What was the first breech loading rifle

US Patent No. Born January 23, - Died November 26, Related Inductees. Previous Slide Next Slide. Find an Inductee. During the American Civil War , many breechloaders would be 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 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 General Burnside invented a breech-loading rifle before the war. The French adopted the new Chassepot rifle in , which was much improved over the 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 guns in , the British decided to adopt the Peabody -derived Martini-Henry with trap-door loading in Single-shot breech-loaders would be used throughout the latter half of 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. An animation showing the loading cycle for a large naval breech-loader. Notice that there is a series of interlocking doors that never permit an open path from the gunhouse, down which a flash might travel, to the magazine. The first modern breech-loading rifled gun is a breech-loader invented by Martin von Wahrendorff with a cylindrical breech plug secured by a horizontal wedge in In the s and s, Whitworth and Armstrong invented improved breech loading artillery.

Military Wiki Explore. Popular pages. Project maintenance. Register Don't have an account? Breech-loading weapon. Edit source History Talk 0. Breech from Russian mm M howitzer, modified and combined with mm H37 howitzer barrel A breech-loading weapon is a firearm in which the cartridge or shell is inserted or loaded into a chamber integral to the rear portion of a barrel. Main article: Breech-loading swivel gun. Main article: Rifled breech loader. Carman p. The New Zealand Wars.

The Indians had them outgunned that day with some Winchester repeaters. Box , Cave Creek, AZ Skip to content. My Account Blog. Post Views: 8, Related Posts.