Terminology
Foreword: This section covers a lot of terminology, ranging from classifications of firearms to the specific components of a cartridge. Terms for related things are located closer together (e.g. all the terminology for the parts of a cartridge are located next to each other)
Rifle: A firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder with a rifled barrel > 16", fires rifle cartridges, which are longer but thinner. Many different actions are used, including bolt action, lever action, pump action, semi automatic, etc etc.
Rifle Examples: M1 Garand, Mosin Nagant, M4A1
Rifle Caliber Examples: 22lr, 5.56x45mm, 7.62x54r
Shotgun: A firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder with a smooth barrel > 16", fires shotgun shells.
Shotgun Examples: Mossberg 500, Remington 870, AA-12
Shotgun Caliber Examples: 12 gauge, 20 gauge, .410
Pistol: A small firearm designed to be fired from the hand. Traditionally fired thick, but short cartridges. Also, a "pistol" is a semi-automatic double action, which means it fires one bullet per pull of the trigger, and does not require you to manually cock the hammer on every shot.
Pistol Examples: M9 Beretta, Colt M1911, Makarov
Pistol Caliber Examples: 9x19mm NATO, 9x18mm Makarov, .45 ACP, .380 Auto
Revolver: A repeating handgun that uses a cylinder with multiple chambers instead of a magazine, is not (with one or two exceptions) semi-automatic, and is traditionally single action, although almost all modern revolvers are double action. Note: Revolvers and Pistols can be chambered in "pistol" or "revolver" calibers. Basically any common pistol caliber has revolvers that can fire it.
Revolver Examples include: Colt Detective Special, Colt Python, Colt Single Action Army, Mateba Model 6 Unica
Revolver Caliber Examples: .44 Magnum, .38 Special, .357 Magnum
Light Machine Gun (LMG): A large, heavy, fully-automatic rifle. Usually fed with a belt of cartridges and equipped with a bipod/monopod.
LMG Examples: M249 SAW, BAR (M1918), RPK
LMG Caliber Examples: 5.56x45mm NATO, 7.62x39mmR, 7.62x51mm NATO
Medium/Universal/General Purpose Machinegun (MMG/GPMG): A large and heavy machinegun. Primarily heavier and larger than LMGs due to firing a larger caliber.
MMG Examples: M240G, PKM, MG 42
MMG Caliber Examples: 7.61x51mm NATO, .303, 7.65x53mm
Heavy Machine Gun (HMG): A larger-caliber, extremely heavy and unwieldy machinegun. Almost always found mounted to vehicles or in a defended position
HMG Examples: Browning M2, Kord, DShK
HMG Caliber Examples: .50 BMG (also called 12.7x99mm NATO), 12.7x108mm
Assault Rifle: An intermediate caliber rifle with select fire capability.
Submachine Gun (SMG): A small, maneuverable, low-caliber, high ROF firearm designed for close-quarters combat. Chambered in pistol calibers.
Personal Defense Weapon (PDW): A small, maneuverable, intermediate caliber firearm. It's the best of both worlds between a rifle and a SMG.
Designated Marksmen Rifle (DMR): An intermediate caliber rifle, usually more accurate and with higher-power optics. Used by Designated Marksmen for targets that are difficult for a normal soldier to hit, but doesn't necessitate breaking out a sniper rifle or AMR.
Sniper Rifle: A rifle designed for long range, accurate fire. Usually uses specialized cartridges. Most commonly used to take out distant, high-value targets.
Anti-Material Rifle (AMR): A large-caliber rifle, for long range, accurate fire against light skinned vehicles, cover, and equipment. Not to be confused with a sniper rifle. Usually not used against infantry.
Automatic: The weapon's action resets after every round fired, and does not require manual cycling of the action after every shot.
Semi-Automatic: The weapon fires one time when the trigger is pulled, and does not require any manual interaction with the action
Fully-Automatic: The weapon fires bullets at a constant rate until the trigger is released or ammunition is depleted
Binary Trigger: A binary trigger fires one bullet when the trigger is pressed, and one bullet when it is released.
