1.
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
2.
Handgun
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A handgun is a firearm designed to be handheld, in either one or both hands. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a class of firearms from long guns such as rifles. Major handgun subtypes are the revolver and pistol, other subtypes include derringers, the words pistol and handgun have overlapping variations, in meaning. Although handgun use often includes bracing with a hand, the essential distinguishing characteristic of a handgun is its facility for one-handed operation. The word pistol is often synonymous with the word handgun, some handgun experts make a technical distinction that views pistols as a subset of handguns. But UK/Commonwealth usage often does not make this distinction, handheld firearms were first made in China where gunpowder was first developed. By the 14th century, they existed in Europe as well, the first handheld firearms that might better be called pistols were made as early as the 15th century, but their creator is unknown. By the 18th century, the term came to be used often to refer to handheld firearms, previously there had been no such differentiation, and in fact Samuel Colts original patent was for a revolving-breech pistol. There is no equivalent for handgun in the Romance languages. The general types of handguns are listed below in their order of historical appearance, each type can be classified into many sub-types. Some of these types can also be classified using the general distinction between muzzle-loading firearms and breech-loading firearms. Single-shot pistols are the simplest possible form of pistols and are known to have existed in AD1365, the earliest handguns were single-shot, muzzle-loading guns with ignition provided by inserting a smoldering match cord into a touch hole. As such, they were nothing more than miniature cannon. Improvements followed in subsequent centuries, as types of locks were invented. In the matchlock, the separate match cord was affixed to a pivot which could be tripped by a trigger. In the wheellock, an analogous to that used in todays cigarette lighters replaced the smoldering match cord. In the 17th century, the flintlock, which strikes a flint against steel, the flintlock remained the standard method of small arms ignition around two hundred years. In the 19th century, percussion caps were developed, followed shortly by modern integrated-primer cartridges, an example of a single-shot pistol is the flare gun
3.
.17 Winchester Super Magnum
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.17 Winchester Super Magnum, is a rimfire rifle cartridge developed by the ammunition company Winchester in 2012. It descended from the.27 caliber nail gun blank by necking down the case to take a.17 caliber bullet. Initial loadings were with a 20 grain bullet, delivering muzzle velocities around 3000 ft/s, Winchester, in conjunction with Savage, introduced this cartridge at the 2013 SHOT Show. The brass case for this round is roughly 50% thicker than the 17 HMR, factory ammunition is available from Winchester, Federal American Eagle, and more recently Hornady. Hornady 17 Win Super Mag and Federal Ammunition American Eagle®17 Win, Super Magnum cartridges are currently only available with 20 grain polymer-tipped projectiles rated @3000 FPS at the muzzle. Currently, rifles firing the 17 WSM are the Savage B-Mag bolt action, ruger Model 77/17, Winchester 1885 Low Wall single shot, the Volquartsen semi-automatic, H-S Precision Pro Series 2000, and the semi-automatic Franklin Armory F-17. The F-17 is the first gas-operated rimfire firearm, designed to handle the pressures of this cartridge. Also recently Jard Inc. joined this list with their J7117 WSM AR15 rifle,4 mm caliber Table of handgun and rifle cartridges Super.17 WSM, Savage B-Mag Review
4.
