start of modern firearms.

With the introduction of the percussion cap, weapons could now be loaded from the breach(back of the barrel). early examples of this had one big problem, the breach was not 100% sealed. ones the weapon was fired the shooter had a explosion of powder in his face, not  a good day. The side effects of this powder was if to much got in your  eye you'd go blind. In 1819 the hall rifle was made, the first breach loading rifle. 

With this rifle you still had to load the powder then the bullet, and finally put the percussion cap on to fire. It was a lengthy proses put it got the job done. The most famous early breach loading rifle was the sharps model 1853. this rifle had a paper round that held the powder and bullet in one. to load the weapon, all the user had to do was put in the paper round, close the breach and put the percussion cap on. Fun fact the name sharpshooter came from the company sharps all the most accurate shooters in the world used a sharps rifle, so they where called sharpshooters. In my opinion the sharps rifle is really good, it incorporated every advancement in weapons up until that point. It is very accurate and easy to use. With breach loaders casings came to the scene pretty quick. A casing has the cap, powder and round in one.      

The introduction of the casing speeds up reload time and it is allot easier to carry ammunition. with casings brings a new type of powder that has more energy then black powder.  

bibliography

http://guns.wikia.com/wiki/M1819_Hall_rifle  

http://relicman.com/weapons/W1101.htm