Ammunition

General information

A cartridge is an ammunition used in weapons. In cartridge, the projectile is connected to the case and powder. Cartridges are classified into to two main categories, centerfire cartridges and rimfire cartridges.

Projectile is usually a bullet or, for example, a rifle cartridge. The bullet is placed in the front of the case. Usually the bullets are brass-shell and lead-filled. For military use, the filler may be a steel or hard metal core. » read more

Cartridge case is usually made of brass, steel cardboard or plastic. Its task is to assemble the different parts of cartridge in to one whole combination. » read more

Gunpowder acts as a propellant for cartridges and is placed inside the seal. A Non-smoking gunpowder can resemble flakes or leaves, cylinders or flattened balls in appearance. The gunpowder crystal size is small and regular. The burning speed of gunpowder is so high that the bullet typically receives speeds of approx. 300 to 1200 m/s. The speed of the bullet is significantly influenced by the quality and load of the gunpowder input in relation to the bullet weight. » read more

The primer is positioned on the back of the case (bottom). The brass-plated primer contains an impact-sensitive explosive and explodes with the impact of the gun's firing pin. The focused explosion of the primer ignites the gunpowder inside the case, which in turn ignites producing a sufficiently high pressure behind the bullet. The resulting pressure, in turn, causes the bullet to break away from the case and move inside the barrel a very fast speed towards the target. The rifling inside the barrel will cause the bullet to rotate around its axis. The purpose of the rotational motion is to stabilize the bullet's ballistic trajectory. » read more

ERVA cartridges

According to Finland's current firearms act, very dangerous (ERVA) cartridges are, cartridge with a bullet which expands when hitting or a hollow point bullet. In the hollow point bullets cartridges the tip of the bullet hole must be deeper than 3 mm. The ERVA cartridges are also all armor penetrating and exploding bullet cartridges. A separate ERVA cartridge -permit is required to obtain the ERVA cartridges.

The caliber game rating

According to Finnish hunting law, the power of shotgun and rifle cartridges used for hunting must meet certain minimum requirements. The performance requirement of a cartridge is determined by a following. » read more

Calibers

The caliber is expressed as the size of the gun barrel or barrel inside diameter. The big bore is measured from the bottom of the barrel rifling to the bottom of the opposite barrel rifling. In turn, the small bore is measured from the crest of the rifling .

In Europe, the measurement scale is expressed using the metric system, the U.S. scale of measurement is the hundredth or thousandth inches. The U.S. scale does not directly reflect the gun barrel bore, as in the case of the metric system.

Rimfire cartridges

Center-fire cartridges

Shotgun ammunition

Handgun ammunition

Rifle ammunition