Break Action Rifles

A break-action rifle is one of the simplest types of firearms you can buy. When you pull a small lever or button, the barrel(s) of the rifle break downward with a hinge like a swinging door.

You then load a round directly into the rear of the barrel(s) before swinging the barrel(s) back upward to close and lock with a click. At this point the rifle is ready to fire, which you do either by pulling the trigger or by pulling back the hammer to activate the trigger, depending on the make and model you’re using.

The rear portion of the barrel is called the breech, which is why break-action rifles are also often called breech loaders.

A break-action rifle will hold as few rounds as it has barrels because it does not use a magazine or cylinder to store additional cartridges.

The most commonly known version is the single shot, where you have to open the action, remove the fired case, and insert another new cartridge into the barrel before locking it and firing again.

Some break-action rifles are double barreled with two barrels either side-by-side or stacked. These will allow you to make a rapid second shot without reloading.

Yes, and for the simple reason that there isn’t much inside that could fail. In contrast with rifles that feed cartridges from a magazine (which inherently come with springs, bolts and other moving components), a break-action rifle has virtually no moving pieces to malfunction and so there is very little opportunity for anything to fail.

One thing that can begin to fail after several thousand rounds fired, however, is the hinge and latch mechanism that secures the barrel into position against the action. If this begins to loosen, the breech will not be sealed as tightly, and the latch will need to be repaired or replaced by a gunsmith.

There are more reasons than one to own a break-action rifle. For one thing, it’s easily the simplest type of rifle that you can own and requires significantly less maintenance than a semi-automatic, bolt-action, lever-action, or pump-action rifle.

Today, many models of break-action rifles even allow you to swap barrels so you can shoot different calibers. An example is the CVA Scout, which allows you to switch barrels between calibers such as .308 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, .350 Legend, and .45-70 Government, among others.

A break-action rifle is also a superb choice for big game hunting. Historically, big game hunters in the savannas and jungles of Africa and Asia often favored using double-barreled break-action rifles because they could squeeze off two shots the quickest against charging dangerous animals (such as lions or cape buffalo) in life-or-death encounters.