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87-504: The pistol incorporates many new design features, including a new aluminum alloy frame, trigger mechanism, dual-control mechanism, firing pin safety (US patent number 4313274 dated 1979, authored by Walter Ludwig). The Walther P5 is a recoil-operated , locked-breech, 9 mm semi-automatic pistol . It utilizes the same design principles as the Walther P38 pistol of World War II fame. The barrel does not tilt following firing in

174-568: A retronym to differentiate older full-powered rifles of these configurations like the M1 Garand , from newer assault rifles using intermediate cartridges like the Heckler & Koch HK33 , but it is sometimes used to describe similar modern rifles such as the FN SCAR . Battle rifles serve similar purposes as assault rifles, as they both are usually employed by ground infantry for essentially

261-445: A riot gun or breaching rounds to function as a door breaching shotgun. Shotgun munitions, regardless of type, are packed into shotgun shells (cartridges designed specifically for shotguns) that are loaded into the shotgun for use; these shells are commonly loose and manually loaded one-by-one, though some shotguns accept magazines. Shotguns share many qualities with rifles, such as both being descendants of early long guns such as

348-769: A Personal Protection Weapon, also a small number may have been issued to 14 Intelligence Company , a unit active in Northern Ireland. An unknown variant of the Walther P5 was utilized by the 39th Special Forces "Detachment A" of the US Army , which was part of the Berlin Brigade during the Cold War. Recoil operation Recoil operation is an operating mechanism used to implement locked-breech autoloading firearms . Recoil operated firearms use

435-666: A broad class of rifles generally summed up as short, lightweight, portable sniper rifles; and designated marksman rifles , semi-automatic high-precision rifles, usually chambered in intermediate or full-power cartridges, that fill the range gap between sniper rifles and regular rifles and are designed for designated marksmen in squads. Examples of sniper and scout rifles include the M40 rifle , Heckler & Koch PSG1 , Walther WA 2000 , Accuracy International AWM , M24 Sniper Weapon System , Steyr Scout , Sako TRG , and CheyTac Intervention . Examples of anti-materiel and anti-tank rifles include

522-474: A cartridge that yields a momentum approximately equal to that for which the mechanism was optimized. For example, the M1911 design with factory springs is optimized for a 230-grain (15 g) bullet at factory velocity. Changes in caliber or drastic changes in bullet weight and/or velocity require modifications to spring weight or slide mass to compensate. Similarly the use of blank ammunition will typically cause

609-423: A full-power caliber and a certain weight that can be operated by an individual but tend to work best with a crew; and heavy machine guns , machine guns that are too large and heavy to be carried and are thus mounted to something (like a tripod or military vehicle ), and require a crew to operate. A general-purpose machine gun combines these categories under a single flexible machine gun platform, often one that

696-625: A full-size rifle with a shortened carbine-style barrel for close-quarters use. The small size of a carbine provides lighter weight and better maneuverability, making them ideal for close-quarters combat and storage in compact areas. This makes them popular firearms among special forces and police tactical units alongside submachine guns , considerably so since the late 1990s due to the familiarity and better stopping power of carbines compared to submachine guns. They are also popular with (and were originally mostly intended for) military personnel in roles that are expected to engage in combat, but where

783-452: A full-size rifle would be an impediment to the primary duties of that soldier ( logistical personnel, airborne forces , military engineers , officers , etc.), though since the turn of the millennium these have been superseded to a degree in some roles by personal defense weapons . Carbines are also common among civilian firearm owners who have size, space, and power concerns similar to military and police users. Examples of carbines include

870-494: A mass such as the ground, a ship's gun mount, or a human holding the firearm. The moving and the motionless masses are coupled by a spring that absorbs the recoil energy as it is compressed by the movement and then expands providing energy for the rest of the operating cycle. Since there is a minimum momentum required to operate a recoil-operated firearm's action, the cartridge must generate sufficient recoil to provide that momentum. Therefore, recoil-operated firearms work best with

957-793: A method of effective self-defense against skirmishers and infiltrators who cannot effectively be defeated by low-powered submachine guns and handguns, often the only firearms suitable for those personnel (while they could be issued rifles or carbines, those would become unnecessary burdens in their normal duties, during which the likelihood of hostility is fairly rare regardless, making their issuance questionable). Thus, per their name, personal defense weapons allow these personnel to effectively defend themselves from enemies and repel attacks themselves or at least until support can arrive. They are not intended for civilian self-defense due to their nature as automatic firearms (which are usually prohibited from civilian purchase), though some semi-automatic PDWs exist for

