the dimentions to a gunmith,who made me a Weaver mount to fit onto the holes of the origional rear sight.I got new life out of the old gun with a Bushnell Hollosite.Recently I transferred the sight to another gun,and reverted the "collectable"to origional status.
Frank

I have a model 1888 Trapdoor with the Buffington sight and another rifle in cadet version. All of these rifles will shoot about one foot high at 100 yards. Although the value of these arms has started to increase, they are still "sleepers" on the collector's market. They are still capable of holding their own in Black Powder Cartridge Silhouette competition.

Due to the softer steel, black powder or pyrodex is to be recommended over smokeless powder. Also, jacketed bullets will accelerate the wear in the barrel.

I told my friend he needs to sell it to me, he just laughed and said something about maybe when a certain hot place experiences sub-zero precipitation! He will, though, let me shoot it anytime I want.

His gun is all original, and has a nice bright bore and a crisp trigger. He only shoots BP or Pyro and cast bullets in it.

My Dad's best friend told me several years ago about when he bought a CASE of trapdoors for $12 each. He gave them away as Christmas gifts. His brother made a lamp out of one - drilled a hole in the stock for the cord.
AAAAGGGHHH! :mad:

Here are a few of mine. Shoot 'em quite often with 28 grains of H4198 under a 405 grain LFN. They chrono at 1250fps out of the rifle and 1175 fps out of the carbine's. So I would assume that the load is at it's ballistic max for the carbine/rifle barrel length. BP is another story all together. Still have not gotten the .458 sized bullets to stabilize, I've tried 60 grains FFg, 65 grains, and 70 grains with .030 Veg wad and compressing the powder, tried 60 and 65 grains Swiss cartridge...still no luck. Even chrono'd the 70 grain FFg load at 1410 fps (has to be the limit on the original '73s). Slugged the barrels and they do have .460 grooves, but why does the smolkeless work, but the BP not?

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g48/OTH_2006/4Trapdoors.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g48/OTH_2006/1873Rifles001.jpg

Old time hunter:

Are you casting your own bullets? If so try a 1 in 20 or 1 in 30 alloy. Size the bullets at .459 or .460 and they should "bump up" nicely upon firing. I've had good luck with Lyman's 457193 bullet. It is listed at 405 grains but they actually weigh 416 grains cast with 1 in 30 alloy. I get good performance with black powder, in fact, I discourage the use of smokeless powder in the older trapdoor rifles due to their soft steel.