I appreciate all the comments about the H&R Trapdoor Musket find. It's been YEARS since I've seen one, and I can recall seeing only three of them ever. I do occasionaly find the H&R Trapdoor Carbines of various flavors, but the Musket has been elusive as chicken teeth . . .
Airdaleman: Many thanks for posting the ad for the H&R Carbines. I can remember reading those ads when they appeared in the trade managzines, but the Trapdoor didn't float my boat back then. Had a fiance to marry, house to buy, career to establish, family to start and raise -- I was busy at the time. QUESTION: What "model number" did the factory apply to the Trapdoor Musket? How many were made?
AJMD429 wrote: . . . Is that a sling swivel in front of the trigger guard...
Yes it is. The other swivel is on the upper band.
Sixgun: No, you can't have it. No harm in asking, though.
H&R Musket RANGE REPORT: I took the Trapdoor and a couple old Mossberg 22s to the range yesterday afternoon, it is was a cloudless blue sky beautiful day in the mid 60s here with very little wind. I fired some 405 gr Remington factory loads as a "standard" and found that the musket was printing about 10" high but on center at 200 yds. The former owner had shaved off the top of the front sight post to regulate the Musket to his "1100 fps handloads" so I tried a couple of my tried and true 13 gr Unique under a 350 gr cast & gaschecked RNFP loads. Those slowpokes hit 2" under and dead center, so I adjusted the sight up a flat and the Unique handloads then hit dead center if I held at 6 o'clock. If it wasn't for the "boom", I wouldn't know if they went off. Someone had put out some claybirds on the 200 yd berm, and with the forend of the Musket on a sandbag on a wood block, I nailed a claybird with the fourth shot of Unique handloads. Close enough, but I'm going to look for a taller front sight anyway.
On to the Mossbergs, a Model 46M was cranky feeding and a good cleaning and adjustment of the cartridge elevator arm spring on the arm itself took care of the feeding problems. A recently-purchased Mossy 151 was FILTHY inside the action and the feed tube in the stock, so I gave it a complete field day treatment. Sunday was the first chance to get out, and the 151 functioned 100%, even with standard velocity Wolf target .22s, which don't cycle ANY semi-auto for me up to now. I burned up a box of 50 Wolf 22s in that 151 and it ran like a champ and VERY accurate. I chased an empty 20 oz pop bottle around the 50 yd berm for most of the 50 rds until a spinning shot sent it over and behind the berm. Then I fired the remaining rounds at larger bits of broken claybird, making them smaller.
Once again, I'm pretty stoked to be fortunate enough to find an H&R Trapdoor Musket, and was conmpelled to share with y'all boys. It appears to be a keeper, and I very much appreciate your comments!
Noah
Might as well face it, you're addicted to guns . . .
