Illustration courtesy of Remington Arms Co. The latter works like a bolt action rifle-see my article The Bolt Action in the "Rifle Information" section of my Guns & Shooting Page for more information. But these types represent only a small percentage of shotgun sales. There are other shotgun types that I will not touch on here, such as the unusual Darne sliding block action or the inexpensive bolt action.
I will try to briefly point out the advantages and disadvantages of each type, and mention some of the best known shotguns that employ each type of action. These are the action types that the vast majority of modern shotguns employ. The shotgun actions I am going to cover in this article are the autoloading action, the pump action, and the break action (single shot and double barrel). If you carefully watch a shotgun mechanism operate, you will see how it performs the seven steps. I am not going to attempt to detail how each action accomplishes these steps it is sufficient to understand that it does. Specifically how these seven steps of operation are accomplished, and in what order, depends upon the type of action. LOCKING-The breech-block is locked closed, and the gun is ready to fire again. FEEDING-a fresh cartridge is chambered, either by hand, or by the forward travel of the breech-block (bolt).ħ. COCKING-The hammer or striker spring is compressed as the hammer/striker is drawn back, and then held back by the sear it is now cocked.Ħ. EJECTION-after extraction the case is removed from the gun it is either lifted out by hand or thrown out by the ejector.ĥ.
EXTRACTION-the case is partially or fully removed from the chamber.Ĥ. In addition, the case left behind after the shot charge, wad, and powder are gone must be loosened from the chamber walls-this is called primary extraction, and it is accomplished mechanically as the action is unlocked.ģ.
Autoloaders do this by means of gas pressure and an operating rod, other actions do this by manual movement of a bolt handle, slide handle, etc. UNLOCKING & PRIMARY EXTRACTION-the breech is securely locked closed during firing after firing, the first operation is to unlock it. FIRING-pulling the trigger releases the hammer or striker and fires the shell in the chamber.Ģ. All actions accomplish the following steps of operation either mechanically or by hand, although not necessarily in this order:ġ. The purpose of the action (mechanism) of any gun is to perform these seven steps.
The seven steps of operation of any firearm (rifle, shotgun, or pistol) are the same.