50 Fun Facts About Firearms

The first firearms, bamboo fire lances mounted on spears, originated in which country?

They were used as shock weapons at the siege of De'an in 1132; metal-barrelled hand cannons followed in the 13th century.

Traditional gunpowder is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal and which oxidiser?

It is classed as a low explosive because it deflagrates, burning at subsonic speed rather than detonating.

Which early European firearm was the first to have a trigger?

Before it, a gunner or an assistant had to touch a lit match to the powder by hand.

A wheellock, developed around 1500, made its spark by spinning a steel wheel against a piece of what?

It was the first self-igniting firearm and the next big step after the matchlock, though it was expensive and complex.

Court gunsmith Marin le Bourgeoys developed the true flintlock c. 1610-15 for the king of which country?

He made one for Louis XIII soon after the king's accession, and the design remained standard for more than two centuries.

A percussion cap contains a small amount of which shock-sensitive explosive?

The hammer crushes the copper cap against a nipple that acts as an anvil, firing the main charge in any weather.

An officer from which country invented the Minié ball in 1849?

Both the Springfield Model 1861 and the British Pattern 1853 Enfield fired it.

What is a gun barrel without rifling grooves called?

Rifling is measured by twist rate; a musket ball needs a lazy twist of about one turn in 48 inches.

Because most models hold six rounds, revolvers are commonly nicknamed what?

They are also called wheel guns; cocking the hammer rotates the cylinder to line up the next chamber with the barrel.

Which inventor patented a "revolving gun" in 1836 and made mass-produced revolvers commercially viable?

His business took off in 1847 when the Texas Rangers ordered 1,000 revolvers for the war with Mexico.

The Colt Single Action Army revolver, standard US Army issue from 1873 to 1892, is famous under what nickname?

It has been offered in more than 30 calibres and its looks have barely changed since 1873.

The 1860 Henry rifle, a sixteen-shot lever-action repeater, was the basis for which iconic Wild West rifle?

Some Sioux and Cheyenne warriors carried Henrys against Custer's cavalry at the Little Bighorn in 1876.

Which Model 1873 rifle was marketed with the slogan 'The Gun That Won the West'?

It descended from the Henry, and its maker grew out of a firm founded by Smith and Wesson.

Smith & Wesson's earlier Volcanic Repeating Arms was sold to which man, whose name became a rifle brand?

Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson then founded the Smith & Wesson Revolver Company in 1856.

The Gatling gun, an early hand-cranked machine gun, was invented in 1861 by a man from which US state?

Its rotating barrels solved the overheating problem; the Union Army used it only occasionally in the Civil War.

Which 1884 weapon was the world's first fully automatic machine gun?

Hiram Maxim's design was used ruthlessly by colonial powers during the Scramble for Africa.

The Puckle gun, patented in 1718, was designed to fire round shot at Christians and what at Muslim Turks?

It was one of the first weapons ever called a 'machine gun', in a 1722 shipping manifest, though perhaps only two were ever made.

The M1911 pistol was the standard-issue US military sidearm from 1911 until which year?

John Browning's design has changed remarkably little across more than a century of production.

The M1911 is chambered primarily for which cartridge?

It was adopted after an intensive US search for a self-loading pistol to replace the service revolvers of the 1890s.

How many firearm patents was John Browning awarded in his life?

He built his first gun at 13 in his father's shop and got his first patent at 24, in 1879.

The Thompson submachine gun was invented in 1918 by an officer of which rank?

John T. Thompson meant it to break the stalemate of the trenches; it arrived too late for the war and found fame with gangsters and the FBI instead.

Which US agency adopted the Thompson submachine gun after the Kansas City massacre?

Also nicknamed the Chicago typewriter and the trench broom, it was sold openly to civilians in the 1920s.

Which US general called the M1 Garand 'the greatest battle implement ever devised'?

It was America's first standard-issue autoloading rifle, replacing the bolt-action Springfield in 1936.

The M1 Garand was named after its designer, John Garand, who was born in which country?

Even his name's pronunciation is disputed: GARR-und to purists, guh-RAND in popular usage.

The Lee-Enfield was the standard British service rifle from 1895 until which year?

