h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Gun Glossary: Small Arms - A87741165
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

A Flea Market Rescue. The original is: A7207058 "Guns - A Brief Summary of Terms" by Erik_Nelson U1552428
It's not a subject I know a great deal about, to be honest, but using the highly detailed comments in the conversation forums, especially by U551167 Iapetus and U186749 Tonsil Revenge (who I think have earned 'Additional Research By' credit despite not actually writing any of the article) I've made a few amendments to the original.
I've also changed the title to make the subject matter clearer. As my interest is in castles, I associate 'guns' as being big things used by Henrician to Victorian coastal forts to shoot at invading ships, when this article is all about small arms. Not paintguns, airguns, aircraft guns, naval guns, stun guns, spud guns, glue guns, staple guns, toy guns or water guns etc.
Unusually, I have actually fired a gun on more than one occasion (black powder pistol, Lee-Enfield and Martini-Henry rifles at targets, a shotgun clay pigeon shooting once) and was even a member of a rifle club (mainly because my Dad was and he wanted me to be) but to be honest wasn't that fussed about lying down in a dark, damp former railway tunnel making loud holes in inoffensive pieces of paper a long way away.

<BB<

A couple minor quibbles;

Pistols:



Most pistol competitive target shooting matches I have participated in have targets as 25 and 50 yards. I was using a 36 cal. black powder cap and ball revolver and placed fairly well.



Mortar


While your description is correct I have never seen a mortar that could be seen as a small arm. Even the coehorn mortar is better classified as a small cannon.



I personally would rather see 'Locks and Actions' as the first section as you could then refer to each type of weapon, like the blunderbuss, with the types of lock and action used by them.

You say your main interest is in siege weapons, I don't think a small section, even near the opening would be amiss. If nothing more than to help define 'small arms'. If there is an entry on cannon it could be linked (I haven't bothered to look yet)

I'm glad you picked this one up it is looking good. I'll read more later.

FS

Good suggestion. I've added a section defining what small arms are, removed mortars and updated the section on pistols.

At present there isn’t a section on larger weapons, but I have included a glossary on them at the end of an article currently being edited (but not part of the official guide yet) here: A83150471

<BB<

Good entry, just a wee quibble with the 'dragon'/'dragoon' thing. The name of the weapon is only possibly linked with the name of the soldier (uncertain etymolgy, confused by the fact that in early records the names 'dragon' and 'dragoon' were used interchangably). The 'dragon' itself was a short wheel-lock weapon which was later developed into the modern carbine, it had a wide bore for ease of loading on horseback (though this was rare because it was bloody difficult) but was never a blunderbuss.

I've changed the blunderbuss section and will double-check about the dragon/dragoon/carbine origin.


<BB<

This looks very helpful, i'll try to have a proper go through it in a bit,
I knew most of these, except the last couple in the entry, but it sums up quite a lot of information very concisely and easily

Just to let you know I've checked on the dragon/dragoon origin. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word 'Dragoon' comes from French soldiers armed with weapons named 'dragons'

<BB<

Hi <BB<

Just to make it crystal clear, in the 'Wheel-lock' paragraph, could you make it: <>

Reverand --> Reverend

fore-runner --> forerunner

Thanks for spotting those – corrections made

<BB<

assult rifles .... surely worth mentioning the AK-47


also, the first of them was the StG 44 ... a world war II german gun

"With a rifle, you can kill one man; but with a machine gun, you can make a whole army keep its head down." - Jeremy Clarkson

Good point, they're both mentioned now.

<BB<

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Well done!

Well done from me too!

Lanzababy

I think that the h2g2 community as a whole supported this one well. I'm glad that Erik_Nelson's article has a chance of getting to the front page where it deserves

<BB<