Chaffee-Reece M1882
- Category
- Rifle
- Barrel
- 711 mm
- Weight, empty
- 4.08 kg
- Introduced
- 1884
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Chaffee-Reece M1882 is an American bolt-action repeating rifle chambered in .45-70 Government, designed by Reuben S. Chaffee and General James N. Reece and built in small numbers by the Springfield Armory between 1883 and 1884. It fed from a tubular magazine housed in the buttstock, loaded through a rear trapdoor, which used a twin-rack double-ratchet mechanism to advance a cartridge each time the bolt was cycled and a magazine cutoff to permit single loading while holding the magazine in reserve. Submitted to the U.S. Army's 1882 magazine gun trials against rival Remington-Lee and Hotchkiss designs, the complex feed proved prone to jamming and difficult to clean, and the rifle was never adopted for general service.
Designed by Reuben Chaffee with patent input from Civil War veteran General James N. Reece, the rifle's signature feature was a buttstock tube magazine that held cartridges in a rigid rack moved by a double ratchet, an ingenious but fragile answer to the era's race to give the single-shot Trapdoor Springfield a repeating successor.
Only 753 examples were manufactured by the Springfield Armory for trials and evaluation. The magazine held cartridges nose-to-base in a rigid rack rather than spring-fed, isolating primers from bullet tips to allow safe use of pointed-nose ammunition in a tube. Most surviving rifles passed into the surplus market after the design was rejected.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Springfield Armory (US Government)
- Category
- Rifle
- Country
- United States
- Status
- Discontinued
- Produced
- 1884 to 1885
DimensionsAs issued, without a magazine or an optic.
- Barrel
- 711 mm
- Overall length
- 1245 mm
- Weight, empty
- 4.08 kg
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Bolt action
- Firing mechanism
- Hammer fired
- Trigger
- Single action
- Capacity
- 5
- Magazine
- Tubular
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
- Stock
- Walnut
- Finish
- Blued
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Muzzle velocity
- 411 m/s
- Muzzle energy
- 2215 J
- Effective range
- 500 m
- Maximum range
- 1000 m
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Buttstock tube magazine
Magazine cutoff
Double ratchet feed- Rear loading trapdoor
Standing
How it compares
Each figure against the firearms of the same type and cartridge that record it, or of the same type where that cartridge has too few. Positions are read to the nearest tenth.
| Measurement | This firearm | Median | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empty weightAmong 54 .45-70 Government rifles | 4.08 kg | 4.08 kg | Near the median |
| Overall lengthAmong 52 .45-70 Government rifles | 1245 mm | 1198 mm | Longer than about 80% |
| Barrel lengthAmong 58 .45-70 Government rifles | 711 mm | 711 mm | Near the median |
| Magazine capacityAmong 57 .45-70 Government rifles | 5 | 1 | Holds more rounds than about 70% |
Answers
Questions about the Chaffee-Reece M1882
How much does the Chaffee-Reece M1882 weigh?
The Chaffee-Reece M1882 weighs 4.08 kg (8.99 lb) empty.
What caliber is the Chaffee-Reece M1882?
The Chaffee-Reece M1882 is chambered in .45-70 Government.
How many rounds does the Chaffee-Reece M1882 hold?
The Chaffee-Reece M1882 holds 5 rounds, fed from a tubular magazine.
How long is the Chaffee-Reece M1882?
The Chaffee-Reece M1882 is 1245 mm (49.0 in) long overall, with a 711 mm (28.0 in) barrel.
Who makes the Chaffee-Reece M1882?
The Chaffee-Reece M1882 is made by Springfield Armory (US Government) (United States). It was designed by Reuben S. Chaffee and James N. Reece.
When was the Chaffee-Reece M1882 introduced?
The Chaffee-Reece M1882 was introduced in 1884 and discontinued in 1885.
How does the Chaffee-Reece M1882 operate?
The Chaffee-Reece M1882 uses a bolt action, and its firing mechanism is hammer fired.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
In service
- United States Army
- United States
Provenance
Confidence in this record
78%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/chaffee-reece' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "chaffee-reece", "name": "Chaffee-Reece M1882", "manufacturer": { "id": "springfield-armory-us", "name": "Springfield Armory (US Government)", "countryCode": "US", "foundedYear": 1777, "website": "https://www.springfield-armory.com", "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-04-05 22:24:37", "updatedAt": "2026-04-05 22:24:37", "version": "b9dd0910a7c8bee7c58786e8b0a8f572a1d60da9a0b15c41d155cb38023c6bd8" }, "category": { "id": "rifle", "name": "Rifle", "description": "Long-barreled firearms designed for accurate shooting" }, "country_of_origin": "US", "year_introduced": 1884, "barrel_length_mm": 711, "weight_empty_g": 4080, "action_type": "bolt_action"}