Can I axe you something? [More More More Questions]

[Krilliad]

What makes a gun a "carbine"?  

[Fresnel]

Battlefield Reaper

Can someone explain to me....

Using Calibers vs. Measurements in mm

Whatever you feel like. I think, though, that it's generally military calibers are in millimeters and civilian calibers are in inches, though 6.5-284 is a competition round and .303 is probably the oldest smokeless round still in service (and coincidentally the first caliber in which a tracer was made).

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"Auto-loading"

Semi-automatic. When one round fires, the gun automatically loads the next. Thus, auto-loading

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Is a Semi automatic pistol single or double action? Or is it just a semi automatic?

Just semi-auto. Though most semis are double action (in one way or another), the venerable 1911 for example is a single-action pistol. You can't fire the first round with the hammer down.

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The need for heat shields on some shotguns.

I honestly don't know that one. Maybe shotguns get hotter than rifles for some reason? Or maybe you're just more likely to touch the notably larger barrel.

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What makes a tracer glow the way it does?
(Specific chemicals?)

Wikipedia says:
"In US and NATO standard ammunition, this is usually a mixture of strontium compounds (nitrate, peroxide,...) and a metal fuel such as magnesium. This yields a bright red light. Russian and Chinese tracer ammunition generates green light using barium salts."

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And as MANY ACRONYMS AS POSSIBLE.

There's actually a thread for that somewhere... or did it fall off the list? Probably fell off the list. Oh well... I'm not sure where to start, but if you run into one you don't know, don't be afraid to ask. There's a lot of acronyms out there and a lot of people who don't know them. I had someone who had a lol the other day after looking up 'IIRC' and realizing that she had once known what it meant, but had forgotten.  

[OberFeldwebel]

From what I heard is that the Walther P38 was the first double action semi-auto.
Or was it the first double action semi-auto to be used by a major military?

Details, details, details.

The double actions, or at least the good ones, have a hammer safety that allows you to safely rest the hammer while having one in the chamber and just use the trigger to pull the hammer from rest to fire.  

[Man of the Demoneye]

I may as well post my theory about the heatshields.

A shotgun barrel seems a lot thinner walled than most any rifle barrel, and the steel has less area to dissipate heat. The holes probably also help cool the barrel. However, I shot over a box of shells on clays before and never had it get too warm. Plus if you look at Tom Knapp or Tim Bradley's guns, neither has a heatshield.

Found it!

popguns.com

The Barrel Heat shield for shotguns are designed to aid in dissipating heat from the barrel and reduce the chance of burning your hands when b the the barrel in heated combat. Now this is usually not an issue for the average person who own's a Tactical shotgun - So why put a Barrel Heatshield on your Home Defense Shotgun? IT LOOKS COOL!

 

[Krilliad]

Can anyone answer the new ones?  

[Fresnel]

Battlefield Reaper

Can someone explain the different kinds of ammunition to me and how they work?

There's your standard ball ammunition, which is just a bullet, nothing special about it. Probably copper jacketed with a lead core for weight.

There's hollow-point, which is meant to split open like a banana and unfold to several times its original size when it hit something soft. However, hollow-point boat tail (HPBT) is a target round and is only 'hollow point' because of a manufacturing quirk, and they don't expand particularly well.

There's explosive rounds, most commonly found in calibers .50 and up, but it should be noted that Reagan and Brady were shot with explosive rounds for the .22 short, all six rounds of which failed to explode. The purpose of those is pretty straightforward.

There's steel-core rounds which are essentially ball ammunition with steel cores instead of lead. They don't count as 'armor piercing' because they're not really good at it, but if you hit a steel armor plate with even a small-caliber steel core round it'll leave a dent.

There's armor-piercing rounds, which generally have a tungsten core, IIRC. Again, the purpose is pretty straightforward

There's tracers, which we went over last time.

There's incendiary, which light on fire when they hit something, allowing them to detonate gas tanks or piles of explosives.

Aaand... that's all that comes to mind at the moment.

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Also, can anyone explain the difference between
.30-06 meaning invented in 1906 and .30-30?

Winchester developed the round, calling it the .30WCF (winchester centerfire). Marlin stole the round and re-named it the .30-30. Apparently the -30 stands for the standard load of 30 grains of early smokeless powder.

