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.
Sturm, Ruger & Co.
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Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. is an American, Southport, Connecticut–based firearm manufacturing company, better known by the shortened name Ruger. The company was founded in 1949 by Alexander McCormick Sturm and William B, Ruger and has been publicly traded since 1969. Ruger produces bolt-action, semi-automatic, and single-shot rifles, shotguns, semi-automatic pistols, Sturm, Ruger & Company was founded by William B. Ruger and Alexander McCormick Sturm in 1949 in a small rented shop in Southport. Ruger is a dominant manufacturer in the.22 LR rimfire rifle market in the U. S. due primarily to the sales of its Ruger 10/22 semiautomatic rifle, the 10/22 is very popular due to being relatively inexpensive and of good quality. As a result, a wealth of after-market accessories and parts were available for it. The availability and variety of after-market parts makes it possible to build a 10/22 using only these parts, Ruger similarly dominates the.22 rimfire semi-automatic pistol market with the Ruger MK II and Ruger MK III, descendants of the Ruger Standard pistol. Like the 10/22, the MkII is supported with a variety of after-market accessories. The 22/45 is similar to the Ruger Standard family of pistols but features a different grip angle, Ruger Casting has plants in Newport, New Hampshire and Prescott, Arizona, making ferrous, ductile iron and commercial titanium castings. Ruger Golf makes steel and titanium castings for golf clubs made by a number of different brands, Sturm, Ruger stock has been publicly traded since 1969, and became a New York Stock Exchange company in 1990. After Alex Sturm’s death in 1951, William B, Ruger continued to direct the company until his death in 2002. From 1949 through 2004, Ruger manufactured over 20 million firearms, and currently offers models for hunting, target shooting, self-defense, collecting, and law enforcement. Sturm, Ruger & Co. is headquartered in Southport, Connecticut, and maintains manufacturing facilities in Newport, New Hampshire, Prescott, Arizona, and Mayodan, North Carolina. Rugers subsidiaries are Ruger Precision Metals LLC in Earth City, Missouri, Pine Tree Castings in Newport, New Hampshire, and Ruger Sportswear & Accessories in Mayodan, North Carolina. Of the total 2,288 makers of civilian firearms operating in the United States from 1986–2010, Ruger was ranked the number one U. S. firearms manufacturer from 2008–2011. In 2011, Ruger manufactured 1,114,687 firearms, as their promotion, the company has set a new goal of 2 million firearms produced per year. From 2009 to 2012, Ruger was the top-seller of handguns, list of modern armament manufacturers TALO Distributors Wilson, R. L. Ruger & His Guns, A History of the Man, the Company and Their Firearms. Sturm, Ruger & Co official site Ruger Official History
3.
Caliber
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In guns, particularly firearms, caliber or calibre is the approximate internal diameter of the barrel, or the diameter of the projectile it fires, in hundredths or sometimes thousandths of an inch. For example, a 45 caliber firearm has a diameter of.45 of an inch. Barrel diameters can also be expressed using metric dimensions, as in 9mm pistol, when the barrel diameter is given in inches, the abbreviation cal can be used. Good performance requires a bullet to closely match the diameter of a barrel to ensure a good seal. While modern cartridges and cartridge firearms are referred to by the cartridge name. Firearm calibers outside the range of 17 to 50 exist, but are rarely encountered. Larger calibers, such as.577.585.600.700, the.950 JDJ is the only known cartridge beyond 79 caliber used in a rifle. Referring to artillery, caliber is used to describe the length as multiples of the bore diameter. A 5-inch 50 calibre gun has a diameter of 5 in. The main guns of the USS Missouri are 1650 caliber, makers of early cartridge arms had to invent methods of naming the cartridges, since no established convention existed then. One of the early established cartridge arms was the Spencer repeating rifle, later various derivatives were created using the same basic cartridge, but with smaller-diameter bullets, these were named by the cartridge diameter at the base and mouth. The original No.56 became the. 56-56, and the smaller versions. 56-52. 56-50, the. 56-52, the most common of the new calibers, used a 50-cal bullet. Optionally, the weight in grains was designated, e. g. 45-70-405. Variations on these methods persist today, with new cartridges such as the.204 Ruger, metric diameters for small arms refer to cartridge dimensions and are expressed with an × between the bore diameter and the length of the cartridge case, for example,7. 62×51 NATO. This indicates that the diameter is 7. 62mm, loaded in a case 51mm long. Similarly, the 6. 5×55 Swedish cartridge has a diameter of 6.5 mm. An exception to rule is the proprietary cartridge used by U. S. maker Lazzeroni. The following table lists commonly used calibers where both metric and imperial are used as equivalents
4.
.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
5.
.454 Casull
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The.454 Casull is a firearm cartridge, developed as a wildcat cartridge in 1957 by Dick Casull and Jack Fullmer. It was first announced in November 1959 by Guns & Ammo magazine, the basic design was a lengthened and structurally improved.45 Colt case. The wildcat cartridge finally went mainstream in 1997, when Ruger began chambering its Super Redhawk in this caliber, Taurus followed with the Raging Bull model in 1998 and the Taurus Raging Judge Magnum in 2010. The.45 Schofield and.45 Colt cartridges can fit into the. 454s chambers, the.454 Casull was finally commercialized in 1998, when SAAMI published its first standards for the cartridge. The round is one of the most powerful handgun cartridges in production, the.454 Casull generates almost 5 times the recoil of the.45 Long Colt, and about 75% more recoil energy than the.44 Magnum. It can deliver a 250 grain bullet with a velocity of over 1,900 feet per second. One Buffalo Bore loading drives a heavier 300 grain JFN bullet at 1,650 ft/s for 1,813 ft-lb of muzzle energy, the.454 Casull round is primarily intended for hunting medium or large game, metallic silhouette shooting, and bear protection. The.460 Smith & Wesson Magnum cartridge introduced in 2005 is basically a lengthened.454 Casull cartridge and has the diameter as a.45 Colt or.454 Casull. Therefore, revolvers chambered for the.460 S&W will also chamber the.454 Casull, the.45 Colt, List of cartridges by caliber List of handgun cartridges Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
6.
