Repeating firearm


A repeating firearm or repeater is any firearm that is designed for multiple, repeated firings before the gun has to be reloaded with new ammunition.
Unlike single-shot firearms, which can only hold and fire a single round of ammunition, a repeating firearm can store multiple cartridges inside a magazine, a cylinder, or a belt, and uses a moving action to manipulate each cartridge into and out of the battery position. This allows the weapon to be discharged repeatedly in relatively quick succession, before manually reloading the ammunition is needed.
Typically the term "repeaters" refers to the more ubiquitous single-barreled variants. Multiple-barrel firearms such as derringers, pepperbox guns, double-barreled shotguns/rifles, combination guns, and volley guns can also hold and fire more than one cartridge before needing to be reloaded, but do not use magazines for ammunition storage and also lack any moving actions to facilitate ammunition-feeding, which makes them technically just bundled assemblies of multiple single-shot barrels fired in succession and/or simultaneously, therefore they are not considered true repeating firearms despite their functional resemblance. On the contrary, rotary-barrel firearms, though also multi-barreled, do use belts and/or magazines with moving actions for feeding ammunition, which allow each barrel to fire repeatedly just like any single-barreled repeater, and therefore still qualify as a type of repeating firearm from a technical view point.
Although repeating flintlock breechloading firearms had been invented as early as the 17th century, the first repeating firearms that received widespread use were revolvers and lever-action repeating rifles in the latter half of the 19th century. These were a significant improvement over the preceding single-shot breechloading guns, as they allowed a much greater rate of fire, as well as a longer interval between reloads for more sustained firing, and the widespread use of metallic cartridges also made reloading these weapons quicker and more convenient. Revolvers became very popular sidearms since its introduction by the Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company in the mid-1830s, and repeating rifles saw use in the early 1860s during the American Civil War. Repeating pistols were first invented during the 1880s, and became widely adopted in the early 20th century, with important design contributions from inventors such as John Browning and Georg Luger.
The first repeating gun to see military service was actually not a firearm, but an airgun. The Girardoni air rifle, designed by Italian inventor Bartolomeo Girardoni circa 1779 and more famously associated with the Lewis and Clark Expedition into the western region of North America during the early 19th century, it was one of the first guns to make use of a tubular magazine.

Early repeaters

  • Multiple-barrel firearm
  • Revolver
  • Superposed load
  • Volley gun
  • Breechloader
  • Kalthoff repeater
  • Cookson repeater
  • Blowback and Recoil operation
  • Chelembron system
  • Lagatz rifle: a modification of the Lorenzoni System, designed by Danzig gunsmith Daniel Lagatz around the year 1700.
  • Puckle gun
  • Pepper-box
  • Harmonica gun
  • Fafting/Fasting rifle: In 1774 a rifle was invented by a Norwegian or Danish colonel by the name of Fafting or Fasting capable of firing 18 to 20 shots a minute and being used as an ordinary rifle by taking off a spring-loaded container attached to the gun's lock. It was also stated that the inventor was working on a gun capable of firing up to 30 times in a minute on more or less the same principles.
  • Belton flintlock
  • Girandoni air rifle
  • Break Action Flintlock
  • Boxlock action
  • 1789 French rifle: In 1791 it was mentioned in a book published in France that there existed since at least 1789 a rifle that held 5 or 6 shots and was capable of being reloaded three times in a minute for a total of 15 or 18 shots a minute. A rifle similar in type to this was also stated to be kept at the Hotel de la Guerre.
  • Joseph Manton's shotguns
  • Church and Bartemy/Bartholomew gun: A repeating rifle designed by the Americans William Church and Chrostus Bartemy or Bartholomew in 1813 with three separate magazines for containing up to 42 charges of ammunition and capable of firing 25 shots a minute. It could be reloaded in one minute.
  • Thomson rifle: a flintlock repeating rifle patented in 1814, using multiple breeches to obtain repeating fire.
  • Leroy rifle: In 1815 a French inventor called Julien Leroy patented a flintlock and percussion revolving rifle with a mechanically indexed cylinder and a priming magazine.
