50 free Firearms trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
44 free firearm trivia questions with answers. This firearm trivia quiz traces guns from the bamboo fire lances of 10th-century China through hand cannons, matchlocks, wheellocks and flintlocks to the percussion cap, the Minié ball and the metallic cartridge. Then come the names everyone knows: Samuel Colt and the Peacemaker, the Henry and Winchester repeaters, the Gatling and Maxim guns, John Browning's M1911, the Tommy gun, the Garand, the Lee-Enfield, the AK-47, the M16, the Uzi, the Glock and the Desert Eagle. The questions cover who designed what, when and where, how the mechanisms actually work (rifling, revolvers, telescoping bolts, polymer frames), and the odd stories along the way, from a 1718 gun that fired square bullets at Turks to the misspelling that gave us 'derringer'. About a third are easy, a third medium and the rest are for collectors, shooters and military-history buffs. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's articles on the weapons, designers and manufacturers, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The first firearms, bamboo fire lances mounted on spears, originated in which country?
China
They were used as shock weapons at the siege of De'an in 1132; metal-barrelled hand cannons followed in the 13th century.
Q 02Traditional gunpowder is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal and which oxidiser?
Potassium nitrate (saltpetre)
It is classed as a low explosive because it deflagrates, burning at subsonic speed rather than detonating.
Q 03Which early European firearm was the first to have a trigger?
The matchlock arquebus
Before it, a gunner or an assistant had to touch a lit match to the powder by hand.
Q 04A wheellock, developed around 1500, made its spark by spinning a steel wheel against a piece of what?
Pyrite
It was the first self-igniting firearm and the next big step after the matchlock, though it was expensive and complex.
Q 05Court gunsmith Marin le Bourgeoys developed the true flintlock c. 1610-15 for the king of which country?
France
He made one for Louis XIII soon after the king's accession, and the design remained standard for more than two centuries.
Q 06A percussion cap contains a small amount of which shock-sensitive explosive?
Mercury fulminate
The hammer crushes the copper cap against a nipple that acts as an anvil, firing the main charge in any weather.
Q 07An officer from which country invented the Minié ball in 1849?
France
Both the Springfield Model 1861 and the British Pattern 1853 Enfield fired it.
Q 08What is a gun barrel without rifling grooves called?
Smoothbore
Rifling is measured by twist rate; a musket ball needs a lazy twist of about one turn in 48 inches.
Q 09Because most models hold six rounds, revolvers are commonly nicknamed what?
Six-shooters
They are also called wheel guns; cocking the hammer rotates the cylinder to line up the next chamber with the barrel.
Q 10Which inventor patented a "revolving gun" in 1836 and made mass-produced revolvers commercially viable?
Samuel Colt
His business took off in 1847 when the Texas Rangers ordered 1,000 revolvers for the war with Mexico.
Q 11The Colt Single Action Army revolver, standard US Army issue from 1873 to 1892, is famous under what nickname?
The Peacemaker
It has been offered in more than 30 calibres and its looks have barely changed since 1873.
Q 12The 1860 Henry rifle, a sixteen-shot lever-action repeater, was the basis for which iconic Wild West rifle?
The Winchester
Some Sioux and Cheyenne warriors carried Henrys against Custer's cavalry at the Little Bighorn in 1876.
Q 13Which Model 1873 rifle was marketed with the slogan 'The Gun That Won the West'?
Winchester
It descended from the Henry, and its maker grew out of a firm founded by Smith and Wesson.
Q 21The Thompson submachine gun was invented in 1918 by an officer of which rank?
Brigadier General
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.
Q 22Which US agency adopted the Thompson submachine gun after the Kansas City massacre?
The FBI
Also nicknamed the Chicago typewriter and the trench broom, it was sold openly to civilians in the 1920s.
Q 23Which US general called the M1 Garand 'the greatest battle implement ever devised'?
George S. Patton
It was America's first standard-issue autoloading rifle, replacing the bolt-action Springfield in 1936.
Q 14Smith & Wesson's earlier Volcanic Repeating Arms was sold to which man, whose name became a rifle brand?
Oliver Winchester
Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson then founded the Smith & Wesson Revolver Company in 1856.
Q 15The Gatling gun, an early hand-cranked machine gun, was invented in 1861 by a man from which US state?
North Carolina
Its rotating barrels solved the overheating problem; the Union Army used it only occasionally in the Civil War.
Q 16Which 1884 weapon was the world's first fully automatic machine gun?
The Maxim gun
Hiram Maxim's design was used ruthlessly by colonial powers during the Scramble for Africa.
Q 17The Puckle gun, patented in 1718, was designed to fire round shot at Christians and what at Muslim Turks?
Square bullets
It was one of the first weapons ever called a 'machine gun', in a 1722 shipping manifest, though perhaps only two were ever made.
Q 18The M1911 pistol was the standard-issue US military sidearm from 1911 until which year?
1985
John Browning's design has changed remarkably little across more than a century of production.
Q 19The M1911 is chambered primarily for which cartridge?
.45 ACP
It was adopted after an intensive US search for a self-loading pistol to replace the service revolvers of the 1890s.
Q 20How many firearm patents was John Browning awarded in his life?
128
He built his first gun at 13 in his father's shop and got his first patent at 24, in 1879.
Q 24The M1 Garand was named after its designer, John Garand, who was born in which country?
Canada
Even his name's pronunciation is disputed: GARR-und to purists, guh-RAND in popular usage.
Q 25The Lee-Enfield was the standard British service rifle from 1895 until which year?
1957
Its ten-round magazine of .303 British could be loaded with five-round chargers, and it armed the Empire through both world wars.
Q 26The AK-47 was designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in which country?
The Soviet Union
Design work began in 1945 and the Soviet Armed Forces officially accepted it in 1949.
Q 27As of 2004, roughly what share of the world's 500 million firearms belonged to the Kalashnikov family?
About one fifth
About three-quarters of those were AK-47s, prized for reliability in harsh conditions and low cost.
Q 28The AK-47 fires which cartridge?
7.62×39mm
The smaller 5.56 round is the calibre of its American rival, the M16.
Q 29The M16 was adapted from the AR-15, first revealed at Fort Benning in 1957 by which engineer?
Eugene Stoner
The M16A1 replaced the M14 as the US standard service rifle in 1969, during the Vietnam War.
Q 30The Uzi submachine gun was designed in the late 1940s by an army major from which newly founded state?
Israel
Its telescoping bolt makes it unusually compact; it has been exported to over 90 countries.