SHOTGUN. A term employed to denote a weapon used for sporting purposes in contra distinction to the military rifle, which is dis cussed under SMALL ARMS ( q.v.) , where the his toric development of firearms will be found treated. The flint-lock gun was used for sport ing purposes well into the nineteenth century, and it was not until after many experiments and failures. that percussion caps replaced the flints and priming. It is to a Frenchman, M. Le faucheux, that the world owes the sporting breech loader, and although it had but slight resem blance to its successor of to-day, it nevertheless was the pioneer of the principle which is now practically universal. The original Lefancheux breech-loader made its appearance in the year 1836. It consisted of a pair of barrels open at the breech, working on a hinge, with a strong based cartridge containing its own means of ignition. The gun had a lever lying under and parallel to the barrels when the gun was closed, so that to load the weapon it was necessary to place the hammers at half-cock, move the lever horizontally to the right, and thus liberate the barrels, which would then be raised at the breech end, and lowered at the muzzle; the cartridge was inserted in the breech, and the gun closed by moving the lever hack to its original position. The cartridge was exploded by the falling of the hammer on the head of a brass pin inserted through the upper part of the cartridge case, upon which the point of the pin was driven into the percussion cap, and the explosion followed. There were so many faults in the system of pin fire that it was early abandoned in favor of the central-fire system. The first important improve ment on the Lefaueheux weapon was the inven tion of an English gunmaker who strengthened the breech action. and devised a more perfect method of securing the barrels to the breech action; it was known as the doublc-grip breech mechanism. Next came the sliding barrel breech mechanism as first employed in the Bastin Lepagus breech-loader. Instead of being hinged, the bar rels were so constructed as to slide backward and forward on the fore part of the stuck. The idea was not very successful and soon fell into disuse. The combination of the Bastin and Le faucheux princildes was seen in the Dongall lock fast breech mechanism, in which the barrels turned upon a hinge pin and were moved to and fro on the stock sufficiently far to clear and make with the projecting disks attached to the standing breech. To load, the lever was depressed, the eccentric hinge-pin turned, and at the sante time the barrels moved forward until the breech ends were clear of the disk,. after which the barrels were dropped as in the original Lefaucheux. Of all the different varieties of the turn-or, r lircech, mechanism which have been tried (at the best with indifferent success), that invented by the Englishman Jeffries in -1862 is about the best known. The great effort of inventors and gunmakers was to dispense with the drop-down or Lefaueheux method for sport ing guns. and the breech mechanism of Jeffries is
probably the most satisfactory substitute, fail ure though it was. The barrels turned on a vertical pivot by means of a lever which was pivoted vertically under the breech-action body. In America the Fox shotgun followed the same idea, but abandoned the lever. The needle gun adopted by the Prussian Army in 1842 was an improved type of the earl• central-fire gun, the breech mechanism of which formed a combina tion of the sliding and drop-down principles. The inventor of the central fire-glut of this type was one Dreyse of Sommerda. A similar weapon was Needham's of 1850, in which the cap of the cart ridge was at the base. The Lancaster central fire system made its appearance about 1852. The barrels followed the principles of the Dreyse gun. but the cartridge case, instead of being con sumed, was withdrawn by an extractor after firing. An improved central-fire system, and one which in its many essentials has been carried to the present day, is said to be the invention of Pottet, a Frenchman. Improvements in locks and minor mechanisms came next, the rebound ing lock, in which a main spring reacts upon the tumbler, automatically raising it to half-cock, having been introduced about 1866. The Wesley Richards breech: loader dates from 1862 and was one of the first to introduce a top breech-holt mechanism. Hammerless guns date from the era of a consumable cartridge care, although no par ticular claim was put forth in their favor. The development of the principle was interfered with by the success of the pin-fire gun, in which ex ternal hammers were a necessity. There were many varieties of hammerless guns, notably those of Daw (1862), Greener (1800). and iMurcott (1871). The Nurcott weapon was the first of the hammerless variety to achieve success. The Anson and Decley gust (1875) was a very popu larmechanism. The leverage of the barrel-cock ing mechanism was obtained by the falling of the barrel. When the hammerless weapon was first introduced in its modern form it was very strongly opposed by both sportsmen and gun manufacturers. Other important improvements were in connection with the ejecting mechanism; notably hammerless ejector gun, in which the extractor is in two halves, and the Perkes mechanism, by which the cartridge cases were ejected by a separate mechanism situated in the fore part of the gun. Eight years later the Deeley ejector mechanism made its appearance. in which locks and barrels arc fitted with an ejecting lock mechanism in the fore end. For a. long time England held the supremney in the manufacture of shotgun, and sporting firearms, but it is generally that American wea pons have now the preiMinenee. The leadin4 American manufacturers of shotguns are the Colt', Arms Company, Remington Arms Company, Smith and Wesson Company, and the Winchester Arms Company.