后膛枪械

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后膛枪械也称后装枪（breechloader），是指任何从枪管后方（后膛）装填弹药的枪械，而不是像前膛枪那样将弹药从枪口装入。现代的后膛枪械通常使用一体化的定装弹药，在准备射击时将其装入枪管后方的膛室内待发，然后用一个可以逆转闭合的机构（枪机）将后膛封死，然后击发弹药进行射击。在单发枪械中，这个闭合机构是一整个刚性的部件，叫做膛闩（breechblock）；在连发枪械中，膛闩被可动态锁死的枪栓取代，并通常带有可以在运作时抽离弹壳的退弹设计。

早期的后膛枪械和前膛枪一样使用火帽击发，通常采取中折式设计，后来出现了螺丝闭锁式的弗格森式步枪和枪管上翘的霍尔步枪。之后在弹壳上配有底火和纸壳弹药的后膛枪出现，比如使用下落闭锁式的夏普斯步枪和使用栓动式枪机的德莱赛针发枪，以及开始使用金属壳定装弹药的毛瑟1871型步枪。而现今的枪械（包括火器和气枪）基本上都是后膛枪，只有少数轻武器（如迫击炮、枪榴弹、一些榴弹发射器和一些火箭筒）还保留前装设计。

与每次射击都要用搠杖将发射药和弹丸分别夯到枪管后端的前膛枪械相比，后膛枪械的装弹时间要快得多，而且不受膛线和枪膛积垢的影响。此外，前膛枪在装填时射手必须站立并将枪体直立，而后膛枪则可以在任何姿势（包括卧姿）进行装填和射击，这使得后膛枪在交火时无论是射速还是战场适应性都比前膛枪有压倒性的战术优势，著名的案例就是1866年7月3日在普鲁士和奥地利之间的柯尼希格雷茨战役。而在火炮中，后膛炮的这种优势更加明显，因为炮兵不用像前膛炮那样跑到炮口前方或像风帆炮舰那样将火炮后拉才能装填新弹。

## 历史

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虽然在14世纪早期，勃艮第公国和其它欧洲国家就开始发展后膛火器，但当时的材料技术和制造能力不足无法满足可靠性，因此直到19世纪精确工程学和机械加工的进步才使得后装枪械变得成功。

后膛枪械最大的技术挑战是如何保障后膛的闭合。最终这个问题因为金属壳定装弹药在19世纪中期出现而解决。对于无法使用定装弹药的火器（比如大型火炮），这个问题也在断隔螺闩发明后得以解决。

### 后装回旋炮

后膛装填的回旋炮（swivel gun，一类装在旋转支柱上的滑膛炮）在14世纪就被发明，通常用来发射反步兵的弹药。

### 轻兵火器

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Breech-loading firearms are known from the 16th century. Henry VIII possessed one, which he apparently used as a hunting gun to shoot birds. Meanwhile, in China, an early form of breech-loading musket, known as the Che Dian Chong, was known to have been created in the second half of the 16th century for the Ming dynasty's arsenals. Like all early breech-loading fireams, gas leakage was a limitation and danger present in the weapon's mechanism.

More breech-loading firearms were made in the early 18th century. One such gun known to have belonged to Philip V of Spain, and was manufactured circa 1715, probably in Madrid. It came with a ready-to load reusable cartridge.

Patrick Ferguson, a British Army officer, developed in 1772 the Ferguson rifle, a breech-loading flintlock firearm. Roughly two hundred of the rifles were manufactured and used in the Battle of Brandywine, during the American Revolutionary War, but shortly after they were retired and replaced with the standard Brown Bess musket. In turn the American army, after getting some experience with muzzle-loaded rifles in the late 18th century, adopted the first standard breech-loading rifle in the world, M1819 Hall rifle, and in larger numbers than the Ferguson rifle.

About the same time and later on into the mid-19th century, there were attempts in Europe at an effective breech-loader. There were concentrated attempts at improved cartridges and methods of ignition.

In Paris in 1808, in association with French gunsmith François Prélat, Jean Samuel Pauly created the first fully self-contained cartridges: the cartridges incorporated a copper base with integrated mercury fulminate primer powder (the major innovation of Pauly), a round bullet and either brass or paper casing. The cartridge was loaded through the breech and fired with a needle. The needle-activated central-fire breech-loading gun would become a major feature of firearms thereafter. The corresponding firearm was also developed by Pauly. Pauly made an improved version, which was protected by a patent on 29 September 1812.

The Pauly cartridge was further improved by the French gunsmith Casimir Lefaucheux in 1828, by adding a pinfire primer, but Lefaucheux did not register his patent until 1835: a pinfire cartridge containing powder in a cardboard shell.