  • Collier's flintlock revolver
  • Lepage guns: In 1819 a French gunsmith called Lepage invented and presented at the French industrial exposition of that year percussion 2-shot and 4-shot turn-over rifles. In 1823 he exhibited a volley rifle that fired 7 rifled barrels simultaneously as well as a turn-over carbine. In 1827, the same inventor exhibited at another French industrial exposition 11 percussion and 1 flintlock firearms which included a 4-shot turn-over rifle, a 'double rifle' with a cylinder with 5 charges and a 'single rifle' and a pair of pistols also with a cylinder with 5 charges. These latter guns were likely derived from Collier’s revolver, who took out a French patent for them in 1819 and licensed Lepage to construct them for him.
  • Sutherland magazine pistol: In 1821 the British gunmakers R and R Sutherland advertised for auction, amongst a variety of firearms, a single-barrelled six-shot magazine pistol.
  • Pirmet-Baucheron revolving rifle: In 1822 a French gunsmith called Pirmet-Baucheron presented a revolving rifle with 7 shots and a single lock.
  • Hewson magazine gun: In 1824 an English gunsmith called W. P. Hewson advertised, amongst other firearms and one air gun, a magazine gun.
  • Jobard rifle: a turret rifle with 14 shots patented in Belgium in 1826 and presented to the government in 1835.
  • Henry rifle: a French 14 shot flintlock rifle in the style of the Kalthoff and Lorenzoni rifles patented in 1831 by Francois-Antoine Henry though possibly based on an earlier design published in 1809 by the same author.
  • Baker pistols: In 1833 an English gunsmith called T. H. Baker advertised one, two, four, five and seven shot pistols for sale.
  • Kavanagh pistols: In 1834 a variety of pistols were exhibited by the Irish gunsmith William Kavanagh, one of which had a 'revolving breech' capable of firing 7 or 8 times, invented by a clergyman called Robert Carey, as well as a 'self-loading pistol'.
  • Olive pistol: In 1835 it was mentioned in a French periodical that a French inventor called Jean-Francois-Augustin Olive who was seeking funds for developing a breech-loading, 8-shot pistol into a 30-shot version had been arrested.
  • Osterried guns: In 1835 it was mentioned in a French newspaper that an Osterried of Bavaria had invented a rifle and 3 different kinds of pistols, the first of which had 2 barrels and 4 hammers for firing 4 successive shots, the second of which had one barrel and 6 'mouths', no hammer and was actuated by the trigger and the third of which had 8 'mouths' and could be fired 16 successive times. In response to this announcement it was mentioned in an Austrian newspaper that similar inventions had already been known in their country for a long time and used as an example a pistol invented a few years prior to the announcement of Osterried's inventions by the head gunsmith of the local imperial armoury called Ulrich which was claimed to be able to fire 14 successive times from 7 barrels which were all loaded at once and could fit comfortably inside a user's pocket.
  • Irish Magazine pistol: In 1836 a magazine pistol was advertised for auction in Ireland.
  • Silas Day magazine gun: A percussion revolving rifle to which was attached a loose-powder-and-ball magazine patented in the US in 1837.
  • Colt ring lever rifles
  • Bailey, Ripley and Smith Magazine rifle: In 1838 the Americans Lebbeus Bailey, John B. Ripley and William B. Smith patented a percussion repeating rifle with a gravity-operated tubular magazine in the stock which could hold up to 15 re-useable steel cartridge-chambers.
  • Eaton rifle: In 1838 a percussion rifle invented in America by James Eaton was described as being capable of holding 24 rounds in a rotating magazine and discharging them all in four minutes for a rate of fire of 6 rounds per minute.
  • Kratsch rifle: In 1839 it was reported that a mechanic called Kratsch from Bayreuth had invented a rifle capable of firing 30 times in a minute and being reloaded in one minute.
