1.
Revolver
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A revolver is a repeating handgun that has a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. Revolvers might be regarded as a subset of pistols, or as a subset of handguns. Though the term revolver usually only refers to handguns, other firearms may also have a revolving chamber and these include some models of grenade launchers, shotguns, and rifles. Most revolvers contain five or six rounds in the cylinder, though the original name was revolving gun, the short-hand revolver is universally used. The revolver allows the user to fire multiple rounds without reloading, each time the user cocks the hammer, the cylinder revolves to align the next chamber and round with the hammer and barrel, which gives this type of firearm its name. In a single-action revolver, the user pulls the back with his free hand or thumb. In a double-action revolver, pulling the trigger moves the back, then releases it. Loading and unloading a double-action revolver requires the operator to swing out the cylinder and insert the proper ammunition, the first guns with multichambered cylinders that revolved to feed one barrel were made in the late 16th century in Europe. They were expensive and rare curiosities, not until the 19th century would revolvers become common weapons of industrial production. One of the first was a flintlock revolver patented by Elisha Collier in 1814, the first percussion revolver was made by Lenormand of Paris in 1820 and the first percussion cap revolver was invented by the Italian Francesco Antonio Broccu in 1833. He received a prize of 300 francs for his invention, although he did not patent it, however, in 1835 a similar handgun was patented by Samuel Colt, who would go on to make the first mass-produced revolver. The first cartridge revolvers were produced around 1854 by Eugene Lefaucheux, revolvers soon became standard for nearly all uses. In the early 20th century, semi-automatic pistols were developed, which can hold more rounds, Automatic pistols also have a flat profile, more suitable for concealed carry. Automatic pistols have almost completely replaced revolvers in military and law enforcement use, revolvers still remain popular as back-up and off-duty handguns among American law enforcement officers and security guards. Also, revolvers are still common in the American private sector as defensive, in the development of firearms, an important limiting factor was the time it took to reload the weapon after it was fired. While the user was reloading, the weapon was useless, several approaches to the problem of increasing the rate of fire were developed, the earliest being multi-barrelled weapons which allowed two or more shots without reloading. Later weapons featured multiple barrels revolving along a single axis, the earliest examples of what today is called a revolver were made in Germany in the late 16th century. These weapons featured a barrel with a revolving cylinder holding the powder
2.
Cartridge (firearms)
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Military and commercial producers continue to pursue the goal of caseless ammunition. A cartridge without a bullet is called a blank, One that is completely inert is called a dummy. Some artillery ammunition uses the same concept as found in small arms. In other cases, the shell is separate from the propellant charge. In popular use, the bullet is often misused to refer to a complete cartridge. The cartridge case seals a firing chamber in all directions excepting the bore, a firing pin strikes the primer and ignites it. The primer compound deflagrates, it does not detonate, a jet of burning gas from the primer ignites the propellant. Gases from the burning powder pressurize and expand the case to seal it against the chamber wall and these propellant gases push on the bullet base. In response to pressure, the bullet will move in the path of least resistance which is down the bore of the barrel. After the bullet leaves the barrel, the pressure drops to atmospheric pressure. The case, which had been expanded by chamber pressure. This eases removal of the case from the chamber, brass is a commonly used case material because it is resistant to corrosion. A brass case head can be work-hardened to withstand the pressures of cartridges. The neck and body portion of a case is easily annealed to make the case ductile enough to allow reforming so that it can be reloaded many times. Steel is used in some plinking ammunition, as well as in military ammunition. Steel is less expensive than brass, but it is not feasible to reload, Military forces typically consider small arms cartridge cases to be disposable, one-time-use devices. However, case weight affects how much ammunition a soldier can carry, conversely, steel is more susceptible to contamination and damage so all such cases are varnished or otherwise sealed against the elements. One downside caused by the strength of steel in the neck of these cases is that propellant gas can blow back past the neck
3.