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1044-405: A program intended to develop a gun that used the recoil of a fired shot to reload the firearm, though a working model wouldn't be produced until 1888. Later in the 1870s, a Swedish captain called D. H. Friberg patented a design which introduced both flapper-locking and the fully automatic recoil operated machine gun. Furthermore, in 1875 a means of cocking a rifle through recoil was patented through

1131-469: A single soldier, though some are crew-served weapons that require a dedicated crew of soldiers to operate, usually between two and six soldiers depending on the machine gun's operation and the crew members' roles (ammunition bearers, spotters, etc.). Machine guns can be divided into three categories: light machine guns , individual-served machine guns of an intermediate cartridge that are usually magazine-fed; medium machine guns , belt-fed machine guns of

1218-410: A time by the user, rather than automatically. Manual action firearms can be divided into two basic categories: single-shot firearms that can only be fired once per barrel before it must be reloaded or charged via an external mechanism or series of steps; and repeating firearms that can be fired multiple times per barrel, but can only be fired once with each subsequent pull of the trigger or ignite, and

1305-551: Is a long gun that has a predominantly smoothbore barrel—meaning it lacks rifling—designed to fire a number of shot pellets in each discharge. These shot pellet sizes commonly range between 2 mm #9 birdshot and 8.4 mm #00 (double-aught) buckshot, and produce a cluster of impact points with considerably less range and accuracy, since shot spreads during flight. Shotguns are also capable of firing single solid projectiles called slugs , or specialty (often " less lethal ") munitions such as bean bags or tear gas to function as

1392-616: Is a magazine-fed carbine chambered in a small-caliber handgun cartridge (such as 9×19mm Parabellum , .45 ACP , .22 Long Rifle , and .40 S&W ). They cannot be considered machine guns due to their small-caliber, hence the prefix " sub- " to differentiate them from proper machine guns. Submachine guns are commonly associated with high rates of fire, automatic fire capabilities, and low recoil, though many submachine guns differentiate from this in various ways, such as having fairly low rates of fire or including burst and semi-automatic modes available through selective fire. Most submachine guns are

1479-421: Is also found in some suppressors used on short recoil firearms, under the name gas assist or Nielsen device , where it is used to compensate for the extra mass the suppressor adds to the recoiling parts both by providing a boost and decoupling some of the suppressor's mass from the firearm's recoiling parts. Muzzle boosters are also used on some recoil-operated firearms' blank-firing attachments to normalize

1566-485: Is another automatic gun that dates from the same year, but its type and method of operation are unknown. Recoil-operation, if it was invented in 1663, would then lie dormant until the 19th century, when a number of inventors started to patent designs featuring recoil operation; this was due to the fact that the integrated disposable cartridge (both bullet and propellant in one easily interchangeable unit) made these designs viable. The earliest mention of recoil operation in

1653-417: Is any firearm with a notably long barrel, typically a length of 10 to 30 inches (250 to 760 mm) (there are restrictions on minimum barrel length in many jurisdictions; maximum barrel length is usually a matter of practicality). Unlike a handgun, long guns are designed to be held and fired with both hands, while braced against either the hip or the shoulder for better stability. The receiver and trigger group

1740-544: Is most suitable as a light or medium machine gun but fares well as a heavy machine gun. A closely related concept is the squad automatic weapon , a portable light machine gun or even a modified rifle that is designed and fielded to provide a squad with rapid direct fire . Examples of machine guns include the Maxim gun , M2 Browning , Bren light machine gun , MG 42 , PK machine gun , FN MAG , M249 light machine gun , RPK , IWI Negev , and M134 Minigun . A submachine gun

1827-473: Is mounted into a stock made of wood, plastic, metal, or composite material, which has sections that form a foregrip, rear grip, and optionally (but typically) a shoulder mount called the butt . Early long arms, from the Renaissance up to the mid-19th century, were generally smoothbore firearms that fired one or more ball shot, called muskets or arquebuses depending on caliber and firing mechanism. Since

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1914-528: Is released and forced closed by its recoil spring, chambering a fresh round. The long recoil system was invented in the late 19th century and dominated the automatic shotgun market for more than half that century before it was supplanted by new gas-operated designs. While Browning halted production of the Auto-5 design in 1999, Franchi still makes a long-recoil–operated shotgun line, the AL-48 , which shares both

