Pistons (weapons technology)

The butt , also known as the butt stock, is the rear part of the rifle's stock .

The piston is placed on the shoulder during the aiming process, on the one hand to stabilize or fix the weapon and on the other hand to absorb the recoil with the shoulder when the shot is fired . When aiming , the cheek is placed against the butt. Especially with hunting rifles or precision rifles, there is a cheek rest on the side of the rifle butt, the “cheek”, and a “back” on top for shooters with a long neck. With some rifles, the butt can be folded down to the side for better transport (folding butt / folding stock ). If a piston of a semi-automatic or fully automatic weapon should be foldable or completely retractable and it should be ready to fire in this state, the closing spring must not be in its piston . With the FN FAL it was therefore placed under the housing cover for the versions with a folding shaft. In order to save weight, the middle part of the butt is often left out in modern rifles. In this case one speaks of a skeletal piston. A shoulder rest is used when, instead of a piston, only a tube - often extendable or foldable - with an end piece is used. In some flasks, such as B. that of the PK , tools and a cleaning set can be stowed.

Pistol grip

In early military and hunting rifles, the butt behind the trigger was still straight, later rifle and hunting rifles with butts with "pistol grip" were introduced, which should lead to an improvement in shooting precision. Today most of the civilian and military rifles on offer are equipped with this butt version.