.32 S&W Long
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The.32 S&W Long is a straight-walled, centerfire, rimmed handgun cartridge, based on the earlier.32 S&W cartridge. It was introduced in 1896 for Smith & Wessons first-model Hand Ejector revolver, Colt called it the.32 Colt New Police in revolvers it made chambered for the cartridge. The.32 S&W Long was introduced in 1896 with the companys first hand ejector revolver, the.32 Long is simply a lengthened version of the earlier.32 S&W. The hand ejector design has evolved some, but with its swing out cylinder on a crane, has been the basis for every S&W revolver designed since, in 1896, the cartridge was loaded with black powder. In 1903 the small hand ejector was updated with a new design, the cartridge stayed the same, but was now loaded with smokeless powder to roughly the same chamber pressure. When he was the New York City Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt standardized the use of the Colt New Police revolver. The cartridge was adopted by several other northeastern U. S. police departments. The.32 Long is well known as an accurate cartridge. This reputation led Police Commissioner Roosevelt to select it as an expedient way to increase accuracy with their revolvers in New York City. The Colt company referred to the.32 S&W Long cartridge as the.32 Colts New Police cartridge, concurrent with the conversion of the Colt New Police revolver from.32 Long Colt. The cartridges are identical with the exception that the.32 NP cartridge has been historically loaded with a flat nosed bullet as opposed to the round nose of the.32 S&W Long. In the United States, it is usually older revolvers which are chambered in this caliber, the cartridge has mostly fallen out of use due to smaller revolvers chambered in.38 S&W Special being more effective for self-defense. The sporting variant of the Manurhin MR73, also known as MR32, is chambered in.32 S&W Long. The IOF.32 Revolver manufactured by the Ordnance Factories Organization in India for civilian licence holders is chambered for this cartridge. The.32 S&W Long headspaces on the rim and shares the rim dimensions and case and bullet diameters of the shorter.32 S&W cartridge, the shorter.32 S&W may be fired in handguns chambered for the.32 S&W Long, and the. The.32 S&W Long and.32 Long Colt are not interchangeable, at one time it was widely publicized that these rounds would interchange, but in truth it has never been deemed safe to do so. List of handgun cartridges Table of handgun and rifle cartridges 8 mm caliber S&W Model 30
4.
Rim (firearms)
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A rim is an external flange that is machined, cast, molded, stamped or pressed around the bottom of a firearms cartridge. Thus, rimmed cartridges are sometimes called flanged cartridges, almost all cartridges feature an extractor or headspacing rim, in spite of the fact that some cartridges are known as rimless cartridges. These types are rimmed, rimless, semi-rimmed, rebated rim and these categories describe the size of the rim in relation to the base of the case. The rimmed cartridge, sometimes called flanged cartridge, is the oldest of the types and has a rim that is larger in diameter than the base of the cartridge. Rimmed cartridges use the rim to hold the cartridge in the chamber of the firearm, because the rimmed cartridge headspaces on the rim, the case length is of less importance than rimless cartridges. This allows some firearms chambered for similar rimmed cartridges to safely chamber and fire shorter cartridges, rimmed cartridges are well suited to certain types of actions, such as revolvers, where the rim helps hold the cartridge in position, and break-action firearms. Semi-automatic handguns have been chambered in rimmed cartridges as well, for example a LAR Grizzly or Desert Eagle in.357 or.44 Magnum, under the metric cartridge designation system, a capitalized R added at the end of the designation denotes a rimmed cartridge. For example,7. 62×54mmR is a cartridge, while 7. 62×51mm is a rimless cartridge.45 Auto Rim. Examples of rimmed handgun cartridges include the.38 Special.357 Magnum, rimmed rifle cartridge examples include the.22 Hornet.303 British and 7. 62×54mmR. Rimless cases are not well suited to break-open and revolver actions, though they can be used with modifications, such as a spring-loaded extractor or, in a revolver. Crimping affects the length of the cartridge, and thus cannot be used on cartridges which headspace on the case mouth. Examples of rimless handgun cartridges include the 9mm Parabellum.40 S&W, rimless rifle examples include the.223 Remington.308 Winchester. 30-06 Springfield and 7. 92×57mm Mauser. On a semi-rimmed case the rim projects slightly beyond the base of the case, the tiny rim provides minimal interference feeding from a box magazine, while still providing enough surface to headspace on. Semi-rimmed cases are less common than the other types, if the chamber is cut shallow, so the case headspaces off the mouth, the rim is used for extraction only, a standard chamber will use the rim for both headspacing and extraction. Examples of more commonly encountered rimless handgun cartridges are.25 ACP.32 ACP and.38 ACP, while the.308 Marlin Express.338 Marlin Express and.444 Marlin are rifle cartridges that are semi-rimmed. Rebated rim cartridges have a rim that is smaller in diameter than the base of the case. Functionally the same as a case, the rebated rim provides some additional benefits when considered in conjunction with other cartridges. One example of a rebated rim cartridge is the.50 Action Express, by using the same rim dimensions as the.44 Magnum, a Desert Eagle could be converted from.44 Magnum to.50 AE by merely changing the barrel and magazine
5.
