Why the "patent breech" design ?

[ETipp]

Okay, now I'm confused. I have a TC New Englander, a Lyman GPR, a CVA Hawken and a Traditions Crockett rifle. What breech systems to each of those have?

 

[flconch53]

I think they all are some variation of a patent breach. If you can remove the barrel using the hooked breach plug it is usually a patent breach

 

[DuncNZ]

The first patent breach was invented in a time of intense development in firearms design and successful makers were going to make money if their patent was successful . The break off breach was developed before the Nock type breach which he patented , hence the " Patent Breach" As an aside patents were generally not issued if they did not work .

 

[Buckskinquin]

I don't have any experience on which to make a pronouncement on this issue, but I'm inclined to agree with your assessment just on fundamental engineering grounds.

The only thing that bothers me about a patent breech is how to clean, dry, and protect it from rust. I suspect this isn't a big problem on larger caliber guns, but on the .32 Crockett I find it to be something of a frustrating pain since the breech seems to be about .20 cal in diameter. This means that I have to resort to my Dewey .20 cal cleaning rod with its 5/40 attachment threading, or some Rube Goldberg-like approach of screwing a Q-tip into my 10/32 brass range rod. Nothing else seems to go into that patent breech.

I use a 22 caliber brush (a50 cal Hatfield, aka Pedersoli)with a cleaning patch and cleaning solution. Then dry patches. For a smaller caliber a 17HMR brush might work. Just be sure it fits your cleaning rod correctly.

 

[smoothshooter]

I never use a scraper since the bucket/pump-with-patched-ramrod approach seems to clean everything quite thorougly. But I do agree that getting anything into the patent breech on the .32 is particularly a real pain. And so lubing it for rust avoidance is a pain. However, I have a couple of techniques that seem to succeed in that in an okay way. With something like a .45 or .50 you should just be able to us a small caliber patch holder or something like a .30 cotton bore mop. But that does add one or two extra accessories to your cleaning tools.

In my experience the bucket and pump are not always available.
Then, if a person wants to immediately resume shooting after the bucket method is used, or reload and not fire for a while, they cannot do it because it takes a while for the recessed breech to finish drying out unless it can be held close to a fire to accelerate the process before loading.

 

[kyron4]

Okay, now I'm confused. I have a TC New Englander, a Lyman GPR, a CVA Hawken and a Traditions Crockett rifle. What breech systems to each of those have?

As flconch53 said they all have some form of "patent breach ". Most all modern reproduction guns use them, hooked and tang breach alike. I think the biggest reason/ advantage is it strengthens the breach area adding wall thickness. In the sue happy lawyer world we live in it makes sense from a manufactures stand point. If someone over charges a rifle and blows the drum or touch hole liner out and causes an injury, the mfg. can be held liable.