1.
.308 Winchester
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The.308 Winchester is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge and is the commercial cartridge from which the 7. 62×51mm NATO round was derived. The.308 Winchester was introduced in 1952, two prior to the NATO adoption of the 7. 62×51mm NATO T65. Winchester branded the cartridge and introduced it to the hunting market as the.308 Winchester. Winchesters Model 70 and Model 88 rifles were chambered for the new cartridge. Since then, the.308 Winchester has become the most popular short-action and it is also commonly used for civilian hunting, target shooting, Metallic Silhouette, bench rest target shooting, palma, metal matches and military sniping, and police sharpshooting. The relatively short case makes the.308 Winchester especially well-adapted for short-action rifles, when loaded with a bullet that expands, tumbles, or fragments in tissue, this cartridge is capable of high terminal performance. Their interchange is, however, considered safe by the Sporting Arms, the.308 Winchester has 3.64 ml cartridge case capacity. The exterior shape of the case was designed to promote reliable case feeding and extraction in bolt action rifles and machine guns alike, all dimensions in millimeters and inches. Americans would define the angle at alpha/2 =20 degrees. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 305 mm,4 grooves, Ø lands =7.62 mm, Ø grooves =7.82 mm, land width =4.47 mm and the primer type is large rifle. Rulings the.308 Winchester can handle up to 415.00 MPa Pmax piezo pressure, regulated countries every rifle cartridge combo has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum C. I. P. pressure to certify for sale to consumers. This means that.308 Winchester chambered arms in C. I. P, regulated countries are currently proof tested at 519.00 MPa PE piezo pressure. North American SAAMI maximum pressure for the 308 Winchester is 62,000 PSI, the.308 Winchester is one of the most popular hunting cartridges in the United States, and possibly the world. It has gained popularity in countries as an exceptional cartridge for game in the medium- to large-sized class. In North America it is used extensively on whitetail deer, pronghorn, clay Harvey, an American gun writer, says it is usable on moose and elk. Layne Simpson, an American who has hunted in Sweden, says he is surprised how many hunters there use the cartridge, craig Boddington was told by a Norma Precision executive that the.308 is one of Normas best-selling calibers. In Africa the.308 Win is one of the most popular calibers among Bushveld hunters and is used on anything from duiker right up to the massive eland. The.308 Winchester has slightly more drop at range than the. 30-06 Springfield
2.
Marlin Firearms
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Marlin Firearms Co. formerly of North Haven, Connecticut, is a manufacturer of semi-automatic, lever-action, and bolt-action rifles. In the past, the company made shotguns, derringers and revolvers, Marlin owned the firearm manufacturer H&R Firearms. In 2007, Remington Arms, part of the Freedom Group, Remington currently produces Marlin-brand firearms at its Kentucky and New York manufacturing facilities. Major models of Marlin rifles include, Marlin No, Marlin Model 1893, lever action repeater, precursor of the Model 36 and 336 Marlin Model 1895 Military Repeater,6 versions,1895, G, GBL, GS, M, SBL. All are chambered for the 45/70 caliber except for the M Marlin Model 444, Marlin Model 795, a.22 LR semi-automatic rifle. For example, there are 6 distinctly different variations manufactured for the Marlin Model 60, Marlin has been making lever-action rifles since 1881, and in 2008, they produced their 30 millionth lever-action rifle, which was donated to the National Rifle Association. Shotguns include, Marlin Model 25MG, a bolt action. S, patent 3,100,358 for what was named MicroGroove Rifling, which was a departure from the standard Ballard, or cut rifling. One purpose of Microgroove rifling was to increase the speed of producing rifle barrels, Marlin introduced Microgroove rifling in their.22 rimfire barrels in July 1953, with 16 grooves that were.014 wide, and nominally.0015 deep. Ballard rifled barrels have grooves generally in the range of. 069-.090 wide, the catalog also claimed that Microgroove rifling did not distort the bullet jacket as deeply as Ballard rifling hence improving accuracy with jacketed bullets at standard velocity. The use of oversized cast bullets greatly solves this problem, restoring accuracy with cast bullet handloads to levels seen from Ballard rifled barrels, Marlin Firearms was founded in the 1870s by John Marlin. Marlin