2001-438: Is required by the conservation of momentum such that the ejecta momentum and recoiling momentum are equal. These momenta are calculated by: The barrel is a moving part of the action in recoil-operated firearms. In non-recoil-operated firearms, it is generally the entire firearm that recoils. However, in recoil-operated firearms, only a portion of the firearm recoils while inertia holds another portion motionless relative to

2088-527: The AK-74 and AKS-74U . However, some carbines, such as the M1 carbine , are not a variant of any existing design and are their own firearm model. Carbines are regardless very similar to rifles and often have the same actions (single-shot, lever-action, bolt-action, semi-automatic, automatic, etc.). This similarity has given carbines the alternate name of short barreled rifle (SBR), though this more accurately describes

2175-590: The FG 42 , Gewehr 43 , FN FAL , Howa Type 64 , and Desert Tech MDR . A sniper rifle is, per widespread definition, a high-powered precision rifle, often bolt-action or semi-automatic, with an effective range farther than that of a standard rifle. Though any rifle in a sniper configuration (usually with a telescopic sight and bipod ) can be considered a sniper rifle, most sniper rifles are purpose-built for their applications, or are variants of existing rifles that have been modified to function as sniper rifles, such as

2262-610: The Glock , Browning Hi-Power , M1911 pistol , Makarov pistol , Walther PP , Luger pistol , Mauser C96 , and Beretta 92 . Examples of revolvers include the Colt Single Action Army , Smith & Wesson Model 10 , Colt Official Police , Colt Python , New Nambu M60 , and Mateba Autorevolver . Examples of derringers include the Remington Model 95 , FP-45 Liberator , and COP .357 Derringer . A long gun

2349-514: The M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System . Shotguns are still popular with civilians for the suitability of their shot spread in hunting, clay pigeon shooting , and home defense. Double-barreled shotguns are break-action shotguns with two parallel barrels (horizontal side-by-side or vertical over-and-under), allowing two single shots that can be loaded and fired in quick succession. Examples of shotguns include

2436-512: The MP 18 , MP 40 , Thompson submachine gun , M3 submachine gun , Uzi , Heckler & Koch MP5 , Spectre M4 , Steyr TMP , Heckler & Koch UMP , PP-2000 , KRISS Vector , and SIG MPX . A personal defense weapon is, in simplest terms, a submachine gun that is designed to fire ammunition with ballistic performance that is similar to (but not actually a type of) rifle cartridges, often called "sub-intermediate" cartridges. In this way, it combines

2523-662: The Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 , Boys anti-tank rifle , PTRS-41 , Barrett M82 , Gepárd anti-materiel rifle , and McMillan TAC-50 . Examples of designated marksman rifles include the SVD , SR-25 , Dragunov SVU , Marine Scout Sniper Rifle , Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle , and M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System . An automatic rifle is a magazine-fed rifle that is capable of automatic fire. They include most assault rifles and battle rifles, but originated as their own category of rifles capable of automatic fire, as opposed to

2610-808: The National Firearms Act and Firearm Owners Protection Act define a "machine gun" in United States Code Title 26, Subtitle E, Chapter 53, Subchapter B, Part 1, § 5845 as "... any firearm which shoots ... automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger". "Machine gun" is therefore largely synonymous with "automatic weapon" in American civilian parlance, covering all automatic firearms. In most jurisdictions, automatic rifles, as well as automatic firearms in general, are prohibited from civilian purchase or are at least heavily restricted; in

2697-740: The SIG Sauer P225 generally outbid the Walther P5 in the domestic law enforcement sales. 3,000 units of the Walther P5 Compact were adopted in the 1980s by the British Army as Pistol L102A1 and were marked as such with the British military model number on the left side and NATO number on the right side instead of the standard Walther model markings. They were issued to the Royal Irish Regiment (Home Service) as

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2784-664: The Springfield Armory (United States), the Royal Small Arms Factory (United Kingdom), Mauser (Germany), Steyr-Daimler-Puch (Austria), and Rock Island Armory under Armscor (Philippines). As of 2018 the Small Arms Survey reported that there were over one billion firearms distributed globally, of which 857 million (about 85 percent) were in civilian hands. U.S. civilians alone account for 393 million (about 46 percent) of

