Actions: Falling Block Action

In our last two posts, we studied the pump-action and the lever-action, both of which are used in repeating weapons (i.e.) they allow the user to fire multiple shots one after another without reloading the weapon. In this post, we will study an action from the 19th century that is normally used in single-shot weapons. We're talking about the falling block action.

We've already seen an action where the back of the breech is closed by a pretty solid block. We're talking about the Ferguson rifle which we looked at around a couple of months ago. In a Ferguson rifle, the seal is provided by a screw plug. A falling block action uses a similar idea, except that instead of using a screw plug, it uses a solid block of metal that slides vertically on two grooves.

Click on image to enlarge

The above picture shows a rifle with a falling block action. The lever to activate this action also doubles as a trigger guard, similar to many lever actions. Now we will take a look at the action itself.

The above figure shows a Sharps rifle, one of the earliest weapons using a falling block action. The picture on the left shows the action with the breech closed by the raised block. The picture on the right shows the breech open. Notice that the block has slid straight down and you can only see the top of the breech block in the picture on the right.

When the breech block is open, the user can pull out the old cartridge and insert a new one into the chamber. Then the user manipulates the lever to close the breech. When the breech is closed, the solid breech block forms a very tight and rigid seal indeed. This is such a strong action that is it not only used in small-arms, but also in heavy artillery pieces as well.

One of the early rifles that used this type of actions was the Sharps military rifle that was used by a unit in the American civil war called the Berdan's Sharpshooters. They were led by Hiram Berdan, who we've already heard of before: He's the same gentleman who later invented the Berdan type of primer for centerfire metallic cartridges, which is still used to this present day. The Sharps military rifle was much more efficient than the old muzzle-loaders and was reknown for its accuracy and speed of fire. It became very popular as a sniper weapon during the US civil war, due to its shooting qualities. The Sharps company also released a smaller carbine version which became very popular among both the Union and Confederate armies and was also later used in wars with the Native American tribes. The Sharps rifles of the civil war era used percussion cap technology, but by 1874, they began to use centerfire cartridges. The Sharps Borchardt model 1878 rifle was a strong and accurate buffalo hunting weapon with arguably the strongest action known until the latter half of the 20th century.

Original author Arthurh. Used by permission from wikipedia.com under the GNU Free Documentation License.

The above picture shows a Ruger No. 1 rifle that uses a falling block action. The picture shows the rifle with the action open. This action is so strong that the designer, Lenard Brownell once said, "There was never any question about the strength of the action. I remember, in testing it, how much trouble I had trying to tear it up. In fact, I never did manage to blow one apart."

Falling block rifles were famous for their accuracy and strength of actions and they were used by several military forces in the end of the 19th century. It was the invention of the Mauser 1898 bolt-action rifle that made it lose popularity in the 20th century, because the bolt-action could be loaded by a magazine and could therefore shoot a bit faster. There are still some falling block action weapons such as the Ruger above, that are manufactured as hunting weapons.

Revolver: Modern Revolvers

When we last left off on revolver developments, we'd studied single and double action revolvers and the beginning of metallic cartridges replacing percussion caps.

Because of the rapid fire capability of the double-action mechanism, it became the mechanism of choice for new revolvers. Today, most modern revolvers are still double-action. Even Colt, the proponents of single-action pistols, switched to double-action models by the end of the 1800s with their Colt New Service Revolver. Models by Smith & Wesson, Remington, Webley etc. were very popular as well.

By the 1850s or so, metallic cartridges began to replace percussion cap technology. Some revolvers, such as the French-made Lefaucheux, were built to use pinfire cartridges. In 1857, Smith & Wesson introduced their first revolver which used a .22 short rimfire cartridge, also developed by Smith & Wesson. This model was a huge success in the market-place and was responsible for establishing the fame of Smith & Wesson. By the mid 1860s, centerfire cartridges became popular and revolvers began to use them as well (such as the Colt Peacemaker). Most of the early metallic cartridges still used black powder as their propellant, but more powerful smokeless powders started to become popular after 1886 or so and revolver manufacturers began to certify their weapons as safe to be used by smokeless powders as well. This meant using new metallurgical techniques of manufacturing weapons to withstand the higher pressures generated by smokeless powders.

As more powerful cartridges were developed, revolvers were built to fire them as well. In the 1950s, the .44 magnum cartridge, introduced by Elmer Keith and built by Remington, was used by the Sturm-Ruger Blackhawk and the Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolvers. Unusually, the Sturm-Ruger Blackhawk was a single-action revolver, rather than a double-action model. Ruger discovered that after Colt had pulled out its popular Colt Peacemaker (another single-action model) out of the market, there was still some demand for single-action weapons and went on to fill that demand. Company legend at Sturm-Ruger has it that Smith & Wesson were experimenting with the new .44 magnum cartridge in secret, but a Sturm-Ruger employee found the empty cartridge cases in a garbage pile and took one to Bill Ruger and the Blackhawk revolver beat Smith & Wesson's model 29 revolver to the market by several months. The S&W Model 29 didn't sell well initially, but in 1971, the movie "Dirty Harry" came out, with Clint Eastwood's character, "Dirty" Harry Callahan, describing the S&W Model 29 as the "most powerful handgun in the world". While this was not strictly true at this point (the .454 magnum was already developed), this line of movie dialog made the demand for the Model 29 to skyrocket, to the point that dealers were having trouble keeping the Model 29 in stock, even after selling them at triple-price! These days, there are revolvers built to fire even more powerful cartridges, such as the .454 and the .5oo magnum, but the Model 29 sales still remain high, 35 years after the movie came out.

Revolvers used to be the weapon of choice in military and police departments around the world, until modern semi-automatic pistols such as the Colt M1911 became more popular due to shorter reload time and higher capacity of cartridges. Police departments in the United States continued to use revolvers well into the early 1990s, when they began to be replaced by semi-automatic pistols. They are still popular in the civilian market as sporting or hunting weapons. In fact, many trainers recommend new shooters to start off with a revolver.