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The ball magazine was situated in a cylindrical cavity in the stock under the barrel. [6] Many Kalthoff guns used a magazine located in the ramrod cavity, and featured a cap designed to look like the end of the ramrod. [1] This style of magazine was around a 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in length and could hold over 60 14 mm (0.55 in) balls. [3]
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 the Che Dian Chong, was known to have been created in the second half of the 16th century for the Ming dynasty's arsenals. [6]
The Ferguson rifle was one of the first breech-loading rifles to be put into service by the British military. It was designed by Major Patrick Ferguson (1744–1780). 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 of Brandywine in 1777, and possibly at the Siege of Charleston in 1780.
In 1843, the Hall-North carbine, variously known as the M1843 and the "improved 1840", featured a side-mounted Henry North-Edward Savage breech lever. 11,000 Hall-North carbines were manufactured with a 21 in (530 mm), .52 in (13 mm) caliber barrel. The Hall production line at Harper's Ferry closed in 1844, but between 1843 and 1846, 3,000 ...
have a reduced caliber compared to the then standard musket; have reliable ignition, with the means of the caplock mechanism (earlier muskets had been equipped with the flintlock mechanism); be quicker to load than the musket, and therefore be a breech loader; and; be more accurate than the old smoothbore muskets.
Loading was accomplished by lowering a lever which was mounted on the left side of the rifle. This caused the chambers to line up with two magazines contained within the buttstock and allowed one .55 caliber lead ball and a 60-grain powder charge to fall into their respective chambers. When the lever was returned to its original position, the ...
Springfield Model 1866 breech. The Springfield Model 1866 was the second iteration of the Allin-designed trapdoor breech-loading mechanism. Originally developed as a means of converting rifle muskets to breechloaders, the Allin modification ultimately became the basis for the definitive Springfield Model 1873, the first breech-loading rifle adopted by the United States War Department for ...
The "Hickok rifle" has a 29.625-inch (75.25 cm) barrel, which is longer than the carbine version's barrel and shorter than the rifle version's barrel, and also has a Kentucky rifle style sloped butt. The trapdoor mechanism is stamped with the year 1870, and the lockplate is stamped with the year 1863, indicating that this rifle was originally ...