Firearm: Advanced Tactical Weaponry and Strategic Innovations in Modern Warfare

By Fouad Sabry

What is Firearm

A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Firearm

Chapter 2: Rifle

Chapter 3: Revolver

Chapter 4: Cartridge (firearms)

Chapter 5: Action (firearms)

Chapter 6: Semi-automatic firearm

Chapter 7: Repeating rifle

Chapter 8: Lever action

Chapter 9: Automatic firearm

Chapter 10: Blank (cartridge)

(II) Answering the public top questions about firearm.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Firearm.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 19, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Firearm

Any form of handgun that is meant to be easily carried and used by a person is considered to be a weapon. In certain nations, the phrase is officially defined in more detail than in others (see Legal definitions).

The earliest weapons were developed in China in the 10th century, when bamboo tubes filled with gunpowder and pellet projectiles were placed on spears to create a portable fire lance. This was the first known instance of a firearm. During the 14th century, the technology started to make its way across Eurasia in little increments. Black powder was the traditional propellant used in older weapons, although smokeless powder and other types of propellants are more common in current rifles. The barrels of the vast majority of contemporary weapons, with the noteworthy exception of smoothbore shotguns, are rifled to impart spin on the projectile, which improves the flight stability of the weapon.

Caliber is a term that may be used to characterize modern guns (i.e. bore diameter). In the case of pistols and rifles, this information is provided in millimeters or inches (for example, 7.62 mm or.308 in. ), while shotguns have their gauges listed (e.g. 12 ga. and 20 ga.). In addition to this, they are classified according to the kind of action that they use (for example, muzzleloader, breechloader, lever, bolt, pump, revolver, semi-automatic, fully automatic, etc.), as well as the manner in which they are often carried (i.e. hand-held or mechanical mounting). Further classification may make reference to the type of barrel that was used (such as rifled) as well as the barrel length (such as 24 inches), to the firing mechanism (such as matchlock, wheellock, flintlock, or percussion lock), to the design's primary intended use (such as a hunting rifle), or to the commonly accepted name for a particular variation of the design (e.g. Gatling gun).

Hand-eye coordination is required for shooters to aim weapons accurately at their targets, and they may use either iron sights or optical sights. In general, the accurate range of pistols does not go beyond 100 meters (110 yards; 330 feet), although the majority of rifles are accurate to a range of 500 meters (550 yards; 1,600 feet) when using iron sights and may be accurate at larger ranges when using optical sights. (Firearm bullets may be harmful or even fatal much beyond their accurate range; the minimum distance for safety is substantially further than the range that is given for accuracy.) Accuracy is maintained at ranges greater than 2,000 meters with rifles designed specifically for use as sniper and anti-material guns (2,200 yd).

A firearm is a barreled ranged weapon that is capable of inflicting damage on targets by launching one or more projectiles driven by rapidly expanding high-pressure gas produced by exothermic combustion (deflagration) of a chemical propellant, historically black powder, but now smokeless powder. Firearms are classified as either semi-automatic or fully automatic.

There is a distinction made in the military between guns that are considered heavy and those that are considered light in terms of their transportation by infantry. Light weapons are defined as those that are easily transportable by a solitary foot soldier, despite the fact that they may still need the assistance of more than one person (crew-served) in order to function at their fullest potential. Heavy firearms are defined as those that are either too large and heavy to be transported on foot or too unstable when subjected to recoil. As a result, heavy firearms need the support of a weapons platform (such as a fixed mount, wheeled carriage, vehicle, aircraft, or water vessel) in order to be tactically mobile or useful. Heavy firearms can be categorized by their size and weight.

Small arms are a subset of light guns that only employ kinetic bullets and are tiny enough to be operated to full capacity by a single infantryman (individually served). These types of light firearms are the only ones that fall under the small arms category. Handguns, such as revolvers, pistols, and derringers, as well as long guns, such as rifles (including many subtypes, such as anti-material rifles, sniper rifles/designated marksman rifles, battle rifles, assault rifles, and carbines), shotguns, submachine guns/personal defense weapons, and squad automatic weapons/light machine guns, are examples of the types of firearms that fall under this category.

