1.
.50 Action Express
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The.50 Action Express is a very large and powerful American caliber handgun cartridge. Developed in 1988 by American Evan Whildin of Action Arms, the.50 AE is one of the most powerful pistol cartridges in production, the Magnum Research Desert Eagle was the first handgun chambered for the.50 AE. The actual cartridge has a.547 inch diameter base, with a rebated rim, the rim diameter of the.50 AE is the same as the.44 Remington Magnum cartridge. A Mark XIX Desert Eagle in.50 AE can be converted to.44 with nothing more than a barrel and magazine change. The.357 and.44 Mark VII guns have a frame and can not be converted to.50 AE without the fitting of a Mark XIX slide assembly. The introduction of the. 50AE in the US was met with a rocky start, US laws state that non-sporting firearms may not be over 0.500 in bore diameter to meet Title I regulations. The original.50 Action Express bore diameter was, nominal bullet diameter was reduced to the current 0.500 inch rather than the original.510. Loaded.50 AE ammunition is available from CCI Ammunition, Speer, Hornady. Fired from a standard six-inch Desert Eagle barrel, Speers 300-grain load produces a velocity of over 1,500 ft/s. Fired from a 10-inch barrel, the same load produces a velocity of over 1,600 ft/s. Recoil of the.50 AE in the Desert Eagle pistol is substantial, although only marginally more severe than the.44 Magnum, as the auto mechanism, other firearms chambered for the.50 AE include the AMT AutoMag V, and the LAR Grizzly Win Mag. SAAMI specifies a maximum pressure of 36,000 psi for the.50 AE. Available factory loads can produce nearly 1,800 ft·lbf of muzzle energy, new, unprimed brass is available from Starline. Bullets are available from a few different manufacturers, many of the bullets designed for the.500 S&W Magnum are too long for use in.50 AE semi-automatic pistols. Like other handgun cartridges of such magnitude, the uses of the.50 AE are metallic silhouette shooting. Like the.44 Magnum.454 Casull.460 S&W Magnum, table of handgun and rifle cartridges The Reload Bench.50 Action Express
2.
.44 Magnum
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The.44 Remington Magnum, or simply.44 Magnum, and frequently.44 Mag, is a large-bore cartridge originally designed for revolvers. After its introduction, it was adopted for carbines and rifles. Despite the.44 designation, guns chambered for the.44 Magnum round, and its parent, the.44 Magnum is based on a lengthened.44 Special case, loaded to higher pressures for greater velocity. The.44 Magnum cartridge was the end result of years of tuned handloading of the.44 Special, the.44 Special, and other large-bore handgun cartridges, were being loaded with heavy bullets, pushed at higher than normal velocities for better hunting performance. One of these handloaders was Elmer Keith, a writer and outdoorsman of the 20th century, Elmer Keith settled on the.44 Special cartridge as the basis for his experimentation, rather than the larger.45 Colt. At the time, the selection of.44 caliber projectiles for handloaders was more varied, also, the.44 Special case was smaller in diameter than the.45 Colt case. In revolvers of the cylinder size, this meant the.44 caliber revolvers had thicker. This allowed higher pressures to be used with less risk of a burst cylinder, Keith encouraged Smith & Wesson and Remington to produce a commercial version of this new high-pressure loading, and revolvers chambered for it. Smith & Wessons first.44 Magnum revolver, the Model 29, was built on December 15,1955, julian Hatcher, and Elmer Keith received two of the first production models. Hatchers review of the new Smith & Wesson revolver and the.44 Magnum cartridge appeared in the March,1956 issue of the magazine, Smith & Wesson produced 3,100 of these revolvers in 1956. By the summer of 1956, Sturm, Ruger became aware of this project, Ruger began shipping their new revolver in late November,1956. The film Dirty Harry, prominently featuring the S&W M29, contributed to that models popularity, Ruger introduced its first long gun, a semi-automatic carbine called the Ruger Model 44 chambered for.44 Magnum, in 1959. Marlin followed soon after with a lever action Model 1894 in.44 Magnum, the. 38-40 Winchester and. 32-20 Winchester were also available in both carbines and revolvers, allowing the shooter to use one type of ammunition for both firearms. In 2006, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the.44 Magnum, Ruger introduced a special 50th anniversary Blackhawk revolver, the.44 Magnum delivers a large, heavy bullet with high velocity for a handgun. In its full-powered form, it produces so much recoil and muzzle blast that it is considered to be unsuitable for use as a police weapon. Rapid fire is difficult and strenuous on the hands, especially for shooters of smaller build or with small hands. Although marketed as a.44 caliber, the.44 Magnum, the.44 designation is a carryover from the early measurements of heeled bullets, used in the later 19th century. In those times, bullets were measured on the outside of the cartridge, not the inside of the cartridge
3.
Hunting
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Hunting is the practice of killing or trapping animals, or pursuing or tracking them with the intent of doing so. Hunting wildlife or feral animals is most commonly done by humans for food, recreation, to predators that are dangerous to humans or domestic animals. Lawful hunting is distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species. The species that are hunted are referred to as game or prey and are usually mammals, Hunting can also be a means of pest control. However, hunting has also contributed to the endangerment, extirpation and extinction of many animals. The pursuit, capture and release, or capture for food of fish is called fishing, the practice of foraging or gathering materials from plants and mushrooms is also considered separate from hunting. The word hunt serves as both a noun and a verb, the noun has been dated to the early 12th century, act of chasing game, from the verb hunt. The meaning of a body of persons associated for the purpose of hunting with a pack of hounds is first recorded in the 1570s, meaning the act of searching for someone or something is from about 1600. The verb, Old English huntian to chase game, perhaps developed from hunta hunter, is related to hentan to seize, from Proto-Germanic huntojan, the general sense of search diligently is first recorded c. Hunting has a history and may well pre-date the rise of the species Homo sapiens. Evidence from western Kenya suggests that hunting has been occurring for more two million years. Furthermore, evidence exists that hunting may have one of the multiple environmental factors leading to the Holocene extinction of megafauna. North American megafauna extinction was coincidental with the Younger Dryas impact event, however, in other locations such as Australia, humans are thought to have played a very significant role in the extinction of the Australian megafauna that was widespread prior to human occupation. The closest surviving relatives of the species are the two species of Pan, the common chimpanzee and bonobos. Common chimpanzees have a diet that includes troop hunting behaviour based on beta males being led by an alpha male. Bonobos have also observed to occasionally engage in group hunting. With the establishment of language, culture, and religion, hunting became a theme of stories and myths, as well as such as dance. Hunting was a component of hunter-gatherer societies before the domestication of livestock
4.
