Percussion rifle-musket

Main developments

These firearms combine percussion ignition with rifling while still being loaded through the muzzle. The British Pattern 1853 Enfield and a surviving example made in Windsor in 1856 provide clear examples of this stage. Designs such as the Minié ball helped ease the tension between ease of loading and projectile fit in rifled muzzleloaders, but “Minié ball” denotes a projectile, not the sole name for this entire class of firearm.

Some older firearms were later converted to breechloading. Snider-Enfield conversions preserved in museums provide physical evidence of this continuity, but they do not establish that all breechloading firearms originated with the Enfield.

Checking Chinese names

In late Qing sources, “洋枪” (foreign gun), “来复枪” (rifle) and “米尼枪” (Minié rifle) may emphasize origin, rifling or projectile type respectively, and have different scopes. This review did not obtain primary records sufficient to match any one Chinese name precisely to this complete firearm configuration. They are therefore not entered as synonymous aliases, and no unverified year of first Chinese manufacture is supplied.