More .45-70 Springfields, 1873-1893: The Uncommon, the Scarce & the Rare

This book is a descriptive guide to the firearms and accessories produced for the US military, at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts, during the period of 1873 to 1893. It contains detailed descriptions, serial number data, and photographs of EVERY rare variety of the .45-70 Springfield ‘trapdoor’, most never before available in this handy format. Included are Sporting Rifles, the Metcalfe device, the M1875 Officer’s Rifles, the M1880 Triangular rod-bayonet rifle, the 1881 Long-Range rifles, the M1881 Marksman’s rifle, the M1882 Short rifles with 28” barrel, the M1884 Experimental (flat-latch) rod-bayonet rifles, the M1886 “XC” 24” barrel carbine, the .30 caliber ammunition test rifles of the 1890s, and more . . . In addition to the Allin-system ‘trapdoors’ noted above, individual and comprehensive chapters are devoted to the Model 1875 Lee-Springfield “vertical breech” rifle, all five versions of those martial-type Winchester-Hotchkiss repeating arms assembled by Springfield Armory, and, last but not least, the rare Chaffee-Reece magazine gun from the 1882 trials. The book also contains the largest-known accumulation (nearly 50 years in the making) of early Model 1873 Carbine serial numbers from the “Custer Period”, over 1,250 at time of publication.