Glossary

The firing pin is directly behind a chambered cartridge of a hammer-fired gun. When the hammer strikes the firing pin, it impacts the cartridge’s primer cap to discharge the weapon.

A line at a shooting range, imaginary or marked, from which people shoot their firearms down range.

According to the federal government definition, a firearm is a rifle, shotgun, or handgun that uses gunpowder as a propellant. The act of combustion must be present for the device to be considered a firearm.

An attempt that results in no shot when the trigger is pulled. Caused by a failure to feed, bad ammunition or possibly a broken firing pin.

A semi-automatic firearm break down in which the slide passes over or misses the fresh round, failing to insert it into the chamber as the slide returns to battery.

A semi-automatic firearm malfunction in which the extractor fails to pull the empty casing out of the way as the slide travels back. A failure to extract often causes the double-feed problem.

Ammunition that has been assembled and created by a specific distributor and then sold in stores such as Winchester, Remington, or Nosler.

Full Auto – A firearm that continues to fire while the trigger is held back. Machine Gun.

Shooter's slang term for any protective eye covering.

A gun’s mechanism that pulls cases from the chamber after the ammunition has been fired.

On firearms, an external safety or safety catch is a mechanism used to help prevent the accidental discharge of a firearm. The safety must be switched to off when the shooter wants to fire the gun.

The setting on the sights of a firearm that controls the vertical placement of the shot. On rifle scopes the elevation setting is on the top turret.

A gun’s mechanism that releases or “kicks” the spent case from the chamber.

The rigid, sliding metal rod located near the muzzle end of a revolver cylinder. Once a round is fired, the shooter opens the cylinder and depresses the front end of the ejection rod, which forces the empty cases or live ammunition out of the cylinder.

Shooter's slang term for any hearing protection device.