Handguns are the smallest kind of weapons and are distinguished by the fact that they can be fired using just one hand. However, the legal definition of what constitutes a handgun differs from country to country and area to region. For instance, according to South African legislation, the term handgun refers to a pistol or revolver that may be carried with one hand and fired with the other.

There are two standard varieties of handguns, which are known as revolvers and semi-automatic pistols respectively. Each chamber in the cylinder of a revolver is filled with a single cartridge or charge, and the revolver itself revolves around a cylinder that contains several firing chambers or charge holes. The back of the barrel of a semi-automatic handgun is machined to contain a single fixed firing chamber, and the weapon also has a magazine, which allows it to fire more than one cartridge at a time. When the trigger is pulled, a cartridge is discharged, and the energy from the discharged cartridge is used to operate a mechanism that allows the subsequent cartridge to be discharged without delay. In contrast to this, revolvers known as double-action achieve the same goal via the use of a mechanical action that is connected to the draw of the trigger.

After the creation of the revolver in 1818, the demand for pistols that could store a number of shots simultaneously increased. Beginning in the 1870s, several versions of auto-loading pistols began appearing on the market. By the time World War I came to a close, auto-loading pistols had entirely replaced revolvers in military uses. By the time the 20th century came to a close, the vast majority of handguns that were routinely carried by regular members of the armed forces, police, and civilians were semi-automatic, but revolvers were still frequently utilized. Semi-automatic handguns have large magazine capacity and the ability to fast reload by simply removing the empty magazine and replacing it with a full one. For this reason, semi-automatic pistols are often used by both the military and police forces. Because revolver cartridges are typically more powerful than similar caliber semi-automatic pistol cartridges (which are designed for self-defense), and because the strength, simplicity, and durability of the revolver design is well-suited to outdoor use, revolvers are very common among handgun hunters. This is due to the fact that semi-automatic pistol cartridges are designed for self-defense. Revolvers, particularly those chambered in.22 Long Rifle and 38 Special/357 Magnum, are typical hidden weapons in areas that permit this activity. The straightforward mechanics of revolvers enable them to be more compact than many autoloaders while maintaining their reliability. Both configurations are popular among civilian gun owners; the choice of design often depends on the owner's intended use of the firearm (self-defense, hunting, target shooting, competitions, collecting, etc.).

Any kind of weapon that has a barrel that is noticeably longer than average, often ranging in length from 10 to 30 inches (250 to 760 mm), is referred to as a long gun (there are restrictions on minimum barrel length in many jurisdictions; maximum barrel length is usually a matter of practicality). Long guns, as opposed to handguns, are intended to be held and shot with both hands, while being braced against either the hip or the shoulder for increased stability. This is in contrast to the design of handguns. The receiver and trigger group are installed onto a stock constructed of wood, plastic, metal, or a composite material. This stock is divided into portions that create a foregrip, a rear grip, and optionally (but generally) a shoulder mount called the butt. From the time of the Renaissance until the middle of the 19th century, the majority of early long arms were smoothbore weapons that fired one or more ball shots. These smoothbore firearms were referred to as muskets or arquebus depending on their caliber and firing mechanism.

Rifles and shotguns make up the vast majority of today's long firearms. Both the rifle and the carbine are descendants of the musket, although they developed in quite different ways from their ancestor weapon. The bullets that are fired from a rifle have a gyroscopically stable spin thanks to the spiral grooves (riflings) that are machined into the inner (bore) surface of the barrel of the firearm. Rifles get their name from this feature. Shotguns are typically smoothbore rifles that are intended to fire a number of shot pellets with each discharge. The size of the shot pellets typically ranges from 2 millimeters #9 birdshot to 8.4 millimeters #00 (double-aught) buckshot. Shotguns have the ability to fire slugs, which are single solid projectiles, as well as speciality rounds, which are sometimes referred to as less deadly ammunition. These rounds include bean bags, tear gas, and breaching rounds. When fired, rifles generate a single point of contact, but they have a much longer range and a higher level of precision than shotguns, which produce a cluster of impact points but have a significantly shorter range and a lower level of accuracy. However, the bigger impact area of shotguns may compensate for poorer accuracy due to the fact that shot spreads during flight; as a result, shotguns are often utilized for hunting fast-moving game birds because of their wider impact area.