2871-467: The StG 44 produced by Nazi Germany during World War II , assault rifles have since become extremely popular among militaries and other armed groups due to their universal versatility, and they have made up the vast majority of standard-issue military service rifles since the mid-20th century. Various configurations of assault rifle exist, such as the bullpup , in which the firing grip is located in front of

2958-543: The Type 97 sniper rifle , which was essentially a standard Type 38 rifle that was modified to be lighter and come with a telescopic sight. Related developments are anti-materiel rifles , large-caliber rifles designed to destroy enemy materiel such as vehicles, supplies, or hardware; anti-tank rifles , anti-materiel rifles that were designed specifically to combat early armoured fighting vehicles , but are now largely obsolete due to advances in vehicle armour ; scout rifles ,

3045-526: The Webley–Fosbery and Mateba . Other autoloading systems are: Firearm A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions ). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China , when bamboo tubes containing gunpowder and pellet projectiles were mounted on spears to make

3132-528: The Winchester Model 1892 , Rifle No. 5 Mk I , SKS , M1 carbine , Ruger Mini-14 , M4 carbine , and Kel-Tec SUB-2000 . An assault rifle is commonly defined as a selective-fire rifle chambered in an intermediate cartridge (such as 5.56×45mm NATO , 7.62×39mm , 5.45×39mm , and .300 AAC Blackout ) and fed with a detachable magazine . Assault rifles are also usually smaller than full-sized rifles such as battle rifles . Originating with

3219-425: The Winchester Model 1897 , Browning Auto-5 , Ithaca 37 , Remington Model 870 , Mossberg 500 , Benelli M4 , Franchi SPAS-12 , Atchisson AA-12 , and Knight's Armament Company Masterkey . A carbine is a long gun, usually a rifle, that has had its barrel shortened from its original length or is of a certain size smaller than standard rifles, but is still large enough to be considered a long gun. How considerable

3306-649: The breech instead of behind it. Examples of assault rifles include the Kalashnikov rifles of Soviet and Russian origin (such as the AK-47 , AKM , and AK-74 ), as well as the American M4 carbine and M16 rifle . A battle rifle is commonly defined as a semi-automatic or selective-fire rifle that is larger or longer than an assault rifle and is chambered in a "full-power" cartridge (e.g. 7.62×51mm NATO , 7.92×57mm Mauser , 7.62×54mmR ). The term originated as

3393-478: The 1850s to the 1860s; however, all of them refer to a means of dampening recoil in firearms, which wasn't a new idea at the time, rather than true recoil operation. The next to mention recoil operation in the British patent literature is by Alexander Blakely in 1862, who clearly describes using the recoil of a fired cannon to open the breech. In 1864 after the Second Schleswig War , Denmark started

3480-865: The 19th and 20th centuries, various types of long guns have been created for different purposes. A rifle is a long gun that has riflings (spiral grooves) machined into the bore (inner) surface of its barrel, imparting a gyroscopically stabilizing spin to the bullets that it fires. A descendant of the musket, rifles produce a single point of impact with each firing with a long range and high accuracy. For this reason, as well as for their ubiquity, rifles are very popular among militaries as service rifles , police as accurate long-range alternatives to their traditional shotgun long guns, and civilians for hunting , shooting sports , and self-defense . Many types of rifles exist owing to their wide adoption and versatility, ranging from mere barrel length differences as in short-barreled rifles and carbines , to classifications per

3567-426: The 20th century, but have since been superseded in most combat roles by rifles, carbines, and personal defense weapons due to their low effective range and poor penetration against most body armor developed since the late 20th century. However, they remain popular among special forces and police for their effectiveness in close-quarters and low likelihood to overpenetrate targets. Examples of submachine guns include

Walther P5 - Misplaced Pages Continue

3654-490: The British patent literature is a patent by Joseph Whitworth filed in 1855 which proposed to use recoil to partially open the breech of a rifle, the breech then being manually pulled the rest of the way back by hand. Around this time, an American by the name of Regulus Pilon is sometimes stated to have patented in Britain a gun that used a limited form of recoil operation. He had three British patents related to firearms around

3741-725: The P38, the P5's popularity is limited compared to its predecessor. Because of the P5's lackluster success, it prompted Walther to design the Walther P88 , which would meet the requirements of newer markets and be easier to manufacture than the P5. Domestically, only the police of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate procured the standard model in 9×19mm between 1976 and 1979. The compact version were issued to few criminal police departments in Baden-Württemberg . Due to pricing,

