Electronic firing refers to the use of an electric current to fire a cartridge, instead of a percussion cap.
In modern firearm designs, a firing pin and percussion cap are used to ignite the propellant in the cartridge and propels the bullet forward. Because the firing pin must travel a short distance, this creates a short delay between the user pulling the trigger and the weapon firing, which generally decreases accuracy.
In an electronic-fired firearm however, an electric current is used instead to ignite the propellant, which fires the cartridge as soon as the trigger is pulled.
Electrically primed small arms cartridges retain the primer which functions in the same way as a conventional primer. Rather than being struck by a firing pin, or equivalent mechanical means, a small electrical current serves to detonate the primer which provides the thermal impulse necessary to ignite the propellant which then deflagrates, producing pressure.
Famous quotes containing the words electronic and/or firing:
“Sometimes, because of its immediacy, television produces a kind of electronic parable. Berlin, for instance, on the day the Wall was opened. Rostropovich was playing his cello by the Wall that no longer cast a shadow, and a million East Berliners were thronging to the West to shop with an allowance given them by West German banks! At that moment the whole world saw how materialism had lost its awesome historic power and become a shopping list.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“Slowly, and in spite of anything we Americans do or do not do, it looks a little as if you and some other good people are going to have to answer the old question of whether you want to keep your country unshackled by taking even more definite steps to do so—even firing shots—or, on the other hand, submitting to be shackled for the sake of not losing one American life.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)