Its ten-round magazine of .303 British could be loaded with five-round chargers, and it armed the Empire through both world wars.

The AK-47 was designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in which country?

Design work began in 1945 and the Soviet Armed Forces officially accepted it in 1949.

As of 2004, roughly what share of the world's 500 million firearms belonged to the Kalashnikov family?

About three-quarters of those were AK-47s, prized for reliability in harsh conditions and low cost.

The AK-47 fires which cartridge?

The smaller 5.56 round is the calibre of its American rival, the M16.

The M16 was adapted from the AR-15, first revealed at Fort Benning in 1957 by which engineer?

The M16A1 replaced the M14 as the US standard service rifle in 1969, during the Vietnam War.

The Uzi submachine gun was designed in the late 1940s by an army major from which newly founded state?

Its telescoping bolt makes it unusually compact; it has been exported to over 90 countries.

The Glock, adopted by the Austrian military in 1982, was the first commercially successful pistol to use what?

Its 'plastic' construction met resistance at first; the Safe Action system uses three internal safeties instead of a manual one.

Which company, founded no later than 1526, is the oldest active firearm manufacturer in the world?

Its first product was arquebus barrels, which by all accounts equipped the Venetian fleet at Lepanto in 1571.

Which compact German pistol is James Bond's signature sidearm in the novels and films?

The same model is alleged to have been the gun Hitler used in the Führerbunker in April 1945.

The Desert Eagle chambers which cartridge, the largest centrefire round of any magazine-fed self-loading pistol?

Designed by Magnum Research, it was long manufactured by Israel Military Industries and is now built in Minnesota.

The word 'derringer' is a misspelling that spread during reporting of which event?

John Wilkes Booth used a concealed Philadelphia Deringer, made by Henry Deringer, of which about 15,000 were built.

Which two shotgun gauges are by far the most common?

Gauge is an old measure: the number of lead balls of bore diameter that make a pound.

Which French gunsmith introduced the self-contained breech-loading cartridge in 1835?

His pinfire system was the ancestor of the metallic cartridges that ended the muzzle-loading era.

In which year was the Second Amendment to the US Constitution ratified?

It arrived with nine other articles of the Bill of Rights; the Supreme Court affirmed an individual right in D.C. v. Heller in 2008.

Which 2008 Supreme Court case affirmed an individual Second Amendment right to self-defence at home?

McDonald v. Chicago in 2010 then extended the same limits to state and local governments.

The first confirmed reference to gunpowder appears in Chinese texts of which era?

Chinese alchemists seem to have hit on it while searching for an elixir of life.

A matchlock's smouldering cord was held in a curved lever with what snake-inspired name?

Pulling the trigger dropped the match into the flash pan, and the flash travelled through the touch hole to the main charge.

During the American Civil War, the Colt factory in Hartford supplied firearms to whom?

He had also produced underwater mines earlier in his career and died in 1862 as one of America's richest men.

The Maxim gun harnessed which force to eject each spent cartridge and load the next?

Its descendants include the British Vickers, the Russian PM M1910 and the German MG 08.

The Uzi's compact size comes from a telescoping bolt that lets the magazine sit where?

The prototype was finished in 1950 and the gun reached IDF special forces in 1954.

The oldest surviving gun, a bronze hand cannon, was found in which Chinese province?

It is dated to 1288, when the History of Yuan records a Jurchen commander using hand cannons to put down a rebellion there.

The word 'arquebus' derives from a Dutch word meaning what?

The earliest arquebuses were defensive mounts on German city walls before a stock and matchlock made them handheld.

The word 'carbine' comes from the French word for what?

A carbine was originally a rifle with a barrel under 22 inches; the Spencer carbine of 1860 was among the first used by the US Army.

Which World War II weapon is regarded as the first assault rifle?

Assault rifles fire an intermediate cartridge from a detachable magazine and have dominated military service rifles since the mid-20th century.

In a bullpup rifle configuration, where is the firing grip located?

Placing the action behind the grip shortens the overall weapon without shortening the barrel.

A 12th-century cave sculpture in which Chinese province is an early depiction of a firearm?

The figure carries a vase-shaped bombard with flames and a cannonball coming out of it.