Black Powder
Black Powder Guns are firearms that employ early firearm technology, and hand loaded ammunition. The main advantage of black powder guns is that their ammunition is easy for the common person to manufacture, compared to regular guns. It is far easier to make lead balls and gunpowder than it is to make an equivalent number of bullets. In addition, these weapons fire higher caliber rounds than their modern counterparts do, meaning despite the lack of a rifling barrel, they can still inflict severe damage. However, black powder guns have several critical disadvantages that make their use in any situation (even as a last resort) a highly questionable affair.
Lever-Action Guns
Lever-action is a type of firearm action which uses a lever located around the trigger guard area to load fresh cartridges into the chamber of the barrel when the lever is worked. This contrasts to bolt action, semi-automatic, or selective fire weapons. Most lever-action firearms are rifles, but lever-action shotguns and a few pistols have also been made. One of the most famous lever-action firearm is undoubtedly the Winchester rifle, but many manufacturers–notably Marlin and Savage–also produce lever-action rifles. Mossberg produces the 464 in center fire .30-30 and rim fire .22. While the term lever-action generally implies a repeating firearm, it is also sometimes applied to a variety of single-shot, or falling-block actions that use a lever for cycling, such as the Martini-Henry or the Ruger No. 1.
Revolvers
Revolver-type weapons are part of the long development of making better multi-shot weapons. They were partly an attempt to improve on pepper-box type weapons, which used a revolving cylinder with one set of firing mechanisms, but which had multiple barrels as well. Firing through a single barrel saved the expense and weight of having the multiple barrels of the Pepper-box. While many revolving chamber designs were tried, the first widely successful revolvers were based on mechanisms patented by Samuel Colt. It is believed that Samuel Colt came up with the idea for the revolver while at sea, inspired by the ship’s wheel.
Semi-Automatic
A semi–automatic pistol is a type of repeating single-chamber handgun (pistol) that automatically cycles its action to insert the subsequent cartridge into the chamber (self-loading), but requires manual actuation of the trigger to actually discharge the following shot. As a result, only one round of ammunition is fired each time the trigger is pulled, as the pistol’s fire control group disconnects the trigger mechanism from the firing pin/striker until the trigger has been released and reset. Additional terms sometimes used as synonyms for a semi–automatic pistol are self-loading pistol, autopistol, autoloading pistol, and automatic pistol (E.G.: Automatic Colt Pistol).Â
Bolt Action Gun
Bolt action is a type of firearm action in which the weapon’s bolt is operated manually by the opening and closing of the breech with a small handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the weapon. As the handle is operated, the bolt is unlocked, the breech is opened, the spent cartridge case is withdrawn and ejected, the firing pin is cocked, and finally a new round/cartridge is placed into the breech and the bolt closed. Bolt action firearms are most often rifles, but there are some bolt–action shotguns and a few handguns as well. Examples of this system date as far back as the early 19th century, notably in the Dreyse needle gun.
