Recreation and sports

There are literally millions of facts floating around about guns, from muzzle velocities to types of ammunition, from reload times to rates of fire. Just look up a wiki, anyone can find them. This Top 5 feature, however, looks behind the traditional ‘interesting’ firearm facts to give you a list of 5 facts that you don’t already know about guns (and by ‘guns’ we mean handguns, rifles and machine guns, not artillery pieces!). We’ve dusted off dad’s old military history magazines and searched countless pages of weaponry fan-boy webzines for your leisure and now we’re cocked, locked and ready to rock.

1. Weapons: The First Guns
The world’s earliest firearms were designed and built in China in the mid 12th century AD. In the early 1970s in Pan-la-ch’eng-tzu village, Manchuria, an important find included a barreled powder-operated projectile weapon dating to circa 1290AD. The functionality of these old weapons has been questioned as a result of the fact that the weapons of ancient and mediaeval China were usually designed to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy. Simply, some scholars think that the idea of the working firearm was enough to deter an enemy assault.

2. Popular Firearms
The American-made M16 and the Russian-made AK-47 assault rifles are the two most fashionable weapons in use today. Both guns offer variable firing modes, quick rates of fire, reliability, medium-long range high levels of accuracy and moderate-high power.

3. Accurate Guns
The longest killshot on record was recently confirmed in Afghanistan.An American sniper using the famed Barett .50 Cal Sniper Rifle shot and killed a terrorist from a distance of over two miles away. Before the sound of either shot alerted the insurgent to the presence of an enemy sniper, the marksman allegedly missed with his first shot, corrected and fired again, killing his target.

4. Heckler and Koch- Revolutionizing the Sub Machine Gun
Based in West Germany in the 1960s, this great small arms manufacturer revolutionized the design of the current submachine gun with the MP5. The weapon is so durable so it’s no surprise that it is the standard weapon of choice for close-quarters spec ops teams all over the world including the SAS and many state SWAT teams.

5. The Sniper – Forever a Specialist Soldier
The term ’sniper’ has described someone with a knack for a particular specialism since the earliest use of the word. That ability is sharpshooting over long distances, most likely from a covered position. The term began among Imperial British soldiers in Commonwealth India in the late 18th century. Vefore you were considered a sniper, you had to shoot down a snipe, a tiny and very fast type of bird. As a result of the skill involved in being a sniper meant (and still means) that he acts as a single unit, selecting and taking out foes at will. This makes him the most hated and feared member of the enemy force and perhaps the most valued asset among your allies.