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Revolver

Revolver

:For other uses, see Revolver (disambiguation). Revolver (disambiguation) A revolver is a multishot firearm, usually a handgun, in which the rounds are held in a revolving cylinder that rotates to fire them through a single barrel.

Overview

Revolver-type weapons are part of the long development of making better multishot weapons. They were partly an attempt to improve on pepper-box type weapons, which used a revolving cylinder with one set of firing mechanisms, but had multiple barrels as well. Firing through a single barrel saved the expense and weight of having the multiple barrels of the Pepper-box. Revolvers have remained popular to the present day in many areas, although they have largely been supplanted by semi-automatic magazine-fed pistols such as the Colt 1911, especially in circumstances where reload time and higher cartridge capacity is important. A revolver works by having several firing chambers arranged in a circle in a cylindrical block that are brought into alignment with the firing mechanism and barrel one at a time. A single action revolver requires the hammer to be pulled back by hand before each shot. In a double action revolver, the trigger pull can pull back the hammer as well as release it. Most commonly, such guns have a five- or six-shot capacity (hence the other name Six Shooter); however, some revolvers have up to a 10-shot capacity (this often depends on the caliber, though different companies produce revolvers in the same calibers with different capacities, due to other design differences), and each chamber has to be reloaded manually. This makes the procedure of reloading such a weapon slow (even with the help of such devices as speedloaders). The alternatives are a replaceable cylinder, a speedloader which can reload all chambers at once, or a moon clip that holds a full load (Or even half of one in the case of a half-moon clip) of ammunition and that is inserted along with the ammunition. Due to the simplicity of design, a revolver is easier to make and has higher reliability than other multi-shot firearms in extreme environments. For these reasons, such guns are the most commonly-owned weapons for personal self-defence and hunting, where their capability to fire powerful ammunition with great accuracy has maintained their popularity. For example, should a semiautomatic pistol fail to fire, clearing the chamber requires manually cycling the action to remove the errant round, as cycling the action normally depends on the energy of the cartridge firing. With a revolver this is not necessary as none of the energy for cycling the revolver comes from the firing of the cartridge, but is supplied by the user either cocking the hammer or, in a double action design, just pulling the trigger. Over the long period of development of the revolver many calibers have been used, some of these have proved more durable during periods of standardization and some have entered general public awareness. Among these are the .22 rimfire, a popular target shooting caliber, .38 Special and .357 Magnum, known for police use , the .44 Magnum famous from Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" films, and the .45 Long Colt used in the Colt revolver of the "Wild West". Introduced in 2003, the Smith & Wesson Model 500 is the most powerful production revolver ever created, using the .500 S&W round. .500 S&W era with 8 revolving chambers firing bullets and a center barrel firing shot.]] Generally lower ammunition capacity and longer reload times have seen revolvers fall out of favor with most police and military users. Famous military revolvers include the Webley, the Colt Single Action Army and the Smith & Wesson 1917. Many police forces still use revolvers for their hostage rescue units. Revolver technology does live on in other weapons used by the military. Some autocannons and grenade launchers use mechanisms similar to revolvers, and some riot shotguns use spring loaded cylinders holding up to 12 rounds.

Loading and unloading

The first revolvers were muzzle loading, which meant that each chamber in the cylinder was loaded from the front with loose powder and a bullet. Usually, there was a loading lever attached to the bottom of the barrel that gave the user leverage to force the oversized lead ball into the chamber, which sealed it and held the ball and powder securely in place. The first practical revolvers were caplocks, because the caplock method of priming was the first that was compact enough to make a practical revolver. The first generation of cartridge revolvers were converted caplock designs. In many of these (especially those that were converted after manufacture), the pin on which the cylinder revolved was removed, and the cylinder taken from the gun for loading. Later models used a loading gate at the rear of the cylinder that allowed one cartridge at a time accessed for loading, while a rod under the barrel could be pressed backwards to extract the fired case. Most revolvers using this method of loading are single action revolvers. Since the cylinder is firmly attached at front and rear of the frame, and since the frame is full thickness all the way around, most large caliber hunting revolvers tend to be single action. Oddly, the loading gate on the original Colt designs (copied by nearly all single action revolvers since) is on the right side, which slightly favors left handed users. The next method used for loading and unloading cartridge revolvers was the top break design. In a top break revolver, the frame is hinged at the bottom front of the cylinder. Releasing the lock and pushing the barrel down brings the cylinder up - this exposes the rear of the cylinder for reloading. In most top break revolvers, the act of pivoting the barrel and cylinder operates an extractor that pushes the cartridges in the chambers back far enough that they will fall free, or can be removed easily. Fresh rounds are then placed into the cylinder, either one at a time or all at once with either a speedloader or a moon clip. The barrel and cylinder are then rotated back and locked in place, and the revolver is ready to fire. Since the frame is in two parts, held together by a latch on the top rear of the cylinder, top break revolvers are relatively weak, and cannot handle high pressure rounds. Top break designs are nearly extinct in the world of firearms, but they are still found in airguns. The last and now most common method of loading and unloading is the swing out cylinder. The cylinder is mounted on a pivot that is coaxial with the chambers, and the cylinder swings out and down (to the left in all cases, due to right-handed shooters being in the majority). An extractor is fitted, operated by a rod projecting from the front of the cylinder assembly. When pressed, it will push all fired rounds free (as in top break models, the travel is designed to not completely extract longer, unfired rounds). The cylinder may then be loaded, singly or again with a speedloader, and closed, where it latches in place. The rotating part that supports the cylinder is called the crane; it is the weak point of swing-out cylinder designs. Using the method often portrayed in movies and television of flipping the cylinder open and closed with a flick of the wrist will in fact cause the crane to bend, throwing the cylinder out of alignment with the barrel. Lack of alignment between chamber and barrel is a dangerous condition- impeding the bullet's transition from chamber to barrel. This gives rise to higher pressures in the chamber, bullet damage, and the potential for an explosion if the bullet becomes stuck. The shock of firing can also put a great deal of stress on the crane, as in most designs the cylinder is only held closed at one point, the rear of the cylinder. Stronger designs, such as the Ruger Super Redhawk, use a lock in the crane as well as the lock at the rear of the cylinder. This provides a more secure bond between cylinder and frame, and allows the use of larger, more powerful cartridges.

Single action

In a single action revolver, the hammer is manually cocked, usually with the thumb of the firing or supporting hand. This action advances the cylinder to the next round and locks the cylinder in place with the chamber aligned with the barrel. The trigger, when pulled, releases the hammer, which fires the round in the chamber. To fire again, the hammer must be manually cocked again. This is called "single action" because the trigger only performs a single action, that of releasing the hammer. Because only a single action is performed and trigger pull lightened, firing a revolver in this way allows most shooters to achieve greater accuracy.

Double action

Most double action revolvers may be fired in two ways. The first way is exactly the same as a single action revolver; the hammer is cocked, which advances the cylinder, and when the trigger is pulled, it releases the hammer. Double action revolvers also can be fired from a hammer down position, by just pulling the trigger. In this case, the trigger first cocks the hammer (thus advancing the cylinder) and then releases the hammer at the rear of its travel, firing the round in the chamber. Double action only revolvers lack the latch that enables the hammer to be locked to the rear, and thus can only be fired in the double action mode.

Automatic revolvers

Double action revolvers use a long trigger pull to cock the hammer, thus negating the need to manually cock the hammer between shots. The disadvantage of this is the long, heavy pull that cocks the hammer makes the double action revolver much harder to shoot accurately than a single action revolver (although cocking the hammer of a double action reduces the length and weight of the trigger pull). There is a rare class of revolvers, the automatic revolver, that attempts to overcome this restriction, giving the high speed of a double action with the trigger effort of a single action. The Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver was the first commercial example, introduced in 1901. It was recoil operated, and the cylinder and barrel recoiled backwards to cock the hammer and revolve the cylinder. It was distinctive in that cam grooves were milled on the outside of the cylinder to provide a means of advancing to the next chamber--half a turn as the cylinder moved back, and half a turn as it moved forward. .38 caliber versions held 8 shots, .455 caliber versions 6. At the time, the few available automatic pistols were larger, less reliable, and more expensive. The automatic revolver was popular when it came out, but it was quickly superseded by the creation of reliable, inexpensive automatic pistols. However, the GIGN paramilitary commandos often use S&W .357 revolvers. In 1997, the Mateba company developed a type of recoil operated automatic revolver, commercially named the Mateba Autorevolver, which uses the recoil energy to auto-rotate a normal revolver cylinder holding 6 or 7 cartridges, depending on the model. The company has made several versions of its "autorevolver", including longer barelled and even rifle-like variations, usually chambered for .357 Magnum ammunition, but also available in larger calibers like .44 Magnum and .454 Casull. There is also a combat shotgun based on the automatic revolver principle, the Pancor Jackhammer. It uses a type of gas action to move the barrel forward (which unlocks it from the cylinder) and then rotate the cylinder and cock the hammer.

