I’m not brand new to carrying and I’ve had a bunch of training, however, I still come across terms and TLA (three letter acronyms) that I have to look up. Let’s help out those who are interested in learning by giving them easy to understand definitions of different terms.
What are some concealed carry terms or gun terms that people should know?
It can be a very basic term or something you’d only know if you’re really experienced. I’ve put an example in the responses below.
IWB - Inside the WaistBand (referring to where you carry/type of holster)
OWB - Outside the WaistBand (referring to where you carry/type of holster)
EDC - Every Day Carry
BUG - Back Up Gun
Caliber - the measurement of the diameter of the bullet (not the casing). It doesn’t indicate power, it refers to the size of the hole the bullet will make.
ND- negligent discharge
Lower receiver- the lower part of the handgun or rifle. Contains trigger and magazine (idk if that counts)
Upper receiver- upper part of the rifle that contains the barrel, ejection port and charging handle
Slide- part of the handgun you rack to load a round into the chamber (assuming the person is new to guns as well as carrying)
Cylinder-the part of a revolver that hold the ammo
Speed loader- for use with a revolver to speed up reloads
Moon Clip-for revolvers using rimless pistol cartridges
Magazine (It’s not a damn clip!!)
One in the pipe (carrying with a round already in the chamber, as if there’s another way to do it, haha)
HP: hollow point
BTHP: boat tail hollow point
FMJ: full metal jacket
wadcutter: type of bullet that just barely protrudes above the shell casing
charging handle: how you chamber a round on an AR (just pull back, let go and have fun)
hand-loading: loading your own cartridges
The most important one yet: cartridge
A cartridge is the whole thing that gets loaded into your magazine and consists of: primer, casing, powder, and bullet. It’s not a BULLET. They’re two very different things. Don’t confuse one for the other.
primer: a small round thing that gets put into the center of your shell casing which then detonates the powder once struck by the firing pin which in turn propels the bullet. (only for centerfire)
Center-fire: a type of ammunition with the primer in the center
Rim-fire: a type of ammunition in which the rim of the casing is the primer (i.e. .22)
stove-pipe: a type of jam that occurs in semi-automatic firearms in which the spent casing is stuck halfway out of the ejector port and is caught by the slide
double feed: another type of jam that occurs in semi-automatic firearms in which two cartridges try to feed into the chamber at once
Squib: a round that causes the gun to blow apart; it’ll sound a bit different than a normal gunshot and in that case, don’t chamber another round and fire again because this will cause the gun to blow apart. Clear your firearm and disassemble it to find the issue.
hang-fire: a delayed fire, if you don’t hear the gun go off, wait a couple seconds while pointing it down range. And please, don’t look down the barrel. You could blow your head off.
We’ve done some updating to our website and have this new resource that should help those who are new to concealed carry - and serve as a refresher to those of us who have carried a while!
Single/Double Action vs. Stricker
Safety vs. Decoker
TABK=hunters safety 101, the fondation rules for safe firearm handling. T=treat every firearm as if it were loaded. A=always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. B=be sure of your target and beyond. K=Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot
TLA - Three Letter Acronym
RD = Round. One round of ammunition
Clip - holds ammunition to be loaded into a magazine
Magazine - Holds ammunition to load and feed a firearm
BOB - Bug Out Bag,
Get Home Bag - Emergency survival items including spare ammunition to help you get home.
Mozambique Drill
@Kevin29 yes!
Mozambique Drill - also known as the Failure Drill, or Failure to Stop drill, “two to the body, one to the head”.
El Presidente - back facing three targets that are 1 yard away from each other, hands at the surrender position. Turning around and shooting two into the center circle of each target, mandatory reload, shooting two more into the center of each target