1.
.45 ACP
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The.45 ACP, or.45 Auto is a handgun cartridge designed by John Browning in 1905, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic pistol. After successful military trials it was adopted along with the Browning.45 Colt handgun as the.45 M1911 cartridge, the handgun was designated M1911 handgun. The U. S. Cavalry had been buying and testing various handguns in the late 1890s, the.45 Colt Single Action Army had largely been replaced, even by some double-action versions of the same caliber. The Army had fielded some double-action revolvers in.38 Long Colt and they determined the.38 caliber round was significantly less effective than the.45 Colt against determined opponents such as the Moro juramentado warriors encountered in the Moro Rebellion. This experience, and the Thompson–LaGarde Tests of 1904 led the Army and they noted, however, training was critical to make sure a soldier could score a hit in a vulnerable part of the body. The result from Colt was the Model 1905 and the new.45 ACP cartridge. The resulting. 45-caliber cartridge, named the.45 ACP, was similar in performance to the.45 Schofield cartridge, by 1906, bids from six makers were submitted, among them Brownings design, submitted by Colt. Only DWM, Savage, and Colt made the first cut, DWM, which submitted two Parabellum P08s chambered in.45 ACP, withdrew from testing after the first round of tests, for unspecified reasons. In the second round of evaluations in 1910, the Colt design passed the testing with no failures. The Colt pistol was adopted as the Model 1911, the cartridge/pistol combination was quite successful but not satisfactory for U. S. military purposes. The very first production, at Frankford Arsenal, was marked F A811, the cartridge was designed by John Browning for Colt, but the most influential person in selecting the cartridge was Army Ordnance member Gen. John T. Thompson. Thompson insisted on a real man stopper pistol, following the showing of the Armys.38 Long Colt pistols during the Philippine–American War. The.45 ACP has 1.62 ml cartridge case capacity.45 ACP maximum C. I. P. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 406 mm,6 grooves, Ø lands =11.23 mm, Ø grooves =11.43 mm, land width =3.73 mm and the primer type is large pistol. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case at the L3 datum reference, according to Commission Internationale Permanente pour lEpreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives rulings, the.45 ACP cartridge case can handle up to 131.000 MPa Pmax piezo pressure. In CIP-regulated countries every pistol cartridge combination has to be proofed at 130% of this maximum CIP pressure to certify for sale to consumers and this means that.45 ACP chambered arms in C. I. P. Regulated countries are proof tested at 170.30 MPa PE piezo pressure. The SAAMI pressure limit for the.45 ACP is set at 21,000 psi piezo pressure, while the SAAMI pressure limit for the.45 ACP +P is set at 23,000 psi, piezo pressure
2.
20 gauge
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The 20-gauge shotgun is a type of smooth-bore shotgun that fires a shell that is smaller in caliber than a 12 gauge shotgun. It is often used by beginning shooters for target practice and for hunting small game. It takes 20 lead balls of the diameter of a 20-gauge shotgun bore to equal one pound, a 20-gauge shotgun is more suitable for hunting certain types of game, because it leaves meat intact, making it suitable for most game birds. 20-gauge shotguns are suitable for hunting game birds such as quail, grouse, turkey. A 20-gauge can also shoot slugs and thereby become an effective deer-hunting gun, in addition, 20-gauge shotguns have less recoil than 10,12 or 16-gauge versions on average, and may be more desirable to those who want to experience less recoil for prolonged shooting. The lower recoil also makes a 20-gauge appropriate for younger shooters who may have a difficult time firing a larger shotgun. However, recoil is largely dependent on the weight of the gun itself, for instance and this is widely considered a flaw in the design of so-called youth guns
3.
Gauge (bore diameter)
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The gauge of a firearm is a unit of measurement used to express the inner diameter of the barrel. Thus there are twelve 12-gauge balls per pound, etc, the term is related to the measurement of cannon, which were also measured by the weight of their iron round shot, an 8 pounder would fire an 8 lb ball. These very large rifles, sometimes called elephant guns, were intended for use in India, gauge is abbreviated ga. ga, or G. The space between the number and the abbreviation is often left out, as in 12ga. Therefore, a shotgun or n-bore rifle has a bore diameter of approximately d n =11.33 Explanation. Divide it by 11.3 to find the volume of the ball, multiply it by 0.75 and divide it by pi, then find its cube root, to find its radius in cm. Multiply it by 2 to find the diameter in cm, Divide it by 2.54 to find the diameter in inches. This simplifies to d n =1.67 / n 3 to find the diameter in inches of the barrel of an n-gauge shotgun. Therefore, if the diameter is in inches, n =4.66 / d n 3 Another source for a gauge size formula can be found in page Shotgun shell#Shotgun gauge diameter formula. Since shotguns were not originally intended to fire projectiles, but rather a compressible mass of shot. The fact that most shotgun bores are not cylindrical also causes deviations from the bore diameter. The chamber of the gun is larger, to accommodate the thickness of the walls. The forcing cone can be as short as a fraction of an inch, or as long as a few inches on some guns. At the muzzle end of the barrel, the choke can constrict the bore even further, so measuring the diameter of a shotgun is not a simple process. Shotgun bores are commonly overbored or backbored, meaning that most of the bore is larger than the value given by the formula. This is claimed to reduce recoil and improve patterning. A 12-gauge shotgun, nominally 18.5 mm, can range from a tight 18.3 mm to an extreme overbore of 20.3 mm. Some also claim an increased velocity with the barrels, up to 15 m/s
4.
