![Animated gun turret](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Animated_gun_turret.gif)
A breechloader is a
firearm
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
in which the user loads the ammunition (
cartridge
Cartridge may refer to:
Objects
* Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition
* ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device
* Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators
Other uses
* Cartridge (surname), a ...
or
shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
) via the rear (breech) end of its
barrel
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...
, as opposed to a
muzzleloader
A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun (i.e., from the forward, open end of the gun's barrel). This is distinct from the modern (higher tech and harder to make) design ...
, which loads ammunition via the front (
muzzle).
Modern firearms are generally breech-loading – except for replicas of
vintage weapons. Early firearms before the mid-19th century were almost entirely muzzle-loading.
Mortars and the Russian
GP-25
The GP-25 ''Kostyor'' ("Bonfire"), GP-30 ''Obuvka'' ("Footwear") and GP-34 are a family of Russian 40 mm under-barrel grenade launchers (''Granatomyot Podstvolnyj'') for the AK family of assault rifles. They were first seen by the West in ...
grenade launcher are the only muzzleloaders remaining in frequent modern usage. However, referring to a weapon specifically as breech loading is mostly limited to
single-shot
Single-shot firearms are firearms that hold only a single round of ammunition, and must be reloaded manually after every shot. The history of firearms began with single-shot designs, then multi-barreled designs appeared, and eventually many ce ...
or otherwise non-repeating firearms, such as
double-barreled shotguns
A double-barreled shotgun is a break-action shotgun with two parallel barrels, allowing two single shots to be fired in quick succession or simultaneously.
Construction
Modern double-barreled shotguns, often known as ''doubles'', are almost un ...
.
Breech-loading provides the advantage of reduced reloading time, because it is far quicker to load the
projectile
A projectile is an object that is propelled by the application of an external force and then moves freely under the influence of gravity and air resistance. Although any objects in motion through space are projectiles, they are commonly found in ...
and
propellant
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...
into the
chamber
Chamber or the chamber may refer to:
In government and organizations
* Chamber of commerce, an organization of business owners to promote commercial interests
*Legislative chamber, in politics
* Debate chamber, the space or room that houses delib ...
of a gun/
cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
than to reach all the way over to the front end to load ammunition and then push them back down a long tube – especially when the projectile fits tightly and the tube has spiral ridges from
rifling
In firearms, rifling is machining helical grooves into the internal (bore) surface of a gun's barrel for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting to stabilize the pro ...
. In
field artillery
Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, short range, long range, and extremely long range target engagement.
Until the early 20t ...
, the advantages were similar – crews no longer had to get in front of the gun and force things down a long barrel with a
ramrod
A ramrod (or scouring stick) is a metal or wooden device used with muzzleloading firearms to push the projectile up against the propellant (mainly blackpowder). The ramrod was used with weapons such as muskets and cannons and was usually held ...
, and the shot could now tightly fit the bore, increasing accuracy. It also made it easier to load a previously fired weapon with a
fouled barrel.
Gun turret
A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...
s and emplacements for breechloaders can be smaller, since crews don't need to retract the gun for frontal loading. Unloading a breechloader is much easier as well, as the load can be extracted from the breech end and is often doable by hand; unloading muzzle loaders requires drilling into the projectile to drag it out through whole length of the barrel, and in some cases they are simply fired to unload.
After breech-loading became common, it also became common practice to fit recoil systems onto field guns to prevent the recoil from rolling the carriage back with every shot and ruining the aim. That provided faster firing times, but is not directly related to whether the gun is breech-loading or not. Now that guns were able to fire without the entire carriage recoiling, the crew was able to remain grouped closely around the gun, ready to load and put final touches on the aim, prior to firing the next shot. That led to the development of an armored shield fitted to the carriage of the gun, to help shield the crew from long range area or sniper fire from the new, high-velocity, long-range rifles, or even machine guns.
History
![Early breech loaders](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Early_breech_loaders.jpg)
Although breech-loading firearms were developed as far back as the early 14th century in
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
and various other parts of Europe, breech-loading became more successful with improvements in
precision engineering
Precision engineering is a subdiscipline of electrical engineering, software engineering, electronics engineering, mechanical engineering, and optical engineering concerned with designing machines, fixtures, and other structures that have exce ...
and
machining
Machining is a process in which a material (often metal) is cut to a desired final shape and size by a controlled material-removal process. The processes that have this common theme are collectively called subtractive manufacturing, which utilizes ...
in the 19th century (see
Dreyse needle gun Dreyse may refer to:
* Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse (1787–1867), German firearms inventor
* Hitch Dreyse, a fictional character in '' Attack on Titan'' (''Shingeki no Kyojin'') series who serves in the military police.
