Looking for a very specific Rifle!

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Jonny V

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Carnation, WA
Hi All..Long time no see!!!


I'm on the hunt for a very specific rifle and I'm reaching out to as many people as I can. When I was a young man living in the Denver area in the early 1990's, I fell in with a bikini contest girl named Rachelle. Petite, blonde, gorgeous, and loved to have a good time...she was God's gift to thong bikinis. It worked out for a little while. One of the things I did in my depraved state of mind was sell a family heirloom, and I'd like to get it back, if it still exists...


The rifle is an 1873 Springfield Trapdoor. The serial number on that rifle is 4068. It has the three step rear sight, a triangle bayonet, and a really good bore. The hammer screw head had broken off, and there wasn't much finish on the steel butt plate. The rifle has browned out, but there was no rust or pitting on it. The cleaning rod was flat faced, full length, and with a slot for a patch. It was fully functional and a good shooter. I fired it numerous times with some old Remington Core-lok ammo that I had.


My great-grandfather Henry Stadler was issued this rifle and carried it in the Spanish-American War. After the war, he was allowed to buy the rifle from the Government and keep it. At the time, they had been trying to convert to the Krag, which proved ill equipped to compete against the (then new) Mauser rifle, and the US government was forced to head back to the drawing board and they came up with the '03 Springfield. Thus, all the old Trapdoors were just so much clutter in the Army inventory...


If any of you might run across this rifle and you can put me in touch, and I'm able to make a deal to buy it, I have no problem throwing a finder fee your way (10%?)....I fully expect this rifle to cost me a hefty price, Trapdoors haven't gotten any cheaper over the years....


Thank you for looking and for any help!!
 
I asked a couple of retired cops I know, one who owns the local gun store where I'm a good customer...short story short, cops don't like looking up guns unless there's a crime involved with them. Plus, this gun is so old that you don't need any background check to buy or sell in a lot of places, and this sale was face to face in the early '90's..
 
Are you still local to the area that you sold it in?

Maybe put up some fliers in the local gun stores if they'll let you. That and ask the owners and employees to ask around also.
 
My buddy has 3, I had him check. No luck .

Hope you get that gun back, I think it's a long shot though .hopefully wherever it is , it's being well cared for.
 
Hopefully she's doing well. We were always on good terms. Just really would like the rifle back!! I sold it to a dealer, hopefully it went to a good home...
 
You know what they always say here, "we're going to need pictures".

However, in this instance these will need to be of Rachelle, to see if you were justified in selling. Images from bikini contest will suffice.

Good luck in retrieving the family heirloom! Ads on Armslist or Gunbroker perhaps?
 
You know what they always say here, "we're going to need pictures".

However, in this instance these will need to be of Rachelle, to see if you were justified in selling. Images from bikini contest will suffice.

Good luck in retrieving the family heirloom! Ads on Armslist or Gunbroker perhaps?

That's a good idea! I'm sorry, but if there are any surviving contest photos, they are not in my possession...
 
This is looking for a needle in a haystack..

Reality is that you will never find it, and might as well focus on something else.

Yep, I may never find it, but then again I prefer to make a good effort before I just give up. Example, for years now, I've been getting hard-turndown responses as I repeatedly contact all of the usual scope makers asking them to put a high quality scout scope on the market. No interest from Vortex (ridiculed the idea), Leupold (not interested at all), Burris (laughed at me on the phone), Swarovski, Meopta, US Optics, Nightforce, nope-nope-nope-nope...

Finally got a breakthrough on it. Deon/March scopes is at least studying the idea seriously. The end unit would be a 1-8x24mm, first focal plane, side focus, illuminated reticle, glass comparable to Schmidt and Bender, top end scope, very similar to the link below...Pricing thought to be around $2,000, maybe a little over....Here's the link...
https://marchscopes.com/scopes/d8sv24fiml/
They have not committed to building the thing yet, but after 6 months plus of back and forth emails and question and answer sessions with scout rifle/dangerous game rifle users, they are drilling up the parameters of what they could produce. Myself and some other guys who've been on this project are over the moon about it. This is the best end result really, any of the usual makers would be immediately looking to cheapen the thing up and you'd just get a piece of junk like what's on the market right now.

Working at things works. Even when it's tough and you get shot down a lot.

Sent an email to my dad who is a collector of Springfields. Will let you know if he or his friends know about it.

Thanks a lot HP Jeep!
 
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