3828-485: The U.S. for instance, most automatic rifles are Title II weapons that require certain licenses and are greatly regulated. Examples of automatic rifles include the Cei-Rigotti , Lewis gun , Fedorov Avtomat , and M1918 Browning automatic rifle . A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm, chambered in intermediate or full-power rifle cartridges, designed to provide sustained automatic direct fire as opposed to

3915-504: The Walther improved the extractor, shortened the barrel, and increased the slide length. Safety was enhanced by utilizing an innovative pivoting firing pin that can move forward only when the trigger is pulled. In addition, the P1's slide-mounted decocker/safety was moved to a frame mounted decocker/slide stop multi-lever. Unlike most modern semi-automatic pistols, the P5 ejects spent casings to

4002-405: The barrel and bolt remain locked together during recoil, compressing the recoil springs. Following this rearward movement, the bolt locks to the rear and the barrel is forced forward by its spring. The bolt is held in position until the barrel returns completely forward during which time the spent cartridge has been extracted and ejected, and a new shell has been positioned from the magazine. The bolt

4089-478: The bolt continues rearward, compressing the recoil spring and performing the automated extraction and feeding process. During the last portion of its forward travel, the bolt locks into the barrel and pushes the barrel back into battery. The method of locking and unlocking the barrel differentiates the wide array of short recoil designs. Most common are the John Browning tilting barrel designs based on either

4176-526: The bolt reaches the end of its travel, the return spring provides the force to chamber the next round from the magazine, and lock the bolt closed. Some short-recoil–operated firearms, such as the German MG 42 and MG 3 , use a mechanism at the muzzle to extract some energy from the escaping powder gases to push the barrel backwards, in addition to the recoil energy. This boost provides higher rates of fire and/or more reliable operation. This type of mechanism

4263-859: The bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles commonly issued to infantry at the time of their invention. They usually have smaller magazine capacities than machine guns ; the French Chauchat had a 20-round box magazine, while the Hotchkiss Mle 1914 machine gun , the French Army 's standard machine gun at the time, was fed by a 250-round ammunition belt . Though automatic rifles are sometimes considered to be their own category, they are also occasionally considered to be other types of firearms that postdated their invention, usually as light machine guns . Automatic rifles are sometimes confused with machine guns or vice versa, or are defined as such by law;

4350-499: The civilian market, albeit often with longer barrels. Examples of personal defense weapons include the FN P90 , Heckler & Koch MP7 , AAC Honey Badger , and ST Kinetics CPW . Types aside, firearms are also categorized by their "action", which describes their loading, firing, and unloading cycle. Manual action or manual operation is essentially any type of firearm action that is loaded, and usually also fired, one cartridge at

4437-699: The design's primary intended use (e.g. hunting rifle), or to the commonly accepted name for a particular variation (e.g. Gatling gun ). Shooters aim firearms at their targets with hand-eye coordination , using either iron sights or optical sights . The accurate range of pistols generally does not exceed 100 metres (110 yd; 330 ft), while most rifles are accurate to 500 metres (550 yd; 1,600 ft) using iron sights, or to longer ranges whilst using optical sights. Purpose-built sniper rifles and anti-materiel rifles are accurate to ranges of more than 2,000 metres (2,200 yd). (Firearm rounds may be dangerous or lethal well beyond their accurate range;

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4524-515: The difference is between a rifle and a carbine varies; for example, the standard Heckler & Koch G36 's barrel has a length of 480 mm (18.9 in), the G36K carbine variant's barrel is 318 mm (12.5 in), and the G36C compact variant's barrel is 228 mm (9.0 in). Some carbines are also redesigned compared to their rifle counterparts, such as the aforementioned G36/G36K and G36C, or

4611-433: The energy of recoil to cycle the action, as opposed to gas operation or blowback operation using the pressure of the propellant gas. The earliest mention of recoil used to assist the loading of firearms is sometimes claimed to be in 1663 when an Englishman called Palmer proposed to employ either it or gases tapped along a barrel to do so. However no one has been able to verify this claim in recent times, although there

4698-423: The firearm's action must be reloaded or charged via an internal mechanism between trigger pulls. Types of manual actions include lever action, bolt action, and pump action. Lever action is a repeating action that is operated by using a cocking handle (the "lever") located around the trigger guard area (often incorporating it) that is pulled down then back up to move the bolt via internal linkages and cock

