[ The Arsenal ] The Wattpad Writer's guide to Modern Weapons

= The General Glossary =

here are a few terms you should understand about before you get started. Use this as a reference if you ever get stuck or don't understand what I'm talking about.

Barrel]

Your barrel. Can't get any more obvious. There's a few special things about the barrel. First, there are grooves in the barrel. Imagine taking a solid tube of metal, drilling down a screw, taking the screw out. The cuts made into the barrel are your "grooves". This is also known as "rifling". Different rifling suits different rounds based on how far, or how fast a bullet needs to travel. Rifling first appeared during the American Civil War, developed by the French formally around 1800's. God bless the French for their genius idea (seriously, no sarcasm). Rifling is basically a grip onto the bullet. The bullet will slightly deform, spiral down the barrel. The spinning of the bullet allows it to exit straight.

Bullet]

Well duh. It's your bullet. Which, some people refer to as a "round". Now, most of you are probably wondering in the back of your head,

 "I hear a lot about bullet numbers like 5.56 or 7.62, what's that?" 

Those numbers are what's called a Caliber/Calibre.

Well, here's the dictionary definition.

 " The approximate internal diameter of the barrel in relation to the diameter of the projectile used in it."

...Yeah. As you guys probably are, I'm lost too.

To make it simple, without fancy math and such, this is what it means. You basically take the diameter of a bullet, divide it by 100 inches. Though, there are exceptions to this rule.

See The bullet section for an in depth explanation and bullet reviews.

Casing]

Your casing. AKA "The little brass thing that flies out of the gun magically when you shoot";

The casing is basically where the magic happens to launch your bullet in the air.

Let's imagine we took a soda can for a moment, and made it a casing. Where your top of the soda can is, that's where we would take a bullet that would fit snug onto the top, and not fall off. But first, before we put the bullet, let's start cramming our components. 

First, we're going to drill a little hole at the bottom of the soda, right at the middle. Next, we're going to put a "primer"; in that little hole, but not letting it stick out from the bottom.

Now, a primer is this little mini soda can full of explosive charge that's going to fit in that little hole we just drilled. But the key thing about this mini soda can is that it has a little thing called a percussion/explosive cap at the bottom. This little cap is basically where the firing pin will hit, detonating the primer to trigger everything.

Now, after we have our primer, let's shape the soda can a bit to have all the gunpowder we have to fill in the soda can not cover the sides of the primer, basically denting the can so it's a bit warped in and the bottom of the can is squeezed against the sides of the primer. Now, fill up the gunpowder, and hammer on our bullet.

Phew. That took a bit, not to mention I'd probably blown my fingers off by now. You're probably wondering, "Hey! Why not make a caseless one!?" 

Well, it's been done, and it'll be explained later. There's a lot to explain later on about that particular topic.

Chamber]

This is where everything happens, in a sense. The bullet is nested in the chamber, the casing is ejected out of the chamber, and most of the time, this is where all your firing parts are.

Hammer]

The hammer, basically, it's a hammer. For many who have seen the pistols or revolvers these days in movies, the little piece of metal jutting out of the back of the gun like a crescent moon that's pulled back, that's a hammer. When your trigger is pulled, the hammer swings down or towards wherever the hinge positions it, and hits the firing pin, starting the chain to propel the bullet. The hammer was made also to act as a Safety, (see Safety), well sorta. Some just prevent the hammer process, or in revolvers, you have to pull the hammer back to prep the revolver for fire in the first place. Most pistols and almost, if not all, revolvers feature a hammer. All rifles have retired the use of having a hammer sticking out from the outside, and have internal ones within their rifles. 

So, what should you say when describing a character pulling the hammer back? Well, you could just use the little statement I just said, or, one of the following terms.

Cock Cock, as in, a verb. It's most commonly used for revolvers.

Pulled the charging Handle The charging handle is a unique type of hammer system used now in assault rifles. See the Assault Rifle Glossary section for more details.

Firing pin]

Now, your firing pin is literally, a little pin within your chamber. This little pin strikes your percussion cap at the end of your bullet casing.

Safety]

Your safety is basically this little tab that is often above the trigger. Most, if not all, pistols feature this. There are two common types of safety in Service sidearm. The purpose of the safety is to prevent your gun going off when you don't want it to. How does it do that? Well, it prevents the firing pin from striking the bullet when you don't want it to.

Trigger]

Trigger. need I say more? Well, probably. There's a few types of triggers around here. Many know of the classic trigger, you know, pull it, bullet fires. There are a couple unique triggers to look into when you're picking your weapon for your character.

Single Action :

Single action triggers, the most common. Pull the trigger, hammer strikes pin, pin strikes casing, it's all over for your target. Though, the only problem you'll have with the single action is every time you turn safety off, you have to pull the hammer back to make it keep shooting until you turn safety back on. Almost all rifles and shotguns feature this.

Double Action:

This type of trigger cocks back the hammer and releases it down in one pull. Very useful in fast reaction situations when you don't have those precious seconds to pull the hammer back offered in single action.

DA/SA :

Double/Single Action, as you may have guessed. This, in my personal opinion, is one of the oddball ones. It makes the pistol's first shot after turning off safety, a double action trigger pull, cocking the hammer back, then becomes a single action trigger pull right after that until you turn safety back on. Now, what the heck is that for? As some people wistfully comment on it  “The solution to a nonexistent problem.”; The real reason will be explained in the pros/cons section.

PROS/CONS:

SA : The single action gives the shooter a smooth, quick trigger pull. The con to this is cocking the hammer back on your first shot.

DA: Gives you the cocking action and shooting off the bullet at the same time. Pretty sweet saving time. Con? You need a big of a stronger trigger pull, and a SLIGHTLY longer pull to fire off rounds because of the mechanism. But, it's sort of negligible because as always, with good training, you'll get used to it.

DA/SA : Best of both worlds. Sort of. It's a bit confusing since because of this design, the gun mechanisms end up kind of complicated for the inexperienced.  The change of trigger squeeze may also be confusing and difficult to get around for a user, having to squeeze the trigger hard for the first shot, then realizing to swap back to a soft squeeze or you won't be able to fire rounds quickly.

Each of these triggers features pros and cons, and all, if not most, can be remedied with training, and it comes down to personal preference.

Why am I mentioning all these triggers if only SA applies to Assault rifles, your "meat" of any soldier? Because of our first section coming right up, Sidearms and Personal defense.