Weapons Conditions:

1. Magazine inserted, slide/bolt forward, round in chamber, safety engaged (hammer cocked and safety on for single action semi-auto pistols)
2. Magazine inserted, slide/bolt forward, round in chamber, hammer down safety disengaged (applies to single action semi-auto pistols)
3. Magazine instered, slide/bolt forward, chamber empty, safety engaged.
4. Magazine removed, slide bolt forward, chamber empty, safety engaged.

General Firearms Definitions

ACP - automatic Colt pistol (as in .45acp)

Assault Rifle - Generally a select fire rifle with medium range capability whose bore diameter is at least .30 caliber.

Bearing Surface - The portion of a bullet that contacts the bore of the barrel as it travels from chamber to muzzle.

Ballistic Coefficient - indexed measure of a bullets ability to overcome resistance in flight relative to the performance of a standard projectile used to compute ballistics tables.

Bedding - material and/or methods used to fit rifle action to a stock. Generally an epoxy made from glass, titanium, aluminum, or other such material, glas being the most common.

Bore - the inside of a firearm's barrel.

Bullet - the projectile portion of a loaded cartridge.

Caliber - Measured in either inches or millimeters, it is the bore diameter; the nominal or approximate diameter of a bore expressed similarly. This is not the same as chambering. Caliber refers only to the diameter of the bore or projectile. (Ex: .357 magnum is a chambering using a .357 caliber bullet.)

Cartridge - A round of ammunition, comprised of a case (brass, steel, or nickel), primer, powder, and bullet.

Chamber - the portion of a firearm which contains the cartridge at firing.

Chambering - Specific dimension of the interior rearmost portion of a barrel which results in a chamber that will accept and safely fire a single specific cartridge design.

Charge - quantity of powder measured either in grains for rifle and pistols or drams for shotguns.

Clip – A strip of metal that is used to hold cartridges together to facilitate the loading into either an internal or detachable rifle magazine. This is not a magazine!

Cylinder Gap - the distance between the front of the cylinder and the forcing cone (rear most portion of the barrel) in a revolver.

Double Action (DA) - A single pull of the trigger cockes and releases the hammer of a pistol resulting in a fired cartridge.

Double Action Only (DAO) - not capable of firing single action

FFL - Federal Firearms License (required to deal in arms at the commercial level.

Feet per Second (FPS) the manner in which a bullet's speed is measured.

Failure to Feed (FTF) - A stoppage caused by a malfuntion of the firearm resulting in a fresh cartridge not being stripped off of the top of the magazine when the action cycles.

Failure to Fire (FTF2) - A stoppage caused by a malfunction of the firearm resulting in a chambered round not being fired.

Guage (Ga.) The manner in which a shotgun bore is measured. The number of lead balls equal to the inside diameter of the shotgun's bore required to equal one pound is the Guage of the shotgun. A 12Ga shotgun would require 12 lead balls equal to it's bore diameter to equal one bound. (With regard to the .410 shotgun, if this chambering were expressed in Ga, it would be a 67 Guage Shotgun).

Headspace - measurement between two points in a chamber which are the confining boundaries of cartridge movement during chambering and firing. Insufficient headspace hinders complete chambering of the cartridge. Excessive headspace permits case stretching and can permit case separation, which will permit high pressure gas leakage during the firing/pressure cycle. Headspace is one of the most important aspects of proper maintencance. An unsafe condition WILL arise when headspace is not properly maintained.

Malfunction - Mechanical failure of a rifle, pistol or shotgun to fire as designed.

Muzzle Velocity Ussually measured in FPS, it is the speed and direction of the bullet as it exits the barrel.

Minute of Angle (MOA) - This is a constant measurement. One minute of angle is equal to one inch at one hundred yards. 1 MOA is equal to 5 inches at 500 yards. When someone brags that his rifle is capable of sub MOA groups, he means that his rifle will fire a groups that is smaller than one inch at one hundred yards, or less than 3 inches at 300 yards, and so on).

Over/Under (O/U) - Refers to the barrels of a double barrled shotgun, wherein the barrels are stacked one on top of the other.

Rifling - The lands and grooves (spirals) inside of rifle and pistol barrels that cause the projectile to spin inside the barrel after being fired. This stabailizes the bullets flight and results in greater accuracy.

Single action (SA) A single pull of the trigger releases the hammer resulting in a fired round. The hammer must be in the cocked position prior to firing.

Stoppage - A mechanical faliure of a rifle, pistol or shotgun resulting in an interuption of the cycle of operations.

Throat - The portion of the bore immediately forward of the chamber.