The Firearm Guide to Common Firearm Terminology: What are some common firearm terms?

We'll cover what some common firearm terms are, and get you to where you can have a basic conversation with other firearm enthusiasts without worrying about being bullied by the more enthusiast-er enthusiasts.

We don't like those people anyway.

Magazine

A container that holds your cartridges (rounds, shells) for feeding ammunition into your firearm.

This is probably one of the most common terms you'll hear. This is primarily because it's also the most common way that most of the firearms you see are typically fed.

It's also usually intermixed with the word clip, but as you'll see in a second, they are in fact not the same thing.

Clip

is a method of loading rounds into your firearm (or into your magazine) using a specially-designed 'clip' that seats the cartridges and allows you to push them into the firearm/magazine for loading.

I love using the M1 Garand as an example because it's such an iconic weapon.

As you can see, clips can actually be used to feed both your firearm and magazines for firearms. You know, for when you can't reach your M1 Garand and need a speedy alternative.

When it comes to occupying a range, it's important you understand what the terms "Hot" and "Cold" mean. I won't insult your intelligence too much on this one, but rather provide you an answer to "What should I do when the range is hot or cold".

Hot Status

Used primarily for letting everyone know that weapons are free to be fired.

Typically this means that nobody is in front of the firers and all safety aspects have been addressed to ensure a safe firing session. Assume your usual actions and feel free to fire!

Cold Status

Used primarily for letting everyone know that weapons should not be fired under any circumstances.

In this status, everyone needs to clear their firearms, set them down safely, and point them in a safe direction. This status is called on whenever there's a safety issue present or when someone needs to go past the firing line in order to do something.

Some ranges do this verbally, while others might have some kind of electronic or physical method of alerting everybody.

It's important to know that these statuses can be called on by anyone and should be respected by everybody. It's critical to maximize range safety. Ensure everybody understands when a weapon status changes and don't do anything without confirming it first!

Cartridge or Round

The container that holds the propellant, primer, and projectile.

This term is commonly exchanged with bullet. In reality, the bullet is the projectile (1) that exits the barrel of your firearm. Everything left over is ejected from the firearm.

Don't worry, we'll discuss that more in-depth in a different post (Stick around).

Brass

A term generally describing an empty cartridge

That's, uh - that's about it.

Moving on!

You'll sometimes hear "center-fire" and "rim-fired" when discussing different types of ammunition.

"But, what is rim-fire and center-fire?"

Well It sounds daunting, but it's actually pretty simple. Check it out:

Center-fire

Describes rounds that are fired via the activation of a primer in the casing.

Remember the photo from probably less than two minutes ago?

Number (5) is the primer, and all it does is get hit and ignite the propellant in the cartridge.

And it's centered in the back of the casing.

Complex, huh? Hope I didn't lose ya.

Rim-fire

Describes rounds that don't have a primer, typically due to their smaller size, and are fired via impact of their rims - the flat ends of the cartridge.

See, it wasn't too much. Why many word when few word do trick?

Shells(Smaller munitions)

Small, cylindrical ammunition that houses numerous small sub-projectiles.

Yes there are larger munitions, such as artillery shells, but lets focus on something easier and more likely for you to mess with.

The way these work are about the same as regular rounds, but they're designed more towards launching sub-projectiles such as pellets instead of a single projectile or bullet.

They use a wad at the rear of the sub-projectiles to help launch them out towards your target by keeping the propellant concentrated behind the sub-projectiles, since otherwise there's more room for the propellant to spread in the container.

We'll we've just about covered the majority of the terms you'll hear. There's tons, and I mean tons of different terms out there, so don't be disheartened when you hear something you might not recognize - just ask!

Or beg me to update the list.

Before we close out though, lets discuss two more terms you might hear when referring to how a firearm mechanically functions to shoot - especially if you want to talk about older handguns: Single-action and double-action.

Single-action

refers to a firearm where the hammer (the piece that strikes the firing pin to hit the round) must be cocked back manually because the trigger only releases the hammer.

I'm sure you've seen one of these - especially in older western movies.

Firing a weapon is pretty simple, as all you have to do is figure out a way to strike the back of a cartridge in order to set it off. In a lot of older firearms, you would manually bring that hammer back and then use the trigger to release it. That's it.

That's why you see this method of rapid firing called fanning for single-action revolvers. Otherwise, they wouldn't fire.

Warning: This guy is cooler than us.

And if you can understand how single-action works, then you can probably guess how double-action works as well - but I'll save you the brain work:

Double Action

refers to a firearm where the trigger both cocks (preps the hammer) and fires (releases the hammer to hit the firing pin which hits the round).

This is probably pretty self-explanatory, so I won't drag on this term. It does both, or double the actions! Easy!

I hope you got something out of this section. Like I said before, there's a ton of terms out there and I only covered a small, common fraction of them. Don't be afraid to ask about terms you might not know, and stay tuned for more guides!