1.
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
2.
Gunpowder
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Gunpowder, also known as black powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate, the sulfur and charcoal act as fuels, and the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Black powder firearms are in limited use today in hunting, shooting, Black powder has been replaced for most industrial uses by high explosives such as dynamite. Black powder is assigned the UN number UN0027 and has a class of 1. 1D. It has a point of approximately 427–464 °C. The specific flash point may vary based on the composition of the gunpowder. Gunpowders specific gravity is 1. 70–1.82 or 1. 92–2.08, Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate at subsonic speeds, whereas high explosives detonate, ignition of the powder packed behind a bullet must generate enough pressure to force it from the muzzle at high speed, but not enough to rupture the gun barrel. Gunpowder thus makes a good propellant, but is suitable for shattering rock or fortifications. Gunpowder was widely used to fill artillery shells and in mining and civil engineering to blast rock until the half of the 19th century. Black powder is used as a delay element in various munitions where its slow-burning properties are valuable. The spread of gunpowder across Asia from China is widely attributed to the Mongols, the earliest record of a written formula for gunpowder appears in the 11th century Song dynasty text, Wujing Zongyao. This discovery led to the invention of fireworks and the earliest gunpowder weapons in China, in the centuries following the Chinese discovery, gunpowder weapons began appearing in the Muslim world and Europe. The technology spread from China through the Middle East or Central Asia, the earliest Western accounts of gunpowder appear in texts written by English philosopher Roger Bacon in the 13th century. The most ardent protagonists were Nathaniel Halhad, Johann Backmann, Quintin Craufurd, however, due to lack of sufficient proof, these theories have not been widely accepted. A major problem confronting the study of the history of gunpowder is ready access to sources close to the events described. The translation difficulty has led to errors or loose interpretations bordering on artistic licence, early writings potentially mentioning gunpowder are sometimes marked by a linguistic process where old words acquired new meanings. For instance, the Arabic word naft transitioned from denoting naphtha to denoting gunpowder, saltpeter was known to the Chinese by the mid-1st century AD and there is strong evidence of the use of saltpeter and sulfur in various largely medicinal combinations
3.
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
4.
Colt's Manufacturing Company
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Colts Manufacturing Company is an American firearms manufacturer, founded in 1855 by Samuel Colt. It is the corporation to Colts earlier firearms-making efforts, which started in 1836. Colts earliest designs played a role in the popularization of the revolver. Although Samuel Colt did not invent the concept, his designs resulted in the first very successful ones. The most famous Colt products include the Colt Walker, made 1847 in the facilities of Eli Whitney Jr. Though they did not develop it, for a long time Colt was also responsible for all AR-15 and M16 rifle production. The most successful and famous of these are numerous M16 carbines, including the Colt Commando family, in 2002, Colt Defense was split off from Colts Manufacturing Company. Colts Manufacturing Company now serves the market, while Colt Defense serves the law enforcement, military. The two companies remained in the same West Hartford, Connecticut location cross-licensing certain merchandise before reuniting in 2013, following the loss of its M4 contract in 2013, Colt was briefly in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, starting in 2015. Samuel Colt received a British patent on his design for a revolver in 1835. That same year, he founded his first corporation for its manufacture, the first firearm manufactured at the new Paterson plant, however, was the Colt First Model Ring Lever rifle beginning in 1837. This was followed thereafter in late 1837 by the introduction of the Colt Paterson. This corporation suffered quality problems in production, making firearms with interchangeable parts was still rather new, and it was not yet easy to replicate across different factories. Interchangeability was not complete in the Paterson works, and traditional gunsmithing techniques did not fill the gap entirely there, the Colt Paterson revolver found patchy success and failure, some worked well, while others had problems. The United States Marine Corps and United States Army reported quality problems with these earliest Colt revolvers, production had ended at the New Jersey corporation by 1842. Colt made another attempt at revolver production in 1846 and submitted a prototype to the US government, during the Mexican–American War, this prototype was seen by Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker who made some suggestions to Colt about making it in a larger caliber. Having no factory or machinery to produce the pistols, Samuel Colt collaborated with the Whitney armory of Whitneyville and this armory was run by the family of Eli Whitney. Eli Whitney Jr, the son of the patriarch, was the head of the family armory
5.
