Found this at an antique mall, half buried under a pile of society swords. When the lady pulled it off the shelf for me and I got my first good look at it, the first thing that popped into my head was "Jaeger". My bore light showed a nice shiny barrel with sharp rifling
It's mostly M1884, serial number puts it in the 1st quarter of 1888. An M1879 rifle sight, and the front sight appears to be hammered out of an old (wheat or earlier) penny. An old conversion, but well done really, probably started as a rifle with a bent barrel, someone did a lot of work to the stock to get everything to fit. Barrel is 20" from breech to muzzle. The sights appear dead on at 50 yards so far. Trigger is good, 5 lbs or so with just a touch of creep. A couple of minor cracks, in non load bearing areas.
Waite and Ernst have pictures of at least 3 experimental carbines that look a LOT like this, I was surprised to find. For $300 (!) A fun walking around rifle. It handles really well, with the balance point right beneath the block hinge. Very lively in the hands, the longer stock feeling better in the forehand as it shoulders.
Maybe someday I'll take it down and make a heavy barrel target rifle with it . . .