Basically, when you make a bullet you call it whatever the hell you want. I've heard of a recent wildcat cartridge called .17XTC (across the course).

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How does a bolt action throw an empty casing from the chamber?

The ejector, same as any other firearm. It changes from firearm to firearm, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure how it works myself.

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Why are .50 cal or 12.7mm rifle called "Anti-material"?

Anti-matériel, actually. In military terms, matériel is equipment, as opposed to personnel, which is people. The rifle is made for destroying lightly-armored trucks and other large pieces of equipment. It just turned out to be an extremely effective man-killer.

FYI, 12.7mm = .5". It's the same round.

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Modular weapons?

A weapon you can take apart and put together again to make it suited for a different role. If the AR was easier to replace parts on, it could be considered a modular weapon. Something like a Ma Deuce has one role and one role only. Hardly modular.

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Free-floating barrels?

The barrel doesn't actually come into contact with the handguard. That way if you attach a sling or something and use it to stabilize the gun while firing, it won't flex the barrel and ******** up your sights. The difference in flex between resting the gun on a bipod and resting it on your off hand doesn't seem like much, but at 500+ meters it adds up.  

[Fresnel]

Battlefield Reaper

Whats a "breach barrel" for a shotgun?

A breacher barrel has an extra, ported length on it to offset it the correct amount from a surface if you're going to shoot a lock off. Usually, they're serrated on the end to hold better. You jam the barrel into the wood of the door at a 10 o'clock position to the lock, the serrations keep it from slipping, and a blast of buckshot (or a frangible breaching slug) can usually kick the door lock out of the door and through the wall. It can be done without the special barrel, but you need to keep the barrel the right distance away from the lock for it to work properly and not kB! your barrel. I've also seen a breaching attachment that goes on the end of the mag tube, as such.

Remington has a Tactical series with breaching equipment...



Except that's not a breacher barrel, per se... it's a special breaching CHOKE.



You can just take it out and put in any other choke you want if you felt like hunting.

ETA: Apparently, Remington didn't design that choke to take breaching pressures. It was designed primarily to put a choke on the barrel, secondarily to reduce recoil (and I've heard it does a hell of a job), and tertiarily (why is that not a word?) to look cool.

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Also, can someone explain the different sizes of shotguns shells and their various purposes.

The different sizes have different recoil. Most common are 10 gauge, 12 gauge, 16 gauge, 20 gauge, 28 gauge, and .410 gauge (technically a caliber), in order of decreasing recoil. A larger shell yields larger recoil, but also more pellets (or smaller slugs). 12 gauge is most common, but some people who don't like its stiff recoil often go with a 20, 28, or even .410 shotgun. I know some people who have had shoulder surgery often switch to lighter loads, like the .410.

Then there's special shotgun ammo, usually 12 gauge. s**t like dragonsbreath (shoots flaming magnesium birdshot), flechettes (tiny darts), 'bolo' rounds (two steel balls with a wire between them), home-made dime slugs (apparently dimes are the same size as a 12 gauge slug), less-than-lethal beanbag rounds, baton rounds (rubber slug), hornet rounds (rubber buckshot), OC (pepper spray) slugs... there's 12 gauge signal flares... there's all sorts of crazy 12 gauge s**t.  

[Fresnel]

Battlefield Reaper

What makes a gun a "carbine"?

As far as I can tell, there's two criteria. Either it's a shorter version of a similar gun, like the M4 is a shorter M16 and the K98k is a shorter G98, or it shoots pistol-caliber bullets like the G22, the Cx4 Storm or, technically, the P90.  

[OberFeldwebel]

Although, the M1/M2 or M1A1 Carbine had it's own cartridge but wasn't used in a pistol until later on.
The M38 and M44 are shortened versions of the M91/30, but they still use the same full sized cartridge.


But the P90 is, by design, a sub-machinegun.
The only P90 Carbines are the civilian models with lengthened barrels and semi-auto only function.  

[Fresnel]

OberFeldwebel

Although, the M1/M2 or M1A1 Carbine had it's own cartridge but wasn't used in a pistol until later on.

Right, but it's essentially a downsized version of the Garand with a box magazine and a downsized cartridge though, correct? The action is essentially the same.