Shotgun
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Shotguns come in a wide variety of sizes, ranging from 5. A shotgun is generally a smoothbore firearm, which means that the inside of the barrel is not rifled, preceding smoothbore firearms, such as the musket, were widely used by armies in the 18th century. The direct ancestor to the shotgun, the blunderbuss, was used in a similar variety of roles from self-defense to riot control. It was often used by cavalry troops because of its shorter length and ease of use. In the 19th century, however, these weapons were replaced on the battlefield with breechloading rifled firearms. The military value of shotguns was rediscovered in the First World War, since then, it has been used in a variety of roles in civilian, law enforcement, and military applications. The shot pellets from a spread upon leaving the barrel, and the power of the burning charge is divided among the pellets. In a hunting context, this makes shotguns useful primarily for hunting birds, however, in a military or law enforcement context, the large number of projectiles makes the shotgun useful as a close quarters combat weapon or a defensive weapon. Militants or insurgents may use shotguns in asymmetric engagements, as shotguns are commonly owned civilian weapons in many countries, shotguns are also used for target shooting sports such as skeet, trap, and sporting clays. These involve shooting clay disks, known as clay pigeons, thrown in various ways, shotguns come in a wide variety of forms, from very small up to massive punt guns, and in nearly every type of firearm operating mechanism. The common characteristics that make a unique center around the requirements of firing shot. These features are the typical of a shotgun shell, namely a relatively short, wide cartridge, with straight walls. Ammunition for shotguns is referred to in the USA as shotgun shells, shotshells, the term cartridges is standard usage in the United Kingdom. The shot is fired from a smoothbore barrel, another configuration is the rifled slug barrel. The typical use of a shotgun is against small and fast moving targets, the spreading of the shot allows the user to point the shotgun close to the target, rather than having to aim precisely as in the case of a single projectile. The disadvantages of shot are limited range and limited penetration of the shot, which is why shotguns are used at short ranges, and typically against smaller targets. Larger shot sizes, up to the case of the single projectile slug load, result in increased penetration. Aside from the most common use against small, fast moving targets, First, it has enormous stopping power at short range, more than nearly all handguns and many rifles
5.
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
6.
Pistol
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A pistol is a type of handgun. In some usage, the term refers to a subset of handguns. In other usage, the term is interchangeable with handgun, some handgun experts and dictionaries make a technical distinction that views pistols as a subset of handguns, others use the terms interchangeably. But UK/rest of Commonwealth usage does not always make this distinction, for example, the official designation of the Webley Mk VI revolver was Pistol, Revolver, Webley, No.1 Mk VI. The English word was introduced in ca.1570 from the Middle French pistolet, the etymology of the French word pistolet is disputed. The first suggestion derives the word from Czech píšťala, a type of hand-cannon used in the Hussite Wars during the 1420s, the Czech word was adopted in German as pitschale, pitschole, petsole, and variants. The second suggestion is less likely, the use of the word as a designation of a gun is not documented before 1605 in Italy, long after it was used in French, the Czech word is well documented since the Hussite wars in 1420s. Other suggestions include from Middle High German pischulle or from Middle French pistole, also it is suggested that early pistols were carried by cavalry in holsters hung from the pommel of a horses saddle. The most common types of pistol are the shot. Single shot handguns were mainly seen during the era of flintlock and musket weaponry where the pistol was loaded with a ball and fired by a flint striker. However, as technology improved, so did the single shot pistol, new operating mechanisms were created, and due to this, they are still made today. It is the oldest type of pistol, and is used to hunt wild game. Multi-barreled pistols were common during the time as single shot pistols. As designers looked for ways to increase fire rates, multiple barrels were added to all guns including pistols, one example of a multi-barreled pistol is the Ducks foot pistol, which generally had either four or eight barrels, although some 20th century models had three barrels. Around 1850, pistols such as the Jarre harmonica gun were produced that had a sliding magazine, the sliding magazine contained pinfire cartridges or speedloaders. The magazine needed to be moved manually in many designs, hence distinguishing them from semi-automatic pistols, with the development of the revolver in the 19th century, gunsmiths had finally achieved the goal of a practical capability for delivering multiple loads to one handgun barrel in quick succession. The semi-automatic pistol was the step in the development of the pistol. By avoiding multiple chambers—which need to be individually reloaded—semi-automatic pistols delivered faster rates of fire, an example of a modern blow back action semi-automatic pistol is the HK VP70
7.
