Single-shot firearms are guns that only hold a single round of ammo. After this round has been used, the weapon must be reloaded. All firearms have evolved from the Single-shot. Single shots are still manufactured, however they are now in both cartridge and non cartridge variants.

Early single-shots

Rifles

In the early days of cartridges, Rifles were single shot, taking great use to single-shot motives. The earliest cartridge rifles were conversions of muzzle loading rifles. With these, you would mill out the rear of the barrel, and attaching a folding bolt that flipped up to the cartridge.

An example of these is the Springfield 1873 rifle.

Pistols

Single-shot pistols were not as common as rifles were. This is because revolvers were a matures piece of technology one cartridges have arrived. single-shot versions though did exist. These fell into two groups- derringers and target pistols. Targets were pretty much rifles in pistol size.

Shotguns

Single-shot shotguns have been quite a popular item since their invention. This is partially because they have been significantly less expensive than double barrel variants. these are widely used in activities such as hunting.