Bullet
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The word bullet is a firearm term. A bullet is a projectile expelled from the barrel of a firearm, the term is from Middle French and originated as the diminutive of the word boulle which means small ball. Bullets are made of a variety of materials and they are available singly as they would be used in muzzle loading and cap and ball firearms, as part of a paper cartridge, and much more commonly as a component of metallic cartridges. Bullets are made in a numbers of styles and constructions depending on how they will be used. Many bullets have specialized functions, such as hunting, target shooting, training, defense, a bullet is not a cartridge. In paper and metallic cartridges a bullet is one component of the cartridge, bullet sizes are expressed by their weight and diameter in both English and Metric measurement systems. For example.22 caliber 55 grain bullets or 5. 56mm 55 grain bullets are the same caliber, the word bullet is often used colloquially to refer to a cartridge, which is a combination of the bullet, paper or metallic case/shell, powder, and primer. This use of bullet, when cartridge is intended, leads to confusion when the components of a cartridge are discussed or intended, the bullets used in many cartridges are fired at a muzzle velocity faster than the speed of sound. Meaning they are supersonic and thus can travel a substantial distance, bullet speed through air depends on a number of factors such as barometric pressure, humidity, air temperature, and wind speed. Subsonic cartridges fire bullets slower than the speed of sound and so there is no sonic crack and this means that a subsonic cartridge such as.45 ACP can be effectively suppressed to be substantially quieter than a supersonic cartridge such as the.223 Remington. Bullets do not normally contain explosives, but damage the target by impact. The first use of gunpowder in Europe was recorded in 1247 and it had been used in China for hundreds of years. Later in 1364 hand cannon appeared, early projectiles were made of stone. Stone was used in cannon and hand cannon, in cannon it was eventually found that stone would not penetrate stone fortifications which gave rise to the use of heavier metals for the round projectiles. Hand cannon projectiles developed in a similar following the failure of stone from siege cannon. The first recorded instance of a ball from a hand cannon penetrating armor occurred in 1425. In this photograph of shot retrieved from the wreck of the Mary Rose which was sunk in 1545, the round shot are clearly of different sizes and some are stone while others are cast iron. The development of the hand culverin and matchlock arquebus brought about the use of cast lead balls as projectiles, bullet is derived from the French word boulette, which roughly means little ball
6.