.357 Magnum
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The.357 S&W Magnum, or simply.357 Magnum, is a revolver cartridge with a. 357-inch bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B, Wesson of firearms manufacturers Smith & Wesson and Winchester. It is based upon Smith & Wessons earlier.38 Special cartridge, the.357 Magnum cartridge was introduced in 1934, and its use has since become widespread. This cartridge started the Magnum era of handgun ammunition, the.357 Magnum cartridge is notable for its stopping power. The.357 Magnum was collaboratively developed over a period in the early to mid-1930s by a group of individuals in a response to Colts.38 Super Automatic. Tests at the revealed that those vests defeated any handgun cartridge traveling at less than about 1,000 feet per second. Colts.38 Super Automatic just edged over that velocity and was able to penetrate car doors and vests that bootleggers and gangsters were employing as cover. Though.38 and.357 would seem to be different diameter chamberings, they are in fact identical, the.38 Special nomenclature relates to the previous use of heeled bullets, which were the same diameter as the case. Thus, the only difference in the two cartridges is a slight difference in length, solely for safety purposes. Much credit for the. 357s early development is given to hunter and experimenter Elmer Keith, the. 38-44 HV load used the. 38-Special cartridge loaded to a much higher velocity than standard. 38-Special ammunition. The. 38-44 revolvers were made by using a.44 Special size gun with the barrel bored to accept. 357-caliber bullets, since the frame, cylinder, and barrel were much stronger than the standard.38 Special components, it was capable of withstanding much higher pressures. The. 38-44 HV round, while no longer available, was in most cases the equal of the later.357 Magnum, which works at more than double the pressure of standard.38 Special. Elmer Keith also contributed the Keith-style bullet, which increased the mass of bullet located outside the cartridge, the Keith bullet also employed a large, flat meplat, thus enabling rapid energy transfer for greater wounding properties. At the same time, this design does not deform like a hollow point. These characteristics of the Keith bullet make it suitable for hunting applications as well as for target shooting. In order to reassert itself as the leading law-enforcement armament provider, Smith & Wesson developed the.357 Magnum, Wesson leading the effort within Smith & Wesson, along with considerable technical assistance from Phillip B. Sharpe, a member of the Technical Division staff of the National Rifle Association, the new round was developed from Smith & Wessons existing.38 Special round. It used a different powder load, and ultimately the case was extended by 1⁄8 inch, the case extension was more a matter of safety than of necessity
5.
.41 Remington Magnum
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While Keith had suggested a softer.41 Special cartridge as early as 1955, this idea was passed over in favor of the Magnum option, and the Special survives only as a custom wildcat cartridge. The powerful.44 Magnum, primarily a hunting round, was considered overkill for police use. In addition, the revolvers chambered for the.44 were considered too large, bulky, and heavy for police carry. As a result, the.41 Magnum load was released at an advertised 1500 ft/s, unfortunately, the police load as delivered was regarded as overpowered by most law enforcement agencies, many of whom were still using.38 Special revolvers. Additionally, Smith & Wesson simply adapted their large N-frame revolvers for the new cartridge, the Model 58, targeted for the law enforcement market, was introduced on July 10,1964. Weighing in at 41 ounces, the Model 58 compared unfavorably with other popular revolvers available at the time, Smith & Wesson produced a high-end, premium revolver in.41 Magnum caliber, the Model 57, almost identical to the.44 Magnum-chambered Model 29. Magnum Researchs Desert Eagle division produced a.41 Remington Magnum in their semi-automatic Mark VII, marshall and Sanow called the.41 Magnum one of our most unappreciated calibers. 10 mm caliber List of handgun cartridges Table of handgun and rifle cartridges Ballistics By The Inch. 41mag results Smith & Wesson Model 657
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.
Dan Wesson Firearms
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Dan Wesson Firearms, part of CZ-USA, is an American handgun manufacturer. The corporate headquarters is in Kansas City, Kansas, and the service and manufacturing plant is located in Norwich. Dan Wesson Firearms is known for its expertise and for some types of ammunition it has introduced over the years. Wesson II was the great-grandson of one of the founders of Smith & Wesson and he earned his degree in Material Science and Metallurgy and controlled the quality of his production strictly. After the purchase of Smith & Wesson by the Bangor-Punta manufacturing concern, Wesson set out to open his own manufacturing operation in order to produce high quality, American made revolvers for service as well as competition use. Dan Wesson Arms was incorporated in 1968, with its headquarters and production located in a school building in Monson. Wesson was aware of gunmaker Karl Lewis modular designs which had proposed during Lewis tenure with Browning. Wesson signed a agreement with Lewis, and began setting up the necessary machining and manufacturing equipment. The new Dan Wesson revolver proved to be accurate, though sales were limited - in large part due to the guns unorthodox appearance. After reworking the design to improve its aesthetics and correct some detail faults, Wesson introduced the model as the Model 15 in.357 Magnum. A large framed version in.44 Magnum caliber was introduced in 1980, later, Dan Wesson offered revolvers in stainless steel as well. Barrels and shrouds were constructed of chrome moly steel, despite the success of the revised design and new caliber offerings, Dan Wesson Arms experienced significant upheaval and ownership changes after Wessons death in 1978. The original Monson facility and production equipment became outdated, and production costs of the gun reduced profits, the company declared bankruptcy in 1990. The corporation was initially moved to Palmer Massachusetts, and the name was changed to Dan Wesson Firearms. In 1995, poor sales led to yet another bankruptcy, after which Bob Serva purchased the corporation and its assets, moving the group to Norwich, New York, where it is currently located. Seeking to diversify its line, the company introduced a popular series of high quality M1911A1-type pistols in various calibers. Dan Wesson revolvers also went back into limited production, though required a substantial investment in new CNC tooling. Despite increased sales, the company faced financial hardships
8.