Rifle
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A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called lands, which contact with the projectile. When the projectile leaves the barrel, this spin lends gyroscopic stability to the projectile and prevents tumbling and this allows the use of aerodynamically-efficient bullets and thus improves range and accuracy. The word rifle originally referred to the grooving, and a rifle was called a rifled gun, the word rifle is now used for any long hand-held aimed device activated by a trigger, such as Air rifles and the Personnel halting and stimulation response rifle. Rifles are used in warfare, hunting and shooting sports, formerly, rifles only fired a single projectile with each squeeze of the trigger. Modern rifles are capable of firing more than one round per trigger squeeze, some fire in an automatic mode. Thus, modern automatic rifles overlap to some extent in design, in fact, many light machine guns are adaptations of existing automatic rifle designs. A militarys light machine guns are chambered for the same caliber ammunition as its service rifles. Generally, the difference between a rifle and a machine gun comes down to weight, cooling system. Modern military rifles are fed by magazines, while machine guns are generally belt-fed, many machine guns allow the operator to quickly exchange barrels in order to prevent overheating, whereas rifles generally do not. Most machine guns fire from a bolt in order to reduce the danger of cook-off. Machine guns are often crewed by more than one soldier, the rifle is an individual weapon, the term rifle is sometimes used to describe larger crew-served rifled weapons firing explosive shells, for example, recoilless rifles. In many works of fiction a rifle refers to any weapon that has a stock and is shouldered before firing, the origins of rifling are difficult to trace, but some of the earliest practical experiments seem to have occurred in Europe during the 15th century. Archers had long realized that a twist added to the feathers of their arrows gave them greater accuracy. This might also have led to a increase in accuracy. Rifles were created as an improvement in the accuracy of smooth bore muskets, the black powder used in early muzzle-loading rifles quickly fouled the barrel, making loading slower and more difficult. Since musketeers could not afford to take the time to stop and clean their barrels in the middle of a battle, rifles were limited to use by sharpshooters, muskets were smoothbore, large caliber weapons using ball-shaped ammunition fired at relatively low velocity. Due to the high cost and great difficulty of manufacturing, and the need to load readily from the muzzle
5.
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
6.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
7.
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
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.
Grain (unit)
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A grain is a unit of measurement of mass, and, for the troy grain, equal to exactly 7001647989100000000♠64.79891 milligrams. It is nominally based upon the mass of a seed of a cereal. From the Bronze Age into the Renaissance the average masses of wheat, rather, expressions such as thirty-two grains of wheat, taken from the middle of the ear appear to have been ritualistic formulas, essentially the premodern equivalent of legal boilerplate. Another book states that Captain Henry Kater, of the British Standards Commission, the grain was the legal foundation of traditional English weight systems, and is the only unit that is equal throughout the troy, avoirdupois, and apothecaries systems of mass. The unit was based on the weight of a grain of barley. The fundamental unit of the pre-1527 English weight system known as Tower weights, was a different sort of known as the wheat grain. The Tower wheat grain was defined as exactly 45⁄64 of a troy grain.79891 milligrams, 7000100000000000000♠1 gram is approximately 7001154323600000000♠15.43236 grains. The unit formerly used by jewellers to measure pearls, diamonds, or other stones, called the jewellers grain or pearl grain, is equal to 1⁄4 of a carat. The grain was also the name of a traditional French unit equal to 6995531150000000000♠53.115 mg. In both British Imperial and U. S. customary units, there are precisely 7,000 grains per avoirdupois pound, the grain is commonly used to measure the mass of bullets and propellants. The term also refers to a particle of gunpowder, the size of which varies according to requirements. In archery, the grain is the unit used to weigh arrows. In dentistry, gold foil, used as a material to restore teeth, is measured in grains, in North America, the hardness of water is often measured in grains per US gallon of calcium carbonate equivalents. Otherwise, water hardness is measured in the metric unit parts per million, one grain per US gallon is approximately 6995171000000000000♠17.1 ppm. Soft water contains 1–4 gpg of calcium carbonate equivalents, while hard water contains 11–20 gpg, though no longer recommended, grains are still used occasionally in medicine as part of the apothecaries system, especially in prescriptions for older medicines such as aspirin or phenobarbital. For example, the dosage of a standard 6996325000000000000♠325 mg tablet of aspirin is sometimes given as 7000500000000000000♠5 grains, in that example the grain is approximated to 6995650000000000000♠65 mg, though the grain can also be approximated to 6995600000000000000♠60 mg, depending on the medication and manufacturer. The apothecaries system has its own system of notation, in which the symbol or abbreviation is followed by the quantity in lower case Roman numerals. For amounts less than one, the quantity is written as a fraction, or for one half, therefore, a prescription for tablets containing 325 mg of aspirin and 30 mg of codeine can be written ASA gr
