Glossary

A fake ammunition or cartridge-shaped round that has no powder, primer, or bullet.

A round of ammunition that is completely inert and has no explosive charge, unlike a blank. Dummy rounds are most often used for training exercises.

Any round of ammunition that does not fire.

Operating a cleared firearm by physically aiming and pulling the trigger. Verification of the cleared firearm must be done before dry firing.

A mechanical safety that prevents a gun from firing if it is unintentionally dropped which is required in some states. It prevents the trigger bar from dropping down until the trigger has been fully depressed by the shooter.

The direction at a shooting range where firearms are pointed when they are fired.

A shotgun with two barrels rather than just one. The barrels can either be side by side (SxS) or one over the other (O/U). The barrels are most commonly the same sized bore.

Two shots fired rapidly back to back in succession. Typically, the shooter doesn’t aim at another target between shots.

This semi-automatic pistol magazine holds cartridges in two vertical lines, side by side, with a tapered top, so only one cartridge is fed into the chamber at a time.

A cycling malfunction in which the spent case fails to eject from a semi-automatic firearm and blocks the chamber as the fresh round is brought forward and cannot enter the chamber. Or in manual pump shotguns, for instance, if the shooter manipulates the slide too slowly or not back far enough leaving the previous round in the chamber.

A shotgun with two barrels, either as a side by side or as an over and under.

This refers to a long pull on the trigger that both cocks and releases the hammer to fire either a revolver or pistol. The hammer can also be cocked manually, requiring only a short pull on the trigger to fire the weapon.

In a double-action revolver, pulling the trigger does two things: First, the hammer is pulled back to the cocked position while the cylinder is being rotated to the next round. Second, the hammer is released, striking the firing pin.

There are two subsequent action models: double action/single action where it is double action on the first shot, and then single action on the second and following shots, and double action-only where the firing mechanism cannot be cocked in a single-action stage.

A derringer is an extremely compact handgun with 2 barrels that has a large bore and is very effective at a close distance.

Possibly the father of concealed carry in the United States, Henry Deringer produced the first diminutive single-shot percussion cap pistol in 1852 bearing his name. These days the term has come to refer to any small-sized handgun that is neither a revolver nor a semi/fully automatic pistol.