Any of these guns valuable and/or interesting?

Factual Questions
1

My mother-in-law has some guns left behind by her late husband. They all look old. Someone has offered her $500 for all five, and she asked me if that was reasonable. I tried to get as much information from them as I could and this is what I found. All guns are in the condition you would expect of a gun that lived under a bed for 50 years. There is pitting on the barrels, no cracks in the stocks or anything though.

  1. Mossberg Model 75 20 gauge, single shot, bolt action. According to an internet search this gun was only made from 1939 to 1940. I could not find a serial number on it.

  2. Marlin Glenfield Model 25, .22 s, l, lr; serial number 27453305. According to Marlin’s website this gun was manufactured in 1973.

  3. Double barrel shotgun, 12 gauge, with marking “W.C. Scott and Son, London”. I can’t find a serial number; this one is really old and in the worst condition of the bunch, but other guns from this maker seem to fetch really high prices online.

  4. A very long rifle that looks exactly like a Springfield 1870 trapdoor, but I can’t find any markings on it at all. I’m wondering what explanations there could be for not having any marks at all. Replaced parts or something? I don’t want to do anything to try to reveal markings that might be hidden under crud or anything either.

  5. She couldn’t find the 5th when I was at her house so I don’t know anything about it yet.

She said I was welcome to keep any of the guns myself too if I wanted. I don’t really think I’m that interested though, unless there is something really cool about one of them. I know the Springfield 1870s were used at Custer’s last stand.

2

What makes you think it’s an 1870, as opposed to something slightly earlier or later?

The Civil War used rifle-muskets. During the war, breech-loaders really showed their superiority (2 or 3 rounds per minute for a rifle-musket vs. 10-12 rounds per minute with a breech loading rifle). But, having just come out of a war, the government wasn’t too keen on spending a lot of money for new rifles. The trapdoor Springfields started as a cheap way to convert rifle-muskets into breech loading rifles. You’d start with your basic Joe Average model 1861/1863 rifle-musket, replace the lock with the trapdoor mechanism, do a bit more fiddling, and for about $5 you’d have a breech loading rifle. This was pretty good considering that a brand new rifle would cost you about $20 or so.

The lack of markings makes me think that it might be one of the first of these conversions and it didn’t go through the standard Ordnance Dept. procurement procedures. It’s also possible that the lock plate was replaced at some point.

If it is authentic, there should be a date somewhere around the hammer. On 1870 and earlier models the date should be on the lock plate right behind the hammer. There should also be an eagle and “Springfield Armory” stamped on the lock plate in front of the hammer. On later models the date will be under the “Springfield Armory” part on the lock plate, both of which are in front of the eagle.

How long exactly is the barrel? In 1868 they switched to a shorter barrel (32 inches instead of 36).

This is a pretty clear picture of the lock plate on a model 1868. You can see the date behind the hammer and the eagle, etc. in front of it.
http://www.trapdoorcollector.com/m68.html

This picture of a model 1873 isn’t so good, but if you look close you can see that they moved the date to the forward part of the lock plate.
http://www.trapdoorcollector.com/m73.html

This is what happens when the lock plate gets well worn. I can see the eagle and a few letters from Springfield but that’s about it.
http://www.trapdoorcollector.com/pics_html/SHG1LOCK.jpg

That should give you an idea of where to look. I wouldn’t do much (if any) cleaning of the lock plate since anything that can clean the crud might do further damage to what is left of the engravings on it.

ETA: Here’s a better picture of an 1873 lock plate.

3

I don’t see anything to support the position that Don’t Call Me Shirley thinks it’s an 1870. The statement “A very long rifle that looks exactly like a Springfield 1870 trapdoor” suggests to me some doubt that it is one, otherwise would tend to be expressed as “A very long rifle that I think is a Springfield 1870 trapdoor.”

4

Pictures I’ve found on the web show a brass cartridge. Is there some convoluted firing pin hit by a musket hammer?

5

It’s not all that convoluted, but yes, the hammer does hit a pin which then strikes the primer on the cartridge.

Finding a decent picture of it on the internet seems to be darn near impossible though. Here’s the best one that I could come up with:

6

$500 is too little for almost any 5 guns I can think of, excepting some cheap throwaway pistols.

Take them to a local gun dealer and have them appraised.

7

Thanks!

8

I found this with a quick search:

9

My thought would be:

Assess the value of the guns on Gunbroker.com and GunsAmerica.com and see what people are selling or have sold those same guns for in your approximate grade. All sound reasonably common such that you should be able to get a good feel for the value. Luckily, gun prices in general are on the rise, especially with all the talk of more gun legislation following the Newton,CT shooting.

Once you have some documented evidence on what these guns are worth (presumably more than $500), I would use that as a bargaining chip to get your buyer to raise his price. While it is true that you could get more by offering them yourself on these aforementioned websites, there is the time and hassle factor you have to consider. Here is a way to quickly get everything taken care of at once locally, without the headaches of shipping, payments, and the cut any site that hosts your listing will take.

10

I found an old version (2009) of Gun Digest on google books which puts this at $75 to $125 depending on condition. It’s a couple of years out of date but it should put you in the right ballpark.

11

Generally a good idea. There are books like Gun Digest that you can look at in the library that will give you standard accepted prices as well.

The trapdoor Springfield is a big unknown at this point though. You need to figure out if it’s original or a reproduction. If it’s a repro that’s been “antiqued” it’s not worth much, probably a few hundred bucks. Even if it is original, some models are much more rare than others and condition matters quite a bit. We’re talking anywhere from $500 to $10,000. Just saying it’s a trapdoor Springfield doesn’t narrow it down much.