Invention

Elisha Collier developed a flintlock revolver in 1818, and significant numbers were being produced in London by 1822. Samuel Colt received a patent for his revolver on February 25, 1836 and made the first production model on March 5 of the same year.

Famous Brands and Manufacturers

- Adams
- Tranter
- Remington
- Enfield
- Nagant
- Colt
- Magnum Research
- Ruger
- Smith & Wesson
- Taurus
- Webley & Scott
- Armscor
- Charter Arms
- North American Arms
- Astra

External link

- [http://people.howstuffworks.com/revolver.htm How Stuff Works - Revolver]
- -- Revolving gun
- -- Improvement in fire arms
- -- Revolver
- -- Revolver
- [http://www.nazarian.no/wepc.asp?lang=0&group_id=11 Nazarian's Gun's Recognition Guide on Revolvers] Category:Handguns Category:Firearm actions ko:리볼버

Revolver (disambiguation)

A revolver is a type of firearm. Revolver may also mean:
- Revolver (album), by The Beatles
- Revolver (film), by Guy Ritchie
- rEVOLVEr, an album by metal band The Haunted
- Revolver Ocelot, a fictional character in the Metal Gear video game series
- Velvet Revolver, a rock supergroup
- Revolver (magazine), a publication about rock music Revolver may also be:
- A large rotating heated reaction chamber of the alkali industry, used in England during the 19th century

Firearm

A firearm is a kinetic energy mechanical device that fires either single or multiple projectiles propelled at high velocity by the gases produced through rapid, confined burning of a propellant. This process of rapid burning is technically known as deflagration. In older firearms, this propellant was typically black powder, but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other propellants. The term gun is often used as a synonym for firearm, but in specialist use has a restricted sense—referring only to an artillery piece with a relatively high muzzle velocity and a relatively flat trajectory, such as a field gun, a tank gun, an anti-tank gun, or a naval gun. Guns are distinct from howitzers and mortars, which have lower muzzle velocities and higher trajectories. Hand-held firearms, like rifles, carbines, pistols and other small firearms are never called "guns" in the restricted sense. In recent centuries, firearms have become the predominant weapons used by mankind. Modern warfare since the late Renaissance has relied upon firearms, with wide-ranging effects on military history and history in general. For handguns and long guns, the projectile is a bullet or, in historical cannons, a cannonball. The projectile is fired by the burning of the propellant, but in small arms rarely contains explosives itself. For modern artillery the projectile is a shell, which nearly always contains explosives. A distinction is sometimes made between the projectile itself as the weapon and the firearm as a weapons platform. In some cases, the firearm can be used directly as a weapon without firing a projectile, although this is generally a secondary method of attack. For example, arms such as rifles, muskets, and occasionally submachine guns can have bayonets affixed to them, becoming in effect a spear or pike. With some notable exceptions, the stock of a long gun can be used as a club. It is also possible to strike someone with the barrel of a handgun or grasp it by the barrel and strike someone with the butt. This is called "pistol-whipping". A problem for firearms is the accumulation of waste products from the partial combustion of propellants, metallic residue from the bullet itself, and small flecks of the cartridge case. These waste products can interfere with the internal functions of the firearm. As a result, regularly used firearms must be periodically partially disassembled, cleaned and lubricated to ensure the weapon's reliability. There are two basic categories of firearms: artillery pieces and small arms. Small arms are generally small, very portable firearms with a barrel bore of up to approximately 0.50 inch (12.7 mm)and are aimed visually at their targets using sights. The range of accuracy for small arms is limited to about one mile (1600 m), usually considerably less. Artillery pieces are much larger, mounted on a movable carriage, having bores of up to 18 inches (46 cm) and possibly weighing many tons. Artillery can be accurate at ranges of up to about 26 miles (42 km) and, with some notable exceptions (e.g., tank guns), is aimed using altitude/azimuth settings. Strictly speaking, not all small arms are firearms, but it is the most convenient category under which to group them.

Small arms

Handguns

The smallest of all small arms is the handgun (or "sidearm"). Handguns with a single, fixed firing chamber are pistols; most pistols have a removable magazine so they can be used to fire several shots. The other most common handgun design is the revolver, which has a number of firing chambers in a revolving cylinder; each chamber in the cylinder is loaded with a single cartridge. Prior to the 19th century, all handguns were single-shot muzzleloaders. With the invention of the revolver in 1818, handguns capable of holding multiple rounds became popular. At the end of the 20th century, most handguns are semiautomatic, although revolvers are still widely used. Handguns come in many shapes and sizes. For example, the "derringer" (a generic term based on the mid-19th-century "Deringer" brand name) is a very small, short-barreled handgun, usually with one or two barrels but sometimes more (some 19th-century derringers had four barrels) that have to be manually reloaded after being fired. Carefully matched single-shot duelling pistols were used primarily in the 18th and 19th centuries to settle serious differences among "gentlemen": Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr are probably the most prominent Americans who used duelling pistols to settle their differences. Fully automatic, relatively easily concealed machine pistols, such as the MAC-10 and the Beretta 93R, were a late 20th-century development. Handguns are small and usually made to be easily concealed, thus making them a very common choice for personal protection. In the military, handguns are usually issued to those who are not expected to need more potent (and more expensive) weapons, such as general and staff officers, and to those for whom there is no room for a full-sized rifle, such as armored vehicle and air crews. In this last role, they often compete with the carbine, which is also usually issued to airborne infantry because of its small size. Outside the military, handguns are the usual armament for police (in those jurisdictions where police are armed) and, where legal, for private citizens. Private citizens in most jurisdictions usually carry only concealed handguns in public except when hunting, since an unconcealed weapon would attract undue attention, and would therefore be less secure, athough there are significant numbers of states in the US that continue to permit open carry of handguns. In the United States, the number of states which permit concealed carry has recently grown to over 35, and several states have well over 200,000 permit holders. Despite Second Amendment constitutional roots in the United States, the concept of citizens carrying a concealed weapon for self-defense is often a contentious political issue; see gun politics for more information. Handguns are also used for many sporting purposes and hunting, although hunting usage is usually viewed as somewhat atypical due to the limited range and accuracy of handguns. Some hunters however relish the increased challenge involved in handgun hunting due to the necessity of approaching the game animal more closely. Small-bore (e.g., .22 caliber) handguns have long been very popular for competitive target shooting, partially due to the low cost of both the weapons and the ammunition, and there is also a rapidly growing number of sporting competitions for larger calibers.

Long guns

Most modern long guns are either rifles or shotguns. Historically, a long smoothbore firearm was known as a musket. A rifle has a rifled barrel that fires single bullets, while a shotgun fires packets of shot, a single slug, a sabot, or a specialty round (tear gas, Bolo Shell, lead powder, etc.). Rifles are often built for accuracy and long range and are aimed, while shotguns are usually designed to quickly hit a moving target and are instead "pointed". Rifles have a very small impact area but a long range and high accuracy. Shotguns have a large impact area with considerably less range and accuracy. However, the larger impact area can compensate for reduced accuracy, since shot spreads during flight; consequently, in hunting, shotguns are used for flying game. Rifles and shotguns are commonly used for hunting and often to defend a home or place of business. Usually, large game are hunted with rifles (although shotguns can be used—deer hunting with a shotgun is possible with the use of buckshot, sabots or slugs) while birds are hunted with shotguns. Shotguns are sometimes preferred for defending a home or business due to their wide impact area, shorter range, and reduced penetration of walls, which significantly reduces the likelihood of unintended harm, although the handgun is also commonly preferred. Rifles have been in nationally featured marksmanship events in Europe and the United States since at least the 18th century, when rifles were first becoming widely available—one of the earliest purely "American" rifle-shooting competitions took place in 1775, when Daniel Morgan was recruiting sharpshooters in Virginia for the impending war with England. In some countries, rifle marksmanship is still a matter of national pride. Some specialized rifles in the larger calibers are claimed to have an accurate range of up to about one mile, although most have considerably less range. In the second half of the 20th century, competitive shotgun sports became perhaps even more popular than riflery, largely due to the motion and immediate feedback in activities such as skeet, trap and sporting clays.

