#Springfield trapdoor rifle series#

The “weak” Remington breech repeatedly survived such abuse in tests. Well, except to the target, which looked rather like it had gotten on the wrong end of a six-pounder firing canister. The French experts reported laconically, “Nothing extraordinary happened”. It was then fired (with a lanyard!) from behind an armored screen.

#Springfield trapdoor rifle series#

In one test in France, a standard rolling-block rifle was loaded literally from breech to muzzle with over thirty bullets, a series of wads, and a triple powder-charge. The Rider-designed breech is famous for staying shut even with overloads that burst the barrel. In one Gun Digest Annual one writer (who shall remain nameless) waxed rhapsodic about the superiority of the trapdoor breech over the Remington rolling block on safety grounds, because (by his admission) the trapdoor breech invariably failed before the barrel split at the chamber. The result was usually a case-head separation and the shooter getting a faceful of hot brass and hotter gas. If the spring-catch failed, the breech pressure generally overcame the hammer’s inertia and spring, forcing the breech to pop open while there was still pressure in the chamber.

Those being the spring-loaded catch and the hammer hitting the firing pin- the latter on the principle of the downforce of the hammer, driven by its spring, acting against the front hinge’s upward rotation at firing. I hate to say this, but the Allin breech (the correct name for the “trapdoor”) was probably the weakest of the “conversion-breech” systems.īasically, the “cam lock” as it was described relied on two things to hold it shut.