* Dreyse needle gun, a German ...
).
The main challenge for developers of breech-loading firearms was sealing the breech. This was eventually solved for smaller firearms by the development of the self-contained metallic
cartridge
Cartridge may refer to:
Objects
* Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition
* ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device
* Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators
Other uses
* Cartridge (surname), a ...
. For firearms too large to use cartridges, the problem was solved by the development of the
interrupted screw
Breech from Russian 122 mm M1910 howitzer, modified and combined with 105 mm H37 howitzer barrel
An interrupted screw or interrupted thread is a mechanical device typically used in the breech of artillery guns. It is believed to have be ...
.
Swivel guns
Breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century. They were a particular type of
swivel gun
The term swivel gun (or simply swivel) usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun wi ...
, and consisted in a small breech-loading cannon equipped with a
swivel
A swivel is a connection that allows the connected object, such as a gun, chair, swivel caster, or an anchor rode to rotate horizontally or vertically.
Swivel designs
A common design for a swivel is a cylindrical rod that can turn freely wi ...
for easy rotation, loaded by inserting a mug-shaped chamber already filled with powder and projectiles. The breech-loading swivel gun had a high rate of fire, and was especially effective in
anti-personnel
An anti-personnel weapon is a weapon primarily used to maim or kill infantry and other personnel not behind armor, as opposed to attacking structures or vehicles, or hunting game. The development of defensive fortification and combat vehicles ga ...
roles.
Firearms
![Ferguson rifle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Ferguson_rifle.jpg)
Breech-loading firearms are known from the 16th century.
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
possessed one, which he apparently used as a hunting gun to shoot birds. Meanwhile, in China, an early form of breech-loading musket, known as the
Che Dian Chong, was known to have been created in the second half of the 16th century for the
Ming dynasty's arsenals. Like all early breech-loading fireams, gas leakage was a limitation and danger present in the weapon's mechanism.
More breech-loading firearms were made in the early 18th century. One such gun known to have belonged to
Philip V of Spain
Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 45 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish mon ...
, and was manufactured circa 1715, probably in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. It came with a ready-to load reusable cartridge.
Patrick Ferguson
Patrick Ferguson (1744 – 7 October 1780) was a Scottish officer in the British Army, an early advocate of light infantry and the designer of the Ferguson rifle. He is best known for his service in the 1780 military campaign of Charles C ...
, a
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officer, developed in 1772 the
Ferguson rifle
The Ferguson rifle was one of the first breech-loading rifles to be put into service by the British military. It fired a standard British carbine ball of .615" calibre and was used by the British Army in the American Revolutionary War at the Battle ...
, a breech-loading flintlock firearm. Roughly two hundred of the rifles were manufactured and used in the
Battle of Brandywine
The Battle of Brandywine, also known as the Battle of Brandywine Creek, was fought between the American Continental Army of General George Washington and the British Army of General Sir William Howe on September 11, 1777, as part of the Ame ...
, during the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, but shortly after they were retired and replaced with the standard
Brown Bess
"Brown Bess" is a nickname of uncertain origin for the British Army's muzzle-loading smoothbore flintlock Land Pattern Musket and its derivatives. The musket design remained in use for over a hundred years with many incremental changes in its ...
musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually d ...
. In turn the American army, after getting some experience with muzzle-loaded rifles in the late 18th century, adopted the second standard breech-loading firearm in the world,
M1819 Hall rifle
The M1819 Hall rifle was a single-shot breech-loading rifle (also considered something of a hybrid breech and muzzle-loading design) designed by John Hancock Hall, patented on May 21, 1811, and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1819. It was preceded ...
, and in larger numbers than the Ferguson rifle.
About the same time and later on into the mid-19th century, there were attempts in Europe at an effective breech-loader. There were concentrated attempts at improved cartridges and methods of ignition.
In Paris in 1808, in association with French gunsmith
François Prélat
François Prélat was a Frenchman involved in gunmaking in the early part of the nineteenth century. It is sometimes claimed that he invented the first fully contained cartridge in 1808, as well as the percussion cap in 1818. However most gun histo ...
