Firearms and Ammunition: Mechanisms, Components, and Safety, Slides of Wildlife Ecology

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A Fireman’s Safety Mechanism

A Firearm’s “Safety” Mechanism

• Don’t be afraid to ask if you don’t know how a firearm works
• never trust the safety mechanism
• safety prevents the gun from firing
• safety could fail

Airguns ( three kinds)

• Pneumatic- use a pump system
• CO2 powered-use compressed CO2 contained in a steel cylinder
• spring- involves a spring that is compressed by a lever

Rifles and Shotguns

• Uses expanding gas from burning powder to force a bullet or shot out of the muzzle
• main difference in shotgun and rifle is found inside the barrel
• shotgun bore(inside of barrel) is thin and smooth
• rifle bore are thicker and have grooves that spiral around the bore

Rifles and Shotguns

• Always use the correct gauge shell in the same gauged shotgun(12-gauge shell in a 12-gauge shotgun
• rifle and shotguns are usually identified by their bore sizes and action designs.
• Action is the part that moves cartridges or shotshells into the chamber( loads, unloads and ejects ammunition)

Rifles and Shotguns

• Stock, action and barrel are 3 main components of guns
• there are five categories of actions
• break action
• pump action
• lever action
• semi-automatic
• bolt action

Rifles

• Sights are important parts of rifles
• three general classes
• open sight-least accurate
• peep or aperture sights
• telescope sights- most accurate

Rifle positions

• Four standard positions
• standing-most difficult
• kneeling-forms tripod
• sitting-forms tripod
• prone-most stable

Firing Techniques

• Hold breath, gently squeeze trigger with steady pressure until the gun fires.
• Never jerk the trigger or slap the trigger

Shotguns

• Several gauges
• 10,12,16,20,28 and .410 are most common
• smaller the number the larger the bore

Shotgun Choke

• Determines the spread or pattern of the shot after it leaves the barrel
• Three kinds:
• full- most constricted
• modified- less constricted
• improved cylinder- less than modified
• cylinder choke- no constriction, shot spreads quickly

Shotgun Range

• Not a long range gun
• depends on the shotshell
• average is within 45 yards

Ammunition

• Primary components of shotshells
  • case
  • primer
  • smokeless powder
  • wad and shot

Handguns

• The safest way to carry a handgun is with no round in the chamber