2020 September Premier, Volume I

Authentic American Frontier Buffalo Rifle
The John Fox Collection
76
LOT 60
Phenomenal, “Frontier Issued and Converted” U.S.
Springfield Model 1868 Plains Hunting Rifle - Serial no. 5738,
50-70 cal., 32 5/8 inch round bbl., bright finish, walnut stock. The
sensational piece of American history offered here is not only a
witness to the American frontier, western expansion, the horror and
glory, but a first hand participant. It gets no more authentic than
this! In addition to the standard markings of the Model 1868, this
interesting rifle has a bone blade front sight, modified notch and
ladder rear sight (no elevator), a pinned rawhide repair on the stock
at the breech, and adjustable double set triggers. It is configured so
that the triggers must be set in order to fire the rifle. The left stock
flat has four faint cartouches. Springfield Trapdoors, particularly
the older .50 caliber models like the 1868, are known to have been
used by buffalo hunters on the Great Plains in the late 19th century
who were encouraged to wipe out the great bison herds as part
of the Indian Wars in the late 1860s to early 1880s. Some of these
rifles were no doubt also captured and used by Native Americans
who acquired them through trade or capture.
CONDITION: Its scars are its beauty. If you want a mint example
of a Trapdoor rifle look elsewhere. If you want one of the most
authentic, been there done that, tangible pieces of the American
epic that is an Indian fighter, a hunter, a survivor, a lifeline look no
further. There is no other gun in this writers experience that upon
physical inspection immediately takes you back 150 years. This rifle
radiates the struggle, the grit, the raw savagery and epic allure that
was life on the American frontier.
Estimate: 3000 - 5000