,
Jean Samuel Pauly
Jean Samuel Pauly (1766 – c. 1821), born Samuel Johannes Pauli, was a Swiss inventor and gunsmith of the early 19th century. Parish records show that he was baptised in Vechigen near Bern, Switzerland on 13 April 1766, the son of Johann Pauli ...
created the first fully self-contained
cartridges:
[''Chemical Analysis of Firearms, Ammunition, and Gunshot Residue'' by James Smyth Wallace, p. 2]
/ref> the cartridges incorporated a copper base with integrated mercury fulminate
Mercury(II) fulminate, or Hg(CNO)2, is a primary explosive. It is highly sensitive to friction, heat and shock and is mainly used as a trigger for other explosives in percussion caps and detonators. Mercury(II) cyanate, though its chemical formu ...
primer powder (the major innovation of Pauly), a round bullet and either brass or paper casing. The cartridge was loaded through the breech and fired with a needle. The needle-activated central-fire breech-loading gun would become a major feature of firearms thereafter. The corresponding firearm was also developed by Pauly. Pauly made an improved version, which was protected by a patent on 29 September 1812.
The Pauly cartridge was further improved by the French gunsmith Casimir Lefaucheux
Casimir Lefaucheux (; 26 January 1802 – 9 August 1852) was a French gunsmith. He was born in Bonnétable and died in Paris.
Casimir Lefaucheux obtained his first patent in 1827. In 1832, he completed a drop-barrel sporting gun with paper-cased ...
in 1828, by adding a pinfire primer, but Lefaucheux did not register his patent until 1835: a pinfire cartridge
A pinfire cartridge is an obsolete type of metallic firearm cartridge in which the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin which protrudes radially from just above the base of the cartridge. Invented by Frenchman Casimir Lefaucheux in ...
containing powder in a card-board shell.
In 1845, another Frenchman Louis-Nicolas Flobert invented, for indoor shooting, the first rimfire metallic cartridge, constituted by a bullet fit in a percussion cap. Usually derived in the 6 mm and 9 mm calibres, it is since then called the Flobert cartridge but it does not contain any powder; the only propellant
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...
substance contained in the cartridge is the percussion cap itself. In English-speaking countries the Flobert cartridge corresponds to the .22 BB and .22 CB
The .22 CB cap (conical breech cap) is a more powerful version of the .22 BB cap (aka: 6mm Flobert) rimfire metallic cartridge, which was invented by Louis-Nicolas Flobert in 1845. The .22 BB cap and .22 CB cap are interchangeable and are rela ...
ammunitions.
In 1846, yet another Frenchman, Benjamin Houllier
Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thir ...
, patented the first fully metallic cartridge containing powder in a metallic shell. Houllier commercialised his weapons in association with the gunsmiths Blanchard or Charles Robert. But the subsequent Houllier and Lefaucheux cartridges, even if they were the first full-metal shells, were still pinfire cartridges, like those used in the LeMat (1856) and Lefaucheux
Casimir Lefaucheux (; 26 January 1802 – 9 August 1852) was a French gunsmith. He was born in Bonnétable and died in Paris.
Casimir Lefaucheux obtained his first patent in 1827. In 1832, he completed a drop-barrel sporting gun with paper-cased ...
(1858) revolvers, although the LeMat also evolved in a revolver using rimfire cartridges.
The first centrefire cartridge was introduced in 1855 by Pottet, with both Berdan and Boxer priming.
In 1842, the Norwegian Armed Forces
The Norwegian Armed Forces ( no, Forsvaret, , The Defence) is the military organization responsible for the defence of Norway. It consists of five branches, the Norwegian Army, the Royal Norwegian Navy, which includes the Coast Guard, the Royal ...
adopted the breech-loading caplock, the Kammerlader
The ''Kammerlader'', or "chamber loader", was the first Norwegian breech-loading rifle, and among the first breech loaders adopted for use by an armed force anywhere in the world. A single-shot black-powder rifle, the ''kammerlader'' was operate ...
, one of the first instances in which a modern army widely adopted a breech-loading rifle as its main infantry firearm.
The ''Dreyse Zündnadelgewehr'' (Dreyse needle gun Dreyse may refer to:
* Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse (1787–1867), German firearms inventor
* Hitch Dreyse, a fictional character in '' Attack on Titan'' (''Shingeki no Kyojin'') series who serves in the military police.
* Dreyse needle gun, a German ...