Cartridge/Round: The entire "bullet", including the casing, bullet, primer, and powder
Bullet: The piece of lead that comes out the barrel of the gun
Casing: The part that holds all of the cartridge together. This is what is ejected out of the side of the gun, along with the primer. This part is usually made out of/looks like brass, so it's also called just "brass"
Primer: A small container of impact-sensitive explosives on the bottom of the casing/shell.
Detonates when struck by the firing pin. This ignites the gunpowder, creating the necessary pressure to send the bullet downrange
Caliber: The diameter of the bullet. Can be measured in inches (e.g. .30-06, .380) or millimeters (e.g. 7.62x54r, 9mm, 5.56x45mm). The measurement for a bullet in millimeters is usually accompanied by its length. An "r" at the end of a millimeter measurement means that it's a Russian round. Also, when describing a bullet's caliber in inches, be sure to write its full name (e.g. ".44" could be .44 magnum, .44 special, etc. They're the same diameter bullet, but different lengths).
Hollow-Point (HP): Hollow-Point rounds have a hollow tip, so that when they hit a target they shatter and deform, creating a large, complex wound. HP rounds are most commonly found in handgun calibers. These are banned by the Geneva convention.
Armor-Piercing (AP): Armor-Piercing rounds are simply really, really hard bullets designed to pass through body armor. Usually, they're very fast and pointier. They're found in basically any caliber.
+P: +P rounds are rounds with more power (which is why they're "+P"). This is usually done by increasing the amount of gunpowder in the cartridge. Commonly found in handgun rounds.
Tracers: Tracer ammunition are basically less-extreme incendiary rounds. As they leave the weapon, they ignite, leaving a "trace" of color through the sky. They're much more effective at night, and are commonly spread in normal magazines to help with accuracy. Machine Gun belts are usually chock-full of tracers. Most commonly found in rifle rounds.
Incendiary: Incendiary rounds have a light, flammable payload. They're most likely not going to light an enemy combatant on fire, but they'll probably light a vehicle on fire if it's light-skinned. Almost only used by large-caliber weapons, like HMGs or AMRs.
APIT: Armor-Piercing-Incendiary-Tracer. These are basically only used by aircraft and AMRs. High-Explosive APIT rounds exist, but they're expensive and rare.
Guided: Laser-guided and flight-correcting bullets are currently being researched at DARPA. Early prototypes exist and are fairly accurate.
Shell: A shotgun cartridge, but can also mean an artillery/(modern)cannon cartridge
Gauge: The caliber of a shotgun shell. The system is very odd. To find the gauge, imagine creating a ball of lead the same diameter as the bore. Then, find out how many of those balls you would need to reach a total weight of one pound. For example, a 12 gauge shotgun has the same bore diameter as a ball of lead weighing 1/12th of a pound.
Shot (shotgun): Small metal beads that are fired out of a shotgun.
Slug: A solid piece of metal used in place of shot in a shell.
Wad: A piece of plastic that pushes the shot out of the shell when fired
Firing Pin: A small, (usually) cylindrical piece of metal that strikes the primer when the trigger is pulled
Hammer: A part of a firearm that strikes the percussion cap/primer, or a separate firing pin
Magazine: A container for rounds that feed into the firearm, either attached to the gun or located inside of a gun. An M-16 uses an external magazine, while a pump-action shotgun uses an internal magazine. If you get clip and magazine mixed up, it's not a big deal, even if some people make it out to be one
Clip: A device used to store rounds of ammunition, ready to load a magazine. The M-1 Garand uses an En-Bloc clip, which stays inside of the weapon until it's out of ammo. The Kar-98 uses a stripper clip, which helps load all of the rounds, then is discarded once all of the rounds are inside of the magazine.
Action: The part of a firearm that loads, fires, and ejects a cartridge.
Receiver: The part of the firearm that houses a majority of the internal components.
Battery: The place where the cartridge is seated directly before firing.
Barrel: A metal tube that the bullet travels out of.
Bore: The inside of the barrel.
