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A firearm is a gun designed to be readily carried and used by a single individual. It inflicts damage on targets by launching one or more projectiles driven by rapidly expanding high-pressure gas produced by exothermic combustion (deflagration) of chemical propellant. If gas pressurization is achieved through mechanical gas compression rather than through chemical propellant combustion, then the gun is technically an air gun, not a firearm. Some legal definitions of "firearm" are more broad, and may cover any and all projectile devices, or even other destructive devices.
A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and usually the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun. This is distinct from the more popular modern designs of breech-loading firearms. The term "muzzleloader" applies to both rifled and smoothbore type muzzleloaders, and may also refer to the marksman who specializes in the shooting of such firearms. The firing methods, paraphernalia and mechanism further divide both categories as do caliber.
In firearms terminology, an action is the 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 are single-shot weapons with a closed off breech. Instead, the ignition mechanism is referred to: matchlock, flintlock, etc.
Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint striking ignition mechanism. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism itself, also known as the true flintlock, that was introduced in the early 17th century, and rapidly replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the matchlock, the wheellock, and the earlier flintlock mechanisms.
The Charleville musket was a .69 caliber standard French infantry musket used in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was made in 1717 and was last produced during the 1840s. However, it still saw limited use in conflicts through the mid-19th century.
The Negev is a 5.56×45mm NATO light machine gun developed by the Israeli firearm manufacturer, Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) of Ramat HaSharon.
The pepper-box revolver or simply pepperbox is a multiple-barrel repeating firearm that has three or more barrels which revolve around a central axis. It mostly appears in the form of a multi-shot handheld firearm. Pepperboxes exist in all ammunition systems: matchlock, wheellock, flintlock, caplock, pinfire, rimfire and centerfire. While pepperboxes are usually handguns, a few rifle-sized guns were made: Samuel Colt owned a revolving 3-barrel matchlock musket from India, and an 8-barrelled pepperbox shotgun was designed; but never went into production.
A repeating rifle, or repeater for short, is a single-barrel rifle capable of repeated discharges following a single ammunition reload, typically by having multiple cartridges stored in a magazine and then fed into the chamber by the bolt via either a manual or automatic mechanism, while the act of chambering the rifle typically also recocks the action for the following shot. In common usage, the term "repeating rifle" most often refers specifically to manually-operated weapons, as opposed to self-loading rifles, which use the recoil and blowback of the previous shot to cycle the action and load the next round, even though all self-loading firearms are technically a subcategory of repeating firearms.
The flintlock mechanism is a type of lock used on muskets, pistols, and rifles in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. It is commonly referred to as a "flintlock", though that term is also commonly used for the weapons themselves as a whole, and not just the lock mechanism.
The caplock mechanism, percussion lock, or cap and ball was the successor of the flintlock mechanism in firearm technology, and used a percussion cap struck by the hammer to set off the main charge, rather than using a piece of flint to strike a steel frizzen.
The Baker rifle was a flintlock rifle used by the rifle regiments of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was the first standard-issue, British-made rifle accepted by the British armed forces.
The M1819 Hall rifle was a single-shot breech-loading rifle designed by John Hancock Hall, patented on May 21, 1811, and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1819. It was preceded by the Harpers Ferry Model 1803. It used a pivoting chamber breech design and was made with either flintlock or percussion cap ignition systems. The main years of production were from the 1820s to the 1830s at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. This was the first breech-loading rifle to be adopted in large numbers by any nation's army, but not the first breech-loading military rifle – the Ferguson rifle was used briefly by the British Army in the American Revolutionary War. Breech-loading rifles remained overshadowed by common muskets and muzzleloading rifles which were still prevalent in the early 19th century. The early flintlocks were mostly converted to percussion ignition.
The Thompson/Center Contender is a break-action single-shot pistol or rifle that was introduced in 1967 by Thompson/Center Arms. It can be chambered in cartridges from .22 Long Rifle to .45-70 Government.
The Springfield Model 1822 Musket is a .69 caliber, flintlock musket manufactured by the Springfield Armory and Harper's Ferry Armory
The HK21 is a German 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, developed in 1961 by small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch and based on the G3 battle rifle. The weapon is in use with the armed forces of several Asian, African and Latin American countries. It was also license-manufactured by Fábrica de Braço de Prata in Portugal as the m/968 and in Mexico by SEDENA as the MG21. In the German military (Bundeswehr) and the federal police (Bundespolizei) it is designated "G8".
A combination gun is a firearm that comprises at least one rifled barrel and one smoothbore barrel, that is typically used with shot or some types of shotgun slug. Most have been break-action guns, although there have been other designs as well. Combination guns using one rifled and one smoothbore barrel usually are in an over and under configuration. Side-by-side versions are referred to as cape guns. A drilling is a combination gun that has three barrels. A vierling has four barrels. Combination guns generally use rimmed cartridges, as rimless cartridges are more difficult to extract from a break-action weapon.
A handgun is a short-barrelled firearm that can be held and used with one hand. The two most common handgun sub-types in use today are revolvers and semi-automatic pistols.
Springfield musket may refer to any one of several types of small arms produced by the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts, for the United States armed forces. In modern times, these muskets are commonly referred to by their date of design followed by the name Springfield. However, U.S. Ordnance Department documentation at the time did not use "Springfield" in the name.
The M1817 common rifle was a flintlock muzzle-loaded weapon issued due to the Dept. of Ordnance's order of 1814, produced by Henry Deringer and used from the 1820s to 1840s at the American frontier. Unlike the half-octagon barreled Model 1814 common rifle that preceded it, it had a barrel that was round for most of its length. The 36-inch barrel was rifled for .54 caliber bullets. For rifling it had seven grooves. Like the Model 1814, it had a large oval patchbox in the buttstock; however the buttstock dropped steeper than on the Model 1814.
In firearms and artillery, the primer is the chemical and/or device responsible for initiating the propellant combustion that will push the projectiles out of the gun barrel.
References
- Boyer, Neil A. The Boyers of Easton. Washington, D.C.: Neil Boyer, 1987. pp. 73–74. An updated account of the life of David Boyer (1806-1883), gunmaker of Orwigsburg PA, is provided at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~boyerlinks/boyer_orwigsburg/david_thirdgen.html.
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