Chapter 381 - 165: [Simple Methods for Producing Explosives] (Part 3)
It has several notable advantages.
Firstly, the reloading speed of breech-loading guns is several times faster than that of muzzle-loading guns, significantly increasing the rate of fire and rapidly showering bullets on the enemy.
Secondly, the breechblock of the Hall Breech-loading Gun can be detached at any time, allowing it to be used as a handgun in emergencies.
Due to its simple rifling, the range and precision of the Hall Breech-loading Gun are greatly improved. Chen Zhou knows its effective range is 500~700 yards.
In the 17th century, this range was more terrifying than that of cannons.
It means that without protection, within 400 meters, every bullet shot out is the roar of death, capable of wantonly reaping enemy lives.
Moreover, the seamless barrel Chen Zhou used performs even better than the Hall Breech-loading Gun, except for its caliber being too small.
He estimated that if he could successfully manufacture Mini Bullets matching the caliber, the effective range of this improved "Hall-style Breech-loading Gun" might be further increased.
...
Of course, the Hall-style Breech-loading Gun is a 19th-century firearm; its design at the time indeed had its merits but inevitably also had quite a few flaws.
The most prominent one is the gap between the breechblock and the barrel, causing excessive leakage of gunpowder gases and even a safety hazard of gunpowder entering the breech mechanism.
Besides, the sights on the Hall-style Breech-loading Gun are quite user-unfriendly, positioned to the left of the receiver, which can likely cause a "trajectory deviation to the left" during long-range shooting.
...
Since Chen Zhou intended to improve the Hall-style Breech-loading Gun, he planned to solve these two flaws in one go.
Actually, it wasn’t difficult because, whether it’s the leakage of gunpowder gases or the sights being on the left side of the receiver, it was due to the sins of the detachable breechblock design.
In the 19th century, when forced into close combat and struggling in melee, a detachable breechblock that could be used as a handgun might have been an advantage.
But in the 18th century, capable of ultra-long-range strikes, this advantage was unnecessary. If truly cornered by an enemy, detaching the breechblock would be less useful than a machete.
Moreover, the detachable breechblock brings more flaws; persisting in such a design is not worth the cost.
...
By changing the detachable breechblock to a unitary one, the sights can be installed directly in front of the barrel.
And the rear breech leakage problem is easier to solve.
Since sulfurized rubber appeared only in 1850, during the mass production and deployment of the Hall-style Breech-loading Gun, no one thought of using rubber sealing rings to solve the leakage problem.
At that time, people often employed a more expensive solution—metal cartridge cases.
But metal cartridge cases were slow to process and costly, and although they could solve the rear breech sealing problem, they couldn’t be widely promoted.
With Chen Zhou, the sealing problem is easier to solve.
Because he has rubber!
Solving the rear breech leakage problem and the sighting issue also addressed the shortfall in the barrel aspect. It can be said that as long as qualified bullets can be manufactured, the power of this improved Hall-style Breech-loading Gun will be no less than most rifles of World War I.
More importantly, the intrinsic advantages of the Hall-style Breech-loading Gun can be retained—loading speed and shooting accuracy.
Chen Zhou vaguely remembered that during the era when the Hall-style Breech-loading Gun was extensively equipped, the military conducted an experiment.
A unit of 38 soldiers equipped with the Hall Breech-loading Gun, muzzle-loading smoothbore guns, and muzzle-loading rifled guns respectively, firing freely at targets 100 yards away for ten minutes.
The muzzle-loading rifled guns fired about 500 bullets, with a hit rate of 33%.
The muzzle-loading smoothbore guns fired 850 bullets, with a pitiful hit rate of only 25%.
Whereas the Hall-style Breech-loading Gun not only poured out 1,200 bullets, but its hit rate also reached 36%, meaning it was both fast and accurate.
As the world’s first industrially mass-produced breech-loading gun, Chen Zhou believed that history had already proven the value of this gun.
He would also use his intellect and effort in this earlier era to make the improved Hall-style Breech-loading Gun a nightmare for the enemy.