Machine guns

A machine gun is a fully automatic firearm used almost exclusively by the military. Although not widely fielded until World War I, early machine guns were being used by the military in the late 19th century (e.g., the Gatling gun). They are primarily defensive weapons, mainly because of the difficulties involved in moving and placing them, and their inherent lack of accuracy. In contrast, light machine guns (such as the U.S. military's M249 Squad Automatic Weapon and the M60, both of which are small-caliber weapons) are often wielded by a single infantryman; they provide a high rate of fire typically used as either suppressing fire or covering fire during infantry movement. Machine guns are also often mounted on vehicles or helicopters, and have often been used since World War II as offensive weapons in fighter aircraft and tanks (e.g., for air combat or suppressing fire for ground troop support). A submachine gun is a machine gun that fires cartridges that would otherwise be used in a handgun. Probably the most well-known example of a submachine gun is the Thompson gun (the "Tommy Gun" of gangster movies), which fires .45 ACP cartridges. In United States law, a Machine Gun is defined (in part) by The National Firearms Act of 1934, United States code Title 26, Subtitle E, Chapter 53, Subchapter B, Part 1, § 5845 as: "... any weapon which shoots ... automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger." In the United States, purchases of machine guns manufactured after 1986 by civilians were banned by the Firearm Owners Protection Act (FOPA), passed in that year. Importation of machine guns for civilian sale in the U.S. was banned by the Gun Control Act of 1968. Machine guns manufactured prior to 1986 or imported prior to 1968 can still be legally transferred to civilians who pay a substantial tax to the BATFE and pass a background investigation. In addition, "transferable" machine guns must have been registered with the BATFE prior to 1986. Machine Gun parts kits (which do not include a functional receiver) can be transferred without restriction. Permission must be received from BATFE to move a machine gun between states. One of the most popular, most produced and most used machine guns in the world is the Soviet AK-47. It served in the Soviet army as standard infantry weapon issue, as well as in many other east-block states. It is still used as standard military equipment in some former Warsaw Pact countries, as well as being used by many criminal or terrorist organisations worldwide.

Loading and firing mechanisms

Cannon

The cannon is loaded with gunpowder and the cannonball through the muzzle, while a fuse is placed at the rear. This fuse is lighted, causing the gunpowder to ignite and propel the cannonball. Most cannons were land- or ship-based guns, although hand cannons also existed. In military use, the standard cannon was tremendously powerful, while hand cannon was somewhat useless. In the 19th century, the muzzle-loaded cannon was made obsolete by the breech-loaded artillery piece with a rifled barrel.

Muzzleloader

Muzzle-loading muskets (smooth-bored long guns) were among the first small arms developed. The firearm was loaded through the muzzle with gunpowder, optionally some wadding and then a bullet (usually a solid lead ball, but musketeers could shoot stones when they ran out of bullets). Greatly improved muzzleloaders (usually rifled instead of smooth-bored) are manufactured today and have many enthusiasts, many of whom hunt large and small game with their guns. Muzzleloaders have to be manually reloaded after each shot; a skilled archer could fire multiple arrows faster than most early muskets could be reloaded and fired, although by the mid-18th century, when muzzleloaders became the standard small armament of the military, a well-drilled soldier could fire six rounds in a minute using prepared cartridges in his musket. Before then, effectiveness of muzzleloaders was hindered by both the low reloading speed and, before the firing mechanism was perfected, the very high risk posed by the weapon to the person attempting to fire it. One interesting solution to the reloading problem was the "Roman Candle Gun". This was a muzzleloader in which multiple charges and balls were loaded one on top of the other, with a small hole in each ball to allow the subsequent charge to be ignited after the one ahead of it was ignited. It was neither a very reliable nor popular firearm, but it enabled a form of "automatic" fire long before the advent of the machine gun. http://www.scotwars.com/html/equip_firearms2.htm#3

Matchlock

Matchlocks were the first and simplest small arms firing mechanisms developed. Using the matchlock mechanism, the powder in the gun barrel was ignited by a piece of burning cord called a "match". The match was wedged into one end of an S-shaped piece of steel. As the trigger (often actually a lever) was pulled, the match was brought into the open end of a "touch hole" at the base of the gun barrel, which contained a very small quantity of gunpowder, igniting the main charge of gunpowder in the gun barrel. The match usually had to be relit after each firing.

Wheellock

The wheellock action, a successor to the matchlock, predated the flintlock. Despite its many faults, the wheellock was a significant improvement over the matchlock in terms of both convenience and safety, since it eliminated the need to keep a smoldering match in close proximity to loose gunpowder. It operated using a small wheel much like that on cigarette lighters which was wound up with a key before use and which, when the trigger was pulled, spun against a flint, creating the shower of sparks that ignited the powder in the touch hole. Supposedly invented by Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance man, the wheel lock action was an innovation that was not widely adopted.

Flintlock

The flintlock action was a major innovation in small arms design. The spark used to ignite the gunpowder in the touch hole was supplied by a sharpened piece of flint clamped in the jaws of a "cock" which, when released by the trigger, struck a piece of steel called the "frizzen" to create the necessary sparks. (The spring loaded arm that holds a piece of flint or pyrite is refered to as a cock because of its resemblance to a rooster.) The cock had to be manually reset after each firing, and the flint had to be replaced periodically due to wear from striking the frizzen. (See also flintlock mechanism, snaphance, miquelet) The flintlock was widely used during the 18th and 19th centuries in both muskets and rifles.

Percussion cap

Percussion caps (caplock mechanisms), coming into wide service in the 19th century, were a dramatic improvement over flintlocks. With the percussion cap mechanism, the small primer charge of gunpowder used in all preceding small arms was replaced by a completely self-contained explosive charge contained in a small brass "cap". The cap was fastened to the touch hole of the gun (extended to form a "nipple") and ignited by the impact of the gun's "hammer". (The hammer is roughly the same as the cock found on flintlocks except that it doesn't clamp onto anything.) In the case of percussion caps the hammer was hollow on the end to fit around the cap in order to keep the cap from fragmenting and injuring the shooter. Once struck, the flame from the cap in turn ignited the main charge of gunpowder, as with the flintlock, but there was no longer any need to charge the touch hole with gunpowder, and even better, the touch hole was no longer exposed to the elements. As a result, the percussion cap mechanism was considerably safer, far more weatherproof, and vastly more reliable (cloth-bound cartridges containing a premeasured charge of gunpowder and a ball had been in regular military service for many years, but the exposed gunpowder in the entry to the touch hole had long been a source of misfires). All muzzleloaders manufactured since the second half of the 19th century use percussion caps except those built as replicas of the flintlock or earlier small arms.

Cartridges

A major innovation in small arms (and light artillery) came in the second half of the 19th century when ammunition, previously delivered as separate bullets and powder, was combined in a single metallic (almost always brass) cartridge containing a percussion cap, powder, and a bullet in one weatherproof package. Before this, a "cartridge" was simply a premeasured quantity of gunpowder together with a ball in a small cloth bag, which also acted as wadding for the charge and ball. This early form of cartridge had to be rammed into the muzzleloader's barrel, and either a small charge of gunpowder in the touch hole or an external percussion cap mounted on the touch hole ignited the gunpowder in the cartridge. Cartridges with built-in percussion caps (called "primers") continue to this day to be the standard in firearms. In cartridge-firing firearms, a hammer (or a firing pin struck by the hammer) strikes the cartridge primer, which then ignites the gunpowder within. The primer charge is at the base of the cartridge, either within the rim (a "rimfire" cartridge) or in a small percussion cap embedded in the center of the base (a "centerfire" cartridge). As a rule, centerfire cartridges are more powerful than rimfire cartridges, containing more gunpowder and (usually) larger diameter bullets. Caseless cartridges are now being explored: instead of using brass as the cartridge case, these would hold the cartridge together with paper or some other substance that is destroyed when the gun is fired, eliminating the problem of brass casings ejecting and littering the ground. Caseless cartridges and the guns that would use them are still prototypes, although the idea of caseless cartridges can be traced to the musket "cartridges" widely used by the 18th-century military. Nearly all contemporary firearms load cartridges directly into their breech. Some additionally or exclusively load from a magazine that holds multiple cartridges. A magazine is a box or cylinder that is designed to be reusable and is detachable from the gun. Some magazines, such as those of the Garand are loaded by using a clip, which is a device that looks like a rail holding the ammunition by the case base. In most cases, a magazine and a clip are different in that the former's function is to feed ammunition into the firearm's breech, while the latter's is only to "charge" a magazine with fresh ammunition.

