Earliest production 1873 Springfield 45/70 Trapdoor rifle. Lock is dated 1873. Serial number is 32,339, 1874, the first full year of production. Cartouche is early form ESA in an oval. The breech block is the early high arch block, wrist is early long wrist. First pattern hammer knurling. Proper 1873 rifle rear sight.

The barrel has the correct flat tenon on the upper right, rear of the barrel. The breech of the barrel is correctly unmarked. They were not -P- marked until 66,000 serial range. The eagle and V stamps did not appear until 42,000 serial range. Pre-serial number 42,000 barrels are very rare.This is the real deal earliest gun, and it hasn't been buggared with by modern collectors.

Over the past 40 years I have watched in silent distress as my friends Al Frasca, Red Daugherty, and other Trapdoor Experts bought honest, 1873, 1877, and 1879 trapdoors with government authorized 1880s arsenal upgrades. These friends then removed the 1880s parts which had been on the guns for 120 years and replaced them with surplus earlier 1873, 1877, or 1879 parts in an effort to make the guns more -correct-. In truth they were just making the guns more valuable.
This rifle has all the original parts from the day it was made. None were replaced in modern times.

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON TRAPDOOR MARKINGS: The Frasca book states that the stock marking of the fancy letter R in a circle behind the trigger guard tang is some sort of commercial marking. This is highly unlikely. The letter R is exactly the same stylized font as the fancy letter P in a circle found on most trapdoor Springfields to indicate -PROVED-.
Rock Island Arsenal refurbished 50,000 Springfield trapdoor rifles in 1898. They certainly would have been required to inspect them and mark them after completion. I am confident that these RIA refurbished rifles were marked with the fancy -R- in a circle behind the trigger guard tang so as to distinguish RIA work from the work done at Springfield in Massachusetts. The ordnance department always requires proof markings and there is No Way they exempted RIA in 1898 during a war. When I presented Al Frasca with my hypothesis he dismissed it. I then asked him what the records at RIA did show, he confessed he had never been there. The -R- stands for Rock Island.
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Very good