The M1819 Hall rifle was a single-shot breech-loadingrifle (also considered something of a hybrid breech and muzzle-loading design) designed by John Hancock Hall, patented on May 21, 1811, and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1819. It was preceded by the Harpers Ferry M1803. It used a pivoting chamber breech design and was made with either flintlock or percussion cap ignition systems. The years of production were from the 1820s to the 1840s at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. This was the first breech-loading rifle to be adopted in large numbers by any nation's army, but not the first breech-loading military rifle – the Ferguson rifle was used briefly by the British Army in the American Revolutionary War. The Hall rifle remained overshadowed by common muskets and muzzleloading rifles which were still prevalent until the Civil War. The early flintlocks were mostly converted to percussion ignition.
United States Army inspectors conducted trials by having a 38-man infantry company fire at a 100 yards (91m) target for ten minutes at their own speed.[1]
Weapon
Rounds fired
Targets hit
Percentage striking target
Hall rifles
1,198
430
36%
Army-issue muzzle-loading smoothbore muskets
845
208
25%
Muzzle-loading rifles
494
164
33%
Production history
Hall-rifle. breech open
The original flintlock model of the Hall rifle had a 32.5in (830mm) barrel rifled with 16 "clockwise" (right-hand) grooves, making a full rotation in 96in (2,400mm). The muzzle was reamed to a depth of 1.5in (38mm), creating the illusion of a smoothbore when the user looked down the muzzle of the firearm. Overall length was 52.5in (1,330mm), and weight without bayonet was 10.25lb (4.65kg). The rifle fired a .525in (13.3mm) ball weighing 220gr (14g) (one-half ounce), using a 100gr (6.5g)black powder charge and 10gr (0.65g) of fine powder primer (flintlock versions only).
The carbine design was produced beginning in 1833, using a smoothbore barrel of 23in (580mm) in length. It had an overall length of 43in (1,100mm), weighed 8lb (3.6kg), and was the first caplock firearm adopted by the U.S. Army. The following year, a carbine in .69in (18mm) caliber was introduced for the Regiment of Dragoons, with a second run in 1836–1837. Barrel length was reduced to 21in (530mm) in 1840, and a "fishtail" breech lever design credited to U.S. Army Captain James Huger was also introduced for the next 7,000 carbines, including the M1842 carbine, the final "regulation design" of the series.
In 1843, the Hall-North carbine, variously known as the M1843 and the "improved 1840", featured a side-mounted Henry North-Edward Savage breech lever. 11,000 Hall-North carbines were manufactured with a 21in (530mm), .52in (13mm) caliber barrel. The Hall production line at Harper's Ferry closed in 1844, but between 1843 and 1846, 3,000 M1843 carbines were also manufactured by Simeon North.
Action
The back several inches of the barrel (the chamber) is a separate piece that pivots upwards from the front for reloading, similar in concept to the later Swedish-Norwegian kammerlader. In essence, the weapon was still loaded front to back, but without the need to ram the charge all the way from the muzzle, similar in concept to loading a cylinder of an early cap-and-ball (percussion) revolver. One could also think of it as similar to loading a short barreled, single shot muzzle-loading "horse pistol", which then hinges down behind an extra several feet of barrel, avoiding the need for extracting the long ram-rod from its underbarrel rings, rotating it so the ramming head faced the muzzle, ramming the charge down the barrel, extracting the rod, flipping it again, and then returning it to its holding rings. With the short chamber, a simple hand-held tool could be used to easily and quickly seat the bullet onto the charge. More importantly, as with all breechloaders (and muzzle-loaders, prior to the invention of the Minie ball), the fact that one didn't need to load through the whole barrel allowed for the use of rifling in a standard-issue front-line military weapon (as opposed to weapons issued in small numbers to elite troops such as sharpshooters). In order for rifling to work, the projectile must fit very snugly in the barrel, which makes it harder and slower to ram the bullet down the barrel. Once fired, black powder builds up thick fouling very quickly, which makes the gun even harder to load; a typical muzzle-loading rifle couldn't be fired more than 3–4 times before requiring cleaning, or the bullet would be impossible to force down the barrel on loading, even with the mallet typically issued to riflemen to aid in forcing the bullet through the rifling while loading after the first two shots. This fact is why soldiers were still issued smoothbore muskets firing loose-fitting round balls, long after the merits of rifling were known; rifles simply couldn't be loaded fast enough for use in open-field combat, even though they were far more effective shot-for-shot. The loose fit of a musket ball allowed for faster loading, even after fouling built up, but also made adding rifling useless, since it wouldn't work without a tight-fitting projectile. With a breech-loader, a tight-fitting projectile can be used, as it doesn't have to be forced down the barrel, which allows the use of rifling as well as a fast rate of fire. This fact means that even a breechloader that only achieved the same rate of fire as a muzzle-loading musket would still be superior to the musket, as the breechloader could be rifled and the musket couldn't, although in fact, breechloaders generally also had a greater rate of fire.
