Harvey slide forward

We all take it completely for granted today that when the flush begins we fire two cartridges, eject them and then load again. It is as simple as that, but it took half a century to achieve this operation, with the breechloader coming into use in the 1860s, while ejectors weren’t properly developed until the 1880s and 1890s.

I have a friend who has used a non-ejector all his life and it is a delight to see the dexterity of his hands in his smooth, well-practised operation of reloading. I occasionally use my Boss hammer gun on walked-up days but I always seem to fumble in my haste. If he is the Sergeant Wilson of the non-ejector, then I am the Corporal Jones.

Whenever breechloading came along in the early 1860s, all guns were non-ejector pinfires and to make cartridge extraction just that little bit more tricky, the very first pinfire breechloaders