1.
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
2.
Gun barrel
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A gun barrel is a part of firearms and artillery pieces. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, a gun barrel must be able to hold in the expanding gas produced by the propellants to ensure that optimum muzzle velocity is attained by the projectile as it is being pushed out by the expanding gas. Modern small arms barrels are made of known and tested to withstand the pressures involved. Artillery pieces are made by various techniques providing reliably sufficient strength, early firearms were muzzle-loading, with powder, and then shot loaded from the muzzle, capable of only a low rate of fire. During the 19th century effective mechanical locks were invented that sealed a breech-loading weapon against the escape of propellant gases, the early Chinese, the inventors of gunpowder, used bamboo, a naturally tubular stalk, as the first barrels in gunpowder projectile weapons. Early European guns were made of iron, usually with several strengthening bands of the metal wrapped around circular wrought iron rings. The Chinese were the first to master cast-iron cannon barrels, early cannon barrels were very thick for their caliber. Bore evacuator Bore snake Cannon Muzzle Polygonal rifling Rifling Slug barrel Smoothbore
3.
Action (firearms)
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In firearms terminology, an action is the mechanism that handles the ammunition or the method by which that mechanism works. Breech-loading weapons have actions, actions are not present on muzzleloaders. The mechanism that fires a muzzle-loader is called the lock, actions can be categorized in several ways, including single action versus double action, break action versus bolt action, and others. The term action can also short, long, and magnum if it is in reference to the length of the rifle’s receiver. The short action rifle usually can accommodate a cartridge length of 2.8 in or smaller, the long action rifle can accommodate a cartridge of 3.34 in, and the magnum action rifle can accommodate cartridges of 3.6 in, or longer in length. Manual operation is a term describing any type of firearm action that is loaded one shot at a time by the user rather than automatically. For example, break action is a form of operation using a simple hinge mechanism that is manually unlatched by the operator. These are actions wherein the breechblock lowers or drops into the receiver to open the breech, there are two principal types of dropping block, the tilting block and the falling block. In a tilting or pivoting block action, the breechblock is hinged on a pin mounted at the rear, when the lever is operated, the block tilts down and forward, exposing the chamber. The best-known pivoting block designs are the Peabody, the Peabody–Martini, the original Peabody rifles, manufactured by the Providence Tool Company, used a manually cocked side-hammer. The 1871 Martini–Henry which replaced the trapdoor Snider–Enfield was the standard British Army rifle of the later Victorian era, charles H. Ballards self-cocking tilting-block action was produced by the Marlin Firearms Company from 1875, and earned a superlative reputation among long-range Creedmoor target shooters. Surviving Marlin Ballards are today highly prized by collectors, especially those mounted in the elaborate Swiss-style Schützen stocks of the day. A falling-block action is a firearm action in which a solid metal breechblock slides vertically in grooves cut into the breech of the weapon. Examples of firearms using the falling block action are the Sharps rifle, in a rolling block action the breechblock takes the form of a part-cylinder, with a pivot pin through its axis. The operator rotates or rolls the block to open and close the breech, it is a simple, rugged, a break action is a type of firearm where the barrel are hinged and can be broken open to expose the breech. The earliest metallic-cartridge breechloaders designed for military issue began as conversions of muzzle-loading rifle-muskets. The upper rear portion of the barrel was filed or milled away, an internal angled firing pin allowed the re-use of the rifles existing side-hammer. The Allin action made by Springfield Arsenal in the US hinged forward, france countered in 1866 with its superior Chassepot rifle, also a paper-cartridge bolt action
4.