Muzzle: The tip of the barrel
Rifling: Twists in the metal of the barrel that spin the bullet, stabilizing its flight.
Silencer: The wrong way of saying suppressor. Doesn't really matter, it's a minor difference. The idea of a "silencer" is mainly just used as a buzzword in an attempt to make suppressors sound scarier.
Suppressor: A device attached to a firearm to reduce its noise signature to a reasonable level. It'll still be as loud as, say, a jackhammer, but it's enough that you don't really need ear protection.
Misconceptions
Foreword: This section is just covering common misconceptions about firearms in general.
Hearing: Guns are very, very loud. Firing a gun without adequate hearing protection hurts, trust me. Firing a gun in a closed space is extremely loud and disorientating without ear protection. The worst example of this (that I've seen) was in Die Hard. In one scene, Bruce Willis shoots a pistol inside of a vent without ear protection on. This would be mind-numbingly painful, and he'd probably have permanent hearing damage.
Sniper Rifle/AMR Confusion: A Barrett M107 chambered in .50BMG is an AMR, not a sniper rifle. If you're not sure what the classification is on a firearm, google it! The wikipedia page will tell you most of the basic information you'll need to know.
Barrett Rifles: There's more than one "Barrett .50 cal". Barrett is the designer, .50BMG is the caliber. There's plenty of different Barrett .50 cal models, just choose one!
"Assault Rifle": The term "Assault Rifle" is a buzzword thrown around a lot nowadays. An "Assault Rifle" is an intermediate caliber rifle with select-fire capability. Just because it's black and tactical doesn't make it an assault rifle.
Clip VS Magazine: Magazines are commonly accidentally referred to as "clips" in media quite often. They are not the same thing by any means. To put it simply: Nobody really cares People who aren't snobs don't care which one you use, as long as you know the difference between them.
Suppressors: A suppressor will not turn the average firearm into a whisper-quiet murder stick. A silenced firearm will be (roughly) as loud as a jackhammer. The only real exceptions to this are special-purpose firearms and extremely low-power, subsonic rounds, like the De Lisle Carbine, the Welrod, and pretty much any suppressed .22LR.
Caliber vs millimeters: "Caliber" is a measure of the bullet diameter in inches, while millimeters is a measure of the bullet diameter in millimeters. There's still some debate on the forums on whether we should use millimeters for all rounds or just the most common name for the round.
Specific Calibers: When looking at caliber in inches, you'll notice there's a lot of rounds with the same caliber but different sizes. For example, a .44 Magnum is a different size than a .44 Special and can't shouldn't be shot through the same gun. Technically, it's possible to fire a bullet of the same caliber through a firearm designed for one with the same caliber but longer casing, but it's very dangerous and usually won't work very well.
Double Tap: Unlike what you'd think, it's unlikely that one or two bullets to the torso is going to reliably put down your target, especially with a handgun. People hyped up on adrenaline are gonna take more damage than you think would be possible. That's why you have to follow the old saying, "Keep shooting until the target changes shape or catches fire".
Rounds outside of a firearm: A bullet is propelled by the explosion of the powder inside of the firearm, with the resulting gases pushing it out of the barrel. If there's not a proper container to direct the gases, the bullet comes out at a very low velocity. For example: A .30-06 round, which is most commonly used to take down deer, can't puncture plywood when discharged outside of a firearm.
Types of Guns: Hand-Cannons aren't big revolvers, they're literally hand-sized cannons. Anything with a scope is not a sniper rifle. Anything black and scary is not an assault rifle.
Bullet Size: A common misconception is that larger bullets are better to kill people with. This is especially common in pistol calibers. A larger caliber will leave a slightly bigger hole, but it will also limit the amount of ammo in a magazine greatly, decrease accuracy of follow-up shots, and reduce the armor-piercing capabilities. For example, the Russian AK-74 uses the 5.45x39mm round, which is relatively small, but it's commonly nicknamed the "poison bullet" due to its tumbling effect when it pierces flesh.
Malfunctions
Foreword: This section is all about when your bangstick won't work, and how it's remedied.
