Gemmer Trapdoor

[pacecars]

I would love for Shiloh to make a Gemmer Sharps but in the mean time I am trying to resist the temptation of a Trapdoor. Just a beautiful gun

[mdeland]

Boy, I wished I had thought about making a copy of that rifle before ordering the round Douglas barrel. I had forgotten how cool the Gemmer's (Hawken) look !

[Clark Badgett]

That is certainly giving me some ideas. I have this cut off M1866 sitting here that I'm still not exactly sure what I want to do with. And then I am considering buying a stripped M1873 receiver to play around with.

[MAH]

Gents,

Here is a couple photos of a Gemmer I am sure you will enjoy. Plus maybe kick off your builds.

[Tomklinger]

Gentlemen,
I don’t know how to post pictures on this forum, so I asked Mark to post a couple photos of my Gemmer I built about 12 years ago. It started out to be a Hawken muzzle loader and it morphed into a Gemmer....
Tom Klinger

[Luke]

I don't t think anything makes a better looking Gemmer than a Trapdoor.

[Tomklinger]

They’re not hard to build, I think the most work went into converting the trapdoor tang into a hook breech....
Tom

[John Bly]

Everyone wants an octagon barreled trapdoor Gemmer. There is only one known to exist. All the others just used the existing round barrel on the trapdoor actions. With that said I put one together for a guy last year. I've got a stock pattern for one with a shotgun buttplate instead of the rifle buttplate.
Here is a picture of the pattern.

P1010966.jpg

[mdeland]

How does that work Tom, the tang conversion? I'm also wondering why it would be necessary except for pure Hawken look?

[ndnchf]

Trapdoor are neat, I have a couple of them. But my idea of a perfect Gemmer conversion is made with a #1 rolling block action, and 30" heavy octagon barrel in .50-70. We all can dream.

[Tomklinger]

Mdeland,
Using a Hawken rifle kit as the basis for my Gemmer, it had a long hook breech style tang already inlayed into the stock for the muzzle loading barrel. The trapdoor as you know has a short tang. I removed the tang from the trapdoor action, annealed it then machined it to match the hook on the back of the muzzle loader barrel. Then the next step was to inlay the trapdoor action Into the stock and make final adjustments. Then case hardened the modified trapdoor tang.send me a pm and I can send you some pictures. It’s set up so when the barrel pins are removed the barrel and action lift right out as the originals did.
Tom

[mdeland]

Thanks for the info and I will be sending you a PM. I'm wondering how it all comes together with the tang conversion and the cam lock seat in the trapdoor tang. I do my own case coloring/hardening and machining so this is within my capabilities but it is helpful to see how others have done the work so as not to have to reinvent the wheel which always seems to involve learning mistakes.

[mdeland]

I'm getting enthused about this deal as soon as I complete this Cadet trapdoor as I have been wanting a 50-70 anyway and a Gemmer build will be just the ticket I'm looking for me thinks. I need to start looking for another trapdoor action.
I'll have to do some thinking on Johns comment about how every one wants a octagon trapdoor Gemmer. I do like octagon barrels though.

[mdeland]

How is that front key in the stock attached to the barrel, dove tail or sweat on key loop? I would think a dovetail near the chamber area of a 50-70 would be a might thin of barrel steel.

[SteveA]

Here is my Gemmer style roller;