Ironically, I need to ask about firearms

So as I'm doing this I'm watching some youtube vids, some informative, some not. Anyways we're doing a class of fire, explosions and firearms and I figured that some extra info would probably not hurt so until I can afford to buy a book on the subject, I was hoping that some of my fellow TFSers could help me out? If it helps I'll say please over and over until my tongue gets stiff.

What kind of information do you need?

Fire away!

Well we haven't covered much. We were doing ammo today so I guess anything you could tell me about that would be good. Or even just basic stuff. I feel kind of behind here cos I never bothered about this stuff before

I have no clue. I hate guns, but just wanted clarification for others who can help.

Ah. Thankies anyways

Rule #1 about ammo- you can never have too much.

In my opinion you can but that's beside th epoint here I guess

Something else, low velocity bullets tend to do more damage than the high velocity.

It's a pretty big topic...

Very basically, a bullet is actually made of the projectile itself (the tip) and a casing (the jacket) that seals against the bullet and holds a charge of gunpowder. The bottom of the casing has a primer, which sparks.

The casing has a lip on the bottom end. In a gun, the bullet is loaded into the breach, which holds the casing in place by the lip. The hammer strikes the bottom end of the bullet, making the primer spark and igniting the gunpowder. The resulting explosion blows the bullet itself out of the barrel.

In general, the longer the barrel, the longer the expanding gas from the explosion has to push the bullet and the higher the velocity of the bullet. Longer barrels also help to stabilize the bullet path, resulting in more accuracy. Many barrels also have rifling, which are helical grooves carved into the inside which cause the projectile to spin along its axis as it flies, which results in much greater stability and accuracy as well.

After the bullet is fired, the case remains and must be removed from the breach. In automatic or semiautomatic weapons, the casing is generally ejected from the weapon automatically.

That's slightly weird but I guess it makes sense.

Thanks Jonnythan. That's pretty much summed up our first two classes. Is it cool if I copy-paste that into a word document to look at from time to time?

You asked for information. I'm giving you the practical kind.

Yeah, be my guest.

I'm certainly no firearms expert, but I understand the general mechanics of various types of weaponry. I sometimes trip over the proper terminology a bit, though.

Thanks. This will all help, really. Well if I get a job in forensics at Strathclyde then it will. No other crime lab in Scotland takes ballistics anymore Because nearly all of our gun crime is in Glasgow here.