Breech-loading guns, for the Royal Horse Artillery and field brigades, were passed by Colonel Maitland in 1881, and issued for service at Woolwich. These guns were constructed - as far as was practicable, seeing that they were breech-loaders - on the model of the muzzle-loading 13 pdr, which was deemed the finest specimen of British ordnance. both were 3 inches in calibre at the bore, enlarged to 6 1/2 in the powder-chamber. A turn of a lever unlocked the breech-pin, which, when withdrawn, was seen to be a solid metal drum, about 10 pounds in weight, and screwed into the gun by a thread surrounding the whole cylinder, except at intervals, where the horizontal ways were smoothly cut, so that the drum could be easily taken out when in position, to clear the remaining jambs. A half turn of a screw released it in a moment, and being received by a carrier, it swung round on a hinge to the right, leaving the breech open for loading. The fittings were of bronze, formerly called gun-metal, but the gun itself was chiefly of steel. The whole of the barrel was steel, and only in the rear were wrought-iron coils shrunk on to strengthen and support it. The weight of this gun was only 84 hundredweights. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 125 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1972 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com