When did the term "muzzleloader" come to be ?

[Secesh]

In the first excerpt they describe the rifle, built by Rigby for the Irish team, as an Irish muzzle-loader. In the second excerpt the Irish rifle is described as a breech-loader? They also misspelled Sharps.

Don‘t pile on me too bad!

 

[Coinneach]

I heard from a Northern Gal who was reputed to be a loud mouthed angry type, that the term "Muzzle Loader" was meant to describe a woman who reloaded her Mans Long Rifles between Shots; that is after she'd learned her manners once the Feminist protest BS had subsided.

Not that I'm denigrating the Ladies ( BTW there's a distinct difference between Woman and Lady , and everyone of them has a personal choice which one they choose to be) either way we have a personal choice whether we'll respect that.

A relationship between a Man and a Woman isnt about subordination; its about mutual synchromesh of interests and an agreed compliance with each other.

Yep....the term "Muzzle Loaders" has more than a few meanings....to quote Australia's Sir Les Patterson " Do ya read me" !

 

[Celticstoneman]

They were using the terms by 1874 at least.
An excerpt from the US vs Ireland longrange shooting match in 1874...

View attachment 124228

That is an interesting article. Thanks!
John

 

[Blitz]

Taking a stab at this but after the first one was made…builder thinking what to call this thing while loading from the muzzle

Do we know if the term muzzle was used at that time?

Buzz PS A lot of speculation here, understandably.

 

[Blitz]

That is an interesting article. Thanks!
John

 

[Robby]

..........when Claude created this site.
Robby

 

[TDM]

Well I had to look it up. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary the origination date is 1858.

 

[52Bore]

The French created the pinfire (form of the modern cartridge) in the 1830’s.
European countries seem to be far ahead of the young UStates until the 2nd 1/2 of the 19th Century.
I always v thought it was interesting that the NRA-UK 1859, NRA (USA) 1872 and the NMLRA wasn’t until 1933 - 1/2 Century later.

 

[ResearchPress]

Well I had to look it up. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary the origination date is 1858.

It pre-dates that, by how much I don't know, but it's quite commonly used in the mid-19thC as more viable improvements in breech-loaders came to the fore and there was comparative discussion on the merits of muzzle and breech loaders. eg.

• "The rifle is said to possess one-third greater penetrating power with one-sixth less powder than any muzzle-loading one." (Scientific American, Sept. 1854: discussing Perry's Breech-Loading Rifle).
• "...having thus a great advantage over the process of the ordinary muzzle-loading rifle..." (British Parliamentary debate, March 1855).

David

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

I bet the date is earlier than the 1850s, for the Hall breech-loaded, patented in 1811, was officially adopted as the 1st breech-loading rifle ever issued to US troops in 1819, with the first models issued as flintlock ignition. I have the 2 books on the Hall breech-loader and I'd bet that in those books, that contain the official records of the arms trials, that the terms muzzle-loader and breech-loader are both used.

Synopsis: "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 breech-loader that only achieved the same rate of fire as a muzzle-loading musket would still be superior to the musket, as the breech-loader could be rifled and the musket couldn't, although in fact, breech-loaders generally also had a greater rate of fire."