) was a single-shot breech-loading rifle using a rotating bolt
Rotating bolt is a method of locking the breech (or rear barrel) of a firearm closed for firing. Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse developed the first rotating bolt firearm, the "Dreyse needle gun", in 1836. The Dreyse locked using the bolt handle r ...
to seal the breech. It was so called because of its .5-inch needle-like firing pin, which passed through a paper cartridge
A paper cartridge is one of various types of small arms ammunition used before the advent of the metallic cartridge. These cartridges consisted of a paper cylinder or cone containing the bullet, gunpowder, and in some cases, a primer or a lub ...
case to impact a percussion cap
The percussion cap or percussion primer, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. This crucial invention gave rise t ...
at the bullet base. It began development in the 1830s under Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse
Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse (20 November 1787 – 9 December 1867) was a German firearms inventor and manufacturer. He is most famous for submitting the Dreyse needle gun in 1836 to the Prussian army, which was adopted for service in December 1840 ...
and eventually an improved version of it was adopted by Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
in the late 1840s. The paper cartridge and the gun had numerous deficiencies; specifically, serious problems with gas leaking. However, the rifle was used to great success in the Prussian army in the Austro-Prussian war
The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...
of 1866. This, and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870–71, eventually caused much interest in Europe for breech-loaders and the Prussian military system in general.
In 1860, the New Zealand government petitioned the Colonial Office for more soldiers to defend Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...
. The bid was unsuccessful and the government began instead making inquiries to Britain to obtain modern weapons. In 1861 they placed orders for the Calisher and Terry carbine, which used a breech-loading system using a bullet consisting of a standard Minié lead bullet in .54 calibre backed by a charge and tallowed wad, wrapped in nitrated paper to keep it waterproof. The carbine had been issued in small numbers to English cavalry (Hussar
A hussar ( , ; hu, huszár, pl, husarz, sh, husar / ) was a member of a class of light cavalry, originating in Central Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely ...
s) from 1857. About 3–4,000 carbines were brought into New Zealand a few years later. The carbine was used extensively by the Forest Rangers, an irregular force led by Gustavus von Tempsky that specialized in bush warfare and reconnaissance. Von Tempsky liked the short carbine, which could be loaded while lying down. The waterproofed cartridge was easier to keep dry in the New Zealand bush. Museums in New Zealand hold a small number of these carbines in good condition.
During the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, at least nineteen types of breech-loaders were fielded.[American Breech-loading Small Arms: A Description of Late Inventions, Including the Gatling Gun, and a Chapter on Cartridges, 1 January 1872, p. 14] The Sharps used a successful dropping block design. The Greene
Greene may refer to:
Places United States
*Greene, Indiana, an unincorporated community
*Greene, Iowa, a city
*Greene, Maine, a town
** Greene (CDP), Maine, in the town of Greene
*Greene (town), New York
** Greene (village), New York, in the town ...
used rotating bolt-action, and was fed from the breech. The Spencer, which used lever-actuated bolt-action, was fed from a seven-round detachable tube magazine
A magazine is an ammunition storage and feeding device for a repeating firearm, either integral within the gun (internal/fixed magazine) or externally attached (detachable magazine). The magazine functions by holding several cartridges withi ...
. The Henry
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
* Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
and Volcanic
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...
used rimfire metallic cartridges fed from a tube magazine under the barrel. These held a significant advantage over muzzle-loaders. The improvements in breech-loaders had spelled the end of muzzle-loaders. To make use of the enormous number of war surplus muzzle-loaders, the Allin conversion Springfield was adopted in 1866. General Burnside
Ambrose Everett Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was an American army officer and politician who became a senior Union Army, Union General officer, general in the American Civil War, Civil War and three times Governor of Rhod ...
invented a breech-loading rifle before the war, the Burnside carbine
The Burnside carbine was a breech-loading carbine that saw widespread use during the American Civil War.
Design
The carbine was designed and patented by Gov. and General Ambrose Burnside, who resigned his commission in the U.S. Army to devote ...
.
The French adopted the new Chassepot
The Chassepot (pronounced ''SHAS-poh''), officially known as ''Fusil modèle 1866'', was a bolt-action military breechloading rifle. It is famous for having been the arm of the French forces in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. It repla ...
rifle in 1866, which was much improved over the Dreyse needle gun as it had dramatically fewer gas leaks due to its de Bange
Charles Ragon de Bange (17 October 1833 – 9 July 1914) was a French artillery officer and Polytechnician. He invented the first effective obturator system for breech-loading artillery, which remains in use. He also designed a system of field g ...
sealing system. The British initially took the existing Enfield and fitted it with a Snider breech action (solid block, hinged parallel to the barrel) firing the Boxer cartridge. Following a competitive examination of 104 guns in 1866, the British decided to adopt the Peabody-derived Martini-Henry with trap-door loading in 1871.
Single-shot breech-loaders would be used throughout the latter half of the 19th century, but were slowly replaced by various designs for repeating rifle A repeating rifle is a single- barreled rifle capable of repeated discharges between each ammunition reloads. This is typically achieved by having multiple cartridges stored in a magazine (within or attached to the gun) and then fed individually i ...
s, first used in the American Civil War. Manual breech-loaders gave way to manual magazine feed and then to self-loading rifles.
