Sunday, November 17, 2013

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.  

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1 comment:

  1. I must say Matt, I thought I knew a fair amount about guns but reading throughout your blog I can see that I am not alone and I'm even learning new things as I read along. Seeing that you know so much, want to hit me with some advice? I love guns, I love shooting and I love hunting. I've never been involved in the realm of black powder but I am strongly considering getting started. Since I like to hunt I was wondering which calibers, powders, and gun I should use for deer hunting. I'm also wondering how far the shot will travel and if it's even worth getting into. By the way seeing as we hold so many close interest we should chill soon brah.

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