Misfire: A misfire is when a gun doesn't shoot when it's expected to, but can also mean any problem that presents itself when the trigger is pulled, including squib loads, OBD, hang fires, etc etc. Sometimes, it's a simple as having a bad primer in the round, causing it not to go off.
Runaway Gun: A gun that won't stop shooting, usually a LMG. Usually caused by incorrect re-assembly after cleaning. If this happens, there's two options:
1. Remove the ammunition supply. This means either removing the magazine or breaking the belt
2. Riding the storm: Instead of removing your ammunition, just wait for it to run out while pointing it in a safe direction. While this generally is a bad idea, if you can't break the belt for some reason, this is your best bet.
Hang-fire: A hang-fire is when the trigger is pulled, and nothing happens. When this occurs, the cartridge could fire at any time. Point it in a safe direction, and don't touch it for a minimum of 10 minutes before attempting to resolve the issue.
Squib: A squib is when a bullet gets stuck in the barrel, usually due to an insufficient amount of powder in the cartridge igniting/existing. This is accompanied by a very weird feeling recoil and no hole showing up on your target. If you think a squib occured, unload the firearm and inspect the barrel (DON'T LOOK DOWN FROM THE MUZZLE). If another round is fired into the squib load, it has the possibility of exploding and permanently damaging your gun. If you do happen to have a squib load, here's the steps you should take:
1. Attempt to remove the squib by pushing a stick down the barrel
2. Pray the barrel isn't damaged
Stovepipe: A stovepipe is when a casing gets stuck between the ejection port and an interior component of the gun. Usually caused by ammunition without enough power to fully actuate the action. Most commonly found in semi-automatic pistols. Fixed immediately by manually cycling the action, fixed long-term by using ammunition with a higher powder load.
Double-Feed: A double-feed is when a cartridge attempts to load itself into the action before the previous round was ejected. Fixed immediately by removing the magazine, cycling the action, then replacing the magazine. When the magazine is re-inserted, if it still has the problem, drop the old mag and grab a new one.
Out of Battery Discharge: Out of Battery Discharge, or O.B.D. for short, is when a cartridge explodes outside of the battery. When this happens, depending on where it happens, your gun could be permanently damaged, or it could just scare you. Occasionally, a OBD can occur in the magazine, igniting all of the rounds and destroying the magazine. This'll most likely royally screw up the gun.
R.U.D.: Rapid Unplanned Disassembly, or R.U.D. for short, is when your gun falls apart while it's being fired. Mainly caused by incorrectly reassembling a firearm. Fixed by putting it back together correctly.
R.U.E.D.: Rapid Unplanned Explosive Disassembly, or R.U.E.D. for short. Basically, it's a fancy way of saying your gun blew up. Can be caused by many things, such as overheating, cracks in parts, bad ammo, and barrel clogging. To fix it, replace all of the damaged parts.
Tap, Rack, Bang: Basically, "Tap, Rack, Bang" is a saying that helps you remember what to do when a pistol malfunctions. Tap (hit) the baseplate of the magazine, rack (pull the slide all the way back and release), and bang (pull the trigger). If that doesn't work, remove the magazine, cycle the action multiple times, then re-insert the magazine. If the problem presents itself again as soon as you insert the old mag, dump the old magazine and get a new one.
Overused Guns
Foreword: These guns are generally overused by modern media, most of the time not showing their downsides. You can definitely write about/with these guns, just keep in mind their status.
SCAR-H: While the SCAR is a cool looking gun, its recoil impulse is insanely bad. By "recoil impulse", I mean how much force is applied in a set time to your shoulder. The SCAR has become notorious for having such a bad recoil impulse that it shatters optics. Yeah, it'll break some of the scopes you put on it.
Kriss Vector .45: The Kriss Vector was an interesting SMG design. It includes a bolt that goes back and then down, to reduce recoil. It kind of works, but not very well. On semi-auto mode, the recoil reduction actually works fairly well. In two-round burst, the force of the bolt returning to the firing position shakes the gun. This usually leads to the second shot of the burst being high and to the right. On full auto, it's horrendous. Trying to keep a Vector on target while firing on full auto, even at close range, is an absolute nightmare. If they somehow reduced the firerate to something reasonable, maybe it'd be better.