Repeating, semiautomatic, and automatic weapons

Many small arms are "single shot" firearms: i.e., each time a cartridge is fired, the operator must manually recock the firearm and load another cartridge. A firearm that can load multiple cartridges as the weapon is recocked is considered a repeating weapon or simply a "repeater". A firearm that automatically recocks and reloads the next round with each trigger pull is considered a semiautomatic weapon. An automatic (or "fully automatic") weapon is one that automatically recocks, reloads, and refires as long as the trigger is depressed. Many modern military firearms have a "selective-fire" option, which is a mechanical switch that allows the weapon be fired either in the semiautomatic or fully automatic mode. In the current M16A2 and M16A4 variants of the U.S.-made M16, continuous full-automatic fire is not possible, having been replaced by an automatic burst of three cartridges that makes full-automatic fire considerably more accurate. It is sometimes debated which is the "best" military small arm, the former Soviet Union's 7.62x39mm- Kalashnikov AK-47 or the U.S.-manufactured .223-caliber M16: the highly reliable and inexpensive but heavy and bulky AK-47 has been widely adopted by many small countries, including many current and former Communist nations. The much lighter and far more accurate M16 (and its .223 cartridge in particular) has found wide adoption among NATO members and military allies of the United States (see also AK-47 vs. M16). The first "rapid firing" weapons were usually similar to the 19th-century Gatling gun, which would fire cartridges from a magazine as fast as and as long as the operator turned a crank. Eventually, the "rapid" firing mechanism was perfected and miniaturized to the extent that either the recoil of the firearm or the gas pressure from firing could be used to operate it (which made the firing mechanisms truly "automatic"). Automatic rifles such as the Browning Automatic Rifle (the "BAR") were in common use by the military during the early part of the 20th century, and automatic rifles that fired handgun rounds, known as submachine guns, also appeared in this time. Submachine guns (such as the well-known Thompson gun) were originally about the size of carbines. In the latter half of the 20th century, submachine guns were being miniaturized to the point of being only slightly larger than some large handguns. The most widely used submachine gun at the end of the 20th century was the Heckler & Koch MP5. The MP5 is actually designated as a "machine pistol" by Heckler & Koch (MP5 stands for Machine Pistol 5), although some reserve this designation for even smaller submachine guns such as the MAC-10, which are about the size and shape of pistols. Nazi Germany brought the world's attention to what eventually became the class of weapon most widely adopted by the military: the so-called assault rifle. An assault rifle is usually slightly smaller than a military rifle such as the M1 Garand but has selective fire (civilian assault rifle look-alikes are strictly semiautomatic). Soviet engineer Mikhail Kalashnikov quickly adapted the concept to the AK-47, which has become the world's most widely used assault rifle. In United States, John Garand, the inventor of the M1 Garand rifle used by the U.S. military during World War II, adapted the assault rifle design to produce the M14, which was used by the U.S. military until the 1960s. The significant recoil (hence inaccuracy) of the M14 when fired in full automatic mode was seen as a problem, however, and in the 1960s it was replaced by Eugene Stoner's AR-15, which also marked a switch from the high-powered but heavy .30-caliber rifle used by the U.S. military since World War I to the much smaller but far lighter and light recoiling (more accurate) .223-caliber rifle. The military later redesignated the AR-15 as the "M16". The civilian version of the M16 continues to be known as the AR-15 and looks exactly like the military version, although it is strictly a semiautomatic firearm.

External resources

- [http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Recreation/Guns DMOZ Open Directory Project - Guns]
- [http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Recreation/Guns/Antiques_and_Collectibles DMOZ Open Directory Project - Guns, Antique] Category:Ammunition Category:Firearms ja:銃

External links

- [http://www.nazarian.no/def.asp?lang=0&page_id=1 Nazarian`s Gun`s Recognition Guide]
- [http://world.guns.ru/main-e.htm Online encyclopedia of firearms and ammunition of the XX and XXI centuries.]
- [http://www.self-defender.net/weapons/rifles.htm Modern Civilian And Military Rifles]

Pepper-box

The Pepper-box revolver or pepperbox revolver is a multishot handheld firearm, which was popular in North America around the time of the American Civil War. The pepperbox was invented in the 1830s and was meant mainly for civilian use. It spread rapidly in the United Kingdom and some parts of continental Europe. It started disappearing gradually in the 1850s with the manufacture of true revolvers by Colt, Webley and others. It was similar to the revolver since like it, it held bullets in a rotating cylinder, in separate chambers. Unlike the revolver however, each bullet had its own barrel. It can also be considered a primitive Gatling gun or machine gun of very small size and low rate of fire. Several models were dangerous because firing one bullet could ignite the others, all at the same time, when proper care was not taken. Category:Revolvers

Caliber

The word calibre (British English) or caliber (American English) designates the interior diameter of a tube or the exterior diameter of a wire or rod. It comes from the Italian calibro, itself from the Arabic quâlib, meaning mould. The term most often appears with respect to firearms, as a measure of the size of the barrel; however, it also has use in other fields.

Firearms

In firearms, the caliber is the diameter of the inside of the barrel. In a rifled barrel the distance is measured between the lands. The measurement is in inches and the caliber (abbreviated to cal) is quoted as a fraction (hundredths or thousandths) of an inch, so a 0.22 inch smallbore rifle is .22 cal. Outside Great Britain and the U.S., the caliber of a weapon is commonly expressed in millimeters (mm). The caliber of a weapon is often informally used to describe certain common weapons. A .45 cal pistol is called a '45', a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol is called a '9 mil', a .380 caliber is called a '380', etc. This gives rise to the impression that "cal" is a unit of measurement, equal to 1/100 or 1/1000 of an inch, whereas it is rather a figure of speech. For historical reasons, the name of a cartridge is not always the actual caliber. As one example, the common .38 Special revolver actually fires a bullet 0.357 inches in diameter. Note that caliber alone is not a good indicator of the terminal ballistics (commonly refered to as "stopping power") of a cartridge towards an organic target. Bullet weight and shape, powder capacity of the cartridge, and length of the barrel are some of the many variables which also have an effect. Small arms range in bore size from approximately .177 cal up to .50 cal. Arms used to hunt big game may be as large as .800 caliber. In the middle of the 19th century, muskets and muzzle-loading rifles were .58 cal or larger.

Caliber as measurement of length

rifle The length of the barrel (especially for larger guns) is often quoted in calibers. The effective length of the barrel (from breech to muzzle) is divided by the barrel diameter to give a value. As an example, the main guns of the Iowa class battleships can be referred to as 16"/50 caliber. They are 16 inches in diameter and the barrel is 800 inches long (16
- 50 = 800). This is also sometimes indicated using the prefix L/, so for example, the most common gun for the Panzer IV tank is described as a "75 mm L/48", meaning a barrel 75 mm in diameter, and 3600 mm long.

Alternative measurements of bore

Measurement of the bore of large weapons can be, and often was, expressed in pounds. A sphere of lead of the same diameter as the bore would have a certain weight. Lead is a useful material because it is malleable though unsuited for large projectiles because of its density. This leads to certain guns being referred to as 6-pounder, 25-pounder, et cetera. However this relationship between calibre and projectile weight changed with the introduction of the cylindrical rifled shell. The gun continued to be named by the weight of projectile it threw although this no longer gave any indication of the barrel size.

Other uses

In architecture, the caliber of a column is its diameter. In electricity, the caliber of an instrument of measure is the maximum value it can measure. In nautical parlance, the caliber of a chain is the diameter of the metal rod used to make each chain link. Agricultural produce is also often ranked by caliber (diameter), for instance olives, peas or eggs. In typography, the caliber of a font designates the size of the eye of a character, neglecting any risers or descenders. In horology, the term is used to distinguish the size and type of movement used within a timepiece.

Moon clip

ammunition]] ammunition ammunition]] A moon clip is a ring shaped piece of plastic or metal designed to hold all the rounds to a revolver in their exact positions when the cylinder is fully loaded. Their intent is to speed the loading and reloading of a revolver by placing all the rounds in at one time as opposed to placing them in one at a time. They developed from the half-moon clip, and were originally made from sheet metal. Recently, plastic versions have been developed because one made of sheet metal can permanently deform if bent.

How it works

Moon clips can load standard revolver rounds, or can load Semi-automatic pistol rounds into a correctly chambered revolver. This is possible because revolver rounds require a rim of a larger diameter than the rest of the case so they may rest against the cylinder face. Semi-automatic pistol rounds, however, have a rim that is generally the same diameter as the case, and thus cannot be normally loaded into a revolver. A moon clip fixes this by holding them in place so that they do not fall through the cylinder.

Usage

Common revolver models that are manufactured to use moon clips:
- 9 mm Luger
- S&W Model 940
- .38 Super
- S&W Model 627
- 10 mm Auto
- S&W Model 610
- .40 S&W
- S&W Model 646
- .45 ACP
- S&W Model 1917
- S&W Model 25
- S&W Model 625 Other revolver models such as the S&W Model 686 .357 Magnum can be modified by a machinist to utilize moon clips.

Half-moon clip

ammunition]] A half-moon clip is a semi-circular shaped piece of metal designed to hold rimless ammuniton (generally 3 rounds) in a revolver cylinder. The concept is to speed up the loading of a revolver by placing more than one round in the cylinder at a time. They eventually led to the development of the moon clip, sometimes referred to as a full-moon clip. One of the first weapons to use this technology was the Webley Revolver (during World War I), to speed load 3 rounds of .455 Webley ammunition.

How it works

Usage

Ammunition

Ammunition is a generic military term meaning (the assembly of) a projectile and its propellant. It is derived through French from the Latin munire (to provide). See also munition.

