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small arms
small arms firearms designed primarily to be carried and fired by one person and, generally, held in the hands, as distinguished from heavy arms, or artillery .
Early Small Arms
The first small arms came into general use at the end of the 14th cent. Initially they were nothing more tha...
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recoilless rifle
recoilless rifle light artillery piece, without recoil, usually operated by two men. An American invention, it was used as an infantry weapon for attacking fortifications such as pillboxes and bunkers during the last months of World War II and later in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Unlike standard a...
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Enfield
Enfield outer borough (1991 pop. 249,100) of Greater London, SE England. It is residential, with important concentrations of industry. Rifles, electrical products, boilers, chemicals, cables, textiles, and cement are the leading manufactures. The poets John Keats and William Cowper lived within...
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shooting
shooting firing with rifle, shotgun, pistol, or revolver at stationary or moving targets. The term shooting is also used in Great Britain to mean small-game hunting .
In the 19th cent. the sport of rifle shooting became increasingly popular in England and in the United States, where the Nat...
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Fort Pulaski
Fort Pulaski , brick fortification on Cockspur Island, SE Ga., at the mouth of the Savannah River; built 1829-47 by the U.S. government and named for Casimir Pulaski . The fort was seized by Georgia troops during the Civil War in Jan., 1861, but fell to a Union force under Q. A. Gillmore on Apr. 11...
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National Rifle Association of America
National Rifle Association of America (NRA), group founded (1871) to promote shooting, hunting, firearm safety, and wildlife conservation. The NRA has nearly 3 million members. The association sponsors shooting competitions and maintains a collection of antique and modern firearms. It also lobbies ...
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Patrick Ferguson
Patrick Ferguson 1744-80, British army officer in the American Revolution. He invented an early breech-loading rifle in 1776. Ferguson fought at Brandywine and Charleston before he was assigned to organize and train Loyalist militia in South Carolina. He was defeated and killed in the battle of Kin...
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grenade
grenade , small bomb filled with explosives, gas, or chemicals and either thrown by hand or shot from a modified rifle or a grenade launcher. Grenades were in use as early as the 15th cent., and men trained to use them were called grenadiers. As the grenade fell into disfavor, however, the name gre...
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Thomas Mayne Reid
Thomas Mayne Reid (Mayne Reid), 1818-83, British novelist, b. Ireland. He emigrated to the United States in 1840 and after various adventures in the West served as a lieutenant in the Mexican War. He returned to England and began writing adventure stories that were especially popular with boys. The...
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Roy Campbell
Roy Campbell 1901-57, South African poet and satirist. After some time in England and France Campbell returned to South Africa to edit Voorslag [Whiplash], a satirical magazine, publishing works such as The Flaming Terrapin (1924) and The Georgiad (1931), an attack on the Bloomsbury group . ...
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