The rifle was originally issued with a
copper cartridge case until 1888, when the Army transitioned to
brass cartridges. Poor quality control and poor storage conditions often led to the cartridge expanding in the barrel and jamming the weapon. Original
U.S. Ordnance Department instructions for the extracting stuck cartridges write: "Should the head of a cartridge come off in the act of firing, the best mode of extracting the shell is to take out a ball from a cartridge and reduce it with a knife or by rolling, so that it can be inserted into the muzzle of the barrel. Ram the ball hard with the ramrod when the breech-block is closed; this will upset the ball and fill the headless shell. Open the breech-block and the ball and shell can be easily pushed out with the ramrod." Soldiers were later issued with a purpose-built headless-shell extractor to remedy case-head separations and jams. Soldiers also use their knives to pry out stuck casings. After the defeat of Lieutenant-Colonel
George Armstrong Custer's battalion (armed with the carbine and carbine load ammunition) at the
Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876, investigations first suggested that jamming of their carbines, which did not come with a built-in cleaning rod, may have played a factor, although archaeological excavations in 1983 discovered evidence that only 3.4 percent of the casings recovered showed any indication of being pried from jammed weapons. This did not account for cases removed by a cleaning rod or other objects nor for jammed rifles cleared away from the immediate battle area and outside the very limited archaeological survey area. Troops under Major
Marcus A. Reno had multiple soldiers busy removing stuck casings from carbines passed rearward to them before reloading and passing them to the firing line. In 1877 the Ordnance Department began researching European firearms that used brass casings, finding that they were much stronger than copper casings. It was not until 1888 that the Army switched from copper to brass cartridges. This was a major improvement, and brass became the primary material used in United States military cartridges from then to the present. The black powder Model 1873 continued to be the main service rifle of the U.S. military until it was gradually replaced by the
Springfield Model 1892 bolt action rifle, a derivative of the Norwegian
Krag–Jørgensen action. Replacement began in 1892, and despite its obsolescence, the Model 1873 was still used by secondary units during the Spanish–American War in
Cuba and the Philippines, where it was at a major disadvantage against Spanish forces armed with the
7 mm Spanish Model 1893 Mauser bolt-action rifle. However, despite its obsolescence, the Springfield trapdoor would continue to see use for training and stateside security purposes as late as
World War I. ==Pictorial chronology==