Springfield Model 1884

About the Springfield Model 1884

The Springfield Model 1884 is a single-shot, breech-loading service rifle and the final major iteration of the U.S. Army's 'trapdoor' Springfield family. Chambered in the .45-70 Government cartridge, it retains the hinged trapdoor breechblock of the earlier Model 1873 but introduces the Buffington rear sight, a windage-adjustable ladder sight graduated to long range that markedly improved the rifle's accuracy. It served as the principal U.S. infantry arm through the late Indian Wars and was still in volunteer service during the Spanish-American War.

By the time the Model 1884 entered service, the single-shot trapdoor was already an anachronism beside European repeaters, yet the U.S. Army kept refining it rather than re-tooling. The Buffington sight that distinguishes the 1884 was named for Major Adelbert Buffington of the Ordnance Department, and the trapdoor finally gave way to the bolt-action Krag-Jorgensen in the 1890s.

Springfield Model 1884 specifications

The defining change over the Model 1873 was the adoption of the Model 1884 Buffington rear sight. Production used the metric-graduated Buffington sight and later refinements such as the rod bayonet on the related Model 1888.