The development was primarily the work of Hall, who had been working on a design in the first two decades of the 19th century, receiving critical patents during the time. The work caught the interest of Army, which led to the contract at the end of the latter decade. The breech-loading design was made possible by his focus on using carefully machined components to form a seal, but still allowing enough tolerance for the breech to be opened easily. While precisely machined for the time, the technology of the day didn't allow for tolerances close enough to make a satisfactory seal, which was also one of the biggest hindrances to the creation of a successful revolver until some years later. The Hall rifle offered a significant increase in rate of fire over muzzleloading rifles and muskets (mostly due to the fact that one didn't have to manipulate the long, awkward ramming-rod every time one loaded). However, the design suffered from the gas leakage around the interface of the separate chamber and the bore (much as gases escape from the gap between cylinder and barrel of a revolver), resulting in the necessity of a heavier powder charge that still produced much less muzzle velocity than its muzzleloading competition. No serious efforts were made to develop a seal to reduce the loss of gas from the breech. The penetrating ability of its .52in (13mm) caliber ball for the rifle was only one third of that of the muzzleloaders, and the muzzle velocity of the carbine was 25 percent lower than that of the Jenks "Mule Ear" carbine, despite having similar barrel lengths and identical 70gr (4.5g) powder charges.
Thousands of rifles were made, though the troops and many leaders preferred the simplicity and lower costs of muzzle-loaded weapons. However, the advantages were clear, and breech-loading designs would grow to dominate rifle procurement after the Civil War. Many of the lessons learned by Hall would benefit designers of the next generation of breech-loaders such as the Sharps rifle (1848), Spencer carbine (1860), Henry rifle (1860), and others.
The Halls were used in the Mexican–American War, against Native Americans, and in other, smaller conflicts. Some saw service in the American Civil War; however, by this time, many rifles were worn out over 30 years of use.
The Buenos Aires State Forces acquired (perhaps around 1854, when the US cavalry began to replace it with the Sharps) a small amount (probably no more than 50), to be used in the fight against the Confederacy and the Indians, remaining in use until 1881, always by the forces of Buenos Aires. It may be that some were issued to the Escort Squadron of Buenos Aires, and others to the infantry. One can be seen at the Museo de Armas de la Nación (establishing that it was used in the war for National Organization between 1852 and 1862). In 1812, there was a Hall rifle in the Artillery Park, not of the same system, but of the original 1811 flintlock model, perhaps a handful of them entered the country (approximately ten), then disappearing from the Park in that same period.[2]
As part of the process, Hall built his own shops and machinery at Harper's Ferry, and along with inventing this weapon, he invented many machines, paving the way for uniform manufacturing of weapons with interchangeable parts. The ruins of his shops are still visible today.
Similar guns
The Sartoris carbine, based on the earlier Crespi breech-loader,[3] was an almost identical design issued in limited numbers to the British army from 1817–1825.[4] The brass trigger guard also served as a handle to slide the barrel forward, and the breech pivoted upwards to enable loading in a similar manner to contemporary muzzle loading pistols. Sartoris' design was tested on many flintlock arms, including a Baker rifle and a regulation cavalry carbine, and at least one sporting gun was converted to caplock by Alexander Forsyth.[5] One of these rare guns is part of the Royal Armouries collection in Leeds.[6]
A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries.
A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with both hands and braced firmly against the shooter's shoulder via a buttstock for stability during shooting. Rifles are used extensively in warfare, law enforcement, hunting and target shooting sports.
In firearm designs, the term single-shot refers to guns that can hold only a single round of ammunition inside and thus must be reloaded manually after every shot. Compared to multi-shot repeating firearms ("repeaters"), single-shot designs have no moving parts other than the trigger, hammer/firing pin or frizzen, and therefore do not need a sizable receiver behind the barrel to accommodate a moving action, making them far less complex and more robust than revolvers or magazine/belt-fed firearms, but also with much slower rates of fire.
The percussion cap, percussion primer, or caplock, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. Its invention gave rise to the caplock mechanism or percussion lock system which used percussion caps struck by the hammer to set off the gunpowder charge in rifles and cap and ball firearms. Any firearm using a caplock mechanism is a percussion gun. Any long gun with a cap-lock mechanism and rifled barrel is a percussion rifle. Cap and ball describes cap-lock firearms discharging a single bore-diameter spherical bullet with each shot.
A muzzleloader is any firearm in which the user loads the projectile and the propellant charge into the muzzle end of the gun. This is distinct from the modern designs of breech-loading firearms, in which user loads the ammunition into the breech end of the barrel. The term "muzzleloader" applies to both rifled and smoothbore type muzzleloaders, and may also refer to the marksman who specializes in the shooting of such firearms. The firing methods, paraphernalia and mechanism further divide both categories as do caliber.
In firearms terminology, an action is the functional mechanism of a breech-loading firearm that handles the ammunition cartridges, or the method by which that mechanism works. Actions are technically not present on muzzleloaders, as all those are single-shot firearms with a closed off breech with the powder and projectile manually loaded from the muzzle. Instead, the muzzleloader ignition mechanism is referred to as the lock.
Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism itself, also known as the true flintlock, that was introduced in the early 17th century, and gradually replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the matchlock, the wheellock, and the earlier flintlock mechanisms such as the snaplock and snaphaunce.
The Charleville musket was a .69 caliber standard French infantry musket used in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was made in 1717 and was last produced during the 1840s. However, it still saw limited use in conflicts through the mid-19th century.
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the (muzzle) end of the barrel.
A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type weapons such as small firearms, artillery pieces, and air guns. It is the straight shooting tube, usually made of rigid high-strength metal, through which a contained rapid expansion of high-pressure gas(es) is used to propel a projectile out of the front end (muzzle) at a high velocity. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, and the diameter of the bore is called its caliber, usually measured in inches or millimetres.
The Peabody action was an early form of breechloading firearm action, where the heavy breechblock tilted downwards across a bolt mounted in the rear of the breechblock, operated by a lever under the rifle. The Peabody action most often used an external hammer to fire the cartridge.
A rifled musket, rifle musket, or rifle-musket is a type of firearm made in the mid-19th century. Originally the term referred only to muskets that had been produced as a smoothbore weapon and later had their barrels replaced with rifled barrels. The term later included rifles that directly replaced, and were of the same design overall as, a particular model of smoothbore musket.
The Kammerlader, or "chamber loader", was the first Norwegian breech-loading rifle, and among the first breech loaders adopted for use by an armed force anywhere in the world. A single-shot black-powder rifle, the kammerlader was operated with a crank mounted on the side of the receiver. This made it much quicker and easier to load than the weapons previously used. Kammerladers quickly gained a reputation for being fast and accurate rifles, and would have been a deadly weapon against massed ranks of infantry.
The double rifle, also known as a double-barreled rifle, is a rifle with two barrels mounted parallel to each other that can be fired simultaneously or sequentially in quick succession. Synonymous with big game hunting found primarily in Africa and Asia, the double rifle is a sporting weapon with very little military heritage.
The origins of the modern British military rifle are within its predecessor the Brown Bess musket. While a musket was largely inaccurate over 100 yards (91 m), due to a lack of rifling and a generous tolerance to allow for muzzle-loading, it was cheap to produce and could be loaded quickly. The use of volley or mass firing by troops meant that the rate of fire took precedence over accuracy.
A muzzle-loading rifle is a muzzle-loaded small arm or artillery piece that has a rifled barrel rather than a smoothbore. The term "rifled muzzle loader" typically is used to describe a type of artillery piece, although it is technically accurate for small arms as well. A shoulder arm is typically just called a "rifle", as almost all small arms were rifled by the time breechloading became prevalent. Muzzle and breechloading artillery served together for several decades, making a clear distinction more important. In the case of artillery, the abbreviation "RML" is often prefixed to the guns designation; a Rifled breech loader would be "RBL", or often just "BL", since smoothbore breechloading artillery is almost nonexistent. A muzzle loading weapon is loaded through the muzzle, or front of the barrel. This is the opposite of a breech-loading weapon or rifled breechloader (RBL), which is loaded from the breech-end of the barrel. The rifling grooves cut on the inside of the barrel cause the projectile to spin rapidly in flight, giving it greater stability and hence range and accuracy than smoothbore guns. Hand held rifles were well-developed by the 1740s. A popularly recognizable form of the "muzzleloader" is the Kentucky Rifle, which was actually developed in Pennsylvania. The American Longrifle evolved from the German "Jäger" rifle.
The Minié rifle was an important infantry rifle of the mid-19th century. A version was adopted in 1849 following the invention of the Minié ball in 1847 by the French Army captain Claude-Étienne Minié of the Chasseurs d'Orléans and Henri-Gustave Delvigne. The bullet was designed to allow rapid muzzle loading of rifles and was an innovation that brought about the widespread use of the rifle as the main battlefield weapon for individual soldiers. The French adopted it following difficulties encountered by the French army in North Africa, where their muskets were overtaken in range by long-barreled weapons which were handcrafted by their Algerian opponents. The Minié rifle belonged to the category of rifled muskets.
A paper cartridge is one of various types of small arms ammunition used before the advent of the metallic cartridge. These cartridges consisted of a paper cylinder or cone containing the bullet, gunpowder, and in some cases, a primer or a lubricating and anti-fouling agent. Combustible cartridges are paper cartridges that use paper treated with oxidizers to allow them to burn completely upon ignition.
During the American Civil War, an assortment of small arms found their way onto the battlefield. Though the muzzleloader percussion cap rifled musket was the most numerous weapon, being standard issue for the Union and Confederate armies, many other firearms, ranging from the single-shot breech-loading Sharps and Burnside rifles to the Spencer and the Henry rifles - two of the world's first repeating rifles - were issued by the hundreds of thousands, mostly by the Union. The Civil War brought many advances in firearms technology, most notably the widespread use of rifled barrels.
The Serbian Peabody rifle is a single-shot breechloading rifle made and used in the Principality of Serbia in the second half of the 19th century. It was the first Serbian military rifle which used metallic cartridges.
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