Stainless steel
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In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French inoxydable, is a steel alloy with a minimum of 10. 5% chromium content by mass. Stainless steel is notable for its resistance, and it is widely used for food handling. Stainless steel does not readily corrode, rust or stain with water as ordinary steel does, however, it is not fully stain-proof in low-oxygen, high-salinity, or poor air-circulation environments. There are various grades and surface finishes of stainless steel to suit the environment the alloy must endure, Stainless steel is used where both the properties of steel and corrosion resistance are required. Stainless steel differs from carbon steel by the amount of chromium present, unprotected carbon steel rusts readily when exposed to air and moisture. This iron oxide film is active and accelerates corrosion by making it easier for more iron oxide to form, since iron oxide has lower density than steel, the film expands and tends to flake and fall away. In comparison, stainless steels contain sufficient chromium to undergo passivation and this layer prevents further corrosion by blocking oxygen diffusion to the steel surface and stops corrosion from spreading into the bulk of the metal. Passivation occurs only if the proportion of chromium is high enough, Stainless steel’s resistance to corrosion and staining, low maintenance, and familiar lustre make it an ideal material for many applications. Storage tanks and tankers used to transport orange juice and other food are made of stainless steel. This also influences its use in kitchens and food processing plants, as it can be steam-cleaned and sterilized. High oxidation resistance in air at ambient temperature is achieved with addition of a minimum of 13% chromium. The chromium forms a layer of chromium oxide when exposed to oxygen. The layer is too thin to be visible, and the metal remains lustrous, the layer is impervious to water and air, protecting the metal beneath, and this layer quickly reforms when the surface is scratched. This phenomenon is called passivation and is seen in other metals, corrosion resistance can be adversely affected if the component is used in a non-oxygenated environment, a typical example being underwater keel bolts buried in timber. When stainless steel parts such as nuts and bolts are forced together, when forcibly disassembled, the welded material may be torn and pitted, a destructive effect known as galling. Galling can be avoided by the use of materials for the parts forced together, for example bronze and stainless steel. However, two different alloys electrically connected in a humid, even mildly acidic environment may act as a voltaic pile, nitronic alloys, made by selective alloying with manganese and nitrogen, may have a reduced tendency to gall. Additionally, threaded joints may be lubricated to provide a film between the two parts and prevent galling, low-temperature carburizing is another option that virtually eliminates galling and allows the use of similar materials without the risk of corrosion and the need for lubrication
5.
.45 Colt
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The.45 Colt or.45 Long Colt cartridge is a handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It is a black-powder revolver round developed for the Colt Single Action Army revolver and this cartridge was adopted by the U. S. Army in 1873 and served as an official US military handgun cartridge for 14 years. Colt began work on the revolver in 1871, and submitted a sample to the U. S. Army in late 1872, the revolver was accepted for purchase in 1873. The cartridge is an inside lubricated type, the rebated heel type bullet design of its predecessor, the.44 Colt, was eliminated, since it was an outside lubricated type, which would pick up dirt and grit during handling. The.45 Colt replaced the.50 caliber Model 1871 Remington single shot pistol, while the Colt remained popular, the Smith & Wesson M1875 Army Schofield Revolver was approved as an alternate which created a logistic problem for the Army. Adoption of the.45 M1887 Military Ball Cartridge resolved the Armys ammunition logistic problems, the M1887 Govt round was replaced by the.38 Long Colt in 1892. In 1909, the.45 M1909 round was issued along with the.45 Colt New Service revolver and this round was never loaded commercially, and is almost identical to the original.45 Colt round, except having a larger diameter rim. The rim is large enough that it cannot be loaded in adjacent chambers in the rod-ejector Colt model, the.45 Colt remains popular with renewed interest in Cowboy Action Shooting. The modern.45 Colt bullet has changed as well, and it is now.451 inches in diameter for jacketed bullets, the.45 Colt became the basis for other rounds, such as the.454 Casull. The.45 Colt originally was a cartridge, but modern loadings use smokeless powder. The original black-powder loads called for 28 to 40 grains of powder behind a 230-to-255-grain lead bullet. These loads developed muzzle velocities of up to 1,050 ft/s, because of this power and its excellent accuracy, the.45 Colt was the most-used cartridge at the time of its introduction, succeeding the.44 WCF. The.45 Colt at that time did not enjoy the. 44-40s advantage of a Winchester rifle chambered for it, the rumor was that early.45 Colt cartridges had a very minimal rim, and would not eject reliably. Currently manufactured brass has a rim of adequate diameter for such uses, modern Winchesters, Marlins and replicas have remedied this omission almost 100 years after the fact, and the.45 Colt is now available in modern lever-action rifles. While this has one of numerous arguments to explain the lack of a rifle chambered in.45 Colt, in fact. It required the expiration of those original patents for the.45 Colt to become available in a rifle, todays standard factory loads develop around 400 ft·lbf of muzzle energy at about 860 ft/s, making it roughly equivalent to modern.45 ACP loads. There are Cowboy Action Shooting loads which develop muzzle velocities of around 750 ft/s, cartridges of the World states that.45 Colt should never be loaded to more than 800 fps. Some handloads and factory manufactured cartridges put this round in the class as the.44 Magnum using special revolvers
6.
