When was the breech loading rifle invented

John Browning advanced the gun industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by designing pioneering, commercially successful guns, including the lever-action repeating rifle, semi-automatic shotgun,.

Over thirty million modern weapons are based on his designs. Born in Ogden, Utah, Browning worked in his father's shop, creating his first rifle from scrap iron at thirteen. Contact Us. Power of the gun Print entire article Character of an army Tactics, the art of fighting battles and engagements, is in great part a reflection of the weapons in use at any one time, and it affects not simply what happens on the battlefield but the character of armies more generally.

Next Soldiers. Formation of Britain's Standing Army. The Soldier's Trade in a Changing World. Activity: Battle of the Somme. Quiz: Soldiers. Go Further. From Musket to Breech Loader. It's also a bargain. Estimates are that about 7 million rounds of ammunition were fired at the Battle of Gettysburg, not including artillery cannonballs. If one bullet weighs about grains and there are grains to a pound, then the weight of 7 million bullets would be about , pounds of bullets or TONS.

Working throughout the summer of , Gatling developed the invention that would carry his name though history: the Gatling gun, a weapon featuring a barrel that was 2. The Henry rifle, the first repeating rifle, was brand new in Old Tub, a cheap brand produced by Jim Beam, cost just 25 cents a gallon in When the Civil War started, demand increased and supply decreased.

His many sources included domestic manufacture, European purchases, captured weapons from Federal arsenals, and battlefield pick-ups. The Confederacy imported over , European arms. The Springfield was a. The breech is the opening end at the back of the barrel. The muzzle is at the other end.

In a semi-auto rifle or pistol or a bolt action rifle, the chamber is the first part of the rear of the barrel that encloses the case of the cartridge.

The firing pin strikes the primer, causing it to explode. The spark from the primer ignites the gunpowder. Gas converted from the burning powder rapidly expands in the cartridge.

The expanding gas forces the bullet out of the cartridge and down the barrel with great speed. A gunstock or often simply stock , the back portion of which is also known as a shoulder stock, a buttstock or simply a butt, is a part of a long gun that provides structural support, to which the barrel, action, and firing mechanism are attached.

In , buffalo hunter Billy Dixon became a legend when he blew a Comanche warrior out of the saddle with a Sharps. Plainsmen could load and fire five rounds in a minute in the breech-loading Sharps, a far cry from the old muzzle-loaders that took the best part of a minute to load and fire one round.

Despite the popularity of the Sharps rifles, there was a great need for a repeating rifle. During the Civil War, teenager, Christopher Spencer invented the first lever-action repeating rifle.