INTRODUCTION

FIREARMS Barrel
Barrel
band Exposed
Rear sight
Fore sight hammer
Ring to hang rifle
on saddle

Tubular magazine WINCHESTER 1866

UNDERLEVER RIFLE Trigger

Hinged loading/ Six-chamber

ejection gate fluted cylinder Spring-loaded Blade Trigger guard extends
ejector rod Barrel fore sight to form cocking lever
Hammer
notched
to act as
rear sight
Cylinder
locking Hammer
Blade Six-chamber slot
fore sight cylinder
COLT SINGLE-ACTION Cylinder
ARMY REVOLVER release
catch
Barrel Over-and-
Hammer hinge under barrels Ejector
Fore sight rod

Trigger
Cylinder
gate pin
Hard
rubber Trigger
grip REMINGTON DOUBLE
DERRINGER PISTOL SMITH & WESSON
Stud MILITARY AND POLICE
trigger REVOLVER
Lanyard ring
Lanyard ring

Rear sight Forestock extends

Bolt almost to the muzzle Protected fore sight

Bolt handle

Studded
muzzle

LEE-ENFIELD NO 4
Trigger
Magazine Detachable BOLT ACTION RIFLE
release magazine
catch

Sling swivel

REPEATER FIREARMS self-contained nature of the brass cartridge rifles with rotating bolts. Spencer’s and Henry’s
At the other end of the scale, Wesson and to produce other types of repeating firearm. guns had another weakness, too: their tubular
his partner Horace Smith, who had worked Two were notably successful early on: Christopher magazines. The problem lay in the fact that the
for Winchester, had turned their attention Spencer and Benjamin Tyler Henry, both of whom tip of the bullet was lodged against the primer
to designing a revolver to take brass cartridges, produced tubular magazine repeater rifles in 1860 of the cartridge ahead of it, and in certain
but had discovered that a patent already existed (Spencer’s had its magazine in the butt; Henry’s circumstances could work as a firing pin,
for the “bored-through” cylinder that they was below the barrel). Both were imperfect, with catastrophic results.
needed to utilize. Fortunately, they were able however, for they could only handle low-
to acquire it, in return for a royalty of 15 cents powered ammunition,
for every gun they produced, and in 1857, as and this did not
soon as they were free to exploit Colt’s patent, satisfy military
they unveiled the first effective cartridge revolver. requirements. SPRINGFIELD M1903
Colt was then frustrated by patent protection in The US Army, The US Army kept single-shot
his turn, and it was only in 1873, 11 years after therefore, clung breech-loaders until 1892, when
his death, that his company was able to bring to its single-shot it adopted a bolt-action magazine
rifle, the Norwegian Krag.
out another world-beater: the Single-Action breech-loaders, but in Europe,
In 1903 it replaced the Krag
Army revolver, widely known as the Peacemaker. thanks largely to the Mauser brothers’ success with a modified Mauser type
18 Elsewhere, others were attempting to exploit the with the M/71, attention swung to designing rifle from the Springfield Armory.