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A breechloader [1] [2] 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 a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the end of the barrel.
The Ferguson rifle: British Major Patrick Ferguson designed his rifle, considered to be the first military breechloader in the 1770s. A plug-shaped breechblock was screw-threaded so that rotating the handle underneath would lower and raise it for loading with ball and loose powder; the flintlock action still required conventional priming.
The gun was expressly designed to defend larger warships against the new small fast-moving torpedo boats in the late 1870s to the early 1880s and was an enlarged version of the successful rifle-calibre Nordenfelt hand-cranked "machine gun" designed by Helge Palmcrantz. The gun fired a solid steel bullet with hardened tip and brass jacket.
The Armstrong RBL 7-inch gun, also known as the 110-pounder, [4] was a heavy caliber Armstrong gun, an early type of rifled breechloader. William Armstrong 's innovative combination of a rifled built-up gun with breechloading had proven suitable for small cannon.
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 ...
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The gun as originally adopted had a barrel 84 inches long, with a bore of 73.375 inches. The Royal Navy adopted a version with a 72-inch barrel, with a bore of 61.375 inches, by simply cutting 12 inches off the end, and from 1863 the shorter length was incorporated into a common version for both land and sea use.
The Long Rifle has a 36 + 1 ⁄ 2-inch (93 cm) barrel and three barrel bands. Its total length (without bayonet) is 54 + 1 ⁄ 4 inches (138 cm) in length. It was issued to line infantry and has three-groove rifling with one turn in 78 inches (200 cm). The Short Rifle has a 30.5-inch (77 cm) barrel and two barrel bands with iron furniture.