4785-403: The global total of small arms. A handgun is, as defined generally and in many gun laws , a firearm that can be used with a single hand. They are the smallest of all firearms, and are common as sidearms , concealed carry weapons, or as backup weapons for self-defense . Handguns can be categorized into two broad types: pistols , which have a single fixed firing chamber machined into

4872-457: The high automatic rate of fire, reliable low recoil, and lightweight compact maneuverability of submachine guns with the versatility, penetration, and effective range of rifles, effectively making them an "in-between" of submachine guns and carbines. Personal defense weapons were developed to provide rear and "second-line" personnel not otherwise armed with high-caliber firearms (vehicle and weapon crews, engineers, logistical personnel, etc.) with

4959-507: The left. This may make it a more attractive firearm for left-handed shooters. The Walther P5 Compact is the shorter and lighter version of the full-size P5. Approx 6,500 units were made for the commercial market with the "P5 Compact" slide marking. Walther P5 Lang - also known as P5L - is a variant with an extended barrel whose shape is reminiscent of that of the P38. Although the P5's successful and functional design and high level of functional reliability were confirmed by experts and

5046-499: The long-recoil operated Auto-5 . Both the Benelli and Browning systems are based on a rotating locking bolt, similar to that used in many gas-operated firearms. Before firing, the bolt body is separated from the locked bolt head by a stiff spring. As the shotgun recoils after firing, inertia of the bolt body is large enough for it to remain stationary while the recoiling gun and locked bolt head move rearward. This movement compresses

5133-474: The mechanism not to work correctly, unless a device is fitted to boost the recoil. Recoil-operated designs are broadly categorized by how the parts move under recoil. Long recoil operation is found primarily in shotguns , particularly ones based on John Browning 's Auto-5 action. In 1885 a locked breech, long recoil action was patented by the Britons Schlund and Arthur. In a long recoil action,

5220-836: The minimum distance for safety is much greater than the specified range for accuracy.) A firearm is a barreled ranged weapon that inflicts 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 , now smokeless powder . In the military, firearms are categorized into heavy and light weapons regarding their portability by infantry . Light firearms are those that can be readily carried by individual foot soldier , though they might still require more than one individual ( crew-served ) to achieve optimal operational capacity. Heavy firearms are those that are too large and heavy to be transported on foot, or too unstable against recoil , and thus require

5307-512: The musket; both having single-shot , break-action , bolt-action , lever-action , pump-action , semi-automatic , and automatic variants; and both being popular with militaries, police, and civilians for largely the same reasons. However, unlike rifles, shotguns are less favored in combat roles due to their low accuracy and limited effectiveness in modern warfare , with combat shotguns often only used for breaching or close-quarters combat and sometimes limited to underbarrel attachments such as

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5394-399: The notable exception of smoothbore shotguns ) have rifled barrels to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability. Modern firearms can be described by their caliber (i.e. bore diameter). For pistols and rifles this is given in millimeters or inches (e.g. 7.62mm or .308 in.); in the case of shotguns, gauge or bore (e.g. 12 ga. or .410 bore.). They are also described by

5481-658: The original Browning action design, and the "humpbacked" appearance of the original Auto-5. Other weapons based on the Browning system were the Remington Model 8 semi-automatic rifle (1906), the Remington Model 11 & "The Sportsman" model (a model 11 with only a two-shell magazine) shotguns, the Frommer Stop line of pistols (1907), and the Chauchat automatic rifle (1915). The short recoil action dominates

5568-412: The patent agent Frank Wirth by a German called Otto Emmerich. Finally came Maxim's 1883 automatic recoil operated machine gun which introduced the modern age of automatic machine guns. The same forces that cause the ejecta of a firearm (the projectile(s), propellant gas, wad, sabot , etc.) to move down the barrel also cause all or a portion of the firearm to move in the opposite direction. The result

5655-509: The portable fire lance , operable by a single person, which was later used effectively as a shock weapon in the siege of De'an in 1132. In the 13th century, fire lance barrels were replaced with metal tubes and transformed into the metal-barreled hand cannon . The technology gradually spread throughout Eurasia during the 14th century. Older firearms typically used black powder as a propellant , but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other explosive propellants. Most modern firearms (with

