Abreechloader[1][2] is afirearm orartillery piece in which the user loads the ammunition from thebreech (rear) end of thebarrel. The vast majority of modern firearms are breech-loaders.
Before the mid-19th century, most guns weremuzzleloaders, guns loaded from themuzzle (front) end of thebarrel.
Only a few muzzleloading weapons, such asmortars,rifle grenades, somerocket launchers, such as thePanzerfaust 3 andRPG-7, and theGP series grenade launchers, have remained in common usage in modern military conflicts. However, referring to a weapon explicitly as breech-loading is mostly limited to weapons where the operator loads ammunition by hand (and not by operating a mechanism such as abolt-action), such asartillery pieces orbreak-action small arms.
Breech-loading provides the advantage of reduced reloading time because it is far quicker to load theprojectile andpropellant into thechamber of agun orcannon 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 fromrifling. Infield artillery, the advantages were similar – crews no longer had to get in front of the gun and pack ammunition in the barrel with aramrod, and the shot could now tightly fit the bore, greatly increasing its power, range, and accuracy. It also made it easier to load a previously fired weapon with afouled 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 the whole length of the barrel, and in some cases the guns are simply fired to facilitate the unloading process.
The advent of breech-loading gave a significant increase to effective firepower by its own right, and also enabled further revolutions in firearm designs such asrepeating andself-loading firearms.
Although breech-loading firearms were developed as far back as the early 14th century inBurgundy and various other parts of Europe,[3][4] breech-loading became more successful with improvements inprecision engineering andmachining in the 19th century.
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 metalliccartridge in the mid-19th century. For firearms too large to use cartridges, the problem was solved by the development of theinterrupted screw.
Breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century. They were a particular type ofswivel gun, and consisted in a small breech-loading cannon equipped with aswivel 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 inanti-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.[5] Meanwhile, in China, an early form of breech-loading musket, known as theChe Dian Chong, was known to have been created in the second half of the 16th century for theMing dynasty's arsenals.[6] Like all early breech-loading fireams, gas leakage was a limitation and danger present in the weapon's mechanism.[7]
More breech-loading firearms were made in the early 18th century. One such gun known to have belonged toPhilip V of Spain, and was manufactured circa 1715, probably inMadrid. It came with a ready-to load reusable cartridge.[8]
Patrick Ferguson, aBritish Army officer, developed in 1772 theFerguson rifle, a breech-loading flintlock firearm. Roughly two hundred of the rifles were manufactured and used in theBattle of Brandywine, during theAmerican Revolutionary War, but shortly after they were retired and replaced with the standardBrown Bessmusket. In turn the American army, after getting some experience with muzzle-loaded rifles in the late 18th century, adopted the first standard breech-loading rifle in the world,M1819 Hall rifle, and in larger numbers than the Ferguson rifle.
From the late 18th century to early 19th century, 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 gunsmithFrançois Prélat,Jean Samuel Pauly created the first fully self-containedcartridges:[9] the cartridges incorporated a copper base with integratedmercury fulminate primer powder (the major innovation of Pauly), a round bullet and either brass or paper casing.[10][11] 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.[12] The corresponding firearm was also developed by Pauly.[9] Pauly made an improved version, which was protected by a patent on 29 September 1812.[9]
The Pauly cartridge was further improved by the French gunsmithCasimir Lefaucheux in 1828, by adding a pinfire primer, but Lefaucheux did not register his patent until 1835: apinfire cartridge containing powder in a cardboard shell.
In 1842, theNorwegian Armed Forces adopted the breech-loading caplock, theKammerlader, one of the first instances in which a modern army widely adopted a breech-loading rifle as its main infantry firearm.
In 1845, another FrenchmanLouis-Nicolas Flobert invented, forindoor shooting, the firstrimfire metallic cartridge, constituted by a bullet fit in a percussion cap.[13][14] 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 onlypropellant substance contained in the cartridge is the percussion cap itself.[15] In English-speaking countries the Flobert cartridge corresponds to the.22 BB and.22 CB ammunitions.
In 1846, yet another Frenchman,Benjamin Houllier, patented the first fully metallic cartridge containing powder in a metallic shell.[16] Houllier commercialised his weapons in association with the gunsmiths Blanchard or Charles Robert.[17][18] But the subsequent Houllier and Lefaucheux cartridges, even if they were the first full-metal shells, were still pinfire cartridges, like those used in theLeMat (1856) andLefaucheux (1858) revolvers, although the LeMat also evolved in a revolver using rimfire cartridges.
TheDreyse Zündnadelgewehr (Dreyse needle gun) was a single-shot breech-loading rifle using arotating bolt to seal the breech. It was so called because of its .5-inch needle-like firing pin, which passed through apaper cartridge case to impact apercussion cap at the bullet base. It began development in the 1830s underJohann Nicolaus von Dreyse and eventually an improved version of it was adopted byPrussia 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 theAustro-Prussian War of 1866. This, and theFranco-Prussian War of 1870–71, eventually caused much interest in Europe for breech-loaders and the Prussian military system in general.
The firstcentrefire cartridge was introduced in 1855 by Pottet, with bothBerdan and Boxer priming.[19]
In 1860, the New Zealand government petitioned the Colonial Office for more soldiers to defendAuckland.[20] The bid was unsuccessful and the government began instead making inquiries to Britain to obtain modern weapons. In 1861 they placed orders for theCalisher and Terry carbine, which used a breech-loading system using a bullet consisting of a standardMinié 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 a few years later. The carbine was used extensively by the Forest Rangers, an irregular force led byGustavus 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.[21][22]
During theAmerican Civil War, at least nineteen types of breech-loaders were fielded.[23] TheSharps used a successful dropping block design. TheGreene used rotating bolt-action, and was fed from the breech. TheSpencer, which used lever-actuated bolt-action, was fed from a seven-round detachabletube magazine. TheHenry andVolcanic 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 invented a breech-loading rifle before the war, theBurnside carbine.
The French adopted the newChassepot rifle in 1866, which was much improved over the Dreyse needle gun as it had dramatically fewer gas leaks due to itsde Bange sealing system. The British initially took the existing Enfield and fitted it with aSnider 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 thePeabody-derivedMartini-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 forrepeating rifles, first used in the American Civil War. Manual breech-loaders gave way to manual magazine feed and then toself-loading rifles.
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The first modern breech-loading rifled gun is a breech-loader invented byMartin von Wahrendorff with a cylindrical breech plug secured by a horizontal wedge in 1837.In the 1850s and 1860s,Joseph Whitworth andWilliam Armstrong invented improved breech-loading artillery, the12-pounder Whitworth rifle and theArmstrong gun.
The M1867 naval guns produced inImperial Russia[24] at theObukhov State Plant usedKrupp technology.
A breech action is the loading sequence of a breech loadingnaval gun orsmall arm. The earliest breech actions were either three-shotbreak-open actions or a barrel tip-down, remove the plug and reload actions. The laterbreech-loaders included theFerguson rifle, which used a screw-in/screw out action to reload, and theHall rifle, whichtipped up at 30 degrees for loading. The better breech loaders, however, usedpercussion caps, including theSharps rifle, using afalling block (orsliding block) action to reload. And then later on came theDreyse needle gun that used a moving seal (bolt) to seal and expose the breech. Later on, however, theMauser M71/84 rifle used self-contained metalliccartridges and used a rotating bolt to open and close the breech.