.410 bore
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.410 bore, commonly incorrectly named the.410 gauge, is the smallest gauge of shotgun shell commonly available. Lancasters pattern centrefire and pinfire.410 shot cartridges first appeared in Eley Brothers Ltd. advertising flysheets in 1857, by 1874 Eleys were advertising modern centrefire.410 cartridges. The first ammunition was 2.0 inches long, compared with the modern 2.5 and 3. 0-inch sizes, as the smallest of traditional shotgun sizes.410 bore guns throw the least weight of shot, but are very easy to handle. This results in a low recoil, so the.410 is often chosen for young shooters. Some shooters, however, discourage the use of the.410, others believe starting young/new/small shooters with large recoiling guns will cause a habit of flinching and negatively affect their accuracy. By using sub-gauge inserts, a 12 gauge break open action can be converted down as far as a.410 bore to provide additional challenge when training. The.410 bore is also used for small game animals such as squirrels and rabbits. The.410 bore is inferior to the traditional 12 gauge shotshell for defensive use, though a number of companies market defensive guns chambered in.410, defensive ammunition is becoming easier to find although most.410 bore shells remain loaded with birdshot. The small size of the.410 bore makes it popular for use in compact firearms carried for emergency use, commonly these are combination guns, with a.22 Hornet or.22 rimfire rifle barrel mounted over a.410 bore shotgun barrel. The most famous of these is the M6 survival rifle made by Springfield Armory, Inc. for the US Air Force, the original has a 14-inch barrel, the same length as the stock, and folds in half for storage, making a compact package. With the short barrel, this is classified as an Any Other Weapon in the United States, so 18. 5-inch barreled models are made for civilian sales, special flare cartridges in.410 were issued with the USAF model. The Thompson Center Arms Contender pistols are commonly encountered with a special.45 Colt/.410 bore barrel, the barrel is rifled for the.45 Colt, but has a special choke and vent rib to make it function as a shotgun. Due to the barrel, the assembled firearm is considered a rifle or pistol. Nonetheless, possession of a Thompson Center Arms. 45/, the fact that the.410 bore shell fits in a.45 Colt chamber has resulted in some unusual applications. The Smith & Wesson Governor is a double-action revolver also capable of firing.45 ACP cartridges with the aid of moon clips, the now discontinued MIL Thunder 5 was also chambered in. 410-bore. Other fireams makers, such as Bond Arms, offer various derringer models which chamber both.45 Colt cartridges and.410 shotshell, the bore designation of the.410 bore is unique among shotgun cartridges. Other shotgun cartridges are measured in terms of shotgun gauge, Shotgun gauge is determined by the weight of a round lead ball that is sized to fit into its barrel. For example, the barrel of a 12-gauge shotgun is equal to the diameter of 1/12th pound lead ball, using this method a.410 bore would be equivalent to a hypothetical 67-gauge
7.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
8.