Thompson Sub-machine gun: The Thompson is an iconic SMG, don't take me wrong. It was built solid, fired a powerful .45 ACP cartridge, and was reliable. The only problem was, it was heavy as shit for an SMG. You probably know of the RPK, a LMG based on the AK system. Yeah, an unloaded RPK weighs less than a fully-loaded (stick mag) Thompson. Even other SMGs at the time were lighter than the Thompson.
G36: The German G36 Assault Rifle is an airsofter's dream gun. In actual use, the G36 has some severe problems. The G36, like the Glock, is made primarily of plastic and polymers. This leads to severe overheating problems, along with the accompanying accuracy problems. At 200 meters, and a weapon temperature of 30 degrees Celsius, the round will be off-target by about half of a meter. Keep in mind you could reach this temperature after 2 or 3 magazines. So, if you leave this thing out in the sun for too long, it could (potentially) literally melt, and the accuracy will be non-existent.
Barrett M107/M82: The Barrett M107 is the stereotypical big-ol' rifle. It's primarily used as an anti-material rifle, but is occasionally used as a anti-personnel rifle. It's a wonderful weapon, and it's perfectly okay to write with it, but just… for the love of GOD don't call it the "barett 50 cal".
FN Five-Seven: The FN Five-Seven fires a proprietary 5.7x28mm round, which is substantially smaller than other handgun calibers. Don't get me wrong, the Five-Seven is a great gun. The small round leads to great penetration against body armor, and a massive magazine capacity. But, the small, fast round is very ineffective against unarmored targets, leading it to not being commonly used.
IMI Desert Eagle: The IMI Desert Eagle, or "Deagle", is a large-caliber handgun, commonly chambered in .50 Action Express. This gun is not used by military, law enforcement personnel, or security personnel for a couple of good reasons. First, the recoil is crazy on this thing. More recoil means more time between shots. Secondly, since the rounds are quite large, the magazine capacity is small. Finally, it's fucking massive. There's no way to carry this thing comfortably without a strong belt, and concealed carrying it is impossible.
Miniguns: The stereotypical minigun, the M134 Minigun, is not man-portable. Miniguns are heavy, with ridiculous recoil and low accuracy. Miniguns are for suppressing infantry and destroying light-skinned vehicles/emplacements/enemy equipment. Plus, a minigun isn't very versatile. The bulky size and high mass make it incredibly difficult to use in any urban/jungle operation, and the weight makes it worthless in mountainous terrain.
Examples
Foreword: This section includes examples from drafts I've read and reviewed. No names will be included to protect the author's identity.
Desert Eagle 50cal.
- "50cal" is not a real caliber. Desert Eagles can be chambered in .50 Action Express though.
Benelli M3 Buckshot shotguns
- Buckshot is the size of the shot in the shell. Most shotguns can shoot basically any payload out of their shells..
2 fully moded M4 rifles
- "fully modded" is a subjective term
1 Anti-personnel BARRET 50cal rifle
- Doesn't name the actual gun, just a brand and a caliber
- "50cal" isn't a real caliber
- Assuming they're referencing the M82, it's classified as a AMR, rather than an Anti-Personnel rifle.
standard 9mm ammunition
- There's no such thing as "standard" ammunition, unless referencing the round specified by a military (which, in context, was not)
- 9mm could be 9x19mm or 9x18mm
9mm practice rounds
- "practice rounds" could be blanks, simunitions, or many different things
large mini-gun with a built in riot shield marked with "Argent Industries VITICIDE Grade Auto-Cannon, No Ammunition Required"
- A mini-gun small enough to fit in a riot shield wouldn't be an autocannon. I get that it could be firing 20mm or above caliber shells due to anomalous construction, but it's kinda cheesy.
two(2) hand (held/operated with two hands) cannon
- Large-caliber revolvers should not be referred to as "hand cannons", it's unscientific
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