Breechloader

A breechloader is a firearm or artillery piece in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech (rear) end of the barrel. The vast majority of modern firearms are breechloaders.

Before the mid-19th century, most guns were muzzleloaders, guns loaded from the muzzle (front) end of the barrel.

Only a few muzzle-loading weapons, such as mortars, rifle grenades, some rocket launchers, such as the Panzerfaust 3 and RPG-7, and the GP series grenade launchers, have remained in common usage in modern military conflicts. However, referring to a weapon explicitly as breech-loading is mostly limited to weapons in which the operator loads ammunition by hand (and not by operating a mechanism such as a bolt action), such as artillery pieces or break-action small arms.

Breech-loading designs provide several advantages, chief among which is reduced reload time. Rather than having to push propellant and projectile through the whole length of the barrel and pack it down, they can be simply inserted into the chamber far quicker. The reloading process itself is also streamlined, as the weapons do not need to be maneuvered around as much; for artillery, this also allows gun emplacements to be smaller and the crew to remain better protected. Rifled or fouled barrels do not impede loading the breech. Another advantage is that projectiles could be made to fit the bore tightly, increasing power, range and accuracy. Unloading a breechloader is much easier as well, as the ammunition can be unloaded from the breech end, which can often be done by hand. Unloading muzzleloaders requires drilling into the projectile to drag it out through the whole length of the barrel, and in some cases, the guns are simply fired to facilitate the unloading process.

The advent of breechloading gave a significant increase to effective firepower by its own right, and it also enabled further revolutions in firearm designs such as repeating and self-loading firearms.