5742-734: The rear of the barrel, and are often loaded using magazines of varying capacities; revolvers , which have a number of firing chambers or "charge holes" in a revolving cylinder , each one loaded with a single cartridge or charge; and derringers , broadly defined as any handgun that is not a traditional pistol nor a revolver. There are various types of the aforementioned handguns designed for different mechanisms or purposes, such as single-shot , manual repeating , semi-automatic , or automatic pistols; single-action , double-action , or double-action/single-action revolvers; and small, compact handguns for concealed carry such as pocket pistols and " Saturday night specials ". Examples of pistols include

5829-465: The recoil force of a blank round (with no projectile) with the greater force of a live round, in order to allow the mechanism to cycle properly. Several revolvers use recoil to cock the hammer and advance the cylinder. In these designs, the barrel and cylinder are affixed to an upper frame which recoils atop a sub-frame. As the upper receiver recoils, the cylinder is advanced and hammer cocked, functions that are usually done manually. Notable examples are

5916-527: The rifle's function and purpose as in semi-automatic rifles , automatic rifles and sniper rifles , to differences in the rifle's action as in single-shot , break-action , bolt-action , and lever-action rifles. Examples of rifles of various types include the Henry rifle , Winchester rifle , Lee–Enfield , Gewehr 98 , M1 Garand , MAS-36 rifle , AKM , Ruger 10/22 , Heckler & Koch G3 , Remington Model 700 , and Heckler & Koch HK417 . A shotgun

6003-516: The same purposes. However, some prefer battle rifles for their more powerful cartridge, despite the added recoil. Some designated marksman rifles are configured from battle rifles, such as the Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle and United States Marine Corps Designated Marksman Rifle , both essentially heavily modified and modernized variants of the M14 rifle . Examples of rifles considered to be battle rifles include

6090-596: The semi-automatic or burst fire of standard rifles. They are commonly associated with being belt-fed , though many machine guns are also fed by box, drum, pan, or hopper magazines. They generally have a high rate of fire and a large ammunition capacity, and are often used for suppressive fire to support infantry advances or defend positions from enemy assaults. Owing to their versatility and firepower, they are also commonly installed on military vehicles and military aircraft , either as main or ancillary weapons . Many machine guns are individual-served and can be operated by

6177-608: The short recoil design is most common in pistols, the very first short-recoil–operated firearm was also the first machine gun , the Maxim gun . It used a toggle bolt similar to the one Borchardt later adapted to pistols. Vladimirov also used the short recoil principle in the Soviet KPV-14.5 heavy machine gun which has been in service with the Russian military and Middle Eastern armed forces since 1949. Melvin Johnson also used

6264-458: The short recoil principle in his M1941 Johnson machine gun and M1941 rifle, other rifles using short recoil are LWRCI SMG 45 and LoneStar Future Weapons RM-277R . An alternative design concept for recoil-operated firearms is the inertia operated system, the first practical use of it being the Sjögren shotgun , developed by Carl Axel Theodor Sjögren in the early 1900s, a Swedish engineer who

6351-586: The size of carbines and short-barreled rifles, and use similar configurations. Many are designed to take as little space as possible for use in close-quarters or for easy storage in vehicles and cases. Some submachine guns are designed and configured similar to pistols even down to size, and are thus occasionally classed as machine pistols , even if they are not actually a handgun (i.e. designed to require two hands to use). Submachine guns are considered ideal for close-quarters combat and are cheap to mass-produce. They were very common in military service through much of

6438-524: The slide, pressing it a second time will safely de-cock the hammer. Manufactured in Ulm , West Germany , by Carl Walther Sportwaffen GmbH , the P5 was a further development of the famous Walther P38 and P1 series. Development began following requests by German police and federal agencies for a new sidearm. Walther engineers decided to use the P1 model as the basis of the P5 and gave it a similar locking system, reinforced frame, and dual recoil springs. In addition,

6525-416: The spring between the bolt head and bolt body, storing the energy required to cycle the action. Since the spring can only be compressed a certain amount, this limits the amount of force the spring can absorb, and provides an inherent level of self-regulation to the action, allowing a wide range of shotshells to be used, from standard to magnum loads, as long as they provide the minimum recoil level to compress

6612-444: The spring. Note that the shotgun must be free to recoil for this to work—the compressibility of the shooter's body is sufficient to allow this movement, but firing the shotgun from a secure position in a rest or with the stock against the ground will not allow it to recoil sufficiently to operate the mechanism. Likewise, care must be exercised when modifying weapons of this type (e.g. addition of extended magazines or ammunition storage on

