Ballistics

• Firearms


  Any instrument which is designed or adapted to discharge a projectile or hurt a projectile with the help of force applied by the expended gases of main charge (propellant)
• Firearms can be smooth bore, rifled bore, manual/semi-automatic/automatic, handguns, shoulder guns etc.
• Small arms


  Firearms intended to be primarily designed for individual use or that which is generally considered to mean a weapon intended to be fired from the hand or shoulder, which are not capable of fully automatic bursts of discharge
• Types of small arms

  • Handgun
  • Pistol
  • Revolver
  • Rifle
  • Shotgun
• Handgun


  A firearm intended to be fired from the hand
• Pistol


  A hand-operated firearm having a chamber integral with or permanently aligned with the bore which may be self-loading
• Revolver


  A hand-operated firearm with a revolving cylinder containing chambers for individual cartridges
• Rifle


  A shoulder firearm or designed to be fired from the shoulder that can discharge a bullet through a rifled barrel by different actions of loading, which may be classified as lever, bolt, or self-loading
• Shotgun


  A weapon designed, made and intended to fire a number of ball shots or a single projectile through a smooth bore by the action or energy from burning gunpowder
• Types of handguns


  • Single shot
  • Revolving
  • Self-loading pistols
• Single shot handgun


  Generally designed to fire a single shot, mostly of the 0.22 lang rifle caliber
• Revolving pistol or revolver


  The ammunition is held in a cylinder at the rear of the barrel with each round having its own chamber
• Self-loading pistol (Semi-automatic)


  The ammunition is contained in a removable spring-loaded magazine housed within the grip frame
• Long guns


  Also known as shoulder arms or shoulder guns, this type of firearms are usually fired with two hands in a stable position like rifles and shotguns
• Rifle


  A gun, designed to be fired from shoulder level, having a long spirally grooved barrel intended to make a bullet spin and thereby have greater accuracy over a long distance
• Shotgun


  A smoothbore designed gun designed to be fired small shot at short range, it uses a small round of pellets called shots, or single projectiles called slugs and the barrel is smooth
• Larger guns/Artillery


  Weapon designed to be mounted on vehicles, tanks, ships, and aircraft. Guns with caliber higher than 50 are classified as cannons
• Artillery


  Firearm that propels projectiles with more than one [1] inch in diameter
• Firearm mechanisms


  • Single action
  • Double action
  • Bolt
  • Pump
  • Lever
  • Semi-automatic
  • Automatic
• Single action


  The mechanism by which the trigger functions solely to cause the hammer to strike the ammunition
• Double action


  The mechanism by which the trigger also cocks the hammer ready for the next firing
• Barrel construction


  • Smooth bore
  • Rifled bore
• Smooth bore firearms


  Firearm designed with NO riflings (land and grooves) inside their gun barrel. Examples: Shotguns and Muskets
• Rifled-bore firearms


  Firearm designed with riflings (land and grooves) inside their barrel
• Rifling


  Designed to help rotate the projectile as it is expelled from a weapon, which then helps a straighter trajectory
• Lands


  The elevated proportion of the barrel between two grooves
• Caliber


  The diameter of the barrel which is measured across opposite land
• Rifle actions


  • Single shot
  • Bolt action
  • Self-loading
  • Pump action
• Single shot rifle


  Weapons designs where the barrel can be hinged to the frame, allowing the barrel to be dropped down for loading and unloading, or can have some form of breech block which either swings out, pulls back or slides down to expose the breech end of the barrel
• Bolt action rifle


  Weapons designs where a turning bolt slides in an extension to the barrel, which is basically the same system as in a turn bolt used to lock a door. Bolt-action weapons are generally magazine fed, either by a tubular magazine under the barrel, through the butt stock or via a box magazine under the bolt
• Self-loading rifle (Semi-automatic)


  Repeating firearms with the exception of the lowest power weapons, of the locked-breech type are generally very similar to those used in locked breech pistols, but of a much stronger design to cope with the higher pressures involved
• Short recoil self-loading rifle

  The bolt and breech block are only locked together for about 0.75" of rearward travel before unlocking. It then operates as a normal self-loading pistol
• Long recoil self-loading rifle


  The barrel and breech block are locked together for the full distance of the recoil stroke. After reaching the end of its travel, the barrel is than unlocked and pushed forward by spring action ejecting the spent cartridge during its forward motion
• Pump action (slide action) rifle


  Also known as slide action or trombone action, these are firearm designs where the breech block is attached, via operating rods, to a moveable fore-end. On pulling back the fore-end, the mechanism locking the breech block to the barrel is released. By pulling the fore-end to the rearmost extent of its travel then pushing it forward, the empty cartridge case is ejected, a fresh round is loaded into the chamber and the action is cocked
• Lever type (break type) rifle


  A firearm designed wherein the breech mechanism is cycled by an external lever generally below the receiver. The loading takes place by the lever action of the firearm
• Shotgun


  Smoothbore shoulder weapons designed to fire a number of pellets, or shot that spread in a diverging pattern after they leave the muzzle. It is used primarily against small moving targets, especially birds. Shotguns are basically similar to those found in rifles, with single/double-shot weapons with barrels hinged to the frame for loading/unloading, bolt action, self-loading and pump action. Barrels can be either positioned one on top of the other, over and under or superposed "or" side by side
• Sub-machine gun


  Fully automatic weapons chambered for pistol caliber ammunitions. Its mechanism usually are bolt action and a large spring are employed to delay the cartridge extraction. The classic example of this type of action is the Sten gun used by the British forces and the UZI's which is equipped with some form of delayed blowback action of the type used in self-loading pistols and rifle actions
• Machine gun


  A type of weapon designed to propel or shoot automatically or semi automatically, more than one ammunition, without manual reloading by a single pull of the trigger