R. Ball & Co.
35-596: Dwight, Chapin & Co. Merrimack Arms and Manufacturing Co. Brown Manufacturing Co. No. 1 1/2 Hunter's Rifle No. 1 3/4 Far West No. 2 Sporting No. 3 Gallery Rifle No. 3 Pistol Grip Rifle No. 3 1/2 Target No. 4 Perfection No. 4 1/4 No. 4 1/2 Mid Range No. 4 1/2 A-1 Mid Range No. 5 Pacific No. 5 1/2 Montana No. 6 Schuetzen No. 6 1/2 Off-Hand No. 6 1/2 Rigby Off-Hand No. 6 1/2 Pistol Grip Off-Hand No. 7 Long Range No. 7 A-1 Long Range No. 7 A-1 Extra Long Range No. 8 Union Hill No. 9 Union Hill 9 lbs (No. 2 Sporting Model) The Ballard Rifle
70-608: A muzzleloader , in which the user loads the ammunition from the ( muzzle ) end of the barrel . The vast majority of modern firearms are generally breech-loaders, while firearms made before the mid-19th century were mostly smoothbore muzzle-loaders. Only a few muzzleloading weapons, such as mortars , rifle grenades , some rocket launchers , such as the Panzerfaust 3 and RPG-7 , and the GP series grenade launchers, have remained in common usage in modern military conflicts. However, referring to
105-489: A swivel 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 roles. Breech-loading firearms are known from the 16th century. Henry VIII 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
140-549: A barrel tip-down, remove the plug and reload actions. The later breech-loaders included the Ferguson rifle , 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 , including the Sharps rifle , using a falling block (or sliding block ) action to reload. And then later on came
175-547: 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 at the Obukhov State Plant used Krupp technology. A breech action is the loading sequence of a breech loading naval gun or small arm . The earliest breech actions were either three-shot break-open actions or
210-530: 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
245-406: A previously fired weapon with a fouled barrel. Gun turrets and emplacements for breechloaders can be smaller since crews don't need to retract the gun for loading into the muzzle end. Unloading a breechloader is much easier as well, as the ammunition can be unloaded from the breech end and is often doable by hand; unloading muzzle loaders requires drilling into the projectile to drag it out through
280-636: A ready-to load reusable cartridge. Patrick Ferguson , a British Army officer, developed in 1772 the Ferguson rifle , a breech-loading flintlock firearm. Roughly two hundred of the rifles were manufactured and used in the Battle of Brandywine , during the American Revolutionary War , but shortly after they were retired and replaced with the standard Brown Bess musket . In turn the American army, after getting some experience with muzzle-loaded rifles in
315-527: 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 adopted the breech-loading caplock, the Kammerlader , 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 )
350-476: A water brake to counteract the recoil of naval cannons was first suggested to the British Admiralty by Carl Wilhelm Siemens in early 1870s, but it took about a decade for other people (primarily Josiah Vavasseur ) to commercialize the idea. The usual recoil system in modern quick-firing guns is the hydro-pneumatic recoil system. In this system, the barrel is mounted on rails on which it can recoil to
385-411: A weapon specifically as breech-loading is mostly limited to non-repeating firearms, including single-shots , derringers , double-barreled shotguns , double-barreled rifles , combination guns , and volley guns . Breech-loading provides the advantage of reduced reloading time because it is far quicker to load the projectile and propellant into the chamber of a gun or cannon than to reach all
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#1732851580794420-428: Is dissipated via hydraulic damping as the barrel returns forward to the firing position. The recoil impulse is thus spread out over the time in which the barrel is compressing the air, rather than over the much narrower interval of time when the projectile is being fired. This greatly reduces the peak force conveyed to the mount (or to the ground on which the gun has been emplaced). This article related to weaponry
455-465: The American Civil War , at least nineteen types of breech-loaders were fielded. The Sharps used a successful dropping block design. The Greene 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 . The Henry and Volcanic used rimfire metallic cartridges fed from a tube magazine under
490-588: 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 , and was manufactured circa 1715, probably in Madrid . It came with
525-536: The Dreyse needle gun 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. Hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism A hydraulic recoil mechanism is a way of limiting the effects of recoil and adding to the accuracy and firepower of an artillery piece. The idea of using
560-407: The aim. This provided faster rates of fire, but this 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
595-512: 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 invented a breech-loading rifle before the war, the Burnside carbine . The French adopted the new Chassepot rifle in 1866, which
630-590: 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 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 ammunitions. In 1846, yet another Frenchman, Benjamin Houllier , patented
665-511: 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 (1858) revolvers, although the LeMat also evolved in
