another vintage trapdoor picture

[butlersrangers]

That 1st gent looks like a Michigan National Guardsman with a Model 1899 Remington-Lee (in .30-40) and a navy blue Mills belt which includes pockets for spare mags and Remington bayonet! - Great Picture - Please tell me more!
That second gent seems to have some type of Trapdoor Musketoon. It has a sling-bar with ring and appears to have only one barrel-band. Neat, I am not familiar with this variation. Could it be a Model 1886 experimental carbine? Great Pictures! Thanks.

[Dick Hosmer]

Yes, that has to be an XC - nothing else is possible.

[Fred]

Nothing to do so thought I would post a couple more

1st a later group with their rifles
I had to do a little manipulation as it is a light photo



And possibly an actress with her carbine

The lady with the carbine is not of European decent. She seems to have facial features that could be Micronesian, Hispanic, South or Central American Indian or South Seas, Hawaiian, Philippine Morrow or take your pick. She appears to be wearing ceremonial or cultural clothing. Her left foot appears to be very short. Maybe it isn't. However maybe she is missing part of her left foot from an accident or it has been disfigured by cultural tradition. Maybe she has been given the carbine to help her stand for the photo. Just some thoughts on it all.
As a matter of fact, I believe that she is an Hawaiian princes or queen or someone of that line. Just a gut feeling.

[butlersrangers]

Fred: You may be correct about a deformity to the 'Carbine Lady's' left foot (or it is an illusion with the 'rug'), but, I think you are wrong about her ethnicity. The woman's facial features look quite fair skinned, round faced, German to me. Her costume is quite flamboyant and looks made of curtains or draperies, with Leopard skin, arm bands and chains! (Attached are photos of Liliukalani, 1st and last female Hawaiian Monarch. Also, a rare 1898 photo of Moro women, from Mindanao, P.I. Coloring and facial bone structure are quite different from 'Carbine Lady', IMHO). Americans were pretty wild around 1900, when they improvised costumes! Sorry no guns in attached pics.

Is it just me or do the young men with neck ties have Cadet length Trapdoors?

[butlersrangers]

By the 1890s the Michigan State Troops were armed with Model 1873 Springfields. However, in the early 1880s, Michigan had purchased Sharps-Borchardts for her Troops, when the Federal Government was slow in providing arms. The Borchardt proved fragile, unpopular and unsatisfactory for State Militia service. The Trapdoor was simpler and more robust.
The Michigan Naval Reserves were armed with Remington-Lee rifles in .45-70.

(Photos showing: Detroit Light Guard, circa 1898, with 'Trapdoors'. They are probably taking the Inter-urban to the camp at Island Lake for SAW service. 1882 photo of Dupont's Co. of Detroit Light Guard at Island Lake annual encampment. Picture shows great detail of their Borchardts. Lastly, Detroit Naval Reserves at 1895 Memorial Day celebration and GAR Parade. The sailors are carrying .45-70 Remington-Lees with magazines removed).

Det-sailors-1895-&#1.jpgdetroit L.G.1898..jpgmich1882..jpgDet-sailors-1895-&#1.jpgDet-sailors-1895-&#1.jpg

[da gimp]

In the photo of the young men with ties....... does one of them (2nd from L on bottom row) have a shotgun? & good eyes fred.......... on spotting the injured foot.

Looked harder at the pix in better light.. it appears to just be a rifle with sling in the man's hand.........

[Dick Hosmer]

Dick, what do you think of the photos of the young men with 'ties' and the Michigan Military Academy 'cadets'? Are those full-length 1873s?

Hard to tell, but I think, without getting too deep into it, that they are full length.

[butlersrangers]

Thanks Dick:
I played with Mich. M.A. - (Orchard Lake) photo a bit. I think these Model 1873 rifles may be Cadet rifles.
They seem to lack a swivel on the trigger-guard bow and appear to have just a stacking-swivel on the forward barrel-band. I am not expert with trapdoors and do not have the best reference material.


Mich-M-A-2ed.jpg

[45govt]

Well here are a few more

84 rifle wearing a rifleman's knife and two small handguns, note the rifle has a site cover



A large group



On the range



And in the PI

[Dick Hosmer]

Last picture clearly shows the scarce, if not rare, hook-style scabbard frog.