1.
Webley & Scott
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Webley & Scott is an arms manufacturer founded in Birmingham, England. Webley produced handguns and long guns from 1834 to 1979, when the company ceased to manufacture firearms and instead focused on producing air pistols, in 2010 Webley & Scott restarted the production of shotguns for commercial sale. Webley is famous for the revolvers and automatic pistols it supplied to the British Empires military, particularly the British Army, the Webley company was founded in the late 18th century by William Davies, who made bullet moulds. It was taken over in 1834 by his son-in-law, Philip Webley, the manufacture of revolvers, for which the firm became famous, began twenty years later. At that time the company was named P. Webley & Son, in 1897 Webley amalgamated with W & C Scott and Sons to become The Webley & Scott Revolver and Arms Company Ltd of Birmingham. Webleys revolvers became the official British sidearm in 1887, remaining in British service until 1964, after 1921, however, Webley service revolvers were manufactured by the government-owned Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield. In 1932 the Enfield No.2.38 inch calibre revolver, however, wartime shortages ensured that all marks of the Webley, including models in.455 and. 38/200, remained in use through World War Two>. The.455 Mk. VI was declared obsolete in 1945, in 1920 the passing of the Firearms Act in the UK, which limited the availability of handguns to civilians, caused their sales to plummet. As a result, the company began producing pneumatic guns, their first being the Mark I air pistol. Demand for air guns increased rapidly in the 1920s and Webleys business began to grow again, Webleys dependent company - Venom Custom Shop - ceased trading as well. It was then bought by Wolverhampton-based company Airgunsport, at this time Airgunsport relocated the manufacture of all Webley guns to Turkey. Webley & Scott Ltd is owned by both the Fuller Group and John Bright, John Bright is also co-owner of Highland Outdoors Limited who are the UK distributors for Webley, Webley & Scott and AGS. Until 1979 Webley & Scott manufactured shotguns and revolvers for use, as well as producing sidearms for military. This came to include both revolvers and self-loading pistols, Webleys production originally consisted of hand-crafted firearms, although mass-production was later introduced to supply police and military buyers. The first Webley production revolver appeared in 1853, known as the Longspur it was a muzzle-loaded percussion cap and ball pistol. Some consider it to be the finest revolver of its day as it could shoot as fast as the contemporary Colt revolvers and was faster to load. However the hand-made Longspur could not compete in price with mass-produced revolvers such as the Colt, Webleys first popular success came with its first double-action revolver, adopted by the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1867. There is some question whether the gun or guns presented to George Armstrong Custer were Webley RIC’s, other sources indicate that Lord Berkeley Paget presented Custer with a Galand & Sommerville 44 calibre revolver and gave another to Tom Custer
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Rifling
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In firearms, rifling consists of helical grooves in the internal surface of a guns barrel, which impart a spin to a projectile around its long axis. This spin serves to stabilize the projectile, improving its aerodynamic stability. Rifling is often described by its twist rate, which indicates the distance the rifling takes to complete one revolution, such as 1 turn in 10 inches. A shorter distance indicates a faster twist, meaning that for a given velocity the projectile will be rotating at a spin rate. Barrels intended for long, small-diameter bullets, such as the ultra-low-drag, 80-grain 0.223 inch bullets, extremely long projectiles such as flechettes may require high twist rates, these projectiles must be inherently stable, and are often fired from a smoothbore barrel. Muskets were smoothbore, large caliber weapons using ball-shaped ammunition fired at low velocity. Due to the high cost and great difficulty of manufacturing, and the need to load readily from the muzzle. Consequently, on firing the ball bounced off the sides of the barrel when fired, barrel rifling was invented in Augsburg, Germany in 1498. In 1520 August Kotter, an armourer of Nuremberg, Germany improved upon this work, though true rifling dates from the mid-16th century, it did not become commonplace until the nineteenth century. The most successful weapons using rifling with black powder were breech loaders such as the Queen Anne pistol, the grooves most commonly used in modern rifling have fairly sharp edges. More recently, polygonal rifling, a throwback to the earliest types of rifling, has become popular, polygonal barrels tend to have longer service lives because the reduction of the sharp edges of the land reduces erosion of the barrel. Supporters of polygonal rifling also claim higher velocities and greater accuracy, polygonal rifling is currently seen on pistols from CZ, Heckler & Koch, Glock, Tanfoglio, and Kahr Arms, as well as the Desert Eagle. Such guns have achieved significant increases in velocity and range. Examples include the South African G5 and the German PzH2000, gain-twist rifling begins with very little change in the projectiles angular momentum during the first few inches of bullet travel after ignition during the transition from chamber to throat. This enables the bullet to remain undisturbed and trued to the case mouth. After engaging the rifling the bullet is progressively subjected to accelerated angular momentum as burning powder propels it down the barrel. By only gradually increasing the rate, torque is spread along a much longer section of barrel. Gain-twist rifling was used as early as the American Civil War, colt Army and Navy revolvers both employed gain-twist rifling
5.