  • Devisme guns: In 1840 a French gunsmith known as Devisme presented a variety of firearms at a national exhibition which included a pistol with a 'turning barrel' capable of firing 5 separate and successive times. In 1842 the same gunsmith would present a double-action revolving rifle for the French Academy of Sciences which was compared favourably with the revolving rifle invented by another French inventor called Philippe Mathieu around the same time. This rifle also came with a cylinder that could be swapped out in 3 seconds, according to the inventor. Also in 1842 Devisme would demonstrate at the French Industrial Exposition of that year, amongst other firearms, a rifle with a 'turning barrel', no lock and 8 shots, another rifle with 6 shots and one barrel, and two revolving pistols with 5 and 8 shots each. In 1844 at the French Industrial Exposition of that year Devisme would again demonstrate more repeating firearms including an 18 shot pistol described as a 'shapeless mass' with no visible hammer or lock and actuated solely by the pressure of the finger, a 6 shot pistol with percussion hammer, a rifle with 6 shots and a 'revolving breech' and a 4 shot 'double acting' rifle.
  • Branch pistols: In 1842 an English gunsmith called T. Branch advertised two six shot 'self acting' pistols for sale.
  • Jennings Magazine rifle: in 1847 Walter Hunt patented in Britain a repeating rifle he called "the Volitional Repeater". He would patent it again in the United States in 1849. This rifle featured a tubular magazine beneath the barrel and a lever mechanism to raise cartridges into the chamber. Unable to finance the building of the rifle, Hunt sold the rights to George Arrowsmith who in turn had an employee, Lewis Jennings, improve the lever mechanism. Courtland Palmer placed the first order for the "Jennings Magazine rifle" for his hardware store: Robbins & Lawrence. The rifle did not sell well as the ammunition was a hollow based bullet containing gunpowder. Most of the guns were later converted to single shot rifles. Two employees working at Robbins & Lawrence: Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson improved the design and sold it as the "Smith-Jennings Repeating Rifle". At first they used a slightly modified Flobert cartridge, patented in 1853, but later they would switch to a modified Rocket Ball type of ammunition altered so as to function as a self-contained centerfire cartridge.
  • Cass Repeating Belt gun: A percussion repeating rifle patented in 1848 in the US using a chain or belt in the stock which carried paper cartridges to the breech of the gun.
  • Buchel Cartridge Magazine gun: The first tubular cartridge magazine gun to be patented in the United States in February 1849.
  • Perry 'Faucet-Breech' gun: A hinged or tilting breech repeating rifle patented in the US in December 1849 by Alonzo Perry using paper cartridges contained in several gravity-operated tubular magazines in the stock and a separate magazine for fulminate pills which were used for ignition.
  • Porter self-loading gun: In February 1851 a loose-powder-and-ball percussion magazine gun invented by a Parry W. Porter, better known for the turret rifle he invented and to which the magazine for his loose-powder-and-ball gun was to be attached, was reported on in American newspapers and later in the same year a patent was procured by the inventor.
  • Needham self-loading carbine: A self-loading carbine demonstrated in June 1851 at the Great Exhibition by Joseph Needham.
  • Renette self-loading pocket pistol: A self-loading pocket pistol demonstrated in 1851 at the Great Exhibition in London by the French inventor Gastinne Renette, using cylindro-conoidal bullets.
  • Bertonnet self-loading firearm: It is mentioned in Hunt's Handbook to the Official Catalogues of the Great Exhibition of 1851 that a French inventor called Bertonnet demonstrated a self-loading firearm in 1851 at the Great Exhibition though no details are provided.
  • Dixon self-loading and self-priming gun: A repeating gun demonstrated by a C. S. Dixon which won a silver award at the Annual Fair of the American Institute in October 1851.
  • The first slide action patent: Issued in Britain in 1854, to Alexander Bain who modified the mechanism of a harmonica gun.
  • 1854 Lindner revolving rifle: In 1854 the German Edward Lindner patented in the United States and Britain a repeating rifle which used a revolving cylinder to elevate the cartridges, which were paper and could be either self-contained needlefire cartridges or use external percussion caps for ignition, to the breech from a tubular magazine located under the barrel.
  • Colette gravity pistol: a repeating saloon gun premiered at the 1855 World's Fair. Despite popularly being known as the Colette Gravity Pistol its original inventor was actually a Belgian called Jean Nicolas Herman.
  • Colt revolving rifle
  • Leroux magazine gun: At the Exposition Universelle in France a French gunsmith called Leroux demonstrated a repeating carbine with a tubular magazine for 36 Flobert cartridges and which featured a novel cartridge extractor.
  • Spencer repeating rifle
  • Roper repeating shotgun