In fact, if anything, I was going to get an Uberti break top revolver.
But then, I saw this 1884 Springfield Trapdoor rifle. It had a perfect bore. I mean, mint. The exterior was sanded, polished, whatever, ruined. The price was $465. I knew I was in trouble. The wood was in good condition. It had a metal cleaning rod. Clean action, spry ejector. And, value depressed in terms of historic value.
See, I recently attended a Buffalo shoot at the Dalton Gang cowboy shooting range in Dalton, NH. I had been given several beautiful High Walls, Sharps, and other rifle caliber rifles to shoot. So, I knew I needed to add a 45-70 to my burgeoning arsenal.
Surprisingly, authentic Springfield's sell for less than replicas, and occasionally are in VERY shootable condition.
None of this mattered to me. All I saw was, 45-70, shiny, price range. I'm pretty grateful I saw the Springfield before the Browning pump .22. Honestly, I don't need another .22.
The wife was not too pleased. But, what the heck. She's seeing the UPS driver, so I don't have to pretend to care what she thinks anymore.
Anyway.
The Springfield was safely tucked away in the back of the Subaru, I indulged in some Schedenfreude (look it up) on the way home, pulling the back roads with my notoriously prone to car sickness wife beside me. Some research today revealed that, A, the rifle was made in 1888, some fool had sanded every exposed piece of metal to a bright matte, and that the bore was mint, either relined or not.
I had purchased a box of Bullseye 45-70-405 ammo at Kittery, smokeless, to test the gun if I felt so inclined.
By remarkable coincidence, I felt so inclined just this afternoon.
I decided to be subtle and not bring everything I own out to the range. Turned out, it didn't matter. No one was there, so subtlety was not called for. In retrospect, the stark desolation of an empty range with no witnesses should have been heralded as a warning.
Having read the occasional post about people firing historic rifles and losing the occasional eye or occasional half a hand, etc, I decided to fire the first shot with bravado, machismo, and figeretto.
I put the Springfield on a sand bag and crawled under the shooting table.
Hey, I'm an idiot, but I ain't stupid.
Anyway, the first round didn't sound too bad. There wasn't any shrapnel or dead chipmunks in sight, so, I figured it was good to go. The second shot, I drew on the training that my U.S. Army drill sergeant had assured me was worth 100,000 dollars, and that was the reason he wanted me to die quickly, rather than to drag it out and waste taxpayer dollars, and so I, ignoring the niceties of MTA governed rules of English grammar, placed my cheek firmly against the buttstock, with my nose delicately touching the knuckle of my thumb as I focused on the front sight and placed it center mass on the target at 25 yards.
I woke up, curled in a fetal position, sucking my thumb, underneath the shooting table. A very sweet ten year old packing a ruger Buckmark told me to grow a pair and take charge of my weapon.
Maybe I hallucinated the ten year old, maybe not, but I have to say, the memory that most resembled shooting a smokeless 45-70-405 just happened to be loading for a 105mm main gun M1 Abrams main battle tank.
If you are one of those gun owners that thinks guns are cool, but has no actual military experience, let me try to help you understand the effect.
Noise. Violence. Fear. Motion. Confusion. Awe.
Lots and lots of awe.
I am serious. I've shot a few rifles, fired a few .50 cals, loaded and fired a few 105 and 120 howitzer main gun rounds, and I have to say: Placing my cheek against the Springfield buttstock and firing that SECOND round made my heart flutter just a bit.
I honestly can't believe they fought wars that way. I really feel like I would have been, like, "Here, Sitting Bull, we all have these here cannons. Do you surrender or what?"
Yah yah. I know it was the 1873 and not the 1884, but my point stands. It's a a scary thing.
![Image](http://www.viciousbunny.net/images/Springfield/Gun.jpg)
The gun had a decent stock. But, the previous owner had scrubbed all metal surfaces.
The bore looked mint, but something about the muzzle makes me think it was relined.
At 50 yards, it shot about 10 inches high.
At 100 yards, with all the tears, the shaking hands and the soiled undies, it still shot 2
3 inches.
I can't wait to see how it shoots with black powder. Anyway, it seems sound enough. I'm going to score it a good buy.