In 1845, another Frenchman Louis-Nicolas Flobert invented, for indoor shooting, the first rimfire metallic cartridge, constituted by a bullet fit in a percussion cap. Usually derived in the 6 mm and 9 mm calibres, it is since then called the Flobert cartridge but it does not contain any powder; the only propellant substance contained in the cartridge is the percussion cap itself. In English-speaking countries the Flobert cartridge corresponds to the .22 BB and .22 CB ammunitions.

In 1846, yet another Frenchman, Benjamin Houllier, patented the first fully metallic cartridge containing powder in a metallic shell. Houllier commercialised his weapons in association with the gunsmiths Blanchard or Charles Robert. But the subsequent Houllier and Lefaucheux cartridges, even if they were the first full-metal shells, were still pinfire cartridges, like those used in the LeMat (1856) and Lefaucheux (1858) revolvers, although the LeMat also evolved in a revolver using rimfire cartridges.

The first centrefire cartridge was introduced in 1855 by Pottet, with both Berdan and Boxer priming.

In 1842, the Norwegian Armed Forces adopted the breech-loading caplock, the Kammerlader, one of the first instances in which a modern army widely adopted a breech-loading rifle as its main infantry firearm.

The Dreyse Zündnadelgewehr (Dreyse needle gun) was a single-shot breech-loading rifle using a rotating bolt to seal the breech. It was so called because of its .5-inch needle-like firing pin, which passed through a paper cartridge case to impact a percussion cap at the bullet base. It began development in the 1830s under Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse and eventually an improved version of it was adopted by Prussia in the late 1840s. The paper cartridge and the gun had numerous deficiencies; specifically, serious problems with gas leaking. However, the rifle was used to great success in the Prussian army in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. This, and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, eventually caused much interest in Europe for breech-loaders and the Prussian military system in general.

In 1860, the New Zealand government petitioned the Colonial Office for more soldiers to defend Auckland. The bid was unsuccessful and the government began instead making inquiries to Britain to obtain modern weapons. In 1861 they placed orders for the Calisher and Terry carbine, which used a breech-loading system using a bullet consisting of a standard Minié lead bullet in .54 calibre backed by a charge and tallowed wad, wrapped in nitrated paper to keep it waterproof. The carbine had been issued in small numbers to English cavalry (Hussars) from 1857. About 3–4,000 carbines were brought into New Zealand a few years later. The carbine was used extensively by the Forest Rangers, an irregular force led by Gustavus von Tempsky that specialized in bush warfare and reconnaissance. Von Tempsky liked the short carbine, which could be loaded while lying down. The waterproofed cartridge was easier to keep dry in the New Zealand bush. Museums in New Zealand hold a small number of these carbines in good condition.

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During the American Civil War, at least nineteen types of breech-loaders were fielded. The Sharps used a successful dropping block design. The Greene used rotating bolt-action, and was fed from the breech. The Spencer, which used lever-actuated bolt-action, was fed from a seven-round detachable tube magazine. The Henry and Volcanic used rimfire metallic cartridges fed from a tube magazine under the barrel. These held a significant advantage over muzzle-loaders. The improvements in breech-loaders had spelled the end of muzzle-loaders. To make use of the enormous number of war surplus muzzle-loaders, the Allin conversion Springfield was adopted in 1866. General Burnside invented a breech-loading rifle before the war, the Burnside carbine.

The French adopted the new Chassepot rifle in 1866, which was much improved over the Dreyse needle gun as it had dramatically fewer gas leaks due to its de Bange sealing system. The British initially took the existing Enfield and fitted it with a Snider breech action (solid block, hinged parallel to the barrel) firing the Boxer cartridge. Following a competitive examination of 104 guns in 1866, the British decided to adopt the Peabody-derived Martini-Henry with trap-door loading in 1871.

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Single-shot breech-loaders would be used throughout the latter half of the 19th Century, but were slowly replaced by various designs for repeating rifles, first used in the American Civil War. Manual breech-loaders gave way to manual magazine feed and then to self-loading rifles.

### 火炮

第一款现代后膛线膛炮是瑞典发明家马丁·冯·瓦伦道夫（Martin von Wahrendorff，1789～1861）于1837年发明的。在1850年代和1860年代，英国工程师约瑟夫·惠特沃斯（Joseph Whitworth，1803～1887）和威廉·阿姆斯特朗（William George Armstrong，1810～1900）先后发明出了改良的后膛火炮。

由沙俄奥布霍夫工厂生产的M1867舰炮是一款后装火炮，其设计使用了克虏伯的技术。