Rear side of a CZ-75B pistol barrel showing the (here dirty) feed ramp.
A feed ramp is a basic feature of many breech loading cartridge firearm designs. It is a tightly machined and polished piece of metal which guides a cartridge from the top of the magazine into the firing chamber of the barrel. The feed ramp may be part of the magazine (AR-7), part of the receiver or frame (Mauser C96), or part of the barrel (H&K USP). Some firearms, like the FN Five-seven, have a beveled chamber instead of a feed ramp.
The feed ramp is a critical part of a semi-automatic pistol or automatic rifle. When the pistol is fired and the spent case is ejected, the feed ramp functions to direct a fresh cartridge from the magazine into firing position; that is, the fresh cartridge slides along the feed ramp into battery. The need for the cartridge to slide both forwards and upwards along the feed ramp and into the barrel is the primary design consideration that makes the ogive the preferred shape for all modern automatic pistol rounds (a hollow point bullet is a truncated ogive), as there are many other shapes that are stable in ballistic flight.
A rough surface or the presence of debris on the feed ramp can knock cartridges off-center, inducing a jam. Polishing a feed ramp is among the tasks commonly performed by gunsmiths.
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 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,.
A semi-automatic pistol is a type of pistol that uses the energy of the fired cartridge to cycle the action of the firearm and advance the next available cartridge into position for firing. One cartridge is fired each time the trigger of a semi-automatic pistol is pulled; the pistol's fire-control system ensures this behavior by disconnecting the trigger mechanism from the firing pin/striker until the trigger has been reset.
A repeating rifle, or repeater for short, is a rifle capable of repeated discharges from a single barrel between ammunition reloads. This is typically achieved 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 .38 Super, also known as .38 Superauto or .38 Super Auto, is a pistol cartridge that fires a 0.356-inch-diameter (9.04 mm) bullet. The Super was introduced in the late 1920s as a higher pressure loading of the .38 ACP or .38 Auto. The old .38 ACP propelled a 130-grain (8.4 g) bullet at 1,050 ft/s (320.0 m/s). The improved .38 Super Auto pushed the same 130-grain (8.4 g) bullet at 1,280 ft/s (390.1 m/s). The .38 Super has gained distinction as the caliber of choice for many top pistol match competitors; it remains one of the dominant calibers in IPSC competition.
The Desert Eagle is a semi-automatic handgun notable for chambering the largest centerfire cartridge of any magazine-fed, self-loading pistol. It is also the most powerful magazine-fed semi-automatic commercial handgun, by virtue of the muzzle energy it can generate. Magnum Research Inc. (MRI) designed and developed the Desert Eagle. The design was refined and the 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 commercialized its small arms branch under the name Israel Weapon Industries. Since 2009, the Desert Eagle Pistol has been produced in the United States at MRI's Pillager, Minnesota facility. Kahr Arms acquired Magnum Research in 2010.
A magazine is an ammunition storage and feeding device within or attached to a repeating firearm. Magazines can be removable (detachable) or integral (internal/fixed) to the firearm. The magazine functions by moving the cartridges stored within it into a position where they may be loaded into the barrel chamber by the action of the firearm. The detachable magazine is often colloquially referred to as a clip, although this is technically inaccurate.
The Smith & Wesson Model 22A is a semi-automatic pistol that was manufactured in Houlton, Maine. The 22A is a full-size pistol with an aluminum alloy frame. The steel barrel has an integrated Weaver style rail.
The PM-63 RAK is a Polish 9×18mm submachine gun, designed by Piotr Wilniewczyc in cooperation with Tadeusz Bednarski, Grzegorz Czubak and Marian Wakalski. The RAK combines the characteristics of a self-loading pistol and a fully automatic submachine gun.
The Hi-Point Model JHP is a polymer-framed, semi-automatic, blowback-operated pistol manufactured by Hi-Point Firearms.
A bolt is the part of a repeating, breech-loading firearm that blocks the rear opening (breech) of the barrel chamber while the propellant burns, and moves back and forward to facilitate loading/unloading of cartridges from the magazine. The extractor and firing pin are often integral parts of the bolt.
An ejector is a part in a firearm that serves to remove brass cases of fired ammunition after the ammunition has been fired. When the gun's action cycles, the extractor lifts or removes the spent brass casing from the firing chamber.
A snap cap is a device which is shaped like a standard firearm cartridge but contains no primer, propellant or projectile. It serves the same function as a dummy round, but different in that a dummy is usually made from a real cartridge with its propellant and primer removed, while a snap cap is designed to be a fake cartridge from the very beginning.
The Grizzly Win Mag pistols were conceived, invented, designed, engineered and developed in the 1980s by the sole inventor, Perry Arnett, who licensed his patent for an interchangeable caliber automatic pistol to L.A.R. Manufacturing Inc. Perry Arnett's designs were initially flawed and were improved upon by Heinz Augat. The L.A.R. Grizzly was the most powerful semi-automatic pistol ever commercially produced.
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.
A pistol is a type of handgun, which is a short-barrelled projectile weapon inclusive of the revolver and the derringer. The English word was introduced in ca. 1570—when early handguns were produced in Europe—and derives from the Middle French pistolet. The most common type of pistol in modern times is the semi-automatic pistol, while the older single-shot pistols are now far less common and used primarily for hunting, and the fully automatic machine pistols are rare due to strict laws and regulations governing their manufacture and sale.
The OTs-33 Pernach is a Russian 9x18 Makarov machine pistol, derived from the 5.45 mm OTs-23 Drotik machine pistol. The Pernach is an automatic pistol designed to replace the Stechkin APS in various special OMON units within the Russian police, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and other paramilitary units. The OTs-33 was developed in 1995 by Igor Stechkin at the TsKIB SOO design bureau, and it went into limited production at the KBP Instrument Design Bureau. It is also known as the SBZ-2, derived from the names of the KBP team responsible for the pistol, namely Stechkin, Baltser (Бальцер) and Zinchenko (Зинченко).
The following are terms related to firearms and ammunition topics.
The Arsenal P-M02 is a semi-automatic pistol manufactured by Bulgarian Arsenal since 1999.
A firearm malfunction is the failure of a firearm to operate as intended for causes other than user error. Malfunctions range from temporary and relatively safe situations, such as a casing that didn't eject, to potentially dangerous occurrences that may permanently damage the gun and cause injury or death. Improper handling of certain types of malfunctions can be very dangerous. The basic rules of firearms safety should be followed at all times to minimize the risk to shooters and bystanders. Proper cleaning and maintenance of a firearm play a big role in preventing malfunctions.
Recoil operation is an operating mechanism used to implement locked-breech, autoloading firearms. Recoil operated firearms use the energy of recoil to cycle the action.
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