SMOOT GUN.
This breech-loading rifle has a fixed chamber, closed by a movable breech-block, which rotates about a horizontal axis at 90 degrees to the axis of the barrel, lying above the axis of the barrel and in rear being moved from above. The piece is opened by cocking, the hammer and drawing back the thumb piece of the cam lever. A projecting- stud on the cam-lever playing in the cam recess of the breech block draws it down into the position of loading. By simply reversing the 1110VC ment of the cam-lever, the stud will act on the other side of the cam-recess and throw up the block until it is met and stopped by the front shoulder of the cam lever striking against a corresponding shoulder near the front of the block. The !notions of loading and closing may be combined by striking the thumb-piece with the palm of the right hancl as the cartridge is passed into the chamber. The piece
is then locked by the position of the breech-block and also its friction against the head of the cartridge when it is fired, by means of a double main-spring center lock of the most usual pattern. Extraction is accomplished by means of a sliding extractor, a stud on the inside of which plays in a cam-recess on the outer side of the cam-lever. After passing a certain point in opening- the piece, the direct pull on the extractor ceases and the ejection is secured by the acceleration which is im pressed on the extractor by the action of the ejector-spring on a cam formed on the lower surface of the ejector-lever. The upper end of which lever, striking a shoulder on the extractor, throws it into a groove connected with the cam-recess, driving thc shell up the inclined surface of the breech-block until it is clear of the gun.