Muzzle-loading Rifle - Small Arms

Small Arms

Further information: Rifle Left image: Jean Lepage silex carbine said "du Premier Consul", circa 1800.
Right image: Rifling of Lepage carbine.

The first rifles were muzzle-loading, although this involved a lot of complication in inserting the bullet past the rifling, and clogging and cleaning problems were notorious. There are also muzzle-loading pistols and shotguns. These have gradually given way to firearms that use alternate methods of inserting a projectile into the barrel.

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