700-423: The first fully self-contained cartridges : the cartridges incorporated a copper base with integrated mercury fulminate 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
735-731: 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 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 . The bid
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#1732851580794770-510: 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. Although breech-loading firearms were developed as far back as the early 14th century in Burgundy and various other parts of Europe, breech-loading became more successful with improvements in precision engineering and machining in the 19th century. The main challenge for developers of breech-loading firearms
805-512: The late 18th century, adopted the second standard breech-loading firearm in the world, M1819 Hall rifle , 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 , Jean Samuel Pauly created
840-473: The latter half of the 19th Century, but were slowly replaced by various designs for repeating rifles , 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 rifles . The first modern breech-loading rifled gun is a breech-loader invented by Martin von Wahrendorff with
875-454: The main rifles used to hunt buffalo. Other variants included the No. 1 + 3 ⁄ 4 Hunter's Model, No. 2 Sporting Model, No. 5 Pacific Model, and the No. 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 Montana Model. Breechloader A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel (i.e., from the rearward, open end of the gun's barrel), as opposed to
910-424: The rear, and the recoil is taken up by a cylinder which is similar in operation to an automotive gas-charged shock absorber , and is commonly visible as a cylinder mounted parallel to the barrel of the gun, but shorter and smaller than it. The cylinder contains a charge of compressed air, as well as hydraulic oil; in operation, the barrel's energy is taken up in compressing the air as the barrel recoils backward, then
945-471: 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 field artillery , the advantages were similar – crews no longer had to get in front of the gun and pack ammunition in the barrel with a ramrod , and the shot could now tightly fit the bore, greatly increasing its power, range, and accuracy. It also made it easier to load
980-461: The whole length of the barrel, and in some cases the guns are simply fired to facilitate unloading process. After breech-loading became common, it also became common practice to fit counter-recoil systems, such as the hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism on the Canon de 75 modèle 1897 , onto field guns and howitzers to prevent the recoil from rolling the carriage back and forth with every shot and ruining
1015-497: Was J.M. Marlin Firearms Co., who built more models than any predecessor (1870–1890). The Ballard rifle had over 20 variants during its 29-year lifespan. The No. 1 Hunter's Model was first introduced in 1875 for the .44 rimfire caliber. The No. 1 would later be produced in .44 rimfire, .45-70 Government, .44 Ballard Long, & .44 Ballard Extra Long. This version along with the No. 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 Montana are known for being one of
1050-789: Was a single shot, breechloading longarm used during the American Civil War by Kentucky volunteers. The Ballard Rifle was designed and patented by Charles H. Ballard in November 1861 in Worcester, Massachusetts . Around 3,000 were made between 1862 and 1865, with some being used for military use in Kentucky . Ballard rifles used by Kentucky Volunteers will have Kentucky marked on them. Variants were built by Ball & Williams (1862–1865), Dwight Chapin & Co. (1862–1863), and later by R. Ball & Co. (1865–1867), Merrimack Arms (1867–1868), and Brown Manufacturing (1869–1873). The last and most successful maker
1085-419: Was a single-shot breech-loading rifle using a rotating bolt to seal the breech. It was so called because of its .5-inch needle-like firing pin, which passed through a paper cartridge case to impact a percussion cap at the bullet base. It began development in the 1830s under Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse and eventually an improved version of it was adopted by Prussia in the late 1840s. The paper cartridge and
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1120-492: 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 in 1828, by adding a pinfire primer, but Lefaucheux did not register his patent until 1835: a pinfire cartridge containing powder in a cardboard shell. In 1845, another Frenchman Louis-Nicolas Flobert invented, for indoor shooting ,
1155-692: Was much improved over the Dreyse needle gun as it had dramatically fewer gas leaks due to its de Bange 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
1190-442: Was sealing the breech. This was eventually solved for smaller firearms by the development of the self-contained metallic cartridge in the mid-19th century. For firearms too large to use cartridges, the problem was solved by the development of the interrupted screw . Breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century. They were a particular type of swivel gun , and consisted in a small breech-loading cannon equipped with
1225-554: 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 ( Hussars ) from 1857. About 3–4,000 carbines were brought into New Zealand
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