United States Army
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The United States Armed Forces are the federal armed forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, from the time of its inception, the military played a decisive role in the history of the United States. A sense of unity and identity was forged as a result of victory in the First Barbary War. Even so, the Founders were suspicious of a permanent military force and it played an important role in the American Civil War, where leading generals on both sides were picked from members of the United States military. Not until the outbreak of World War II did a standing army become officially established. The National Security Act of 1947, adopted following World War II and during the Cold Wars onset, the U. S. military is one of the largest militaries in terms of number of personnel. It draws its personnel from a pool of paid volunteers. As of 2016, the United States spends about $580.3 billion annually to fund its military forces, put together, the United States constitutes roughly 40 percent of the worlds military expenditures. For the period 2010–14, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that the United States was the worlds largest exporter of major arms, the United States was also the worlds eighth largest importer of major weapons for the same period. The history of the U. S. military dates to 1775 and these forces demobilized in 1784 after the Treaty of Paris ended the War for Independence. All three services trace their origins to the founding of the Continental Army, the Continental Navy, the United States President is the U. S. militarys commander-in-chief. Rising tensions at various times with Britain and France and the ensuing Quasi-War and War of 1812 quickened the development of the U. S. Navy, the reserve branches formed a military strategic reserve during the Cold War, to be called into service in case of war. Time magazines Mark Thompson has suggested that with the War on Terror, Command over the armed forces is established in the United States Constitution. The sole power of command is vested in the President by Article II as Commander-in-Chief, the Constitution also allows for the creation of executive Departments headed principal officers whose opinion the President can require. This allowance in the Constitution formed the basis for creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 by the National Security Act, the Defense Department is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is a civilian and member of the Cabinet. The Defense Secretary is second in the chain of command, just below the President. Together, the President and the Secretary of Defense comprise the National Command Authority, to coordinate military strategy with political affairs, the President has a National Security Council headed by the National Security Advisor. The collective body has only power to the President
6.
Colt M1892
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The M1892 Colt Army & Navy was the first general issue double-action with a swing-out cylinder revolver used by the U. S. military. In 1892 the gun was adopted by the Army in.38 Long Colt caliber, initial experience with the gun caused officials to request some improvements. This would be a condition, resulting in Models 1892,1894,1895,1896,1901 and 1903. It was easily manipulated by the thumb of the right hand, empty cases were removed by simply pushing back on an ejector rod to activate a star extractor. The six-shooter could then be reloaded and the cylinder clicked back into place. Sights were the rounded front blade and topstrap notch. The finish on all military revolvers was blue, though civilian guns could be had nickeled or with special finishes. In 1908, Colt improved and strengthened the lockwork, and changed the cylinder rotation to a clockwise movement, a Model 1892 revolver was recovered from the USS Maine after it exploded in Havana Harbor in 1898. It was presented to then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, Roosevelt brandished this pistol to rally his Rough Riders during the famed charge up San Juan Hill on July 1,1898. This revolver was on display at Sagamore Hill and was stolen there in 1963, recovered. It was recovered in 2006 and returned to Sagamore Hill on June 14,2006 and this revolver was thought of as a decent handgun for its time, but complaints arose from the military concerning the revolvers cartridge chambering. Beginning in 1899, combat reports arose from the Philippines campaign regarding the performance of the M1892s. 38-caliber ammunition. Specifically, users complained that the.38 bullet repeatedly failed to stop charging enemy tribesmen at close ranges, both.38 Special and.357 Magnum will chamber in Colt New Army revolvers, due to the straight walled chambers in later models, built primarily after 1903. Colt removed the shoulders that previously prevented.38 Special from being loaded into the cylinder, guns bearing serial numbers 225, xxx and higher were equipped with a smaller diameter bore and could chamber.38 Special and fire it safely. High pressure loads in.38 Special, such as +P or +P+ loads, caution must be exercised in the use of these older guns as higher operating pressures will cause damage to the gun and could injure the shooter. The only rounds that may be used in guns manufactured before 1903, are.38 Short. The Colt Revolver in the American West—Model 1903 New Army and Navy
7.