Glossary

- Small projectiles, like those fired from rifles and handguns (collectively known as small arms), are called bullets.
- A "round" is a unit of ammunition, for small arms this is the combination of bullet, propellant, primer and cartridge case.
- Large caliber guns often fire explosive-filled projectiles known as shells, the equivalent non-explosive projectile is a shot (see artillery).
- Large numbers of small projectiles intended to be fired all at once in a single discharge are also called shot; hand-held guns designed for this type of ammunition are generally known as shotguns.
- Duds are ammunitions that fail to work as intended.

General information

Dud The design of the ammunition is determined by its purpose; anti-personnel ammunition is often designed to break up or tumble inside the target, in order to maximize the damage done. Anti-personnel shells contain shrapnel and are designed to explode in mid-air, so its fragments will spread over a large area. Armor-piercing ammunition tends to be hard, sharp, and narrow, often with lubrication. Incendiary projectiles include a material such as white phosphorus which burns fiercely. Tracer ammunition emits light as it travels, allowing the gunner to see the path of bullets in flight while using a machine gun. Popular types of military rifle and machine-gun ammunition include the 5.45 mm, 5.56 mm, and 7.62 mm. Main battle tanks use KE-penetrators to combat other MBTs and armoured fighting vehicles, and HE-Frag (High Explosive-Fragmentation) for soft targets such as infantry. Match-grade ammunition is of exceptionally good quality, intended for target shooting competition. The components of ammunition intended for rifles and ordnance may be divided into these categories:
- explosives and propellants
- projectiles of all kinds
- cartridges

Storage

Historical (circa World War I)

cartridges These general conditions apply to the storage of ammunition in fortresses. Here the positions for the magazine and ammunition stores are so chosen as to afford the best means of protection from an enemy's fire. Huge earth parapets cover these buildings, which are further strengthened, where possible, by traverses protecting the entrances. For the purpose of filling, emptying, and examining cannon cartridges and shell, a laboratory is generally provided at some distance from the magazine. The various stores for explosives are classified into those under magazine conditions (such as magazines, laboratories, and cartridge stores) and those with which these restrictions need not be observed (such as ammunition and shell stores). The interior walls of a magazine are lined, and the floors laid so that there may be no exposed iron or steel. At the entrance, there is a lobby or barrier, inside which persons about to enter the magazine change their clothes for a special suit, and their boots for a pair made without nails. In an ammunition or shell store these precautions need not be taken except where the shell store and the adjacent cartridge store have a common entrance; persons entering may do so in their ordinary clothes. A large work may have a main magazine and several subsidiary magazines, from which the stock of cartridges is renewed in the cartridge stores attached to each group of guns or in the expense cartridge stores and cartridge recesses. The same applies to main ammunition stores which supply the shell stores, expense stores, and recesses. The supply of ammunition are either for guns forming the movable armament or for guns placed in permanent positions. The movable armament will consist of guns and howitzers of small and medium caliber, and it is necessary to arrange suitable expense cartridge stores and shell stores close to the available positions. They can generally be constructed to form part of the permanent work in the projected face of traverses or other strong formations, and should be arranged for a twenty-four hour supply of ammunition. These stores are refilled from the main magazine every night under cover of darkness. Light railways join the various positions. The guns mounted in permanent emplacements are divided into groups of two or three guns each, and usually each group will require but one calibre of ammunition. A cartridge store, shell store and a general store, all well ventilated, are arranged for the especial service of such a group of guns. In the cartridge store the cylinders containing the cartridges are so placed and labeled that the required charge, whether reduced or full, can be immediately selected. In the shell store, the common shell are separated from the armour-piercing or shrapnel. Each nature of projectile is painted in a distinctive manner to render identification easy. The fuzes and tubes are placed in the general store with the tools and accessories belonging to the guns. The gun group is distinguished by some letter and the guns of the group by numerals; thus A/1 is number one gun of group A. The magazine and shell stores are also indicated by the group letter, and so that mistakes, even by those unaccustomed to the fort, may be avoided, the passages are pointed out by finger posts and direction boards. For the immediate service of each gun, a few cartridges and projectiles are stored in small receptacles (called cartridge and shell recesses respectively) built in the parapet as near the gun position as practicable. In some cases, a limited number of projectiles may be placed close underneath the parapet if this is conveniently situated near the breech of the gun and not exposed to hostile fire. In order to supply the ammunition sufficiently rapidly for the efficient service of modern guns, hydraulic, electric, or hand-power, hoists are employed to raise the cartridges and shell from the cartridge store and shell store to the gun floor, whence they are transferred to a derrick or loading tray attached to the mounting for loading the gun. Projectiles for BL guns above 6 inch (152 mm) calibre are stored in shell stores ready filled and fuzed standing on their bases, except shrapnel and high-explosive shell, which are fuzed only when about to be used. Smaller sizes of shells are laid on their sides in layers, each layer pointing in the opposite direction to the one below to prevent injury to the driving bands. Cartridges are stored in brass corrugated cases or in zinc cylinders. The corrugated cases are stacked in layers in the magazine with the mouth of the case towards a passage between the stacks, so that it can be opened and the cartridges removed and transferred to a leather case when required for transport to the gun. Cylinders are stacked, when possible, vertically one above the other. The charges are sent to the gun in these cylinders, and provision is made for the rapid removal of the empty cylinders. The number and nature of rounds allotted to any fortress depends on questions of policy and location, the degrees of resistance the nature of the works and personnel could reasonably be expected to give, and finally on the nature of the armament. That is to say, for guns of large calibre three hundred to four hundred rounds per gun might be sufficient, while for light QF guns it might amount to one thousand or more rounds per gun.

Modern Era

Modern ammunition includes not only shells for tube artillery and mortars, but increasingly aircraft-delivered bombs, smart bombs, rockets and other explosive-bearing projectiles. The destructive power and lethality of these systems is difficult to appreciate. A single cluster bomb, deliverable by any of the above systems, can sow grenade-sized bomblets across a 100 yard (90m) football-sized field in sufficient density to kill any persons present, even in trenches and wearing body armor. See ammo dump for discussion of modern ammunition storage facilities.

Supply of ammunition in the field

With every successive improvement in military arms there has necessarily been a corresponding modification in the method of supplying ammunition and in the quantity required to be supplied. When hand-to-hand weapons were the principal implements of battle, there was no such need. But in the Middle Ages, the archers and crossbowmen had to replenish the shafts and bolts expended in action, and during a siege, stone bullets of great size, as well as heavy arrows, were freely used. The missiles of those days were however interchangeable, and at the battle of Towton (1461), part of the War of the Roses, the commander of the Yorkist archers induced the enemy to fire arrows in order to obtain them for firing back. This interchangeability of war material was even possible for many centuries after the invention of firearms. At the battle of Liegnitz (1760) a general officer was specially commissioned by Frederick the Great to pack up and send away, for Prussian use, all the muskets and ammunition left on the field of battle by the defeated Austrians. Captured material is utilized whenever possible at the present time. In the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese went so far as to prepare beforehand spare parts for the Chinese guns they expected to capture. Though it is rare to find a modern army trusting to captures for arms and ammunition; almost the only instance of the practice is that of the Chilean Civil War (1891) in which the army of one belligerent was almost totally dependent upon this means of replenishing stores of arms and cartridges. But what was possible with weapons of comparatively rough make is no longer to be thought of in the case of modern arms. The Lee-Metford bullet of 0.303 inch (7.7 mm) diameter can scarcely be used in a rifle of smaller caliber, and in general the minute accuracy of parts in modern weapons makes interchangeability almost impossible. Further, owing to the rapidity with which, in modern arms, ammunition is expended, and the fact that, as battles are fought at longer ranges than formerly, more shots have to be fired in order to inflict heavy losses, it is necessary that the reserves of ammunition should be as close as possible to the troops who have to use them. This was always the case even with the older firearms, as, owing to the great weight of the ammunition, the soldier could only carry a few rounds. Nevertheless it is only within the past seventy years that there has grown up the elaborate system of ammunition supply which now prevails in all regularly organized armies. That which is described in the present article is the British, as laid down in the official Combined Training (1905) and other manuals. The new system designed for stronger divisions, and others, vary only in details and nomenclature.

Ammunition for infantry

Ammunition for infantry refers to the ammunition carried by a typical foot (infantry) soldier. Someone serving in the infantry generally carries, in pouches, bandoliers, etc., one hundred rounds of small-arms ammunition (S.A.A.), and it is usual to supplement this, when an action is imminent, from the regimental reserve (see below). Like any trade, the proper tools are necessary for the task at hand. Infantry need to be provided with the weapons and ammunition to deal with the expected threat, be it another foot soldier, a mounted warrior, armoured vehicle or aircraft.

