71

[butlersrangers]

Neat! Thanks for sharing the pics.

[psteinmayer]

Geeze Culp... how DO you manage to find these low-numbered treasures? If it shoots nice, bring it to Perry and you will definitely have the oldest rifle on the line... that is unless Stretch decides to amaze us and actually bring his Trapdoor like we were talking about at last year's Nationals!

I just lucked into them. That and having money at the time. Ol' 71 came from oldguns.net

Would Stretch be able to shoot in the matches with a trapdoor?

Rumor has it that is has been done once many moons ago! If one were careful and deliberate, and were able to position the rounds in such a way that reloads could be quickly accessed... AND as long as the ejector throw the spent ones out of the way... then we speculated that it could actually be done! 80 seconds is a pretty short period of time, but many of us have experienced a problem such as a stove-pipe, or a click, or misfeed... and still managed to get all ten off with time to spare. So... who knows?

Can you imagine being in the pits and a 45 caliber 500 grain bullet smacks the paper? Don't know about anyone else, but with the first round, I might actually need a depends! LOL

[Dick Hosmer]

Anyone wanting to shoot rapid fire with a .45-70 should consider a bolt-action Model 1885 Remington-Lee Navy. 5-round detachable box magazines, basicially the same as an AR15. If stripper clips are allowed with 1903s, then there should be no problem with mags on the R-L?

[waterman]

But it's easy to find a trapdoor. I've been messing with this stuff since the late 50s, all over the country, and I've never even seen a Remington-Lee, for sale. I might have seen one for show, but not sure. To me, they are museum pieces.

[Dick Hosmer]

I lucked into one, many years ago, at a yard sale in Marin County. The old man (I said it was years ago ) who'd owned it apparently could not figure out how to remove the bolt - which is necessary to get at the rear guard screw - so he just set the flopping bunch of parts aside, then, he passed away. I picked it up for almost nothing, and fixed it, fortunately he'd kept the rod and bands, etc. The magazine was missing, but I finally got one - they are tough to find.

Later discovered - from Gene Myzkowski's book - that it was one of the 280 rifles issued to the "California Naval Battalion", which I'd guess was based at Vallejo.

There are several good Youtube videos of them being shot today - thousands were made, but, you are right, you don't see them. Much stronger action than a TD, but I'd still use low-power ammo, were I to shoot it - which I still plan to do some day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r2sBnQaHgE&t=271s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L4UbDOTLts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-PBpKJ7pkg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBllx9SfXV0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA8k0J_h9MU&t=15s

What I find amazing is how "right" Lee got the magazine (billions of basically identical items still in use today). Sorry to stray from Krags!

[Stretch32]

Mr. Hosmer, I've looked at these rifles as well but I don't currently own one. I have a friend who (I think) has a pair of them.

I'm still considering a TD at the National Matches. I have an M1888 ramrod bayonet rifle (made in 1891) that looks brand new and I just picked up a 405 grain cupped bullet mold in .459. If can actually work up a smokeless load that would provide some accuracy I think it's actually an achievable goal to shoot one successfully. I generally just shoot black powder in my rifle and I get some really tight groups replicating the original gov't load with a 500 grain bullet and 69 - 70 grains of powder. I just don't think the other competitors would appreciate their targets being obscured by the enormous cloud of white smoke I'd generate during rapid fire........

Sorry to sidetrack but really neat Krag Culpeper has.

Stretch

[madsenshooter]

I thought the first 100 Krags went to VIPs. Be neat to be able to run it back to one of them.