.38 Short Colt
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The.38 Short Colt /.38 Short Center Fire was a heeled bullet cartridge intended for metallic cartridge conversions of the.36 cal cap & ball Colt 1851 Navy Revolver from the American Civil War era. Later, this cartridge was fitted with a 0.359 diameter inside-lubricated bullet in the 125–135 grain range, visually, it resembles a.38 S&W but the case dimensions are slightly different. The.38 Short Colt case is the parent to.38 Long Colt, the round was produced in two lengths. The classic.38 Short Colt M1874 is. mm and it is the original and standard.38 Short Colt cartridge and was designed for use in the Colt New Line revolver. The shorter.38 Short Colt M1919 was. mm, the.38 Short Colt M1919 was designed for the.38 Colt Police revolver, but was discontinued in the 1920s due to its unpopularity. Remington is one of the few producers of this cartridge today with a 125grs LRN bullet, magtech produces this grain weight and Ten-x manufactures a 95gr load, as well as blanks. There is no problem firing this cartridge in.38 Special or.357 Magnum revolvers, the bullet jump has not, however, been proven to have any effect on accuracy
8.
Heeled bullet
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The heeled bullet design has many advantages, mainly when coupled with the straight or slightly tapered walled cases it appeared in. For pistols, converting a cap and ball revolver to use cartridges was as simple as cutting off part of the rear of the cylinder, replacing it with a frame-mounted ring, one of the primary reasons for the change was the issue of lubrication. Lead bullets, especially soft, low lead used in low pressure cartridges. This lubricant can be applied either to the portion of the heeled bullet, called outside lubricated, or on the portion inside the case. Outside lubrication requires a hard, dry lubricant, as anything soft or sticky will rub off or pick up dirt that comes in contact. While there were some methods patented to allow inside lubrication of heeled bullets, they never became popular, due to the complexity, non-heeled bullets, however, can easily be lubricated on the portion inside the case using a grease groove packed with lubricant. This prevents the lubricant, usually a grease or wax, from picking up dirt, arguably, heeled bullets are still very common because, while very few calibers use them, the.22 Long Rifle does, and it is the most commonly used cartridge in the world. The other cartridges in the.22 Long Rifle family, the.22 Short.22 Long.22 CB and.22 BB, a few other heeled-bullet cartridges are available, but they all originated in the late 19th century. The recent gains in popularity of Cowboy Action Shooting has increased interest in these old cartridges, to convert a heeled-bullet cartridge to a non-heeled design, it was necessary to either enlarge the case diameter, or shrink the bullet and bore diameter. Examples of both choices can be found, but some of the evident and confusing examples are cases where the bullet diameter was reduced. Many shooters wonder why a.38 caliber firearm actually shoots bullets of diameter.357 inches, and a.44 caliber firearm shoots. 429-inch-diameter bullets. In both of these cases, the name of the caliber derives from older designs. The.38 S&W cartridge, for example, dates from 1877 and has a nominal outside case diameter of.380 inches, while the inside of the case is.357 inches. The later.38 Special continued the trend, and even automatic pistol cartridges like the.38 Super and.380 ACP retained the.38 caliber designation and this continued until 1935 and the introduction of the.38 Special-based.357 Magnum cartridge. The newer.44 Magnum, however, retained the designation of its parent.44 Special cartridge, the legacy of heeled bullets is the cause of confusion among many shooting enthusiasts over the actual physical diameters of the bullets they fire in their guns
9.
