Firearms Guide For Beginners

H

HisDudeness

New member
Hello all,

I'm new to firearm ownership but not new to shooting. I spent time in the Navy shooting M14's, Beretta M9's, and various other larger firearms when the Gunners Mates were having a good day. Unfortunately the basics of what makes up a firearm and how to clean them and maintain them was left up to the GM's. My question is this:

Is there a firearms publication or a combination of them that will give me the knowledge of what the various components of a firearm are, how the different firing mechanisms function, and the basic maintenance of said weapon? I realize that each firearm will have specific requirements but at this point I am also looking for general information. Thank you in advance for the input.
 
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The majority of manufacturers will have electronic copies available through their website. Without a specific weapon in mind its a little difficult just because of the vast number of models. For instance a standard Glock has around 30ish working components, a standard 1911 style weapon will have around 60ish working components.

Are you looking for somethin more along the lines of "this is the barrel, this is the chamber, this is the slid (if simi-auto), this is the magazine,"? Might try the NRA website for something like that.
 
Are you looking for somethin more along the lines of "this is the barrel, this is the chamber, this is the slid (if simi-auto), this is the magazine,"? Might try the NRA website for something like that.
Click to expand...

No, I understand the basic external components of a weapon. All of that was drilled into me during firearms training in the service. What I'm looking for is information about the engineering components of a weapon (internals) and the different ways a manufacturer turns a trigger pull into a bang. I'm curious by nature and when I read something on this forum like "blowback operation" I want to know what it means. I guess I may be asking for too much by assuming there is a book out there that will accomplish this.
 
everytime you see a new term, you just google it. no real need to buy a book as i haven't come across a fully comprehensive one across all mechanisms.

youtubes also has videos of cross-sections/simulations of guns as well so theres a good way to go.
 
A few of the more common ones:

Blowback means that the opening of the action is delayed only by the mass of the slide/bolt and the tension of the recoil spring. The slide/bolt is not mechanically locked shut in any way. This type of action is most commonly seen in automatic pistols, pistol-caliber carbines, and submachine guns.

Single Action means that the cocking of the hammer/striker is not linked to the operation of the trigger. Cocking can be accomplished manually, as is the case with a single action revolver, or through the cycling of the action as is the case with automatic pistols, rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, and machine guns.

Double Action means that pulling the trigger both cocks and releases the hammer/striker. A traditional double action gun can be fired this way or have its hammer/striker manually cocked and/or cocked by cycling the action. A double action only gun cannot be cocked by any means except pulling the trigger. Double Action is almost always encountered in handguns.

Recoil-operation means that the gun's action is cycled by the recoil of the cartridge. While blowback could be considered a type of recoil operation, the term is most often applied to handguns with some sort of locked-breech like the Colt/Browning tilting barrel system or the Walther/Beretta wedge-block system. Some automatic long guns such as the Browning A5 Shotgun, HK G3 assault rifle, and HK MP5 submachine gun are also recoil operated though other methods of operation are more common.

Gas-operation means that some of the propellant gas from a fired cartridge is diverted and used to cycle the action of the weapon. Most automatic rifles and shotguns use this type of operation. While there are gas-operated handguns such as the IMI Desert Eagle, they are much less common that blowback and recoil operated pistols.

Magazines may be encountered in many different configurations including drum, pan, roatary, and helical, but the two most common types are box and tubular. A box magazine holds the cartridges side to side in either a single column or two staggered columns. Box magazines may be either detatchable or an integral part of the weapon and are most commonly encountered in automatic pistols, automatic rifles, machine guns, submachine guns, and bolt-action rifles. Tubular magazines hold the cartridges nose-to-base in a straight line and are usually mounted parallel to the barrel. While there are ways to get around the limitation, tubular magazines are usually limited to rimfire cartridges, shotshells, or centerfire cartridges loaded with blunt-nose bullet in order to prevent the nose of the bullet from detonating the primer of the next cartridge. Tubular magazines are most commonly encountered in shotguns, rimfire rifles, and lever-action centerfire rifles and are usually not detatchable.

Beyond this, we'll need more specific examples of the terms and/or guns that you have questions about.
 
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