Читать книгу The Gun Digest Book of .22 Rimfire. Rifles·Pistols·Ammunition онлайн

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The Smith & Wesson No. 1 First Issue was the first revolver chambered for the 22 Short black powder cartridge. Shown here is a No. 1, Second Issue model.

Pinfire cartridges were produced in several calibers including shotgun rounds.

If this list of approximately 10 cartridges makes it seem like there are many choices in rimfire calibers, look again. The 22 Short, Long, Long Rifle and the two CB rounds are all used in the 22 LR chamber. The 22 WMR is a separate caliber as are the 17 HMR and 17 Mach 2. We can ignore the 22 WRF for the moment. What we have is really a short list of rimfire cartridges most of which can be used in firearms of one caliber, but as we shall see it has not always been so. In this chapter, we will provide a brief history of rimfire ammunition and a description of some of the most significant obsolete and current rimfire cartridges.

Cartridge Development

One should not lose sight of the fact that developments in different areas of science and technology are interrelated. For example, it would not be possible to build a long-range rocket without developments in rocket fuel (which is a problem in chemical science). It was not possible to produce the atomic bomb until methods of enriching uranium were developed. The high performance of cartridges today is in great measure the result of improvements in propellants and metallurgy. Some of the basic principles involved in cartridge performance will be described in Chapter 7.