The sensational piece of American history offered here is not only a witness to the American frontier, western expansion, the horror and glory, but a first hand participant. It gets no more authentic than this! In addition to the standard markings of the Model 1868, this interesting rifle has a bone blade front sight, modified notch and ladder rear sight (no elevator), a pinned rawhide repair on the stock at the breech, and adjustable double set triggers. It is configured so that the triggers must be set in order to fire the rifle. The left stock flat has four faint cartouches. Springfield Trapdoors, particularly the older .50 caliber models like the 1868, are known to have been used by buffalo hunters on the Great Plains in the late 19th century who were encouraged to wipe out the great bison herds as part of the Indian Wars in the late 1860s to early 1880s. Some of these rifles were no doubt also captured and used by Native Americans who acquired them through trade or capture.

Its scars are its beauty. If you want a mint example of a Trapdoor rifle look elsewhere. If you want one of the most authentic, been there done that, tangible pieces of the American epic that is an Indian fighter, a hunter, a survivor, a lifeline look no further. There is no other gun in this writers experience that upon physical inspection immediately takes you back 150 years. This rifle radiates the struggle, the grit, the raw savagery and epic allure that was life on the American frontier.