produced lever-action rifles and pump-action shotguns in competition with Winchester, in 1917 Marlin Rockwell bought out the Hopkins & Allen Arms Company to promote an expanded line of firearms and restore the image of the Marlin company as makers of sporting arms. Marlin Firearms labored for a century as an underdog levergun maker to Winchester, however, in the 1980s and 1990s, Marlin finally began to outpace its old rival. It is currently the dominant seller of lever-action rifles in North America and its use of side ejection allows for flat-topped firearms, thereby making the mounting of scopes easier than for traditional Winchesters. This helped Marlin capture more market share as American shooters came to more and more on optics. Marlins are larger, stronger and heavier than most of the comparable Winchester line, in November 2000, Marlin purchased the assets of H&R1871, Inc. a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of shotguns and rifles, founded in 1871, and now located in Gardner, Massachusetts. Marketing its products under the names of Harrington & Richardson and New England Firearms, H&R1871 claimed to be the largest manufacturer of Single-shot shotguns. In December 2007 Remington Arms Company purchased Marlin, Remington announced in April 2008 that it would close the Gardner manufacturing plant by the end of 2008 affecting 200 workers. In March 2010, Marlin announced that it would close its North Haven plant, and move the work to Remington plants in Ilion, New York, and Mayfield, Kentucky
3.
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
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.
Lever action
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Lever action is a type of firearm action which uses a lever located around the trigger guard area to load fresh cartridges into the chamber of the barrel when the lever is worked. This contrasts to bolt-action, semi-automatic, or selective-fire weapons, most lever-action firearms are rifles, but some lever-action shotguns and a few pistols have also been made. One of the most famous lever-action firearms is the Winchester Model 1873 rifle, even Colts Mfg. Co. produced 1883 until 18856403 lever-action Colt-Burgess rifles. Mossberg produces the 464 in centerfire. 30-30 and rimfire.22, probably the first lever-action rifles on the market were Colts 1st and 2nd Model Ring Lever rifles, both Cap and ball rifles, produced by the Patent Arms Mfg. Co. Paterson, N. J. -Colts Patent between 1837 and 1841, the ring-lever was located in front of the trigger. This loading-lever, when pulled, would index the cylinder to the next position, the first significant lever-action design was the Spencer repeating rifle, a magazine-fed lever-operated breech-loading rifle designed by Christopher Spencer in 1860. It was fed from a removable seven-round tube magazine, enabling the rounds to be fired one after another, and which, the Henry also placed the magazine under the barrel, rather than in the butt-stock, a trend followed by most tubular magazines since. The Martini–Henry rifle was the rifle of British and Empire forces from the early 1870s to the turn of the 20th century. It was used in areas, either by civilians or by the local military. Variants copying the Martini–Henry mechanism but using more modern cartridges were also produced, john Marlin, founder of Marlin Firearms Company, New Haven, Connecticut, introduced Marlins first lever-action repeating rifle as the Model 1881. This was chambered in rounds such as the 45/70 and 38/55 and its successor was the 1895 solid top design, which we know as the model 336 today. It also gave rise to the Marlin Model 1894, which is still in production today, by the 1890s, lever-actions had evolved into a form that would last for over a century. Both Marlin and Winchester released new model lever-action rifles in 1894, the Marlin rifle is still in production, whereas production of the Winchester 94 ceased in 2006. While externally similar, the Marlin and Winchester rifles are quite different internally, the fledgling Savage Arms Company became well known after the development of its popular hammerless Models 1895 and 1899 lever-action sporting rifles. Unlike most Winchester and the Marlin lever-action rifles, which used a tubular magazine requiring round-nose or flat-nose bullets and this allowed the 99 to use cartridges with spitzer pointed bullets for increased ballistic performance. The 99 was produced in different cartridges and several different model variations. The final models eliminated the very expensive-to-produce rotary magazine, using a box magazine instead. But the 99 was still expensive to produce when compared to the other lever-action rifles
6.
