Definition of Mississippi Rifle Vocabulary Word

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Mississippi Rifle

Nickname for the U.S. M1841 Rifle, a .54 caliber muzzleloading rifle. The name comes from their use by a group of U.S. Volunteers from Mississippi who were commanded by Jefferson Davis in the Mexican War. Some were later rebored to .58 caliber.

19 Other Firearms Definitions You Need To Know

Hammer Bite

The action of an external hammer pinching or poking the web of the operator's shooting hand between the thumb and fore-finger when the gun is fired.

Under Barrel

The bottom barrel on an Over/Under shotgun.

English Grip

A straight-wrist grip, typical on English shotguns, built for graceful aesthetics, light weight and fast handling.

Jeweling

A cosmetic process to enhance the looks of firearm parts, such as the bolt. The look is created with an abrasive brush and compound that roughs the surface of the metal in a circular pattern.

Stance

How the shooter positions her body while shooting. The three most widely used handgun stances are Weaver, Isosceles and Chapman stance.

Machine Pistol

A handgun-style fully automatic or burst-mode firearm.
A machine pistol is not the same thing as a Submachine Gun

OTM

Abbreviation for Open Tip Match.

Feed

The action of moving live cartridges from the magazine of a firearm into the chamber.

Suppressor

Incorrectoly sometimes referred to as a silencer, it is used to reduce the sound of a firearm's discharge. They do not actually silence most firearms but rather lower the intensity of the muzzle blast and change the sound characteristics (works similarly to an automotive muffler by disrupting and spreading out the sound waves). The possession, use, and transportation of silencers have been tightly controlled under federal law since 1934. Any device which reduces the sound of discharge by more than 2 dB is considered by the BATF to be a suppressor.

Picatinny Rail

A metal bar, available in a variety of lengths, with a continuous row of Weaver-like scope mount base slots, which when attached to a firearm, allow convenient attachment of a variety of sights, lights, slings, bipods and other accessories designed to fit this standard system.

NAGR

The National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) is a gun rights advocacy group in the United States. Headed by Dudley Brown, a long-time gun rights advocate, the National Association for Gun Rights was formed in 2000 as a grassroots, member-centric organization with a no-compromise approach to gun rights issues through an aggressive strategy.

Revolver

A repeating firearm in which the ammunition is held in a multi-chambered cylinder, which is rotated to bring each chamber in line with the barrel. Most revolvers are handguns, although shoulder-fired arms have been made using this sort of mechanism.

Point Blank Range

The farthest distance that a target of a given size can be hit without holding over or under with the sights. The exact range is determined by the performance of the cartridge used, the ZERO range, and the accepted size of the target area. This term is not to be confused with point blank shooting.

Receiver Ring

The portion of the receiver which is threaded so the barrel can be attached to it.

Brick

A box of ammunition roughly equal in size and weight to a brick. Most often used to describe a 500-round container of .22 Long Rifle ammunition.

Trigger Pull

The entire process of moving the trigger from its forward-most position to its rearward-most position, causing the hammer to fall and the shot to fire.

Weapon

Anything that can be used in an offensive attack or in defense of an offensive attack. Guns are not necessarily weapons.
A gun can be used as a weapon, but so can a pencil, fist, car, a wad of paper or any other object used to attack or retaliate against an offensive attack. Even words can be used as a weapon.
Guns and other objects should be always called what they are; gun, rifle, pistol, pencil, knife, tomato or whatever they are. They should never be referred to as a weapon, EVER.
Some examples of the proper usage for the word "weapon" would be:
"One weapon used in the attack against the left flank was dirt clods".
"The marshmallow gun was the weapon of choice used in the accounting vs marketing skirmishes."
"The liberal leftists use words and restrictive controlling laws as weapons against the freedom of the people."

Mauser Safety

A small lever mounted to the cocking piece of a Mauser 98 action (and its copies such as the Springfield 1903), rotating on a longitudinal axis from left (Fire), up to the top (Safe, but allowing bolt movement), and over to the right (Bolt and firing pin locked Safe). While commendable for locking the firing pin instead of just the trigger, its up-and-over arc of operation requires a scope to be mounted awkwardly high. Paul Mauser is not to be blamed; when his safety was developed, telescopic sights were in such infancy as not to be worthy of mainstream consideration.

Creep

Sloppy movement (slack) of a trigger before the actual point of let-off.