Muzzle energy
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Muzzle energy is the kinetic energy of a bullet as it is expelled from the muzzle of a firearm. It is often used as an indication of the destructive potential of a given firearm or load. The heavier the bullet and especially the faster it moves, the higher its muzzle energy, the general formula for the kinetic energy is E k =12 m v 2 where v is the velocity of the bullet m is the mass of the bullet. A subsonic variant of ammunition that would otherwise be supersonic has its velocity limited to less than the speed of sound, for ammunition with this limitation the muzzle energy is variable only with respect to the bullet mass m. In the SI system the above Ek will be in unit joule if the mass, m, is in kilogram, in United States engineering units, particular care must be taken to ensure that consistent units are used. Mass, m, is given in grains and the speed, v, in feet per second but kinetic energy. Most sporting arms publications within the United States report muzzle energies in foot-pound force.163 ft/s2 rather than the standard of 32.1739 ft/s2 is used. The formula therefore becomes E k =12 m v 2 × The bullet energy, remaining energy, down range energy, and impact energy of a projectile may also be calculated using the above formulas. It must be stressed that muzzle energy is dependent upon the previously listed. Also note that the energy is only an upper limit for how much energy is transmitted to the target. While the above list mentions some averages, there is variation in commercial ammunition. A180 grain bullet fired from.357 magnum handgun can achieve an energy of 580 foot-pounds. A110 grain bullet fired from the gun might only achieve 400 foot-pounds of muzzle energy. Some.45 Colt ammunition can produce 1,200 foot-pounds of muzzle energy, some jurisdictions stipulate minimum muzzle energies for hunting. In Germany airsoft guns with an energy of no more than 0.5 J are exempt from the gun law. Free recoil Muzzle velocity Power factor Edward F. Obert, Thermodynamics, Mc Graw-Hill encyclopedia of Science and Technology, volume ebe-eye and ice-lev, 9th Edition, Mc Graw-Hill,2002
10.
.22 Long Rifle
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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.22 LR and various rifles, pistols, revolvers, and even some smoothbore shotguns have been manufactured in this caliber. American firearms manufacturer J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company introduced the cartridge in 1887 by combining the casing of the.22 Long with the 40-grain bullet of the.22 Extra Long. The round owes its origin to the Flobert BB cap of 1845 through the.22 Smith & Wesson cartridge of 1857 and it is one of the few cartridges that are accepted by a large variety of rifles, as well as pistols. The.22 Long Rifle and related cartridges use a bullet, which means that the bullet is the same diameter as the case. Low cost, minimal recoil, and relatively low noise make the.22 LR an ideal cartridge for recreational shooting, initial training, small-game hunting. Used by Boy Scouts for the rifle shooting merit badge, the cartridge is popular among novice shooters, a wide variety of rimfire ammunition is available commercially, and the available ammunition varies widely both in price and performance. Bullet weights among commercially available range from 20 to 60 grains. Promotional loads for plinking can be purchased in bulk for significantly less cost than precision target rounds, the low cost of ammunition has a substantial effect on the popularity of the.22 LR. For this reason, rimfire cartridges are used for target practice. The low recoil of the cartridge makes it ideal for introductory firearms courses, novice shooters can be surprised or frightened by the recoil of more powerful rounds. Beginners shooting firearms beyond their comfort level frequently develop a habit of flinching in an attempt to counter anticipated recoil, the resulting habit impedes correct posture and follow-through at the most critical phase of the shot and is difficult to correct. With high recoil eliminated, other errors in marksmanship technique are easier to identify, available for this round are AR-15 upper receivers and M1911 slide assemblies. Many handgun manufacturers have an upper pistol conversion kit to make it shoot.22 ammunition and these rimfire conversions allow shooters to practice inexpensively while retaining the handling characteristics of their chosen firearms. Additionally.22 conversion kits allow practice at indoor ranges which prohibit high-power firearms, annual production is estimated by some at 2–2.5 billion rounds. The NSSF estimates that half of the US production of 10 billion cartridges is composed of. 22LR, performance varies between barrel length and the type of action. For example, bolt-action rifles may perform differently from semiautomatic rifles, the.22 LR is effective to 150 yd, though practical ranges tend to be less. After 150 yd, the ballistics of the round are such that it will be difficult to compensate for the large drop, the relatively short effective range, low report, and light recoil has made it a favorite for use as a target-practice cartridge
