The Leetch Gun

Such a rifle with Connecticut provenance and the appearance of having been used in the field, is Leetch patent breechloader in the author’s collection numbered “162.” A short type 1859 Enfield-like rifle, the Leetch gun has a light back-action lock and a receiver housing or breech box, into which the barrel is screwed. The breech box is open to the right side, and along its bottom edge is a hinge pin, on which swings a receiver of the same conception as the Hall, but rotating on the hinge, instead of swinging upward. The receiver carries the nipple, and the breech box is notched at the back so the nipple is in line with the hammer when the breech is closed. A folding lever on the receiver, when pivoted out, uncams the receiver from its joint with the barrel, and allows it to be swung outward. The charge goes into the front of the receiver. Then, swung closed, the cam forces the receiver tightly forward when the lever is folded down along side of the receiver. An added safety is a push-pull pin or rod linked to the hammer (which is of elegant form) that passes into a hole on the rear of the receiver. If the receiver is not closed in line with the bore, the pin is arrested on the blind face of the receiver casing at rear, and the hammer cannot hit the cone, nor fire. Enfield rifle sights are mounted; light scroll engraving covers the metal parts. A saber bayonet stud is hung beneath the barrel, forward of the buffalo horn fore-tip. While the lockplate bears the words leetch’s patent/company, the top of the breech box is engraved breech LOADING GUN COMPANY/ 29 GT PORTLAND ST LONDON and below, powder 2^drs./bullet .577. The barrel is from Birmingham maker John Clive, but is London proved. Each part bears the number 162, the only distinctive thing being the “1” from which the left serif at the foot is missing. It is not the identical “1” with which the obvious serial number is stamped. This number, also 162, appears on the trigger plate guard tang behind the rear screw hole, and it is stamped, not (as so often found) hand engraved. The other marks are hand engraved. The marking, “Breechloading Gun Company” conforms to the description of 200 guns bought, and the serial number is within the range. Finding the rifle in Connecticut makes it likely that the Leetch gun was from this lot of 200. Other Leetch guns are recorded by other writers, as Lewis Winant; and a Leetch gun is shown in Golden State Arms’ World’s Guns. Even purchase of a Leetch gun in England in recent years does not necessarily mitigate

 Breech views showing actions open on Leetch, Westley Richards, and Wilson rifles. Author doubts latter two were employed in War at all, while Leetch rifle may be hitherto unsuspected Yankee issue rifle. Cartridge enters front of .577 Leetch chamber.

against that rifle’s being used in the American Civil War, so much surplus was shipped back overseas at the close of the conflict. J. H. Walsh, writing as “Stonehenge” in The Shotgun & Sporting Rifle, London, 1859, notes that:

Mr. Leetch, of Great-Portland-street, London, has exhibited for the last three or four years a breech-loading rifle, which is constructed on the principle of the revolver, but without more than one chamber . . . (follows a description of the breech). This plan is very simple, and I have seen extremely good practice made at short ranges; but there must of necessity be an escape of gas quite as great as in the revolver, which has the advantage of permitting five or six shots in rapid succession. If, therefore, the escape is not objectionable to the sportsman, I should advise a revolving rifle with five or six chambers in preference to this, with only one. Still, Mr. Leetch’s rifle has the advantage of using the Government ammunition, and on that account it will be valuable to sportsmen on distant stations.

In shooting by the author with the Leetch rifle at 50 meters, consistent grouping the size of a man’s chest was obtained on the target, achieving a rate of fire about 18 shots in a minute, using flask and Lyman mould “minie ball.” Gas did escape at the breech, but evidently Mr. Walsh had not seen the camming design of the Leetch invention, for in the last stroke of closing, the lever shoves a wedge of steel behind the receiver, forcing a Savage-like cone on the receiver at the chamber mouth against the barrel. The gun was not noticeably dirtier to shoot than a common musket, with its attendant cap fouling and blow-back of smoke through the nipple.