The Springfield Model 1881 Forager,First developed in 1881, the Forager was a 20 gauge shotgun which

The Springfield Model 1881 Forager,First developed in 1881, the Forager was a 20 gauge shotgun which utilized the Allin conversion trapdoor breechloading system.  It was produced for the US Army not as a combat weapon, but as a survival weapon used for hunting so that soldiers stationed on the frontier, far from regular supply shipments could kill wild game to supplement their rations.  Since the Forager was not a mainline combat weapon, they were typically made using obsolete parts.  The barrels were taken from old stocks of Civil War muzzleloading rifled muskets, which were cut down to 25 inches, the rifling reamed out to make it a smooth bore.  The example above is dated 1873, indicating that the lock was salvaged off of an earlier Springfield Model 1873 rifle.  Typically surviving examples of these shotguns are pretty beaten up, showing that they suffered some hard use.  One in excellent condition like the example pictured above are very rare.  Only around 1,400 were produced. -- source link
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