6699-404: The stock), as any sizable increase in weapon mass can reduce the work done from recoil below that required to cycle the action. As the recoil spring returns to its uncompressed state, it pushes the bolt body backward with sufficient force to cycle the action. The bolt body unlocks and retracts the bolt head, extracts and ejects the cartridge, cocks the hammer, and compresses the return spring. Once

6786-560: The support of a weapons platform (e.g. a fixed mount , wheeled carriage , vehicle , aircraft or water vessel ) to be tactically mobile or useful. The subset of light firearms that only use kinetic projectiles and are compact enough to be operated to full capacity by a single infantryman (individual-served) are also referred to as small arms . Such firearms include handguns such as pistols , revolvers , and derringers ; and long guns such as rifles (and their subtypes), shotguns , submachine guns , and machine guns . Among

6873-690: The swinging link and locking lugs as used in the M1911 pistol or the linkless cam design used in the Hi Power and CZ 75 . Other designs are the locking block design found in the Walther P38 and Beretta 92 , rollers in the MG42 , or a rotating barrel used in the Beretta 8000 and others. An unusual variant is the toggle bolt design of the Borchardt C-93 and its descendant, the Luger pistol . While

6960-456: The type of action employed (e.g. muzzleloader , breechloader , lever , bolt , pump , revolver , semi-automatic , fully automatic , etc.), together with the usual means of deportment (i.e. hand-held or mechanical mounting). Further classification may make reference to the type of barrel used (i.e. rifled ) and to the barrel length (e.g. 24 inches), to the firing mechanism (e.g. matchlock , wheellock , flintlock , or percussion lock ), to

7047-410: The way that Browning 's system does, but rather moves straight back approximately 5 mm (0.20 in). This system results in a very accurate pistol since the barrel is kept parallel with the frame during/after firing. The trigger is a standard double-action/single-action trigger. The slide lock also doubles as the decocker and is found on the left side of the frame . Pressing it once will release

7134-466: The world of centerfire semi-automatic pistols , being found in nearly all weapons chambered for high-pressure pistol cartridges of 9×19mm Parabellum and larger, while low-pressure pistol cartridges of .380 ACP and smaller generally use the blowback method of operation. Short recoil operation differs from long recoil operation in that the barrel and bolt recoil together only a short distance before they unlock and separate. The barrel stops quickly, and

7221-414: The world's arms manufacturers , the top firearms manufacturers are Browning , Remington , Colt , Ruger , Smith & Wesson , Savage , Mossberg (United States), Heckler & Koch , SIG Sauer , Walther (Germany), ČZUB (Czech Republic), Glock , Steyr Arms (Austria), FN Herstal (Belgium), Beretta (Italy), Norinco (China), Rostec , and Kalashnikov (Russia). Former top producers included

7308-493: The worldwide total of civilian-held firearms. This amounts to "120.5 firearms for every 100 residents". The world's armed forces control about 133 million (about 13 percent) of the global total of small arms, of which over 43 percent belong to two countries: the Russian Federation (30.3 million) and China (27.5 million). Law enforcement agencies control about 23 million (about 2 percent) of

7395-475: Was awarded a number of patents for his inertia operated design between 1900 and 1908 and sold about 5,000 automatic shotguns using the system in 1908–1909. In a reversal of the other designs, some inertia systems use nearly the entire firearm as the recoiling component, with only the bolt remaining stationary during firing. Because of this, the inertia system is only applied to heavily recoiling firearms, particularly shotguns. A similar system using inertia operation

7482-455: Was moderately successful at launch, the P5 did not achieve great sales success within Germany nor for export. Due to its breech-locking design, the P5 was difficult to manufacture and was sold at a high price. Additionally, after the P5 was introduced to markets, other competing pistol designs were introduced that were on par with the P5's quality as well as cheaper. As such, while successor of

7569-551: Was then developed by Paolo Benelli in the early 1980s and patented in 1986. With the exception of Sjögren's shotguns and rifles in the early 1900s, all inertia-operated firearms made until 2012 were either made by Benelli or used a design licensed from Benelli, such as the Franchi Affinity. Then the Browning Arms Company introduced the inertia-operated A5 (trademarked as Kinematic Drive) as successor to

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