form of a raised metal shoulder just behind the rear end of the firing pin, so the breechblock can only be opened when the hammer is either in the halfcock or full-cock position, and the rifle cannot be fired unless the breechblock is fully closed. A stiff spring, fastened under the front end of the breechblock, extends to the rear where it contacts a notched bar in the rear bottom of the receiver. This spring supplies tension to the breechblock to hold it either in the closed or open position, as well as supplying some snap to the opening of the action to aid in case extraction and ejection. The steps required to convert the muzzle-loading musket to a breechloader with this action consists of removing the original barrel from the stock, cutting off a section of the breech end equaling the length of the conversion action, threading the barrel and fitting it to the action, routing out the stock as required to accept the action, refitting the barrel and action in the stock and installing a new hammer on the lock. There were a great many different “conversion” actions developed between 1860 and 1870 (such as Snider-Enfield, Wanzl, Springfield Model 1873) and the Peabody action was about as good as any of them. Although the U.S. Government never purchased any of them, this Peabody conversion was adopted by the Principality of Serbia in 1870, and some 50,000 muzzle loading rifles and Green percussion rifles were converted in 1870–1878. Serbian Peabody Model 1870 rifle was the main Serbian military weapon used in Serbian–Ottoman Wars (1876–1878). Serbian military rifle (1870-1880) In 1865. Principality of Serbia was still an Ottoman client state, but nevertheless the Serbian government did it's best to modernize the army, which consisted of some 5.000 professional soldiers in the Regular Army () and all the able-bodied men in Serbia of age 20–60, who were conscripted for military service into the People's Army () and divided into three classes, according to their age (the first class were men younger than 35, the third class elder than 50). In 1862, Serbia had 94,000 rifles (caliber 13–18 mm), of Austrian and Turkish origin, and 31,000 flintlock rifles were obtained from Russia, which were converted into percussion rifles at the military workshops in Užice. After 1866. Serbian army was faced with the rapid modernisation of its powerful neighbours and potential enemies, who