Hunting is one of the most prevalent applications for rifles and shotguns, but they are also often employed for home protection, security guard work, and law enforcement. The majority of the time, rifles are used for hunting big animals (although shotguns may be used as well, notably with slugs), whereas shotguns are used for hunting birds. Due to the shotgun's larger impact area, multiple wound tracks (when using buckshot), shorter range, and reduced penetration of walls (when using lighter shot), which significantly reduces the likelihood of unintended harm, shotguns are sometimes preferred for defending a home or business, despite the fact that handguns are also common.

The manner in which rifles and shotguns are reloaded gives rise to a wide range of possible configurations for these sorts of firearms. Both the bolt-action and the lever-action styles of rifles are operated manually. When you manipulate the bolt or the lever, the spent cartridge will be withdrawn, the firing mechanism will be recocked, and a new cartridge will be placed into the weapon. Rifles nearly always employ one of these two sorts of actions for their firing mechanism. The foregrip of a slide-action rifle or shotgun, more frequently referred to as a pump-action firearm, must be manually cycled by rocking back and forth in order to fire the weapon. Shotguns are the most common firearms that use this particular action, although a number of prominent manufacturers also produce rifles with this action.

There is another kind of firearm known as a break-action firearm that may be either a rifle or a shotgun. This type of firearm does not have any form of reloading mechanism and instead requires the user to manually load the weapon after each shot. Single- and double-barreled versions of rifles and shotguns are both commercially available; but, double-barreled rifles are very uncommon owing to the high production costs and technical challenges they provide. Double-barreled rifles are primarily designed for use in African big-game hunting since the animals there are known to be deadly, the distances between targets are close, and time is of the importance. These rifles often include calibers that are both very huge and very powerful.

Since at least the 18th century, when rifles first became generally accessible, they have been used in nationally highlighted marksmanship competitions in both Europe and the United States. Rifles were originally used in these competitions. In the year 1775, while Daniel Morgan was in the process of recruiting sharpshooters in Virginia for the next American Revolutionary War, one of the first contests that may be considered pure American rifle shooting took place. Rifle shooting is still considered an important aspect of national pride in various nations. Although the majority of rifles have a range that is far less than this, certain specialist firearms with higher calibers are said to have an accurate shooting distance of up to around one mile (1,600 meters). In the second part of the 20th century, competitive shotgun sports, like as skeet, trap, and sporting clays, were maybe even more popular than riflery. This popularity can be attributed to the motion and instant feedback involved in these games.

In the military, bolt-action rifles with high-powered scopes are commonly used as sniper rifles. However, by the time of the Korean War, the traditional bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles used by infantrymen had been supplemented by select-fire designs known as automatic rifles. Automatic rifles have a higher rate of fire than semi-automatic rifles and are more accurate than bolt-action rifles.

A carbine is a type of firearm that is very similar in appearance to a rifle and is designed to be used in a manner that is very similar to that of a rifle; however, it is typically shorter or smaller than the typical full-size hunting or battle rifle of the same time period, and it may use a cartridge that is either smaller or less powerful. Carbines were and still are typically used by members of the armed forces in roles that are expected to engage in combat, but where a full-size rifle would be an impediment to the primary duties of that soldier. Carbines are typically used by members of the military in roles that are expected to engage in combat (vehicle drivers, field commanders and support staff, airborne troops, engineers, etc.). Carbines are widespread not just in police enforcement but also among civilian owners, especially in situations when worries about size, space, or strength may be present. Similar to rifles, carbines may have a single shot, repeating action, semi-automatic, select-fire, or fully automatic firing mode. The kind of firing mode often depends on the time period and the target market. The Winchester Model 1892, the Lee–Enfield Jungle Carbine, the SKS, the M1 carbine (which has no connection to the bigger M1 Garand), and the M4 carbine are all examples of common historical examples (a more compact variant of the current M16 rifle). The AR-15, Ruger Mini-14, Beretta Cx4 Storm, and Kel-Tec SUB-2000 are all examples of modern civilian carbines available in the United States. Other examples of modern civilian carbines include bolt-action rifles that generally fall under the specifications of a scout rifle, as