The Guns Quiz

While we think of caliber as referring to the power of a gun and/or its ammunition, it's simply the diameter of the gun's bore. Of course, the wider that diameter, the larger the ammunition, and the greater the power ... you can see why "40 caliber" sounds like more than a mere geometric term!

Many modern guns do measure caliber in millimeters (often, they're European-made) But some famous guns are in inches, like the .357 Magnum, which is .357 of an inch.

Gauge is a shell's weight. It is expressed as a fraction of a pound. So a ten-gauge shell weighs one-tenth of a pound.

The shotgun got this nickname because of the way the shot scatters when ejected from the barrel. This is in comparison to the single projectile fired from a handgun or rifle.

What the novice refers to simply as "bullets," are often called "cartridges" by more experienced gun users. This name reflects the fact that a "bullet" is a whole package: the slug, the powder and primer, the rim, and a casing that holds all of it together.

This name reflects the fact that skeet shooting is practice for, or a replacement for, shooting at flying birds. The pigeons probably appreciate the substitution!

There are about 125 guns to every 100 people in America. The United States outpaces nearly all other countries in gun ownership.

Rifling is a series of spiral ridges on the inside of the bore or barrel. These make the slug spiral as well and thus travel in a straighter line. The classic analogy is to a football thrown with a spiraling action.

Marksmanship refers to skill at hitting a target. It is practiced on firing ranges, and commonly taught in the military and in police academies.

Because they still have a casing and powder, blanks - often used in TV and film - create a realistic simulation of a gun being fired. (Because, technically, it is being fired). At close range, though, blanks are dangerous, because they eject wadding and casing material with some force. In the 1980s, a young actor died when, clowning around, he put a gun to his head and fired a blank directly into his temple.

The Chinese developed "black powder," and then made makeshift guns from hollow bamboo. Later, they created a metal version.

We should clarify that it's not so much "aim" that's at issue - which depends on the skill of the shooter - but "range." The shorter a handgun's barrel, the more quickly the slug will go off the intended course.

For several reasons, a gun might fire without the projectile leaving the barrel. This becomes dangerous when a second round is fired, which can result in a powerful explosion that might ruin the gun altogether.

An "M" number usually denotes a military rifle. The M16, and the related M4 carbine, is one of the more popular military rifles around the world.

Casually speaking, there isn't much difference between the barrel and bore. But you'd refer to whole piece, seen from the outside, as the barrel, whereas when you're talking about the path the slug takes, you're talking about the bore.

"Smith & Wesson" is a gun manufacturer. Clint Eastwood's character "Dirty Harry Callahan" name-checked them in "Sudden Impact," when he suggests that a robber is outnumbered by "Smith and Wesson ... and me."

"Plating" is something protective, like the "plates" of an armadillo. In guns, either nickel or silver plating is common.

There aren't too many individual gunsmiths practicing any more. Today, it's an industrialized process, dominated by big companies.

As you might expect for a nation with a significant gun culture, the U.S. has a lot of gun makers. This also includes Colt, Springfield, and Winchester.

We know, this is a bit of a trick question. But Glock is Austrian, not German. Other German gunmakers include Walther and Swiss-German Sig Sauer.

Beretta is an Italian gunmaker. Its guns have featured prominently in every modern European war and are used by branches of the U.S. military, but not much in American law enforcement.

This isn't a very specific term - "breech" just means the back end. It was important in the days when guns were either "muzzle-loading" (from the front) or "breech-loading" (from the back).

The confusion over this comes from the fact that the hammer must be cocked before a gun will fire. However, many modern handguns are "double action," meaning that pulling the trigger both cocks the hammer and fires the gun. This requires a separate safety or lock.

The guard is a very basic protection against accidental trigger pulls. Obviously, the real work is done by the hammer on a single-action gun, or a safety.

Of course, the answer is "silencer." The other two hide the bright flash at the muzzle created when a gun fires.

Don't confuse the "chamber" with the "clip." A clip contains all the ammunition that has been loaded. Only one round advances into the chamber when the gun is cocked. There, it's ready to be struck by the hammer or firing pin, which causes ignition of the powder.

Muzzle-loaders were common in past centuries, when powder had to be put down the barrel of a rifle, then tamped down, and then the bullet (or "ball") had to be dropped in after it. Gun battles were slower affairs in those days!

A "handloader" is a nickname for a revolver with a cylinder instead of a clip. However, among gun enthusiasts, "handloading" is repacking spent cartridges for re-use. It's not something that casual shooters do.

The word "dud" is closely related - it refers to a cartridge or shell that won't fire at all, often because of inferior powder. However, "hang fire" is a lot more fun to say. It kind of sounds like something they'd say when mad in the Old West!

The Minie ball was named after its French maker, Claude-Etienne Minie. Both sides used it in the Civil War.

This gun has a storied history. Not just literally, as part of the fictional Bond stories; it's also the weapon that dictator Adolf Hitler shot himself with in his bunker, in the final days of WWII.

Okay, there are other Kalashnikov rifles besides the 47, but that's the one that is legendary. It is very popular among insurgents and freedom fighters in Third World countries because it performs under extremely rough conditions: when wet, when desert sand gets in the inner workings, etc.

Samuel Colt improved on an early revolver design to make his Colt Paterson, the first really viable revolver. Samuel Walker was a Texas Ranger who was an early proponent and purchaser of Colt guns.

Carbines are usually less powerful than full-size rifles. However, they are easier to transport and handle.

"Buffy" had a notable anti-gun slant, but "Supernatural," a similarly-themed show about monster fighters, has been unabashed in its support of gun culture. The two main characters are brothers named Winchester, and American gunmaker Samuel Colt is re-visioned as a hero of the paranormal, who forged a gun that could kill any demon. Colt was even a character in one time-travel episode.