Rotating bolt

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Rotating bolt

Rotating bolt is a method of locking found in gas operated firearms — such as the M1

M1 Garand

The M1 Garand was the first semi-automatic rifle to be generally issued to the infantry of any nation. In 1936, it officially replaced the bolt-action M1903 Springfield as the standard service rifle of the United States Armed Forces and was subsequently replaced by the selective-fire M14 rifle in 1957....
, M14, M16

M16 rifle

M16 is the Military of the United States designation for a family of rifles derived from the ArmaLite AR-15 and further developed by Colt's Manufacturing Company starting in the mid-20th century....
, the L85A1/A2 and the AK-47

AK-47

The AK-47 is a 7.62x39mm assault rifle developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov in two versions: the fixed stock AK-47 and the AKS-47 variant equipped with an underfolding metal shoulder stock....
/74

AK-74

The AK-74 is a 5.45x39mm assault rifle developed in the early 1970s in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It was developed from the earlier AKM and introduced in 1974; the rifle first saw service with Soviet forces engaged in the Soviet war in Afghanistan....
— in which the bolt

Bolt (firearm)

A bolt is a mechanical part of a firearm that blocks the rear of the Chamber while the propellant burns.In manually-operated firearms, such as bolt-action, lever-action, and pump-action rifles and shotguns, the bolt is held fixed by its locking lugs during firing, forcing all the expanding gas forward....
, upon contact with the breech

Breech-loading weapon

A breech-loading weapon is a firearm in which the bullet or shell is inserted or loaded at the rear of the Gun barrel, or breech; the opposite of muzzle-loading....
, rotates and locks into place, being held in place by lugs attached to the breech or barrel extension.

Upon closing, the bolt passes through the slots cut in the front of the barrel

Gun barrel

A gun barrel is the tube, usually metal, through which a controlled explosion or rapid expansion of gases is released in order to propel a projectile out of the end at great speed....
extension, and then rotates; at this point it is locked in place until the action

Firearm action

In firearms terminology, an action is the physical mechanism that manipulates cartridges and/or seals the breech. The term is also used to describe the method in which cartridges are loaded, locked, and extracted from the mechanism....
is cycled, either manually by the operator, or mechanically

Semi-automatic firearm

A semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a gun that after being fired, ejects the empty cartridge that has been fired, loads a new cartridge, and cocks itself....
by the gas created by discharging the rifle pushing on the operating rod or bolt carrier, which then rotates the bolt and unlocks it from the breech so that it can be withdrawn in order to extract and eject the spent casing, and chamber

Chamber (weaponry)

In firearms, the chamber is that portion of the barrel or firing cylinder in which the Cartridge is inserted prior to being fired. Rifles and pistols generally have a single chamber in their barrels, while revolvers have multiple chambers in their Cylinder and no chamber in their barrel....
a new round.