Outdoors: More firearm terms to ponder

The firearm related terms in last week's column were well received, so we will continue with more this week.

These terms and facts are supplied by the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Action: The combined parts of a firearm, which enable a round to be chambered, fired and ejected. A bolt action is a firearm which is loaded, cocked and unloaded by pulling a bolt mechanism up and back to eject a spent cartridge and forward and down to load another. My .30-06 and .243 are bolt action rifles, along with several .22s. Although most bolt-action firearms are rifles, there are bolt-action shotguns, too.

A break-action firearm allows loading and unloading by opening the action by rotating the barrel or barrels when moving a release lever. A double-barrel shotgun has a break action and so does an over-and-under shotgun.

A lever-action firearm is loaded, cocked and unloaded by moving a lever, most often located below the receiver. John Wayne used a Winchester lever action in most of his western movies.

A pump-action firearm has a movable forearm which is physically moved to chamber a round, eject the expended casing and chamber another round. Many shotguns are pump actions, but there are pump-action rifles, too. I own a pump-action 12 and 20 gauge shotgun.

A semi-automatic firearm, as explained last week, is able to complete the firing, ejecting and reloading of a firearm with the pull of the trigger; one pull of the trigger equals one shot fired and another round loaded. There are semi-auto rifles and shotguns.

An automatic-action firearm fires, ejects and chambers a new round as long as the trigger is pulled and not released. These firearms are also known as machine guns. In many states it is illegal to own an automatic firearm. There is no reason to use an automatic firearm in a hunting situation. Law enforcement and the military use automatic firearms routinely.

Choke: The constriction at the end of the end of a shotgun barrel, which controls shot dispersion. Chokes typically are named cylinder, improved cylinder, modified, improved modified and full.

A cylinder choke produces a very wide shot dispersion, compared to a full choke which produces a very tight shot pattern. The change from lead shot to steel and other non-toxic shot has revised the use of chokes a bit. Some hunters will use a modified choke on ducks and geese these days when they used a full choke when using lead shot. The different types of game and distance of the shot determine the type of choke used.

Choke tubes: In the old days, hunters would buy a shot gun with a set choke, such as full choke. These days there are interchangeable threaded cylinders for the different choke diameters. A hunter is able to change the choke on a shotgun by simply changing the choke tube.

AR Rifle: A carbine based on the AR platform which was designed by the ArmaLite Company in the 1950s. The prefix does not stand for automatic rifle or assault rifle.

Modern sporting rifle: Semi-automatic rifle based on the AR platform. This rifle type is used for target shooting, hunting and home defense. This is a very popular rifle design in use today and should not be confused with an assault rifle or an assault weapon.

Assault rifle: A rifle with a selector switch which determines full or semi-automatic fire, which is the standard infantry weapon of modern armies. The term is purposely and wrongly applied by anti-gun people to AR-type rifles which function as semi-autos only.

Assault weapon: A political term purposely and wrongly used to describe AR-type rifles.

Group: A series of shots fired at the target used to adjust the sights or scope of a firearm. A hunter places a new scope on her hunting rifle. The scope needs to be adjusted, so the bullets are hitting where the rifle is aimed.

The hunter goes to the range and places a target downrange. A group of three rounds is fired. They hit one inch to the left and three inches low of the center of the target. The scope is adjusted to move the group one inch to the right and up three inches.