.480 Ruger
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The.480 Ruger is a large, high-power revolver cartridge, introduced in 2003 by Sturm, Ruger and Hornady. This was the first new cartridge introduced by Ruger, and was at time of introduction the largest-diameter production revolver cartridge, the.475 Linebaugh was introduced around 1988 as a custom, 5-shot Ruger Blackhawk single-action revolver. The.475 is a wildcat cartridge made by cutting the. 45-70 case to a length of 1.4 inches, the.475 Linebaugh is an immensely powerful cartridge, almost as powerful as the.454 Casull, the most powerful production revolver cartridge at the time. When Ruger began to design their new cartridge, they started with the.475 Linebaugh super-magnum cartridge, rather than using the Blackhawk, Ruger chose to chamber the new round in the double-action Super Redhawk, and designed the cartridge to fit in a 6-shot cylinder. The Super Redhawk was already the only 6-shot.454 Casull revolver in production, the.480 case was also.21 inches shorter than the.475 Linebaugh, at 1.285 inches, the same as the.44 Magnum. The. 45-70s large diameter rim is turned down, which is required to fit the 6 cartridges in the Super Redhawks cylinder without interference. The.480 Ruger is often viewed by some as a.475 Special, in other words, as a slightly downgraded version of the super-magnum cartridge. In fact.480 Ruger rounds will fit and function in a.475 Linebaugh revolver, just as a.44 Special will fit and function in revolvers chambered for the.44 Magnum. The.480 Ruger operates at a pressure of 48,000 psi, whereas the Linebaugh has a maximum pressure of 50,000. Depending on load, the.480 Ruger can easily reach within 150 ft/s of the.475 Linebaugh, making it a very formidable hunting cartridge for large and dangerous game. Indeed, the first factory load, a 325-grain bullet at 1,350 ft/s, is nearly within reach of the.44 Magnum, however, with bullets of 400 grains and higher, the.480 Ruger starts to show more potential. The standard.44 Magnum powders, in amounts, will push a 400-grain bullet at over 1300 ft/s. This provides 1,500 ft·lbf. of muzzle energy, about 50% more than commercial.44 Magnum loads, the lower velocities and lower pressures mean the.480 Ruger has less felt recoil and muzzle blast than the higher pressure super-magnums. The.480 is a cartridge, providing a lot of energy without the recoil of larger hard-kicking rounds. It has been stated by many gun writers that the.44 Magnum is typically the most powerful handgun an average person can master. The.480 should be able to take that title, as its original Hornady loading of a 325 gr JHP, easily surpasses factory loadings for the.44 Magnum, the future of this round remains cloudy. Magazine articles and online forums were, for a brief while, however, lackluster sales and a limited number of firearms available in this caliber have shown it to have only moderate popularity. Much of this may be due to the somewhat lackluster ballistics available from the initial Hornady factory offerings, still, for the most part, the round was seen as not doing anything new, and available loads limited its potential for the non-handloader to mere deer hunting
7.
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
8.
Trigger (firearms)
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A trigger is a mechanism that actuates the firing sequence of a firearm or crossbow, a trigger may also start another mechanism such as a trap or a quick release. A small amount of energy applied to the causes the release of much more energy. In double action firearm designs, the trigger is used to cock the firearm -. Firearms use triggers to initiate the firing of a cartridge in the chamber of the weapon. This is accomplished by actuating a striking device through a combination of spring and kinetic energy operating through a pin to strike. There are two types of striking mechanisms, hammers and strikers. Hammers are spring-tensioned masses of metal that pivot on a pin when released, strikers are, essentially, spring-loaded firing pins that travel on an axis in-line with the cartridge eliminating the need for a separate hammer. The connection between the trigger and the hammer is generally referred to as the sear surface, variable mechanisms will have this surface directly on the trigger and hammer or have separate sears or other connecting parts. There are numerous types of action, where action refers to the mechanism or to the logic of how it is built and they are categorized according to which functions the trigger is to perform. Most modern firearms use the trigger to deactivate passive safeties but this does not change how they are identified, a single-action trigger is the earliest and mechanically simplest of trigger types. Almost all rifles and shotguns use this type of trigger, the term single-action wasnt in use until weapons with double-action triggers were invented, which didnt occur until the mid-19th century, before that, all triggers were single-action. Although these weapons dont require the user to physically cock the hammer, manually cocked hammers lasted a while longer in some break-action shotguns, and in dangerous game rifles, where the hunter didnt want to rely on an unnecessarily complex or fragile weapon. In modern usage, the terms single-action and double-action almost always refer to handguns, while a single-action revolver or semi-automatic must always be cocked prior to firing, most double-action handguns are capable of firing in both single- and double-action modes. Only double-action only weapons are incapable of firing from a cocked hammer. Thereafter, every time a round is fired, the hammer is recocked by the cycling slide, after the first shot, they would fire as single-actions. These double action, or double action, pistols rapidly gained popularity. A double-action/single-action firearm combines the features of both mechanisms, and is called traditional double-action. In simple terms, double-action refers to a gun trigger mechanism that both cocks the hammer and then releases the sear, thus performing two actions, hence double action
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
