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One not often seen

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 7:21 pm
by deadin
Model 1875 Springfield Officers Model in 45/70.
Technically this might not be considered military as they were made at the Springfield Armory for sale to officers that were being posted to the frontier to use for sport hunting. A total of 477 of this model in 3 recognized variations were made. This one is a Variation II identified mainly by the single point mounting of the tang sight. (Which didn't work out very well...) These come up for auction fairly regularly on RIA. The problem of wanting one is the price that nice one's command. (Up to $30,000)
I fell into this one at very reasonable price as it is a long way from mint. Actually it show heavy, but honest use. the checkering on the stock is nearly worn off in areas. It came off a ranch in NE Washington that had been homesteaded in the 1890's and had been the "ranch gun" up through WW2. I had to replace the front ight with a replica of the original Beech sight. I fabricated the wiping rod and ferrule and made the tang sight from pictures and measurements of an original.

Re: One not often seen

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2014 7:34 pm
by Niner
Nice addition to your collection. Looks like it has a serious peep sight. Thanks for posting.

Re: One not often seen

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 12:35 am
by Dave 101
It must be satisfying to be able to bring an old gun back to life with your own work and add to its history .

Dave

Re: One not often seen

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 6:11 pm
by Aughnanure
That's an honest old gun; mint ones are great, but a well used but looked after one like your's is, to my mind, more interesting especially as you know some of its history.

What's the bore like?

Re: One not often seen

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 10:06 pm
by deadin
The bore is nearly nonexistent. I can't tell if it is just shot out or whizzed. There does seem to be a trace of rifling, so with the shallow original rifling, I'm going with shot out. I also have a complete list of all the officers that bought the Officers Models. Unfortunately the rifles were not serialized, so unless there is a traceable family connection, there is no way to connect them to the original owner . Mine was obtained by a Swiss immigrant (he was the one that homesteaded the ranch it came from) sometime around 1890-1900 but I can't trace it back any further.
Regardless, even though I have no idea of its worth, there's enough of me in it to make it a keeper.

Re: One not often seen

Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 3:37 am
by DuncaninFrance
Thanks for sharing that, a nice piece to own :) :)