History

Every reduction in the caliber (size) of the rifle's ammunition means an increase in the number of rounds carried. One hundred rounds of the Martini-Henry ammunition weighed 10 pounds 10 ounces (4.8 kg); the same weight gives 155 rounds of 0.303 in (7.7 mm) ammunition and at 0.256 in (6.5 mm) the number of rounds is still greater. The regimental reserves were historically carried in six S.A.A. carts and on eight pack animals. The six carts are distributed, one as reserve to the machine gun, three as reserve to the battalion itself, and two as part of the brigade reserve, which consists therefore of eight carts. The brigade reserve communicates directly with the brigade ammunition columns of the artillery (see below). The eight pack animals follow the eight companies of their battalion. These, with two out of the three battalion carts, endeavour to keep close to the firing line, the remaining cart being with the reserve companies. Men also are employed as carriers, and this duty is so onerous that picked men only are detailed. Gallantry displayed in bringing up ammunition is considered indeed to justify special rewards. The amount of S.A.A. in regimental charge is 100 rounds in the possession of each soldier, 2000 to 2200 on each pack animal, and 16,000 to 17,600 in each of four carts, with, in addition, about 4000 rounds with the machine gun and 16,000 more in the fifth cart.

Current small arms ammunition

Currently, every army of an internationally recognized country (except those who rely on others for defense, such as Andorra, and those that do not have a true army, such as the Vatican City) has adopted assault rifles as the main infantry weapon. In western (NATO) forces, the 7.62 mm NATO round has been mostly replaced by the lighter 5.56 mm NATO round, which is better suited for automatic fire than the larger round and each soldier can carry more ammunition. The larger caliber ammunition is still retained where range and weight of shot is important eg machine guns and sniper rifles. Other nations, especially forces with former ties to the Soviet Union tend to use rifles related to or devleoped from the AK-47 with similar sized rounds to the NATO ones.

Anti-tank

The tank made horse mounted cavalry obsolete and while an infantryman could deal with a horse-borne enemy new weapons were needed to damage a tank or other vehicle or penetrate and wound the crew. The first anti-tank weapons given to infantry were based on small arms, for example the anti-tank rifle. As even the lighter designs of tank carried more armour the limit of a man-portable rifle that could fire a round with sufficeint kinetic energy to penetrate the armour was reached. The introduction of the shaped charge warhead gave the infantry a weapon that used chemical energy rather than kinetic to beat the armour and in a focussed way which made them more effective than large grenades. When propelled by a rocket, the shaped charge gained range as well. Weapons such as the Bazooka, or Panzerfaust were never small but they were suitable for infantry use - though they often had to be used at close range where they could be aimed accurately at the vehicles weak points. Post World War 2, the advent of the missile delivered both great range and accuracy and provided infantry with a weapon that could reliably destroy the heaviest tanks at long distances.

Anti-aircraft

Today's infantryman can deploy sophisticated multi-spectral man-portable surface-to-air missiles equipped with the ability to reject decoys and defeat counter-measures. In Somalia it was demonstrated that slow moving/stationary aircraft at low altitudes could be defeated with unguided anti-armour infantry weapons. It is also true that aircraft are relatively delicate machines, filled with highly flammable fuel, and since their first usage in World War I a plane can be brought down by single bullet striking something vital. The main weaknesses of ammunition provided to infantry to deal with aircraft are limited range and small warheads, both due to the necessity that such weapons remain portable by men on foot. The premier SAM for infantry is the FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defence System), provided as an all-up round in a canister it is attached to a launcher unit and is ready to expend. Numerous other missiles in this class exist from different nations of origin. Infantry machine guns and rifles may improve their ability against aircraft by utilising tracer ammunition, to allow the aimer to better gauge the lead aim necessary to strike his target. Weapons developed primarily for anti-tank roles can add proximity fusing to increase the probability of a kill by having the warhead detonate nearby the target with having to make contact.

Large weapon ammunition

See Main article, Shell (projectile), for information on the various types of shell and shot. Modern artillery ammunition is generally of two types: separate loading and semi-fixed. Semi-fixed ammunition (rounds) appear in the form of a projectile mated with a cartridge case which contains the propellant and they resemble small arms rounds. The canister is outfitted with a primer on its base which fires upon contact from the firing pin. Black powder, precision machined to burn evenly, is contained inside of cloth bags that are numbered. US/NATO 105mm howitzers use semi-fixed ammunition, containing seven powder bags referred to as increments or charges. Putting the powder in bags allows the howitzer crew to remove the increments when firing at closer targets. The unused increments are disposed of by burning in a powder pit at a safe distance from the guns. Above a certain size, semi-fixed rounds are impracticable; the weight of the whole assembly is either too much to be carried effectively. In this case separate loading ammunition is used: the projectile and propelling charge are supplied and loaded separately. The projectile is rammed home in the chamber, the powder charge(s) are loaded (usually by hand), then the breech is closed and the primer is inserted into the primer holder on the back the breech. Separate loading ammunition is typically used on 155mm and larger howitzers. Several propellant types are available for 155mm howitzer. All normal projectiles arrive at the weapon with a plug in the fuze well on the nose of the projectile. Using a special fuze wrench, the plug is unscrewed and a fuze is screwed in. The decision as to which type of fuze to use is made by the fire direction center and carried out by the gun crew. The armaments fitted to early tanks were contemporary field or naval artillery pieces and used the same ammunition. When tank versus tank combat became more important, the trend became that anti-aircraft artillery pieces (designed to fire high velocity shells to altitude) were often adapted to tank use where a gun specifically made for the vehicle was not available. equally as the armour applied to tanks increased, ammunition for tank use paralleled that of anti-tank guns. Current tank gun ammunition is a single fixed round ("shell" and charge combined in a single piece) for quick load, the charge is in a combustible case - so there is no empty cartridge to be removed and stored in the the turret and the "shell" is a saboted shot, a shaped charge or sensor fuzed warhead.

Naval ammunition

The ranges at which engagements are conducted by warships are typically much greater than that at which land warfare is observed. The targets are also generally machines, not men. Naval ammunition is therefore optimized for great velocity (to reach those great ranges, to hit aircraft flying at altitude and also with the benefit of reducing the lead that has to be applied to hit a distant moving target) and to disable said machines, rather than rending human flesh. Naval gun ammunition of WWII vintage came in two main varieties, armour piercing shells to attack hardened warships or high explosive incendiary shells (with point detonating fuzes to start fires on ships, or mechanical time fuzes designed to fragment and create clouds of shrapnel to defeat aircraft). With the demise of the armoured warship, contemporary naval gun ammunition is solely the high explosive variety, but new fuzing and guidance options are available to increase lethality, especially against high speed missile or aircraft threats.

Fuzes

Common artillery fuzes include point detonating, delay, time, and proximity (variable time). Point detonating fuzes detonate upon contact with the ground. Delay fuzes are designed to penetrate a short distance before detonating. Time fuzes, as the name implies, detonate a certain time after being fired in order to achieve an air burst above the target. Time fuzes are set to the tenth of a second. Proximity or variable time fuzes contain a simple radio transceiver activated a set time after firing to detonate the projectile when the signal reflected from the ground reaches a certain strength, designed to be 7 meters above the ground. Fuzes are armed by the rotation of the projectile imparted by the rifling in the tube, and usually arm after a few hundred rotations.

References

- Category:Ammunition Category:Technology

.22 rimfire

The .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge is a long established variety of ammunition, and in terms of units sold is still by far the most common in the world today. The cartridge is often referred to simply as a ".22 LR" and various rifles, pistols, revolvers, and even some smoothbore shotguns have been manufactured in this caliber. The .22 Long Rifle and its derivative cartridges use a heeled bullet, which means that the bullet is the same diameter of the case, and has a narrower "heel" portion that fits in the case. The low cost, minimal recoil, and low noise make the .22 LR an ideal cartridge for plinking, and it is often purchased in bulk. The standard box of .22 LR contains 50 rounds, and .22 LR is often sold by the brick, containing 10 boxes for 500 rounds, or the case containing 10 bricks for 5000 rounds. .22 LR ammunition is available in a very wide variety, and a very wide price range. Bullet weights range from 30 to 60 grains, velocities from 900 to 1800 feet per second. "Promotional" loads for plinking can be found for under US$10.00 per brick, while precision target rounds can cost US$80.00 per brick.

Performance

The .22 LR is inexpensive, often costing less than two US cents per cartridge. It is effective within 150 meters (after 150 meters the ballistics of the round are such that the large "drop" will be difficult to compensate for). The relatively short effective range, low report and light recoil has made it a favourite as a target practice cartridge. The accuracy of the cartridge is good, but not exceptional; various cartridges are capable of the same or better accuracy. Still, the effectiveness of this cartridge is often underestimated. The newest commercial rimfire, the .17 Mach 2 is a .22 LR based cartrdige, firing a light .17 caliber bullet at a much higher velocity than the .22 LR. Many .22 LR firearms are being sold chambered for the .17 Mach 2, and modifying a .22 LR to shoot .17 Mach 2 often requires just a barrel change. The .17 Mach 2 extends the effective range significantly over the .22 LR. The disadvantage of the .17 Mach 2 is the price, which is several times that of the .22 LR, and the increased noise of firing caused by the higher muzzle pressure and supersonic bullet. As a hunting cartridge, the .22 LR is mainly used to kill small varmints such as rats and squirrels. It is also effective on rabbits closer than 75 meters. For greater range or larger game a more powerful cartridge should be used to ensure a clean kill. Examples include larger rimfire rounds such as the .22 WMR, .17 HMR, or any centrefire cartridge. Like any bullet, the .22 LR is nonetheless dangerous and is capable of killing humans and other large animals.