Primer (firearms)
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In firearm ballistics, the primer is a component of pistol, rifle, and shotgun rounds. Early primers were simply the same black powder used to fire the weapon and this external powder was connected though a tube in the barrel that led to the main charge. As powder wont burn when wet, this led to difficulty, or even the inability, modern primers are shock sensitive chemicals. In smaller weapons the primer is usually integrated into the rear of a cartridge, in larger weapons like cannon the primer is a separate component placed inside the barrel to the rear of the main propellant charge. The first step to firing a firearm of any sort is igniting the propellant, the earliest firearms were cannons, which were simple closed tubes. There was an aperture, the touchhole, drilled in the closed end of the tube. This hole was filled with finely ground powder, which was ignited with a hot ember or torch. With the advent of firearms, this became an undesirable way of firing a gun. The first attempt to make the process of firing a small arm easier was the matchlock, the matchlock incorporated a lock that was actuated by a trigger, originally called a tricker. The lock was a lever which pivoted when pulled. The match was a burning fuse made of plant fibers that were soaked in a solution of nitrates, charcoal, and sulfur. This slow-match was ignited before the gun was needed, and it would slowly burn, after the gun was loaded and the touchhole primed with powder, the burning tip of the match was positioned so that the lock would bring it into contact with the touchhole. To fire the gun, it was aimed and the trigger pulled and this brought the match down to the touchhole, igniting the powder. With careful attention the slow-burning match could be burning for long periods of time. The next revolution in technology was the wheel-lock. It used a spring-loaded, serrated steel wheel which rubbed against a piece of iron pyrite, a key was used to wind the wheel and put the spring under tension. Once tensioned, the wheel was held in place by a trigger, when the trigger was pulled, the serrated edge of the steel rubbed against the pyrite, generating sparks. These sparks were directed into a pan, called the flash pan, the flashpan usually was protected by a spring-loaded cover that would slide out of the way when the trigger was pulled, exposing the powder to the sparks
7.
Cartridge (weaponry)
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Military and commercial producers continue to pursue the goal of caseless ammunition. A cartridge without a bullet is called a blank, One that is completely inert is called a dummy. Some artillery ammunition uses the same concept as found in small arms. In other cases, the shell is separate from the propellant charge. In popular use, the bullet is often misused to refer to a complete cartridge. The cartridge case seals a firing chamber in all directions excepting the bore, a firing pin strikes the primer and ignites it. The primer compound deflagrates, it does not detonate, a jet of burning gas from the primer ignites the propellant. Gases from the burning powder pressurize and expand the case to seal it against the chamber wall and these propellant gases push on the bullet base. In response to pressure, the bullet will move in the path of least resistance which is down the bore of the barrel. After the bullet leaves the barrel, the pressure drops to atmospheric pressure. The case, which had been expanded by chamber pressure. This eases removal of the case from the chamber, brass is a commonly used case material because it is resistant to corrosion. A brass case head can be work-hardened to withstand the pressures of cartridges. The neck and body portion of a case is easily annealed to make the case ductile enough to allow reforming so that it can be reloaded many times. Steel is used in some plinking ammunition, as well as in military ammunition. Steel is less expensive than brass, but it is not feasible to reload, Military forces typically consider small arms cartridge cases to be disposable, one-time-use devices. However, case weight affects how much ammunition a soldier can carry, conversely, steel is more susceptible to contamination and damage so all such cases are varnished or otherwise sealed against the elements. One downside caused by the strength of steel in the neck of these cases is that propellant gas can blow back past the neck
8.