.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
7.
.303 British
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The.303 British or 7. 7×56mmR, is a. 303-inch calibre rimmed rifle cartridge first developed in Britain as a black-powder round put into service in December 1888 for the Lee–Metford rifle. In 1891 the cartridge was adapted to use smokeless powder and it was the standard British and Commonwealth military cartridge from 1889 until the 1950s when it was replaced by the 7. 62×51mm NATO. The.303 British has 3.64 ml cartridge case capacity, americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 ≈17 degrees. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 254 mm,5 grooves, Ø lands =7.70 millimetres, Ø grooves =7.92 millimetres, land width =2.12 millimetres and the primer type is Berdan or Boxer. Rulings the.303 British can handle up to 365.00 MPa Pmax piezo pressure, regulated countries every rifle cartridge combo has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum C. I. P. pressure to certify for sale to consumers. This means that.303 British chambered arms in C. I. P, regulated countries are currently proof tested at 456.00 MPa PE piezo pressure. The SAAMI Maximum Average Pressure for this cartridge is 49,000 psi piezo pressure, the measurement. 303-inch is the nominal size of the bore measured between the lands which follows the older black powder nomenclature. Measured between the grooves, the size of the bore is. 311-inch. Bores for many.303 military surplus rifles are found ranging from around. 309-inch up to. 318-inch. Recommended bullet diameter for standard.303 British cartridges is. 312-inch, the bolt thrust of the.303 British is relatively low compared to many other service rounds used in the early 20th century. The original.303 British service cartridge employed black powder as a propellant, and was adopted for the Lee–Metford rifle, ballistite was a stick-type smokeless powder composed of soluble nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine. Unlike Cordite, Riflelite was a powder, and contained no nitroglycerine. After extensive testing, the Committee on Explosives selected Cordite for use in the Mark II.303 British service cartridge, the initial.303 Mark I and Mk II service cartridges employed a 215-grain, round-nosed, copper-nickel full-metal-jacketed bullet with a lead core. After tests determined that the bullet had too thin a jacket when used with cordite. This led to the introduction of the Cartridge S. A. Ball.303 inch Cordite Mark III, similar hollow-point bullets were used in the Mk IV and Mk V loadings, which were put into mass production. The design of the Mk IV hollow-point bullet shifted bullet weight rearwards, improving stability, the remaining stocks were used for target practice. The concern about expanding bullets was brought up at the 1899 Hague Convention by Swiss, the British and American defense was that they should not focus on specific bullet designs, like hollow-points, but instead on rounds that caused superfluous injury. The parties in the end agreed to abstain from using expanding bullets, as a result, the Mark III and other expanding versions of the.303 were not issued during the Second Boer War
8.
