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After 1873, with the advent of the .45-70 cartridge, the Army declared the .50-70 to be surplus, and while some rifles and carbines in .50-70 were issued to Indian Scouts, the bulk were simply sold off as surplus. In the U.S. Navy, however, the .50-70 cartridge and the guns associated with it remained in use until the late 1880s.
The Model 1868 was also the first trapdoor conversion to use the cartridge extractor covered by U.S. Patent No. 68,009, issued August 27, 1867 to W.H. & G.W. Miller. The Model 1868 had an overall length of 51 7 ⁄ 8 inches. [1] Over 50,000 Model 1868 rifles were manufactured, chambered for the .50-70 450 cartridge.
The rifle was chambered for the powerful centerfire .50-70 Government cartridge (.50 caliber 450-grain (29 g) bullet; 70 grains (4.5 g) of black powder). Though a significant improvement over the extractor of the Model 1865 Springfield Rifle, the Model 1866 extractor was still excessively complicated and the extractor spring was somewhat prone ...
The hinged breechblock caused these rifles to be named "Trapdoor Springfields". [3] The conversion from musket to breechloader was done by milling open the barrel's breech section and inserting a hinged trapdoor fastened to the top of the barrel. A thumb-operated cam latch at the rear of the breechblock held it shut when in closed position.
The "Hickok rifle" has a 29.625-inch (75.25 cm) barrel, which is longer than the carbine version's barrel and shorter than the rifle version's barrel, and also has a Kentucky rifle style sloped butt. The trapdoor mechanism is stamped with the year 1870, and the lockplate is stamped with the year 1863, indicating that this rifle was originally ...
By 1874, the rifle was available in a variety of calibers, and it was one of the few designs to be successfully adapted to metallic cartridge use. The Sharps rifles became icons of the American Old West with their appearances in many Western-genre films and books. Perhaps as a result, several rifle companies offer reproductions of the Sharps rifle.
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Originally, the trapdoor Springfields were created to convert Model 1863 Springfield rifled muskets to breech-loading rifles at a relatively low cost. The Model 1869 Cadet Rifle was a shortened version of the Springfield Model 1868. It had a 29.5 inch barrel, compared to the 32.5 inch barrel of the Model 1868, and had an overall length of 48.8 ...