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
6.
Kynoch
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Kynoch was a manufacturer of ammunition, later incorporated into ICI but remaining as a brand name for sporting cartridges. Kynoch was established in Witton in Birmingham in 1862 by Scottish entrepreneur George Kynoch when he opened a percussion cap factory in Witton, in 1895 he built an explosives factory east of Shell Haven Creek, Essex. This opened in 1897, with an estate for employees called Kynochtown, products included cordite, guncotton, gunpowder, and cartridges. Once Nobel Industries, including Kynoch Ltd, had merged to form ICI, Kynoch, along with names such as Eley, became brands of subsidiaries. Kynoch, established a factory on the north side of Arklow. This factory employed several thousand workers during World War I, but closed shortly after it, seventeen workers were killed in an explosion there on 21 September 1917. IMI became independent of ICI in 1977, still producing rimfire, the more economically viable production of shotgun and rimfire ammunition continued. The Ammunition Division was incorporated separately as Eley Limited in 1983, john Sutton Nettlefold JP - former managing director Eley Brothers Corringham Light Railway Kynamco A History of Kynoch Works
7.
Remington Arms
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Remington Arms Company, LLC is an American manufacturer of firearms and ammunition in the United States. It was founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington in Ilion, New York, as E. Remington, Remington is Americas oldest gun maker and Its Americas oldest factory that still makes its original product-guns. It is the only U. S. company which produces both firearms and ammunition domestically and is the largest U. S. producer of shotguns, Remington has also developed or adopted more cartridges than any other gun maker or ammunition manufacturer in the world. Additionally its products are distributed in over 60 foreign countries, making its distribution base, Remington Arms is part of the Freedom Group, which is owned by Cerberus Capital Management. Remington built a new plant in Huntsville, Alabama which is now building Modern Sporting Rifles, the Remington company was founded in 1816. Eliphalet Remington II believed he could build a gun than he could buy. Farming communities in the region were famous for their skills and self-sufficiency. Remingtons father was a blacksmith, and wanted to expand his business into rifle barrel production, local residents often built their own rifles to save on costs, but purchased the barrel. Remingtons father sent him to a barrel maker in a major city to purchase a barrel. At the time, the method was to heat and wrap long flat bars of iron around a rod of the caliber desired. By heating and hammering the coiled bars around the central rod, after the young man returned home, his family added a successful barrel making operation to his fathers forge, in Ilion Gorge, New York. Remington began designing and building a rifle for himself. At age 23, he entered a match, though he only finished second. Before Remington left the field day, he had received so many orders from other competitors that he was now officially in the gunsmithing business. By 1828, the moved to nearby Ilion, New York. On March 7,1888, ownership of E. Remington & Sons left possession of the Remington family and was sold to new owners, Marcellus Hartley, at this time the name was formally changed to the Remington Arms Company. The Bridgeport site became the home of Remingtons ammunition plant, in 1912, Remington and Union Metallic Cartridge Company were combined into a single entity, called Remington UMC. In 1915, the plant at Ilion was expanded, and with this expansion became basically the same plant as today, during World War I, Remington produced arms under contract for several Allied powers
8.
