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| My 1884 Trapdoor Springfield. |
I recently acquired an 1884 Trapdoor Springfield rifle. There will probably be a later blog post writing about the specifics of this particular rifle, which is somewhat interesting in its own right, but today we will just discuss the results of my first attempt to shoot it.
Trapdoor ammunition went through several iterations, starting with the 52-caliber Alin conversions, but after 1873 all of them were designed for .45-70 ammunition. The first cartridges were .45-70-405, meaning .45 caliber, 70 grains of rifle powder, and a ball weighing 405 grains. Later they switched to a 500-grain bullet because it gave better long-range ballistics, and since I have a later model of rifle, it is this .45-70-500 cartridge I have sought to replicate.
There will be a very detailed blog post later about loading ammunition for the Trapdoor, as it is, by far, the most complex to load I have ever attempted. For now, I will just say that I used Starline .45-70 brass, Swiss 1.5F and Schuetzen 2F powders (see below), and 500-grain bullets cast from 1:20 tin:lead using a Lee mold. The bullet is a nearly perfect replica of the original.
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| .45-70-500 Ammunition. |
Conditions
Lytle Creek, Sunny, 69 deg., wind 4 mph from 3-4:00, humidity 37%, barometer 29.84 inHg and rising. Range: 100 yards. All shots fired from a seated unsupported position using a full hold sight picture.
I shot two tables of fire, the first with ten rounds of Schuetzen 2F powder and the second with 15 rounds of Swiss 1.5F powder.
The results were gauged using the String Test system. If you are a historical shooter and aren’t using it, you are uncivilized—go to historicalshooting.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-string-test-measure-for-historical.html and educate yourself, then come back.
Later I will do a much deeper dive to study the ballistics of this cartridge, and will work out the figure of merit along with other important data, but for now I was primarily interested in muzzle velocity, so I shot unsupported and didn’t bother with the complicated Figure of Merit.
Table One: 70 grains of Schuetzen 2F
Rounds: 10
String: 27.25
String Test: 2.7 in./rd.
Average muzzle velocity: 1,094 fps.
Muzzle energy: 1,329 ft.-lbs.
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| Table One: Schuetzen 2F. |
Table Two: 70 grains of Swiss 1.5F
Rounds: 15
String: 56.0
String Test: 3.7 in./rd.
Average muzzle velocity: 1,220 fps.
Muzzle energy: 1,652 ft.-lbs.
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| Table Two: Swiss 1.5F. |
Conclusions
Schuetzen is filthy, almost as bad as Goex, and I will never buy it again. Moreover, it produced a MV that was 126 fps slower than the Swiss! According to the Ordnance Department records, the .45-70-500 cartridge should have a muzzle velocity of 1,315 fps, however, so even the Swiss is somewhat slow; perhaps I need Swiss 2F.
The rifle shot beautifully, and very well—I think that when I really buckle down to learn it, it should be extremely accurate. I was pulling to the right when I shot the second table of fire, and I don’t know why; without that, the score would have been better than the first ToF.
Note that the two hits on the upper side of the target for ToF One are clearly keyholed. I cannot figure out what could have caused this.
Recoil was very significant. Not bad, but very significant. The rounds chambered perfectly, without any hitches at all, and ejected just as well. This rifle is superb.