H&R Firearms
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H&R1871, LLC is a manufacturer of firearms under the Harrington & Richardson and New England Firearms trademarks. H&R is a subsidiary of the Freedom Group, the original H&R firm was in business for over a century from 1871 to 1986. Frank Wesson, brother of Daniel B, Wesson who co-founded Smith & Wesson, started a firearms manufacturing firm in 1859, sharing an early patent with Nathan Harrington. Wesson produced two trigger rifles and spur trigger pistols and pocket rifles/shotguns popular for short length holster models such as the discontinued topper compact pocket shotguns. He started a partnership in 1871 with his nephew Gilbert Henderson Harrington, as Wesson & Harrington. In 1875 Harrington and another former Wesson employee, William Augustus Richardson, in 1888 the firm was incorporated as The Harrington & Richardson Arms Company. Their original capital investment was $75,000, Harrington was president, Richardson was treasurer, and George F. Brooks was secretary. After the deaths of Harrington and Richardson in 1897, Brooks became the manager, in 1894 the company opened a new facility on Park Avenue in Worcester, Massachusetts. The factory was expanded again after a few years, the firearms produced through this time to 1911 carry extreme value as original antiquities. Original rifles and shotguns from these dates are scarce because of their limited production, in 1950 the company opened a new facility on Cockburn street in Drummondville, Québec, Canada. In the 1960s H&R was acquired by the Kidde corporation and run by the Rowe family, warranty cards were sent to Industrial Rowe, Gardner, Massachusetts. The original H&R company went out of business in 1986, a new company, H&R1871, Inc. was formed in 1991 and started production of revolvers, single-shot rifles and shotguns using original H&R designs. H&R1871, Inc. assets were sold to H&R1871. A Connecticut LLC owned by Marlin Firearms Company in November 2000, H&R1871, LLC. did not extend their product warranty to H&R guns made prior to the LLCs takeover. Marlin, including all its H&R assets, was acquired by Remington Arms Company in December,2007. H&R1871, LLC production was moved to Ilion, N. Y. in late 2008, while their corporate offices are co-located with Remington Arms in Madison, Remington, along with its Marlin and H&R subsidiaries, are now part of the Freedom Group. H&R1871 production ceased 27 February 2015, the Wesson & Harrington company was at 18 Manchester Street, Worcester, Mass. from 1871 until 1877. The Harrington & Richardson company was located at 31 Hermon Street, Worcester, William Richardson lived at 921 Main Street in Worcester
9.
Federal Premium Ammunition
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Federal Premium Ammunition, a wholly owned subsidiary of Vista Outdoor Inc. is located in Anoka, Minnesota. With a work force of nearly 1,500, Federal manufactures shotshell, centerfire, on April 27,1922, Charles L. Horn took control of a small plant in Anoka, Minnesota and refounded Federal Cartridge Corporation. Horn launched a plan that involved merchandising Federal products in grocery stores, barbers shops. In 1941, Federal earned a contract from the U. S. government to build. Federal ranked 59th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts, Horn introduced Federals Premium line of centerfire rifle and shotshell ammunition. Federal also owned Hoffman Engineering, a company that made electronic enclosures, in 1985, Federal was sold to a group of private investors including Kelso & Company, BancBoston Capital, and members of management. The two companies were united under the name Federal-Hoffman, Inc and taken private during the sale, Federal-Hoffman have since split, and Federal is currently owned by Vista Outdoor. Vista Outdoor group, formerly a group of outdoor and sporting companies owned by Alliant Techsystems, was spun off from Alliant Techsystems in February 2015, Federal Cartridge does business today as Federal Premium Ammunition. The HST380 Auto Micro was designed for self-defense and use in small pistols such as the Smith & Wesson Bodyguard and it has a nickel-plated casing and special primer that improve its reliability in semi-automatic handguns. It weighs 99 grains and has a deep, tapered hollow-point in order to provide consistent expansion and this ammunition does not meet the FBI Ammunition Testing Protocol. Using the same sized test barrel, it measures 235 foot-pounds of muzzle energy, hydra-Shok is a type of cartridge with expanding bullets made by. It was originally patented by Federal Premium bullet designer Tom Burczynski, hydra-Shok was introduced in 1988 after the FBI requested a bullet with better terminal ballistics than traditional cup and core projectiles. Hydra-Shok ammunition has a patented center-post design and notched jacket with a lead core. Together they are meant to more reliable expansion and deeper penetration than the other projectiles used at that time. Federal Premium claims that the jacket and center post design provide a programmed expansion. There has been debate regarding the bullets unreliable expansion when fired through clothing or media other than ballistic gelatin. Federal Premium announced a. 30-30 Winchester version of its Vital-Shok Trophy Copper ammunition for medium-sized game in August 2015 and these bullets are tipped with polymer inserts in order to effect rapid expansion and retain 99 percent of their mass after expanding. The one percent loss of mass is due mostly to shedding the polymer tip, the case of this cartridge is nickel-plated to make extraction easier and prevent corrosion
