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References in classic literature

For a moment, for just so long as it needs to stuff a cartridge into a breech-loader, the lama hesitated.

It is best described in Claude Fuller's extensive study, The Breech-Loader in the Service 1816-1917 where he says, "The barrel of the gun is cut off about 3 inches in front of the breech-pin and screwed into a new breech-receiver The breechblock consists of a solid piece of iron hinged to the front of the receiver, and moving in a horizontal plane.

Fightin' Irish: Fenian radicals used Springfield conversions in a failed attempt to invade

The gun employed a unique cartridge (a variant of which would also be used in the Westley Richards "Monkey Tail" breech-loader) that involved--depending upon the bore of the weapon--a .539 or .568 hollow-based bullet encapsulated within a nitrated paper wrapper holding the appropriate powder charge and that, at its base, had an attached greased felt wad.

Battle of the breechloaders: Calisher & Terry Gwyn & Campbell: two of the Civil War's most unusual carbines go head-to-head

During the Crimean War, he read about the problems the British Army had with manoeuvring their heavy guns and developed a lighter one, the Armstrong breech-loader, which was also very accurate and far superior to the enemy's weapons.

100 Greatest Geordies

With the start of the Crimean War, Armstrong turned his ingenuity to the improvement of artillery, developing an impressively accurate field gun, the Armstrong breech-loader. In 1859 he was knighted and, in effect, made gun-maker in chief to the British Army.

Death of Lord Armstrong

If one wanted a breech-loader, he'd just have to put up with it.

Burns side's breech loader: designed by a Union general, this great little single-shot was the north's third-most-popular carbine during the Civil War

Civil War, the Secretary of War convened a Board of Officers "for the purpose of examining, testing, and recommending for adoption, a suitable breech-loader for muskets and carbines." The recommendation of that Board and a subsequent Board was the Peabody be adopted as a metallic cartridge firing replacement for the muzzleloading musket.

The Martini-Henry: but whatever happened to Mr. Peabody?

Beside him, with one chamber discharged, was a double-barrelled breech-loader, which the unfortunate gentleman had evidently placed in his mouth.