In firearms terminology, an action is the functional mechanism of a breech-loading weapon that handles the ammunition, or the method by which that mechanism works. Actions are technically not present on muzzleloaders, as all those are single-shot weapons with a closed off breech and the ammunition is manually loaded through the muzzle. Instead, the muzzleloader ignition mechanism is referred to as the lock,.
The .45 ACP or .45 Auto (11.43×23mm) is a handgun cartridge designed by John Moses Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic pistol. After successful military trials, it was adopted as the standard chambering for Colt's M1911 pistol. The round was developed due to a lack of stopping power experienced in the Moro Rebellion using the .38 Long Colt. This experience and the Thompson–LaGarde Tests of 1904, led the Army and the Cavalry to decide a minimum of .45 caliber was required in a new handgun.
The Makarov pistol or PM is a Soviet semi-automatic pistol. Under the project leadership of Nikolay Fyodorovich Makarov, it became the Soviet Union's standard military and police side arm in 1951.
The 9×19mm Parabellum is a firearms cartridge that was designed by Georg Luger and introduced in 1902 by the German weapons manufacturer Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken (DWM) for its Luger semi-automatic pistol. For this reason, it is designated as the 9mm Luger by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI), and the 9 mm Luger by the Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives (CIP). The name Parabellum is derived from the Latin: Si vis pacem, para bellum, which was the motto of DWM.
Personal defense weapons (PDWs) are a class of compact, selective fire, magazine-fed, submachine gun-like firearms—essentially a hybrid between a conventional submachine gun and a compact assault rifle. Most PDWs fire a small-caliber, high-velocity centerfire bottleneck cartridge resembling a scaled down/shortened intermediate rifle cartridge. This gives the PDWs better effective range, accuracy and armor-penetrating capability than submachine guns, which fire the larger-caliber but slower and less aerodynamic handgun cartridges.
The 9×21mm pistol cartridge was designed by Jager, then adopted and commercialised by Israel Military Industries for those markets where military service cartridges, like the 9×19mm Parabellum, are banned by law for civilian use.
The 9×23mm Largo centerfire pistol cartridge was developed in 1901 for the Bergmann Mars pistol.
Hugo Schmeisser was a German developer of 20th century infantry weapons.
The Type 26 or Model 26 "hammerless" revolver was the first modern revolver adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army. It was developed at the Koishikawa Arsenal and is named for its year of adoption in the Japanese dating system. The revolver saw action in conflicts including the Russo-Japanese War, World War I and World War II.
The Type 94 Nambu 8 mm Pistol is a semiautomatic pistol developed by Kijirō Nambu and his associates for the Imperial Japanese Army. Development of the Type 94 pistol began in 1929, and after several redesigns the final prototype was tested and officially adopted by the Japanese Army in late 1934. The Type 94 pistol entered production in 1935. Approximately 71,000 pistols were manufactured before production ended in 1945.
The Campo-Giro was a semi-automatic pistol, chambered for the 9mm Largo cartridge, which saw service in the Spanish military. It is named for its designer, Colonel Don Venancio López de Ceballos y Aguirre, Count of Campo-Giro.
Theodor Bergmann was a German businessman and industrialist best remembered for the various revolutionary firearms his companies released. Like many entrepreneurs of the era, his activities centered on bicycles, and the nascent automobile. Armament was not Bergmann's primary focus, but the one he was most attracted to, which was the reason most of his pistols were manufactured under license once they were created. He is famous for creating automatic pistols, and their ammunition.
The Type 77 is a 7.62×17 mm Type 64 caliber semi-automatic pistol in service with all branches of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the People's Republic of China, People's Armed Police and various Chinese police forces. The Type 77 has been the main sidearm of the PLA for over two decades and is slowly being phased out by the QSZ-92 pistol in both military and police service but is still in widespread use across the country amongst second line military units and provincial police forces. Beginning in 1990, several variants of the Type 77 were developed for the international market.
The Bergmann Simplex was a compact firearm produced in the early 1900s, utilizing innovations from the earlier Bergman Model 1896 pistol, as well as the Mars pistol. It was chambered for the proprietary Bergmann-Simplex 8mm cartridge.
The Bergmann 1896 was a 19th-century semi-automatic pistol developed by German designer Louis Schmeisser and sold by Theodor Bergmann's company. A contemporary of the Mauser C96 and Borchardt C-93 pistols, the Bergmann failed to achieve the same widespread success, although Bergmann himself later went on to design one of the earliest practical and successful sub-machine guns, the MP-18.
The Bergmann–Bayard was a German-designed semi-automatic pistol produced under license in Belgium.
The 7.63×25mm Mauser round was the original cartridge for the Mauser C96 service pistol. This cartridge headspaces on the shoulder of the case. It later served as the basis for the 7.62mm Tokarev cartridge commonly used in Soviet and Eastern Bloc weapons.
The 7.65×21mm Parabellum is a pistol cartridge that was introduced in 1898 by German arms manufacturer Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken (DWM) for their new Pistol Parabellum. The primary designers were firearms designers Georg Luger and Hugo Borchardt, who developed the round from the earlier 7.65×25mm Borchardt while working at DWM.
The Beretta Model 1923 pistol was a service pistol used by the Italian Army from 1923 until 1945. The M1923 was designed to consolidate the improvements of the 1915/19 model and to use the 9mm Glisenti round. However, due to the vast amount of handguns available after the end of World War I only 3000 samples, of about 10000 produced, were purchased by the Italian Army.
The Hamada Type 1 or Hamada Type Automatic handgun was a semi-automatic pistol developed starting in 1941 for use by the Empire of Japan during World War II. Developed by Bunji Hamada, the pistol took its basic design from the Model 1910 Browning. Production occurred at the Japanese Firearms Manufacturing Company, with only minor changes made as the war progressed.