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But the P90 is, by design, a sub-machinegun.
The only P90 Carbines are the civilian models with lengthened barrels and semi-auto only function.

Point.  

[OberFeldwebel]

Fresnel

OberFeldwebel

Although, the M1/M2 or M1A1 Carbine had it's own cartridge but wasn't used in a pistol until later on.

Right, but it's essentially a downsized version of the Garand with a box magazine and a downsized cartridge though, correct? The action is essentially the same.

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But the P90 is, by design, a sub-machinegun.
The only P90 Carbines are the civilian models with lengthened barrels and semi-auto only function.

Point.

But you know, when you make anything from full auto to single you change it completely. Well, to me it does.
So yes, AKs should be PK-47/74s.
P meaning Poluavtomaticheskij, which I'm not sure but I think is Russian for Semi-automatic.


Yeah, the M1 Carbine is a Mini-Garand, I noticed that much.
Still the same ~7.62 diameter.

Much like an M14 is the best of the two.
Box mag, big cartridge, accurate, heavy as lead bricks...
did I miss anything?  

[Fresnel]

OberFeldwebel

Fresnel

OberFeldwebel

Although, the M1/M2 or M1A1 Carbine had it's own cartridge but wasn't used in a pistol until later on.

Right, but it's essentially a downsized version of the Garand with a box magazine and a downsized cartridge though, correct? The action is essentially the same.

Quote:

But the P90 is, by design, a sub-machinegun.
The only P90 Carbines are the civilian models with lengthened barrels and semi-auto only function.

Point.

But you know, when you make anything from full auto to single you change it completely. Well, to me it does.
So yes, AKs should be PK-47/74s.
P meaning Poluavtomaticheskij, which I'm not sure but I think is Russian for Semi-automatic.


Yeah, the M1 Carbine is a Mini-Garand, I noticed that much.
Still the same ~7.62 diameter.

Much like an M14 is the best of the two.
Box mag, big cartridge, accurate, heavy as lead bricks...
did I miss anything?

You don't feel bad giving it a synthetic stock and tacticooling it out? Ooh, there's one. You can't tacticool a Garand. Though the actual military M14 is full auto selectable and horribly uncontrollable. It's why it had such a short service.  

[OberFeldwebel]

Fresnel

OberFeldwebel

Fresnel

OberFeldwebel

Although, the M1/M2 or M1A1 Carbine had it's own cartridge but wasn't used in a pistol until later on.

Right, but it's essentially a downsized version of the Garand with a box magazine and a downsized cartridge though, correct? The action is essentially the same.

Quote:

But the P90 is, by design, a sub-machinegun.
The only P90 Carbines are the civilian models with lengthened barrels and semi-auto only function.

Point.

But you know, when you make anything from full auto to single you change it completely. Well, to me it does.
So yes, AKs should be PK-47/74s.
P meaning Poluavtomaticheskij, which I'm not sure but I think is Russian for Semi-automatic.


Yeah, the M1 Carbine is a Mini-Garand, I noticed that much.
Still the same ~7.62 diameter.

Much like an M14 is the best of the two.
Box mag, big cartridge, accurate, heavy as lead bricks...
did I miss anything?

You don't feel bad giving it a synthetic stock and tacticooling it out? Ooh, there's one. You can't tacticool a Garand. Though the actual military M14 is full auto selectable and horribly uncontrollable. It's why it had such a short service.

I would feel bad about tacticooling anything out!
Even AKs.

Yeah, they should have kept the M14 as a battle rifle.  

[uryu ishida]

There are actually some fundamental differences in the Carbine and Garand.

The Garand is a Long-Strong Piston (Gas-Operated) Rotating Bolt.
The Carbine is a Short-Stroke rotating bolt, which just acts like a hammer that hits the op rod.
The BOLT is essentially the same during action, but so is a LOT of other semi-auto (or maybe even full auto) rifles.  

[OberFeldwebel]

uryu ishida

There are actually some fundamental differences in the Carbine and Garand.

The Garand is a Long-Strong Piston (Gas-Operated) Rotating Bolt.
The Carbine is a Short-Stroke rotating bolt, which just acts like a hammer that hits the op rod.
The BOLT is essentially the same during action, but so is a LOT of other semi-auto (or maybe even full auto) rifles.

Well yeah, that's to save space.