ISBN: | 978-5-5084-3673-5 |
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A firearm can be used primarily as a tool, instead of as a weapon, to project either single or multiple objects at high velocity through a controlled explosion. The firing is achieved by the gases produced through rapid, confined burning of a propellant. This process of rapid burning is technically known as deflagration. In older firearms, this propellant was typically black powder, but modern firearms use smokeless powder, cordite, or other propellants. Many firearms such as mortars do not have rifled bores to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability, such as is seen with firearms used as weapons, although some are rifled. The lack of rifling can prevent tangling of grappling hook lines, buoy lines, and such, although some firearms intended for use at the longest ranges in these applications are rifled.