U.S. Cavalry's First Bolt-Action Carbine

The single-shot trapdoor Springfield wasn’t the only carbine used by the cavalry during the Indian Wars, several repeaters were also used—including America’s first bolt gun.

- Phil Spangenberger

The more ammunition you give a soldier, the more he’ll use!” Despite their continued post-war use of the seven-shot Spencer repeater, this was the general complaint, along with being shackled by a severely restricted budget, which kept the American military hierarchy from adopting a new repeating rifle for years after a costly Civil War. The eventual adoption of the single-shot 1873 Springfield “Trapdoor” carbine remained the cavalry’s primary weapon throughout the Indian campaigns. However, after the deadly results and many casualties suffered by the Army during the Great Sioux War of 1876, and to a lesser degree in the following campaigns against the Nez Perce, Ute and Shoshone tribes, the Army began to realize that American Indian warriors were outgunning troopers in too many instances, and the single-shot Springfield was not altogether that different from the muskets of more than a decade earlier.