#Trapdoor

The list presented below goes in no particular order. The model names are linked to the corresponding Rock Island Auction pages where you can find more and higher resolution images as well as more detailed descriptions of the lots.

The April 2019 Morphy Extraordinary, Sporting, & Collector Firearms auction has ended and the list of prices realized has been published by the auction house. As always, we examined the list and found the five most expensive firearms sold during this auction. Our list goes in a price ascendancy order. The lot names are linked to the corresponding pages in Morphy auction’s catalog where you can find more images and read more detailed descriptions of the lots. Let’s take a look!

One of the odder inventions that eventually reached active service in an issued rifle, the rod bayonet existed in the 1800s and early 1900s. It was an attempt to reduce the load of the soldier by creating an extremely lightweight rod or tri-bladed bayonet that was internal to the rifle. A soldier wouldn’t have to worry about losing a long knife and theoretically had an ideally better tool for stabbing. It originally seeing some experimentation on the Hall rifle, then later on the 1873 Trapdoor Springfield. It was evident on early Springfield prototypes as well and finally becoming main issue when the 1903 Springfield was adopted in 1903. However this is what was the final nail in the coffin for the rod bayonet because it started encountering problems when being employed in the field. It was too thin, could easily be bent and then get in the path of the round, and even worse, could not be fitted back into the stock of the rifle if it did get damaged. Things came to a head when President Theodore “Teddy” Rosevelt broke one off in the White House and demanded a better version be produced. Experiments were done with enlarging the rod and strengthening it, but at this point the soldiers might as well have been issued an original bayonet for the same weight and even more utility. It was eventually completely taken off from all the production rifles and thus ended the rod bayonet.

The Springfield Trapdoor was America’s first standard issue breech-loading rifle beginning in 1873. The advantage of rifles using metallic cartridges was quickly realized, and the hinged breechblock action of the Model 1873 was chosen over competing designs because of the ease by which existing rifles could be converted. In this video we showcase a Model 1884 and do a bit of shooting.