Parts of a .22 Rifle
.22-caliber rifles are often referred to as "mouse guns" or "plinkers," due to the fact that they shoot fairly small bullets that do very little damage when compared to their larger cousins. These rifles can come in either bolt-action or semi-automatic varieties, but each type of rifle has many of the same parts in common with the other.
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Barrel
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The barrel is a universal piece on any firearm -- pistol or rifle -- in the world. It's a long tube of strong metal out of which the bullet is shot. The inside of the barrel is lined with extremely shallow grooves machined in a spiraling pattern. These grooves are called "rifling" and are designed to put a spin on the bullet as it exits the barrel. This, in turn, greatly improves the accuracy of the bullet.
Firing Pin
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Modern cartridges have a brass casing containing the explosive powder needed to fire the bullet out the barrel of the gun. This powder is ignited by the "primer," an impact-sensitive explosive. The primer is detonated by the firing pin, which is a small metal rod that is usually part of the .22's bolt mechanism. When the trigger of the rifle is pulled, the firing pin is shot forward just enough to strike the primer of the loaded cartridge. The pin strikes the primer with enough force to set off a small explosion, which in turn ignites the cartridge's main propellant load.
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Bolt Mechanism
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The bolt mechanism serves two primary purposes. The first is that it seals off the firing chamber, which in turn results in the explosive force of the bullet being directed out the barrel rather than up into the shooter's eyes. The other purpose is to house the firing pin, which was discussed last section. The operation of the bolt mechanism is also responsible for loading the next bullet into the firing chamber. On bolt-action rifles, the shooter needs to physically pull the bolt back -- which ejects any chambered cartridge -- then pushes it forward to chamber the next round. On semi-automatic rifles, this action occurs automatically when a cartridge is fired.
Magazine
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The cartridges in your .22 rifle have to be stored somewhere, and that "somewhere" is called the "magazine." Most rifles have detachable magazines that can be ejected from the rifle and loaded with cartridges before being inserted back in. A few rifles still have fixed magazines that are fully contained within the rifle itself, and are loaded by inserting cartridges into the rifle.
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