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Above is letters A-Z, a brief list of firearms products:

Firearms Terms
  

These firearms terms are only a partial list to help you with your firearms term search.

We are trying to get as many gun related products on one website to save you time, and help you locate just the item you are looking for.

Letter "C"

Cable Lock -- A short stretch of cable with a padlock at the end. It is threaded through the action of the firearm.

Caliber -- The type and size of ammunition used by a given gun. It is commonly designated by a number which often (but not always) refers to the actual diameter of the bullet. That number is sometimes followed by an abbreviation for the company or individual who developed the round, or which in some other way provides more information than the number alone.

Cant -- The angle at which the gun is held on the belt by the holster is called the cant or the rake.

Cant -- Tilting the gun slightly to the left or right rather than keeping it level, with the front sight vertical in relation to the ground.

Carbine -- A short, lightweight rifle, usually with a short barrel. Carbines are often designed to shoot a pistol caliber rather than a rifle caliber.

Cartridge --The complete package which makes up a single round of ammunition. It includes the case, primer, powder, and bullet.

Case --The metal (or, very occasionally, polymer) container which holds the primer, powder, and bullet together. Sometimes it is called the brass, because brass is the traditional and still most common case material.

Centerfire -- Ammunition in which the primer is located in a small cup in the bottom center of the case.

Chamber -- The part of the gun which holds the round while the shot is being fired. In semi-automatics, the chamber is located at the base of the barrel. Revolvers have multiple chambers, which are located in the cylinder.

Chapman Stance -- Named for Ray Chapman, this is a modified form of the Weaver stance. It is sometimes called a modified Weaver. The strong side elbow is held straight and locked out, while the weak hand pulls back against the strong hand thus producing the push-pull tension typical of the Weaver stance.

Choke -- A constricting tube at the end of a shotgun barrel, which changes the pattern of how the shot spreads out. Chokes come in different configurations to give varying effects.

Clay Pigeon -- A frisbee-shaped chunk of pottery, typically flung into the air to function as a shotgun target.

Clearing -- "Tactical" term meaning to safely enter a room making sure there are no criminals lurking there.

Clearing -- Unloading a gun, and double checking that it is unloaded.

Clearing -- Fixing a malfunction so that the gun is ready to fire again.

Clip --  A literal clip that holds fresh cartridges together, but does not feed them into the gun. It is not usually encased. Handguns, with a very few limited exceptions, do not have clips; they have magazines.See also: magazine.

Cock -- On hammer-fired guns, to retract the hammer so that it is in position to fall forward onto the firing pin, which will in turn strike the primer and fire the shot. If the firearm has an external hammer, the gun may be cocked manually, by pulling the hammer back with the thumb ("thumb cocking"). Some external hammers, and all internal hammers, may be cocked simply by pulling the trigger ("trigger cocking").

Collapsible Stock -- Long gun term. A stock which can be shoved into itself to shorten it, either for storage or to make the gun fit shooters of different sizes.

Concealed -- Hidden from view. A handgun is concealed when it is carried in such a manner that an observer cannot tell whether it is there or not.

Concealment -- Anything that blocks the attacker's view of the intended victim, but which won't necessarily stop a bullet.

Controlled Pair -- Two shots fired in rapid succession. It is distinguished from a double tap because in a controlled pair, the second shot will be fired after the shooter has obtained a second sight picture, whereas in a double tap both shots are fired based upon the initial sight picture alone.

Cosmoline -- An icky, sticky substance in which most of the world's old military firearms were bathed upon retirement, in order to prevent corrosion. Collectors of antique military firearms spend a lot of time swapping recipes for getting the stuff out of the nooks and crannies of their beloved old guns.

Cover -- Anything an intended victim hides behind which will probably stop a bullet. Cover is nearly always also concealment, but concealment isn't necessarily cover.  See also: concealment.

Cover Garment -- Any piece of clothing that covers the holstered gun. When the gun is worn on the belt, the most common types of cover garments are vests, sweaters, and jackets.

Creep -- A trigger is said to creep when it does not have a consistent, clean break. Once the trigger reaches the break point, it should not be possible to move it further to the rear, even slightly or slowly, without a crisp break.

Crisp -- A trigger is crisp when it passes the break point in a sudden and definite manner, with no extra movement.

Cross-dominant -- Sounds a little hinky, but don't worry. It just means a shooter who is right-handed but left-eyed, or left-handed and right-eyed.

Crosshairs -- The cross-shaped object seen in the center of a firearm scope. Its more-proper name is reticle.

Cylinder -- The part of a revolver which revolves. The cylinder contains 5, 6, or more chambers into which the ammunition is placed.