Large-caliber guns generally have the longest barrels. The barrels are made of special high-grade steel and are classified according to length (65 to 85 cm), rifling, choke, and caliber. The principal parts of the gun are the barrels, receiver with the trigger-hammer and locking mechanisms, stock, and fore-end grip (see Figure 1). On most guns, the barrels break downward, which makes it possible to load them from the breech, where the chamber is located. Sporting guns are subdivided according to purpose into guns for amateur hunting, commercial hunting, and target shooting. Modern sporting guns are divided into smoothbore, rifled, and combination types (shotgun and rifle together). Principal parts of a sporting gun: (1) front sight, (2) barrels, (3) swivel, (4) rib, (5) fore-end grip, (6) receiver, (7) lever for the barrel lock, (8) grip, (9) stock, (10) trigger guard, (11) triggers, (12) cheek of the stock, (13) safety These sporting guns spread widely as they were perfected and by the beginning of the 20th century had supplanted muzzle-loaders.ДЇigure 1. There were also master gunsmiths in Russia. The best breech-loading guns, with one or two smoothbore or rifled barrels, were produced in France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Germany. In the 1830вЂ™s, the French gunsmith Lefaucheux (1833) and the German gunsmith Dreyse (1836) produced the first models to be loaded from the breech (the end of the barrel closest to the grip) using an integrated cartridge.

Common models had one, two, or, more rarely, three barrels and external hammers a small number of hammerless (with internal hammers) guns were also produced. The best guns were manufactured in Spain and Sweden. Initially, the powder charge was ignited by a matchlock flintlocks and, finally, percussion locks were subsequently used. Until the 19th century, such arms were loaded through the muzzle of the barrel using a ramrod and were called muzzle-loaders. Military guns were used for hunting until the 17th century, when special single-barreled sporting guns, which were lighter than their military counterparts, came into use models with two barrels appeared in 1738. Rifles and shotguns used to hunt animals and birds.

Francotte shotgun 1922 20 e