Ammunition Vocab

Firearms/Ballistics

Calibre

number value of diameter of the bullet

Center Fire

cartridge with priming cap in center of cartridge head

Rimfire

flange-headed cartridge with priming in hollow rim

What is the calibre of one of the very fire firearm on the market with a rim firing system

.22

Propellant (bullet)

chemical/mixture of chemicals that produce a large volume of gas when ignited and proel the missil from the weapon

Rimfire Ammunition

short brass tube closed at one end (generally a .22 calibre)

Centre fire ammunition

thick and heavy brass with pocket for primer cap

Caseless ammunition

propellant formed around bullet as single piece (NO cartridge case) -primer located at rear of propellant

Blank ammunition

case mouth is sealed with crimping the metal/wax plug/paper disc in place of bullet -for training purposes only and colored white/black

Tear-gas cartridge

small amount of CN or CS gas instead of bullet -closed with either wax plug or plastic cover -usually .22

Power tool/nail driving/stud gun cartridge

mouth of cartridge rolled over onto card disc or crimped -can be .22, .25, .32, or .38

Dummy cartridge

do not have primer or powder -only for tests -silver painted

Snap caps

dry firing so can practice without damaging firing pin, lock mechanism -rubber or hard plastic instead of primer -silver plainted

Berdan primer

2 flash holes around anvil -easy and cheap to make -military

Boxer primer

anvil is small bent disk fitting into cup to completley contain the primer and has single flash hole -commercial

Battery cup

plain cup with no anvil fitting into larger inverted cup with its own anvil making it very rigid -shot gun only

Shotgun slug

single projectile designed for shotgun

What color is the bullet tip of NATO tracer round

red

Round nose bullet shape

\-pistol

Wadcutter bullet shape

for cutting holes in target -target practice

jacket bullet shape

exposed lead with lead core

semi-jacket hollow-point bullet shape

jacket cut back to reveal lead core -designed to expand on impact of soft targets so good for wound inflicting

What has lead been replaced with since non-toxic bullets US1991

soft steel -3x harder than lead

Boat-tailed bullet

long-range rifle bullet -generally military but can als be commerical

Heeled bullet

rear part part in cartridge case is smaller

Single-base powder

Vielle 1884: smokeless propellant -nitrocellulose dissolved into alcohol

Double-base powder

Nobel 1887: nitrocellulose dissolved into nitroglycerin with Vaseline to lube and stabililze

Priming compound

starting fluid that is struck by firing pin and explodes

slow burning compounds

not all the powder is burned when the bullet leaves the cartridge -more accurate -rifles

Fast burning compounds

all powder burns before bullet leaves cartridge for max pressure -pistols and short barrel rifles

Clandestine ammunition

not stamped with country of origin -only date on headstamp