Breech loading

[Fr. brèche; Ger. bruch, a breach; A.S. hlad, to load.] (Gunnery.) The method of making heavy pieces of ordnance and field-pieces, as well as rifles and fowling-pieces, with a movable breech, to admit of the charge being inserted at the breech end of the gun instead of the muzzle. Breech-loading guns are infinitely superior to those constructed on the old principle, as they can be loaded with much greater rapidity, and can be cleaned with greater readine and safety; the bore of the gun can also be more accurately grooved in the case of rifled pieces, and the calibre exactly preserved in the construction of smooth bores; and the bullet or projectile can be better adapted to fit the grooves of the piece or calibre of the bore. The ad dition of mechanism is required to secure the breech to the main part of the gun, and to insure sufficient strength to resist the explosive force of the powder. This renders a weapon constructed on this principle more expensive; The American Dictionary and Cyclopedia but the outlay is counterbalanced by the saving effected in metal, expenditure of powder, and the facility with which the pieces composing a field-battery can be moved from one place to another, as rifled breech-loading guns are not more than half the weight of pieces of ordinary construction and of the same calibre. At the present time it may be said that muzzle-loading weapons, large ard small, belong to an age that is past. This is true alike of smooth-bores and rifles, of whatever calibre. The sportsman of to-day uses nothing but the breech loading piece; modern armies have not only discarded the old muzzle-loading musket, but are satisfied with nothing short of the latest magazine rifle, which dis IMG:content-0745.png:[blocks in formation] Fig . 411. AN OLD-FASHIONED BREECH-LOADER. charges its pencil-like projectile of hardened steel at the rate of ten or more a minute. In the way of heavy ordnance, the breech-loading rifled cannon, ever growing in size and power, is the sole product of the armories; and the old-fashioned smooth-bore, loaded at the muzzle, clumsy and ineffective, is no longer seen except on board the more ancient warships or in fortifications where no actual service is likely to be required. See RIFLE, RAPID-FIRE GUNS, . Breech'-loading, a . ( Mil .) Inserting the charge of a gun at the breech instead of the muzzle. Breech'-pin, Breech'-screw, n. A strong plug firmly screwed in the breech of a fire-arm.