Outdoors: Firearm related terms educate readers

From time to time this column has featured simple facts about outdoor-related topics, such as facts about wildlife or names of wildlife young. Today we will tackle a few firearm-related facts, supplied by the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Ammunition: A loaded cartridge, consisting of a primed case, propellant and a projectile. Among the many types of ammunition are centerfire, rimfire and shotshells.

Examples of centerfire ammunition include rifle, pistols and revolvers that has the primer in the center of the case, such as a .30-06 or a .45 caliber Model 1911.

The primer of a rimfire cartridge is essentially inside the base of the shell. I once saw .22 rimfire cartridges primed at a cartridge making factory in Lewiston, ID. A thousand shells at a time were placed on a platform and long needle-like apparatus entered each shell and deposited a small amount of liquid or primer compound.

So how was this material evenly spread around the base of the shell? The entire platform of 1,000 shells went into a centrifuge. As the platform rotated, the compound spread to for a uniform layer of primer.

Caliber: Caliber is a term used to designate the various firearms and their cartridges. A caliber can be stated in millimeters or fractions of an inch, such as a .30 caliber rifle or a 7mm rifle.

Carbine: A rifle of short length and light weight originally designed for horse-mounted troops. A carbine usually has a barrel of 20 inches or less. An example is the M1 Carbine used in WWII and Korea. The barrel length is 18 inches.

Benchrest: A rest, such as a movable table or fixed table-like fixture at a gun range designed to eliminate as much human error as possible. A benchrest is used to sight-in a rifle at a shooting range. It is much more difficult to shoot freehand, see below, than when using a benchrest.

Freehand: Firing a firearm while standing without support of any kind. A hunter would be smart to shoot freehand sparingly. Using a support of any kind will improve the accuracy of the shot.

Chamber: The chamber of a firearm is the part of the barrel which accepts the ammunition. In a rifle, pistol or shotgun, the chamber is part of the barrel where the ammunition is placed. A revolver is a bit different, as the chamber refers to the holes in the cylinder. The holes are where the cartridges are loaded.

Clip: A container for holding cartridges. A clip is loaded with the rounds of a specific caliber of firearm. When added to the firearm, the first round is then placed into the chamber of the firearm from the clip. A clip is often called a magazine by mistake.

Magazine: A container or receptacle on a firearm which holds cartridges to be fed into the chamber. My .30-06 has a magazine which is loaded at the beginning of each hunt. My .270 has a clip, which is loaded at home, but not placed into the firearm until the beginning of each hunt.

Muzzle: The front end of a firearm barrel where the bullet exits the barrel.

Muzzleloader: Any firearm which is loaded through the muzzle is called a muzzleloader. I have a .50 caliber flintlock which is a muzzleloader. I also own a 12 gauge shotgun which is a muzzleloader.

Gauge: A word used to identify the bore of most shotguns. A gauge is the number of bore diameter lead balls weighing one pound. If 12 lead balls of the diameter of the bore of a shotgun equals one pound, it is a 12 gauge. If 20 same-sized lead balls fit into the diameter of a shotgun to equal one pound, it is a 20 gauge. The exception is the .410 shotgun, which is a caliber and the .410 is the interior diameter of the barrel.

Revolver: A firearm with a cylinder with several chambers to rotate around an axis. The cylinder rotates when the hammer is pulled back on some firearms and when the trigger is pulled on others.

Semi-automatic: A firearm which fires, extracts, ejects and reloads once for each pull and release of the trigger. My .270 is a semi-auto and so is my .45 Caliber Model 1911 pistol. Both will fire a new round as fast as I can pull the trigger.

Trajectory: The path of a bullet through the air.

Velocity: The speed of a projectile at any point along the trajectory. The velocity of a projectile is slower at 500 yards downrange than at 50 yards downrange.

This has been fun. While this has been interesting for me, the real motivating factor for me to recap some firearm terms is to educate my readers. Let me know if you learned a fact or two while reading this column.