Did This Confederate Breech-Loader Work?

[Picket]

In hindsight, this failed Confederate breech-loading gun may have been a bit ahead of its time. https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.co...nfederate.html

[Dan Kohli]

I know I’m a bit late. It looks like the breach would unscrew and then pivot up or down.

I just realized I misunderstood the question.

Daniel Kohli

[James Brenner]

It's hard to say. My hunch (and that's all it is) is that, in addition to the broken stirrup, the breech block threads would get fouled quickly, making the breech harder to close and seal. If it had an interrupted screw block, that might have helped solved the problem. I assume this gun was meant to be a naval cannon, but that's not clear in the article. If meant as a field gun, then the carriage would become a problem. There's a famous photo of an imported Confederate BL (Armstrong?) - notice the trail of the piece. It is much longer than a traditional carriage and that was to help absorb the recoil. The point is that, if adopted, this piece would have required non-standard equipment; much like a Wiard. FWIW, many 3 inch Ordnance rifles were converted to breech loaders, but they used a sliding wedge breech block.