.22 Hornet
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The.22 Hornet or 5. 6×35mmR is a varmint, small-game, predator, and competition centerfire rifle cartridge commercially introduced in 1930. It is considerably more powerful than the.22 WMR and the.17 HMR, the Hornet also differs very significantly from these in that it is not a rimfire but a centerfire cartridge. This makes it handloadable and reloadable, and thus much more versatile and it was the smallest commercially available.22 caliber centerfire cartridge until the introduction of the FN5. 7×28mm. The.22 Hornet fills the gap between such popular varmint/predator cartridges as the.22 WMR and the.223 Remington, in regard to muzzle velocity, muzzle energy and noise, it is well suited to vermin and predator control in relatively built-up areas. Harwoods cartridge was formed by necking down. 25-20 Winchester brass to.22 caliber, the modern.22 Hornets ancestry is generally attributed to experiments done in the 1920s using the black-powder.22 WCF at Springfield Armory. Winchester adopted what had so far been a cartridge in 1930. It was not until 1932 that any company began selling commercially made guns for the cartridge, wildcat variants of the.22 Hornet, such as the.22 K-Hornet, can boost bullet velocity and energy considerably above factory. Factory ammunition is available from all major manufacturers, generally with bullets weighing 34,35,45, or 46 grains. Muzzle velocity typically is in the 2,500 to 3,100 ft/s range, published handload data from major handloading-product companies shows how versatile the.22 Hornet can be. Beginning during World War II, aircrew survival rifles in.22 Hornet were developed and issued by the U. S. military and they were a bolt-action rifle with adjustable stock, a break-open rifle/shotgun over-under, and a takedown bolt-action rifle. Military survival issue.22 Hornet ammunition was loaded with soft-point expanding jacketed bullets, however, they were labeled Under no circumstances is the ammunition to be used for offensive or defensive measures against enemy personnel. This ammunition is provided for use with your emergency survival Rifle for the Killing of Game for food under emergency survival conditions only and it was later determined by the USAF that exigent circumstances and self defense would have exempted soft point ammunition from that provision. The.22 Hornet is a cartridge for the Field/Hunters pistol category in IHMSA. Survivalist Mel Tappan on the.22 Hornet, It is accurate, has no recoil. Ts performance limits its use to game and pests within 150 or 175 yards. It is by no means a deer cartridge, even with handloads. The Hornet is considered an optimal cartridge for hunting, though it is not as powerful as modern.22 centerfires. At mid-century, southern sportsman Henry Edwards Davis pronounced the Winchester Model 70 chambered for the Hornet the best commercial rifle for wild turkeys the world has ever seen
9.
IMI Desert Eagle
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The IMI Desert Eagle is a semi-automatic handgun notable for chambering the largest centerfire cartridge of any magazine fed, self-loading pistol. It has a design with a triangular barrel and large muzzle. Magnum Research Inc. designed and developed the Desert Eagle, the design was refined and the actual pistols were manufactured by Israel Military Industries until 1995, when MRI shifted the manufacturing contract to Saco Defense in Saco, Maine. In 1998, MRI moved manufacturing back to IMI, which later reorganized under the name Israel Weapon Industries, since 2009, the Desert Eagle Pistol has been produced in the United States at MRIs Pillager, MN facility. Kahr Arms acquired Magnum Research in the middle of 2010, the design for the Desert Eagle was initiated by Bernard C. White of Magnum Research and Arnolds Streinbergs of Riga Arms Institute and this established the basic layout of the Desert Eagle. A second patent application was filed in December 1985, after the design had been refined by IMI for production. The pistol is fired by a single action hammer, and has a safety switch on the slide. With the safety off, pulling the trigger releases the hammer to fall downward, hitting the firing pin, the Desert Eagle uses a gas-operated mechanism normally found in rifles, as opposed to the short recoil or blow-back designs most commonly seen in semi-automatic pistols. When a round is fired, gases are ported out through a hole in the barrel near the breech. These travel forward through a tube under the barrel, to a cylinder near the front of the barrel. The slide which acts as the carrier has a small piston on the front that fits into this cylinder. When the gases reach the cylinder they push the piston rearward, the advantage of the gas operation is that it allows the use of far more powerful cartridges than traditional semi-automatic pistol designs. Thus it allows the Desert Eagle to compete in an area that had previously dominated by magnum revolvers. Switching a Desert Eagle to another chambering requires only that the barrel, bolt assembly. Thus, a conversion to fire the other cartridges can be quickly accomplished, the most popular barrel length is 6 in, although a 10 in barrel is available. The Mark XIX barrels are machined with integral scope mounting bases, the Desert Eagle is fed with a detachable magazine. Magazine capacity is 9 rounds in.357 Magnum,8 rounds in.44 Magnum, the Desert Eagles barrel features polygonal rifling
10.