Breech-loading is still commonly used in shotguns and hunting rifle
A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with bo ...
s.
Artillery
The first modern breech-loading rifled gun is a breech-loader invented by Martin von Wahrendorff
Martin von Wahrendorff (1789 – 1861) was a Swedish diplomat and inventor.
His father Anders von Wahrendorff was the owner of the gun foundry at Åker. Wahrendorff was Grand Master of Ceremonies at the Royal Court of Sweden from 1828 to ...
with a cylindrical breech plug secured by a horizontal wedge in 1837.
In the 1850s and 1860s, Whitworth and Armstrong invented improved breech-loading artillery.
The M1867 naval guns produced in Imperial Russia
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
The History of Russian Artillery since the mid-19th century up to 1917
at the
Obukhov State Plant
Obukhov State Plant (also known Obukhovski Plant, russian: Государственный Обуховский Завод, Gosudarstvennyy Obukhovskiy Zavod) is a major Russian metallurgy and heavy machine-building plant in St. Petersburg, Russi ...
used
Krupp
The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...
technology.
Breech mechanism
A breech action is the loading sequence of a breech loading
naval gun
Naval artillery is artillery mounted on a warship, originally used only for naval warfare and then subsequently used for naval gunfire support, shore bombardment and anti-aircraft roles. The term generally refers to tube-launched projectile-firi ...
or
small arm
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes c ...
. The earliest breech actions were either three-shot
break-open actions or a barrel tip-down, remove the plug and reload actions. The later
breech-loader
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition (cartridge or shell) via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front ( muzzle).
Modern firearms are generally bre ...
s included the
Ferguson rifle
The Ferguson rifle was one of the first breech-loading rifles to be put into service by the British military. It fired a standard British carbine ball of .615" calibre and was used by the British Army in the American Revolutionary War at the Battle ...
, which used a screw-in/screw out action to reload, and the
Hall rifle, which
tipped up at 30 degrees for loading. The better breech loaders, however, used
percussion caps
The percussion cap or percussion primer, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. This crucial invention gave rise t ...
, including the
Sharps rifle
Sharps rifles are a series of large-bore, single-shot, falling-block, breech-loading rifles, beginning with a design by Christian Sharps in 1848 and ceasing production in 1881. They were renowned for long-range accuracy. By 1874 the rifle wa ...
, using a
falling block
A falling-block action (also known as a sliding-block or dropping-block action) is a single-shot firearm action in which a solid metal breechblock slides vertically in grooves cut into the breech of the weapon and is actuated by a lever.
Descri ...
(or
sliding block) action to reload. And then later on came the
Dreyse needle gun Dreyse may refer to:
* Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse (1787–1867), German firearms inventor
* Hitch Dreyse, a fictional character in '' Attack on Titan'' (''Shingeki no Kyojin'') series who serves in the military police.
* Dreyse needle gun, a German ...
that used a moving seal (bolt) to seal and expose the breech. Later on, however, the
Mauser M71/84 rifle used self-contained metallic
cartridges and used a rotating bolt to open and close the breech.
See also
*
Breechblock
A breechblock (or breech block) is the part of the firearm action that closes the breech of a breech loading weapon (whether small arms or artillery) before or at the moment of firing. It seals the breech and contains the pressure generated by th ...
*
Interrupted screw
Breech from Russian 122 mm M1910 howitzer, modified and combined with 105 mm H37 howitzer barrel
An interrupted screw or interrupted thread is a mechanical device typically used in the breech of artillery guns. It is believed to have be ...
*
Rifled musket
*
Rifled breechloader
A rifled breech loader (RBL) is an artillery piece which, unlike the smoothbore cannon and rifled muzzle loader (RML) which preceded it, has rifling in the barrel and is loaded from the breech at the rear of the gun.
The spin imparted by the g ...
References
Further reading
*
Greener, William Wellington
William Wellington Greener (1834–1921) was an innovative English gunsmith, the founder of the W. W. Greener company. He was also an author of books on guns, many of which went through multiple editions, most notably ''The Gun and Its Developm ...
. ''The Breechloader and How to Use It ... Illustrated''. London: Cassell & Co, 1892.
*Held, Robert. ''The Age of Firearms; A Pictorial History from the Invention of Gunpower to the Advent of the Modern Breechloader''. Northfield, Ill: Gun Digest Co, 1970.
*Layman, George J. ''A Guide to the Ballard Breechloader''. Union City, TN: Pioneer Press, 1997.
External links
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Firearms from the collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on breech-loading weapons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breech-Loading Weapon
Firearm actions