Variants

There are a variety of different types of .22 Long Rifle (or ".22 LR") loads. They are sometimes divided into 3 categories; subsonic, standard and hyper-velocity (or ultra-velocity). The subsonic rounds have a muzzle velocity of 330 m/s or less and are often equipped with an extra heavy, 2.9-3.9 gram bullet. The standard rounds have a supersonic muzzle velocity and a "normal" weight, 2.5-2.6 gram bullet. The so-called hyper-velocity bullets may have a muzzle velocity of 450-550 m/s and this velocity is partially due to the light bullets they use. The bullets are usually around 1.9-2.2 grams in weight. The bullets themselves are in all cases usually either solid or hollow-point bullets. Special shot cartridges, usually loaded with #12 shot (see shotgun shell) in this caliber have been made and these are ideal for pest control at very short ranges. Such rounds will either have a longer brass case that is crimped closed, or a translucent plastic "bullet" that contains the shot and shatters upon firing. In a specially made .22 bore shotgun, the shotshells can be used for short range skeet shooting and trap shooting at special, scaled down clay targets.

.22 LR High Velocity

The CCI Stinger is a somewhat improved .22 LR cartridge that increases the bullet velocity with a longer case, a stronger charge and copper plating on a somewhat smaller bullet. The case is longer than that of the normal Long Rifle cartridge but Stingers will fit in most Long Rifle firearms. The powder is designed to burn more slowly and thus make the most use of the length of a rifle barrel. The extra case length is compensated by a shorter bullet, which is only available as a jacketed hollowpoint. The thin copper layer on the bullet functions as a lubricant and reduces the friction between the high velocity bullet and the barrel, thus reducing barrel wear. It also has an oxidation-preventing effect on the lead bullet. Lead tends to oxidise if stored over long periods of time and as a result of this, the bullet's diameter increases to a level that might both prevent the insertion of the cartridge in the chamber and might cause the pressure in the barrel to rise to a dangerously high level. The increase in pressure may lead to the case rupturing and potential danger to the shooter. Standard and subsonic cartridges tend to use a type of wax for the same purpose.

Usage

Today .22 Long Rifle ammunition is mainly being used for hunting small pests, for sports shooting and for cheap training. .22 LR is the choice for several ISSF shooting events: 50 m Rifle, 50 m Pistol, 25 m Pistol, 25 m Rapid Fire Pistol and 25 m Standard Pistol, plus divisions of metallic silhouette and pin shooting, most high school, collegiate, Boy Scouts of America, and 4H shooting events, and many others. With high quality ammunition, the .22 Long Rifle can be quite accurate. Its main advantages are low cost, low recoil and low noise. Its main disadvantage is its minimal power; it is only suitable for the smallest game, and as a defensive cartridge it is considered very underpowered, though the small size allows very lightweight, easily concealable handguns which can be carried in circumstances where anything larger would be impractical. The tiny case of the .22 Long Rifle, and the subsonic velocities (using standard velocity ammunition) make it well suited for use with a suppressor. The low volume of powder gasses mean that .22 suppressors are often no larger than a bull barrel; the Ruger 10/22 and Ruger MK II are common choices, due to their reliability and low cost, and the resulting product is often nearly indistinguishable from a bull barrel model (although weighing far less). Where suppressors are only minimally restricted, a .22 Long Rifle with a suppressor is often a favored firearm for plinking, as it doesn't require hearing protection or disturb the neighbors. Suppressed .22 caliber pistols are often found in the arsenals of special forces, intelligence agencies, and organized crime organizations. Gary Powers, for example, was issued a suppressed High Standard pistol for the flight in which he was shot down. The .22 LR has also been found to be the weapon of choice for several suspected Mafia assassinations, with the victim usually being shot at close range in the head. The notion of the .22 LR as a mob weapon has steadily begun to enter into pop culture in recent years, being featured in the movie Assassins and in the television series The Sopranos. Even without a suppressor, a .22 Long Rifle pistol is far quieter than any but the smallest centerfire cartridges.

Specifications

- Case length: .595 in
- Muzzle velocity:
- 2.56 g (40 gr) lead: 330 m/s (1082 ft/s) .22 LR
- 2.33 g (36 gr) copper plated lead: 405 m/s (1328 ft/s) .22 LR High Velocity

Compatible ammunition

The .22 Long rifle uses a straight walled case. Depending upon the type and the feed mechanism employed, a firearm which is chambered for .22 Long Rifle may also be able to safely chamber and fire the following shorter rimfire cartridges:
- .22 BB, in cap, short or long lengths
- .22 CB, in cap, short or long lengths
- .22 Short
- .22 Long The .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, also called .22 Magnum or .22 WMR, uses a different case, which has a significant taper and does not use a heeled bullet. Firing a .22 Long Rifle or derivative in a .22 WMR firearm will likely result in a potentially dangerous case rupture.

External links

- [http://www.outlandsales.com/22data.html Outland Sales] 22 Long Rifle

.357 Magnum

The .357 Magnum revolver cartridge was created by the firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson. Based upon their earlier .38 Special revolver cartridge, the .357 Magnum cartridge was introduced in 1934 and its use has since become widespread. The rationale for the term Magnum itself was taken from a common descriptive term used for a bottle of champagne containing 1.5 L of beverage, equivalent to 2 bottles of ordinary champagne. champagne (hollow point).]]

Design

The .357 Magnum was designed for police, self-defense use, and hunting. The objective was to create a handgun cartridge that combined deep penetration, flat trajectory, and long range. This cartridge is a very good self-defense round and has about as much stopping power as any handgun round available. However for big game it is far inferior to the .44 Magnum, .454 Casull, .41 Magnum and other bigger magnum rounds. Still, it is a fine small and medium game round and will kill deer reliably at short range if used by a good shot. A .357 revolver has the advantage of using .38 Special ammo as well. The .357 Magnum started the Magnum era of high velocity handgun ammunition. A .357 Magnum revolver will generally accept both .357 Magnum and .38 Special ammunition, but a revolver designed for .38 Special will only accept those rounds, due to the longer overall length of a .357 Magnum cartridge. Despite the different numbers describing these cartridges, both fire bullets of the same .357 inch diameter. The .357 Magnum cartridge is not to be confused with the 357 SIG cartridge designed for automatic pistols.

Performance

Winchester 125 gr (8.1 g) Jacketed HP = 1450 ft/s (440 m/s), 583 ft·lbf (790 J)
Winchester 158 gr (10.2 g) Jacketed HP = 1235 ft/s (375 m/s), 535 ft·lbf (725 J)

Synonyms

- .357
- .357 mag
- .357 S&W Magnum
- .357 Mangle'em (slang)
- 9x33mmR (European Designation)

External links

- [http://www.nazarian.no/wep.asp?id=231&group_id=6&country_id=160&lang=0 Nazarian`s Gun`s Recognition Guide] 357 Magnum

.44 Magnum

The .44 Magnum is a large-bore, dual-use cartridge designed for revolvers; however it is also used in many rifles as well. It was developed in the mid-1950s by lengthening the .44 Special cartridge. Despite the ".44" designation, all guns chambered for .44 Magnum and its parent use bullets .429 in (10.9 mm) in diameter. A .44 Magnum revolver or rifle will accept both .44 Magnum and .44 Special ammunition, but a weapon designed for .44 Special will only accept the Special, due to the longer overall length of a .44 Magnum cartridge.

Origin

The .44 Magnum cartridge was developed in 1956 by handloaders who had "souped-up" the .44 Special and other big bore handgun cartridges for better hunting performance. One of these was the late Elmer Keith, a famous writer and outdoorsman of the 20th Century. Mr. Keith encouraged Smith & Wesson and Remington to introduce this successful new cartridge.

From the 1950s

Elmer Keith wanted a magnumized .44 Special cartridge rather than a magnumized .45 Long Colt. At the time the selection of .44 caliber projectiles for handloaders was better, and the .44 Special case was smaller in diameter than the .45 Long Colt case. In this era around 1950, this new design allowed a revolver to have more steel surrounding the cartridge and thus that revolver could take higher pressures with hot handloads, thus the weapon would be safer and more reliable. In addition, during the Keith era, factory revolver cylinders were too narrow in diameter to take very stiff .45 caliber handloads. There have since been revolvers made with larger cylinders that can handle far larger cartridges.