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
11.
.500 S&W Magnum
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Its primary design purpose was as a hunting handgun cartridge capable of taking all North American game species. Smith & Wesson had been at the forefront when developing powerful handgun cartridges such as the.357 S&W Magnum, however, since 1960 the company’s.44 Remington Magnum, which it had developed in partnership with Remington, was eclipsed by the.454 Casull. Since then, several other more powerful cartridges had been developed by Action Arms, Linebaugh, Ruger, Wildey, and Winchester for repeating handguns. In 1971 Smith & Wesson had experienced a surge in orders for their Model 29 revolver in the.44 Magnum cartridge with which S&W production was not able to keep up. Available Model 29 revolvers were being sold for two to three times the retail price, due to the low supply and high demand for the revolver. This surge in demand was due to the Dirty Harry movie, with the entry of the.500 S&W Magnum and the Model 500 revolver, Smith & Wesson recaptured the title of the most powerful handgun, and with it an increase in sales. The.500 Smith & Wesson Magnum was designed from the outset to be the most powerful production handgun cartridge, S&W product manager Herb Belin proposed the idea of developing the revolver and cartridge to the S&W sales team. With the backing of the team, the project was approved by S&W President Bob Scott. The ammunition would be developed by Cor-Bon and Peter Pi in partnership with the S&W X-Gun engineering team of Brett Curry Lead Design Engineer, Rich Mikuta, and Tom Oakley. Eleven months later on January 9,2003, the team unveiled the S&W Model 500 revolver, according to Belin, the cartridge was designed from its inception to be substantially more powerful than any other production handgun cartridge before it. Cor-Bon would later go on to develop the.500 S&W Special cartridge, the.500 S&W Magnum is a semi-rimmed, straight cartridge optimized for use in revolvers. The cartridge is designed to headspace on its rim, the.500 S&W Magnum was designed to fire a bullet with a diameter of.500 in unlike the.500 Linebaugh, which fires a.510 in bullet. SAAMI compliant.500 S&W Magnum cartridge schematic, All dimensions in inches, the.500 S&W Magnum has a maximum working pressure of 60,000 psi. However, most factory ammunition is limited to 50,000 psi to help ease extraction of fired cases, the cylinders of the S&W Model 500 revolver are engineered to be capable of withstanding 50% over pressure. Regular proof-load testing is performed at 20% over pressure, cylinder bore ∅ is given as.500 in. SAAMI recommends a 6 groove barrel with each groove being.130 in wide, a barrel with a bore ∅ of.4880 in and a groove ∅ of.4983 in is also recommended. The recommended twist rate is 1 in 18.75 in, while the overall length is given as 2.300 inches by many sources, some revolvers will not be able to accept cartridges with bullets seated to this overall length. This is because the cylinders of the revolvers are too short to accommodate such cartridges, the now-discontinued Taurus Raging Bull 500 is an example of one such revolver
12.
.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
