Are you looking for one "purely" to shoot, or both as a shooter and a representative collector's piece? A Trapdoor that has had the barrel and forestock cut might still make a dandy shooter, but wouldn't be at all desireable as a collector's piece, and wouldn't be a good investment. A Trapdoor in pretty good shape, and basically unaltered, could still be a good shooter, and might be worth the additional money if you can affod it. If you can get ahold of a set of .45-70 headspace gages, or know a gunsmith who has a set (at least the NO-GO and the FIELD gages), it wouldn't be a bad idea to have the headspace checked out. Also, check the hinge for cracks. Other than that, the only "problem" I can think of with Trapdoor barrels, is they are 3-groove, which makes measuring "groove diameter" more difficult. If initial accuracy doesn't proove to be too good, you might need to go to black powder and 1-20 tin-lead bullet mix, and size the bullet as large as possible over-and-above .457" , but...you might not get a bulleted case to chamber with a bullet that big. The softer bullet and BP will generally take care of it.