Eley Brothers
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Eley Brothers were a manufacturer of firearms cartridges at the Eleys Cartridge Factory, located in Edmonton and bordered by the River Lee Navigation and the Great Eastern Railway at Angel Road. It was founded by Charles and William Eley in London in the 1820s, the Eley Brothers purchased the patent rights to the wire cartridge in the spring or early summer of 1828. The patent for “wire cartridge” was issued by the English Patent Office on 28 November 1827 to Joshua Jenour under Patent No.5570. Mr. Jenour had been born in Fleet Street, London in 1755 and had previously been the owner and manager of the Daily Advertiser, the wire cartridge consisted of a wire cage which held the shot together during the first stages of its flight. In 1828 Charles and William Eley established a factory in Charlotte Street, initially, Charles Eley had been the primary owner of the concern and the original wire cartridges had only the name of Charles Eley on them. The initial attempts to sell the Eley Wire Cartridge went poorly, during the mid-1830s, William Eley reinvigorated the company and began sell the Improved Patent Wire Cartridges. In 1837 the company added percussion caps to their range and though William was killed in an explosion in 1841 and his eldest son William Thomas forged an alliance with Samuel Colt, the two patenting a skin cartridge for use in the latters revolvers. In 1874 they went public to fuel expansion, but lost momentum after 1881 when William Thomas died and his brothers remained in control until 1901 but shareholders accused them of running it as a private company. Nevertheless, innovations included smokeless powder, and in the 1890s,400 types of cartridges were produced and they had established a factory at Tile Kiln Lane, Edmonton, London by 1865. In 1894 the company transferred production to enlarged premises at Angel Road which included a tramway to its wharf on the nearby River Lee. Twice the War Office removed the company from their Approved List of suppliers due to poor quality.303 British ammunition, moreover, poor facilities meant the company had to buy in components, unlike their competitors. In 1900 an explosion killed two workmen, the directors squabbled amongst themselves, and in 1906 the mostly female workforce went on strike when their wages were cut. A leading ballistics expert F W Jones, was brought in to improve matters, after the war, Eleys, along with other firms, became part of Explosive Trades Ltd, soon part of Nobel Industries. Many Belgians had been billeted in Edmonton as refugees and many, as elsewhere and this led to natural links between the two countries, and in the 1920s Eleys went into partnership with Fabrique Nationale, buying out the Belgian firm of Cartoucherie Russo - Belge. However, the need for ammunition had slumped, and the Angel Road factory closed in 1921, the name Eley persists as a brand name for gun cartridges, and in recent years for corrosion-proof-coated lead shot to fill scuba divers shot belts. The shot tower was demolished in the late 20th century, the area today is known as the Eley Industrial Estate. Eley Limited was brought by IMI industries and operated within IMI until 2014 when it was out by an investment company backed by Lloyds TSB. Eley Limited is now located in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England.450 No 2 Nitro Express in 1903.360 No 2 Nitro Express in 1905.475 No.2 Nitro Express after 1907
8.
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
9.
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
10.
Shotgun shell
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A shotgun shell is a self-contained cartridge typically loaded with multiple metallic shot, which are small, generally spherical projectiles. Traditionally lead was used, but increasingly steel, tungsten or bismuth shot has replaced lead, due to laws designed to protect the environment. An old non-lethal shotgun load consisted of a shell loaded with rock salt, which could inflict very painful, but rarely deadly, wounds. Most shotgun shells are designed to be fired from a smoothbore barrel, a rifled barrel will increase the accuracy of slugs, but makes it unsuitable for firing shot, as it imparts a spin to the shot cup, causing a centrifugal force that makes the shot cluster disperse. Specialty shotgun ammunition includes non-lethal rounds available in the form of slugs made of low-density material, early shotgun shells used brass cases, not unlike rifle and pistol cartridge cases of the same era. These brass shotgun hulls or cases closely resembled rifle cartridges, in terms of both the head and primer portions of the shell, as well as in their dimensions. Card wads, made of felt, leather, and cork, waterglass was commonly used to cement the top overshot wad into these brass shell casings. No roll crimp or fold crimp was used on these early brass cases, the primers on these early shotgun shells were identical to pistol primers of the same diameter. Starting in about 1877, paper hulls started to replace brass shotgun shells, paper hulls remained popular for nearly a century, until the late 1960s. These shotgun shells using paper hulls were nearly always roll crimped, although fold crimping also eventually became popular. Card wads, made of felt and cork, as well as paperboard, were all used at times, gradually giving way to plastic over powder wads, with card wads. Starting in the 1960s, plastic cases started to replace paper hulls for shotgun shells, by the 1980s, plastic cases had largely replaced nearly all paper hulls for shotgun shells. Today, modern shotgun shells typically consist of a plastic case, as noted previously, paper shells used to be common, and are still made, as are solid brass shells. Some companies have produced what appear to be all-plastic shells, although in these there is a metal ring cast into the rim of the shell to provide strength. Often the more powerful loads will use high brass shells, with the extended up further along the sides of the shell. The brass does not actually provide a significant amount of strength, the base of the shotshell is fairly thick to hold the large shotgun primer, which is longer than primers used for rifle and pistol ammunition. After the powder comes the wadding or wad, the primary purpose of a wad is to prevent the shot and powder from mixing, and to provide a seal that prevents gas from blowing through the shot rather than propelling it. The wad design may encompass a shock absorber and a cup that holds the shot together until it is out the barrel
