Unaltered 1st Year Model 1873

[Hammer]

I recently acquired this very early four digit 1873 from an estate sale in the Northwest.

I sent pictures of this rifle to Dick Hosmer and he believes it’s a correct as issued early 1873 that avoided being upgraded/altered to the later standards.

It’s an amazing condition to be such an early 1873. It’s overall metal, Bore, and stock are very nice. It has the small Oval ESA cartouche behind the left side stock screw. I hadn’t seen that type of cleaning rod before, nor the early upper barrel band with a screw and single sling loop, and I was curious why it didn’t have the typical V or P on the left rear top side of the barrel, but Dick said these are all correct for the earliest issued 1873s.

I really like its military B 44 unit markings on top of the stock wrist and it has a double struck 6 on top of the buttplate! and I wish I could figure out what unit this rifle was issued to early in 1874.

[Dick Hosmer]

Jim asked me to post more of his pics, so, here goes:

Failure: "Board quota has been reached"

[Hammer]

Well, I sincerely appreciate you trying Dick!
I’d also sincerely appreciate your thoughts about this very early seemingly unaltered 1873.

I got this one and the Model 1870 from an estate sale in the Montana-Idaho area (the other two early rifles of question we’ve recently discussed were from an estate sale in Massachusetts)

[FrankD]

Thanks for posting and enjoy it!!!

[Hammer]

I deleted 40 photos from my previous posts to be able to add these photos for this early unaltered 1873.

- unmarked barrel
- early course pattern hammer
- does anybody know where I might be able to find information to help identify what unit this B 44 stamping on top of the stock represents?