.327 Federal Magnum
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The.327 Federal Magnum is actually a super magnum having replaced the.32 H&R Magnum as the pinnacle of power in this diameter revolver cartridge. First introduced by Federal Cartridge company, the.327 Federal Magnum is an attempt to improve on the.32 H&R Magnum introduced in 1984. Like the.32 H&R Magnum, the.327 Federal Magnum is a lengthened, magnum version of the original.32 S&W cartridge, which dates back to 1878. The.32 S&W was a powder cartridge developed by the Union Metallic Cartridge Company with a case length of 0.61 in. In 1896, the.32 S&W Long was introduced, which had a length of 0.920 in. The introduction of the.32 H&R Magnum nearly a century later increased the length to 1.075 in and increased pressures from 15,000 psi to 21,000 CUP. However, the.32 H&R Magnum cartridge failed to attract much interest from gun owners, while felt recoil exceeds that of the.32 H&R magnum, revolvers in.327 Federal Magnum are much easier to control than equivalent models chambered in.357 Magnum. Comparing the two calibers, Chuck Hawks says, There is no doubt that, for most shooters, the.357 Mag. produces uncomfortable recoil and muzzle blast. ATK recoil figures for the.327 Mag. show free recoil energies of 3.08 ft·lbf. for the 85 grain JHP factory load,5.62 ft·lbf for the 115 grain JHP load and 5.58 ft·lbf for the 100 grain SP load. For comparison, ATK figures are 1.46 ft·lbf for the 85 grain.32 H&R Mag. load and 7.22 ft·lbf for the 125 grain.357 Mag. load. Revolvers in.327 Federal Magnum were initially offered by Charter Arms, Taurus, Ruger, the stainless steel Ruger SP101 was originally selected as the development platform for the new cartridge. Freedom Arms made a design, as did U. S. Fire Arms with its 8-shot Sparrowhawk, Ruger offered the double-action 6-shot SP101 and 7-shot GP100, and the full-sized single-action 8-shot Blackhawk, revolvers chambered in.327 Federal Magnum. A version of the Ruger SP101 with a 3 1/16 barrel chambered in the.327 Federal Magnum was released in January 2008, Ruger, U. S. Firearms, and Freedom Arms discontinued these models by the end of 2013. Smith & Wessons Model 632 has also been discontinued, in late 2014, Ruger introduced the smaller-framed Ruger Single-Seven, a 7-shot single-action.327 Federal Magnum revolver based on the Single-Six. In March,2015, Ruger re-introduced the SP101 in.327 Federal Magnum, the current version of the SP101 features fully adjustable sights and a longer 4.2 barrel. In September 2015, Ruger also introduced the LCR in.327 Federal Magnum, in early 2017, Henry Repeating Arms announced production of four new lever-action long guns, with shipping scheduled to begin in March. Firearms author Chuck Hawks suggests that lever-action carbines in.327 Mag, another similar cartridge is the.30 Carbine, which has been offered in Rugers single-action Blackhawk revolver line since 1968
