Am looking for a rifle to shoot my club's our 2011 BPCR 600yd events: 
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and am wondering about the H&R Trapdoor rifles, which were made in the '70s. Are they a decent rifle? There are several availabe on the internet and I've always thought it would be nice to own a Trapdoor.

My only problem with an original Trapdoor is knowing that I bought a good one. Can you recommend a 'Trapdoor knowledgeable' person who would check out and give a 'clean bill-of-health' to an original if I purchased? Could that be you?

There is always the option the option of buying a receiver, block, lock, etc. and putting together a "parts gun" with a new manufactured barrel.  I am going this route with one I'm building up for BPCR in the not so distant future and can tell you vtigunparts.com can sell you a pedersoli lock and set trigger assembly for not a ton of money, and it'll go into a treebone pistolgrip stock that shoots very well offhand.

I might add that a Sharps action with DST can be had from Dixie gun works rather inexpensively and would make a superb BPCR silhouette gun.

I had one 20 years ago and used it in 200 yard offhand matches. Recoil was the problem, as finished the H&R officers models are 7 lb guns stocked for offhand shooting only and have a rear sight that is no much use for match shooting.

Stick with Origional Trapdoors is my advice.

Boats

those early H& R trapdoors looked nice but have seen a couple them that upon firing they self ejected the spent case.  very unnerving to see that big piece of metal fly open in front of your eyes
bill

Mine worked good no problems with the the lock up you often hear about but overall the gun was not real shootable. Orgional Officers models were built to be hunting rifles. One shot every so often. Shoot a 40 shot match with one you will wish you had a full rifle Origional.

Buffington sight is way better than the 10 dollar sight on the H&R's  I see one unfired on Cherrys sight 1000 bucks. 600 buys a real nice Trapdoor all day long

Boats

That "Treebone-style" is actually a Marksman's Rifle (or copy).  It is the Holy Grail of trapdoors.  From Frasca's website:


"Marksman  Rifle
NRA Very Good = $35,000
NRA Excellent = $50,000

Only nine Marksman rifles were produced as prizes for the Army marksmanship program. However, the winners preferred medals rather than rifles, so the Marksman rifle was discontinued after the first group of nine were awarded.

The arm is heavily engraved and features a peep sight and hooded/ bubbled front sight. The rear barrel sight is stamped, "M.R." to denote it as a marksman calibrated rear sight. The rifle is the only trapdoor rifle that Springfield made with an integral pistol grip in the burl walnut stock. The silver plate at the base of the pistol grip was to be engraved with the name of the winner.

Today these arms are very hard to find. Most reside in museums or old collections. Because of their rarity, they are quite valuable."



The amazing thing to me is that they were the Second Prize in the matches, not First, and the shooters who won them wished they had a medal instead!!!  I would love to know the whereabouts of an original just to be able to handle it (and drool a bit, maybe!)  

C Sharps will sell you a double ste triiger assembly for about 200, and way better quality than the Italian crap. Plus with the Euro being up those parts from overthere are getting pricey.
Mike