English Revolvers

In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, English firearms makers manufactured pistols in calibers considerably larger than what is common today. Some of the larger pistols, with two and four barrels, came to be known as “howdah” pistols, after the sedans mounted on the backs of elephants that hunters rode in, when hunting in India. While designed for use in the “gravest extreme” against dangerous game like tigers, British officers adopted them as well in the far flung outposts of the Empire. Demand for these potent weapons outstripped supply and gun makers responded with revolvers in calibers as large as .500 to fill the need. Firearms like these were one source of inspiration for the .44 Magnum. A 1996 movie called The Ghost and The Darkness featured a "Howdah" pistol in some scenes.

.454 Casull

As history would have it, a lengthened high pressure .45 Magnum revolver round (the .454 Casull) that more or less parallels the .44 Magnum was developed by Dick Casull around 1957. It has always been more powerful than the .44 Magnum but never nearly as popular. Elmer Keith did not develop the .454 Casull cartridge and Keith's cartridge has so far stood the test of time better. The .44 Magnum has also proven far more popular than the .41 Magnum developed in 1964 or the very powerful .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum developed in the last years of the 20th Century. It is notable, however, that weapons firing the recently developed .500 S&W Magnum cartridge tend to be very expensive and as such are rather uncommon at this time. Looking at cost, accuracy, hunting performance, recoil, and availability the .44 Magnum is arguably the best balanced of the high-caliber magnum class of revolver rounds.

.357 Magnum

The only magnum handgun chambering more popular than the .44 is the .357 Magnum, which was not primarily designed as a big game cartridge, though it is used by some for deer. The .357 is not considered a "big bore" round.

.444 Marlin

A cartridge inspired by the .44 Magnum was an even longer version called the .444 Marlin, made for Marlin's line of lever action rifles. Out to 125 meters or so the .444 Marlin will take any North American game reliably, even the great bears. Oddly, this .444 Marlin cartridge has been chambered in some handguns, but it is just too big to efficiently burn powder in a short handgun barrel, causing very obnoxious muzzle blast.

Technical Specifications

The .44 Magnum delivers a large, heavy bullet with high velocity for a handgun. In its full-powered form, it produces too much recoil and muzzle blast to be suitable for a police weapon, and is likely not very suitable for shooters of smaller build or with small hands.

Dual Use of the .44 Magnum

The dual-use concept has been popular since the Old West with cartridges like the 44-40 Winchester, whose "High-Speed" loadings were a sort of precursor to the .44 Magnum. Other dual-use rounds were the 32-20 Winchester, the 38-40 Winchester, and the more recent .357 Magnum. From the start, the .44 Magnum handguns were designed to tolerate the high pressures this cartridge produces. Some past dual-use handgun/rifle cartridges, like the 44-40 Winchester, gave their manufacturers trouble and occasional lawsuits when people loaded the "High-Speed" versions designed for rifles into handguns. This was one of the reasons why the .44 Magnum casing was lengthened so it would not chamber in .44 Special revolvers. Some high-quality .44 Special weapons could accept the high pressures of the new cartridge, but other older guns would be damaged or destroyed. The lengthened cartridge avoided this issue. As a rifle cartridge the .44 Magnum is reasonably powerful yet compact and not bulky. and far better on deer and other big game than the .357 Magnum, but the .357 is said by some to be more versitile as it covers small and medium game better and has less recoil.

Suitable Preys

It was and still remains a very fine and popular short-range deer, black bear, wild pig and other North American big game cartridge, but it is on the light side for elk or moose, and inadequate against a brown bear. It is easy to reload, very accurate, enjoyable to shoot if one can tolerate the recoil, and universally available in the United States. This cartridge has a natural home in single action revolvers like the Ruger Super Blackhawk and some autoloading handguns like the Desert Eagle. The single-action designs tend to "rear up" when fired and tame the recoil a great deal, while the gas system of the autoloading weapons absorbs and buffers recoil significantly. Double action revolvers tend to transmit more recoil to the shooter's arm, causing it to be perceived as more harsh.

Range

The .44 Magnum is a splendid short-range big game cartridge in a various short, handy rifles, especially in heavy brush or timber, out to about 150 meters. Past that, the trajectory is too steep for easy hits on game, as the short, fat bullets have poor aerodynamic shape. Still, many shooters like it as they can thus have a rifle and a handgun in the same cartridge, making logistics easier. It is popular in rifles within these limitations for big game. It will also work well for coyotes and animals in that class, though it is rather expensive for that purpose versus lesser cartridges. Many handloaders will load lighter than factory loadings for other purposes and for target shooting.

.44 Magnum in Popular Culture

This cartridge was made notorious through its use by the "Dirty Harry" character in the Clint Eastwood film of the same name. However, it was not then and is not now "the most powerful handgun [cartridge] in the world." Nor is it in any realistic sense a practical police cartridge, though some persons do favor it for personal protection purposes. In the eighties sitcom Sledge Hammer!, the protagonist, Inspector Sledge Hammer, is in love with his pearl-handed .44 magnum. The show was a spoof of the Dirty Harry movie series.

Synonyms

- .44 Mag.
- .44 S&W Magnum
- .44 Remington Magnum

Writings about the .44 Magnum

An excellent write up of the .44 Magnum can be found in CARTRIDGES OF THE WORLD by Barnes.

Clint Eastwood

Clinton Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor, Academy Award winning film director, film producer and composer. Eastwood is famous for his "tough guy" roles, including Dirty Harry and the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns. As a director, Eastwood has become known for high-quality dramas imbued with a pessimistic tone, such as Unforgiven, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby.

Early life

Born in San Francisco, California on May 31 1930 to Clinton Eastwood, Sr. and Margaret Ruth Runner; the family is of Scottish, Irish, Dutch, and English descent. Eastwood was shaped in childhood by the Great Depression, which in turn left its mark on his later films. Clint Sr., a sometime steel worker in the San Francisco Bay Area, was forced in the 1930s to seek work over a wide area of coastal and inland California. According to film scholar David Kehr, the Eastwoods, with only child Clint Jr., spent much of the decade in motion, an experience that would inform such movies as 1982's Honkytonk Man, with its migrant, "Okie" families. From his working-class childhood and upbringing, Eastwood the artist drew upon a perspective that was often far more archetypically middle-American than those of other California-born actors and directors. When he needed a mid-American backdrop from the 1950s for his 1988 film Bird, Eastwood used the elm-lined streets of central Sacramento, a distinctly un-Hollywood setting which he remembered from living there briefly as a child. That leafy cityscape, with its early 20th century clapboard houses, seems worlds removed from the hilly vistas and intellectual pretentions of the Bay Area and also from the sun-drenched glitz of Los Angeles, where Clint Jr. would live as a young man. During high school, one of his teachers assigned him a part in a play to try to get him to be less introverted. He did not enjoy the experience. Eastwood was drafted into the Army, apparently in 1951, during the Korean War. He was sent to Ft. Ord in California for basic training. He was supposed to be sent to the war in Korea, but on a trip home to Seattle to visit his parents and girlfriend, Eastwood caught a ride aboard a Navy plane at Moffett Field. On the ride back aboard a Navy torpedo bomber, the plane developed engine trouble and was forced to make a water landing off San Francisco. He was forced to swim over a mile through the tide to shore. Because of this, instead of being sent to Korea, he was assigned a job as a swimming instructor and remained at Ft. Ord. He worked nights and weekends as a bouncer at the NCO club. It was while on duty at Ft. Ord that Eastwood met fellow soldiers and actors Martin Milner ("Route 66"), David Janssen ("The Fugitive"), and Richard Long ("The Big Valley"). After his discharge in 1953, Eastwood moved to Southern California and attended L.A. City College, studying drama and business administration under the G.I. Bill.

Film career

Eastwood began work as an actor, appearing in B-films such as Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula and Francis in the Navy. In 1959, he got his first break with the long-running Television series, Rawhide. As Rowdy Yates, he made the show his own and became a household name across the country. But Eastwood found bigger roles with Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) in 1964, and soon followed it with For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in più) (1965). In these and his third film with Leone, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo) (1966) he found one of his trademark roles, the mysterious "man with no name". All three films were hits, particularly the third, and Eastwood became an instant international star, redefining the traditional image of the American cowboy. (Ironically, Eastwood is allergic to horses.) Stardom brought more roles, though still in the "tough guy" mold. In Where Eagles Dare (1968) he had second billing to Richard Burton but was paid $800,000. However, he also began to branch out. Paint Your Wagon (1969) was a Western, but a musical. Kelly's Heroes (1970) combined tough-guy action with offbeat humor. 1971 proved to be one of his best years in films. He directed and starred in the thriller Play Misty for Me (1971), and The Beguiled (1971). But it was his role that year as the hard-edged police inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry that gave Eastwood one of his most memorable roles. The film has been credited with inventing the "loose-cannon cop genre" that remains imitated to this day. Many have said that Eastwood's portrayal of the tough, no-nonsense cop touched a nerve with many

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