Centerfire ammunition
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A centerfire cartridge is a cartridge with a primer located in the center of the cartridge case head. Unlike rimfire cartridges, the primer is a separate and replaceable component, centerfire cartridges have supplanted the rimfire variety in all but the smallest cartridge sizes. The stronger base of a cartridge is able to withstand higher pressures which in turn give a bullet greater velocity. Larger caliber rimfire cartridges require greater volumes of priming explosive than centerfire cartridges, reducing the amount of priming explosive would reduce the reliability of rimfire cartridge ignition, and increase the probability of misfire or dud cartridges. Economies of scale are achieved through interchangeable primers for a variety of centerfire cartridge calibers. The expensive individual brass cases can be reused after replacing the primer, gunpowder, the forward portion of some empty cases can be reformed for use as obsolete or wildcat cartridges with similar base configuration. Modern cartridges larger than.22 caliber are mostly centerfire, actions suitable for larger caliber rimfire cartridges declined in popularity until the demand for them no longer exceeded manufacturing costs, and they became obsolete. An early form of ammunition, without a percussion cap, was invented between 1808 and 1812 by Jean Samuel Pauly. This was also the first fully integrated cartridge, true centerfire ammunition was invented by the Frenchman Clement Pottet in 1829. However, Pottet would not perfect his design until 1855, the centerfire cartridge was improved by Benjamin Houllier, Gastinne Renette, Charles Lancaster, George Morse, Francois Schneider, Hiram Berdan and Edward Mounier Boxer. The identifying feature of centerfire ammunition is the primer which is a cup containing a primary explosive inserted into a recess in the center of the base of the cartridge. The firearm firing pin crushes this explosive between the cup and an anvil to produce hot gas and a shower of incandescent particles to ignite the powder charge, Berdan priming is less expensive to manufacture and is much more common in military-surplus ammunition made outside the United States. Berdan primers are named after their American inventor, Hiram Berdan of New York who invented his first variation of the Berdan primer and patented it on March 20,1866, in U. S. A small copper cylinder formed the shell of the cartridge, and this system worked well, allowing the option of installing a cap just before use of the propellant-loaded cartridge as well as permitting reloading the cartridge for reuse. S. Berdan primers have remained essentially the same functionally to the present day, Berdan primers are similar to the caps used in the caplock system, being small metal cups with pressure-sensitive explosive in them. Modern Berdan primers are pressed into the pocket of a Berdan-type cartridge case. Inside the primer pocket is a bump, the anvil, that rests against the center of the cup. Berdan cases are reusable, although the process is rather involved, the used primer must be removed, usually by hydraulic pressure or a pincer or lever that pulls the primer out of the bottom
9.
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
10.
Webley Revolver
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The Webley Revolver was, in various marks, a standard issue service pistol for the armed forces of the United Kingdom, and the British Empire and Commonwealth, from 1887 until 1963. The Webley is a revolver and breaking the revolver operates the extractor. The Webley Mk I service revolver was adopted in 1887 and the Mk IV, the Mk VI, introduced in 1915 during the First World War, is perhaps the best-known model. Firing large.455 Webley cartridges, Webley service revolvers are among the most powerful top-break revolvers ever produced. The.455 calibre Webley is no longer in military service, many Webley Mk VIs were converted to fire 45 ACP ammunition after the remaining.455 Webley ammunition dwindled. The British company Webley & Scott produced a range of revolvers from the mid 19th to late 20th centuries, as early as 1853 P. Webley and J. Webley began production of their first patented single action cap and ball revolvers. Later under the name of P. Webley and Son. Today, undoubtedly best-known are the range of revolvers, which were in service use across two World Wars and numerous colonial conflicts. The military was suitably impressed with the revolver, and it was adopted on 8 November 1887 as the Pistol, Webley, Mk I. The initial contract called for 10,000 Webley revolvers, at a price of £3/1/1 each, the Webley revolver went through a number of changes, culminating in the Mk VI, which was in production between 1915 and 1923. The large.455 Webley revolvers were retired in 1947, although the Webley Mk IV. 38/200 remained in service until 1963 alongside the Enfield No.2 Mk I revolver, the Webley Mk IV, chambered in. Demand exceeded production, which was already behind as the war began and this forced the British government to buy substitute weapons chambered in.455 Webley from neutral countries. America provided the Smith & Wesson 2nd Model Hand Ejector and Colt New Service Revolvers, rexach & Urgoite was tapped for an initial order of 500 revolvers, but they were rejected due to defects. The official service pistol for the British military during the Second World War was the Enfield No.2 Mk I. 38/200 calibre revolver, owing to a critical shortage of handguns, a number of other weapons were also adopted to alleviate the shortage. As a result, both the Webley Mk IV in. 38/200 and Webley Mk VI in.455 calibre were issued to personnel during the war. The Webley Mk VI and Mk IV revolvers were issued to British and Commonwealth Forces after the Second World War. An armourer stationed in West Germany recalled that by the time they were retired in 1963. This lack of ammunition was instrumental in keeping the Enfield and Webley revolvers in use so long, they were not wearing out because they were not being used