Handloading
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Handloading or reloading is the process of loading firearm cartridges or shotgun shells by assembling the individual components, rather than purchasing completely assembled, factory-loaded ammunition. Economy, increased accuracy, performance, commercial ammunition shortages, Reloading fired cartridge cases can save the shooter money, or provides the shooter with more, and higher quality, ammunition within a given budget. Besides economy, the ability to customize the performance of ammunition is a common goal, hunters may desire cartridges with specialized bullets or specific performance as regards bullet and velocity. Target shooters seek the best achievable accuracy, as well as the best shot-to-shot consistency, shotgunning enthusiasts can make specialty rounds not available in commercial inventories at any price. This technique also enables hunters to use the rifle and caliber to hunt a wider variety of game. Collectors of obsolete firearms who want to shoot those guns often must handload because appropriate cartridges or shotshells are no commercially produced. Handloaders can also create cartridges for which no equivalent exists - wildcat cartridges. As with any hobby, the enjoyment of the reloading process may be the most important benefit. Recurring shortages of ammunition are also reasons to reload cartridges. There are three aspects to ballistics, internal ballistics, external ballistics, and terminal ballistics, internal ballistics refers to things that happen inside the firearm during and after firing but before the bullet leaves the muzzle. Each cartridge reloaded can have each component carefully matched to the rest of the cartridges in the batch, brass cases can be matched by volume, weight, and concentricity, bullets by weight and design, powder charges by weight, type, case filling, and packing scheme. Where the most extreme accuracy is demanded, such as in rifle benchrest shooting, handloading is a prerequisite for success. The basic piece of equipment for handloading is the press, a press is a device that uses compound leverage to push the cases into the dies that perform the loading operations. Presses vary from simple, inexpensive single stage models, to complex progressive models that will eject a cartridge with each pull of a lever. Inexpensive tong tools have been used for reloading since the mid-19th century and they resembled a large pair of pliers and can be caliber specific or have interchangeable dies. Reloading presses are often categorized by the letter of the alphabet that they most resemble, O, C, the sturdiest presses, suitable for bullet swaging functions as well as for normal reloading die usage, are of the O type. Heavy steel completely encloses the single die on these presses, equally sturdy presses for all but bullet swaging use often resemble the letter C. Both steel and aluminum construction are seen with C presses, some users prefer C style presses over O presses, as there is more room to place bullets into cartridge mouths on C presses
9.
.45-70
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The. 45-70 rifle cartridge, also known as. 45-70 Government, was developed at the U. S. Armys Springfield Armory for use in the Springfield Model 1873, which is known to collectors as the trapdoor Springfield. The new cartridge was a replacement for the stop-gap. 50-70 Government cartridge which had adopted in 1866. The new cartridge was completely identified as the. 45-70-405, but was referred to as the.45 Government cartridge in commercial catalogs. The minimum acceptable accuracy of the, a skilled shooter, firing at known range, could consistently hit targets that were 6 ×6 feet at 600 yards —the armys standard target. It was a skill valuable mainly in mass or volley fire, after the Sandy Hook tests of 1879, a new variation of the. 45-70 cartridge was produced, the. 45-70-500, which fired a heavier,500 grain, bullet. The heavier bullet produced significantly superior ballistics, and could reach ranges of 3,350 yards, which were beyond the maximum range of the. 45-70-405. While the effective range of the. 45-70 on individual targets was limited to about 1,000 yards with either load and it was hoped the longer range of the. 45-70-500 would allow effective volley fire at ranges beyond those normally expected of infantry fire. While the nominal diameter was.450 inches, the groove diameter was actually closer to.458 inches. As was standard practice with many early U. S. commercially produced cartridges, specially-constructed bullets were often paper patched and this patch served to seal the bore and keep the soft lead bullet from coming in contact with the bore, preventing leading. Like the cloth or paper used in muzzleloading firearms, the paper patch fell off soon after the bullet left the bore. Paper-patched bullets were made of soft lead.450 inches in diameter, when wrapped in two layers of thin cotton paper, this produced a final size of.458 inches to match the bore. Paper patched bullets are available, and some black-powder shooters still roll their own paper patched bullets for hunting. Arsenal loadings for the. 45-70-405 and. 45-70-500 government cartridges generally used groove diameter grease groove bullets of.458 inches diameter. The predecessor to the. 45-70 was the. 50-70-450 cartridge, adopted in 1866 and used until 1873 in a variety of rifles, many of them percussion rifled muskets converted to trapdoor action breechloaders. The conversion consisted of milling out the rear of the barrel for the tilting breechblock, the. 50-70 was nevertheless adopted as a temporary solution until a significantly improved rifle and cartridge could be developed. The result of the quest for an accurate, flatter shooting.45 caliber cartridge. Like the. 50-70 before it, the. 45-70 used a copper center-fire case design, a reduced power loading was also adopted for use in the trapdoor carbine
10.
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
11.
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
