What is the difference between a semi-automatic and automatic weapon?

Answer 1

SEMI AUTO is when you pull the trigger one round is fired
AUTOMATIC is when you pull the trigger rounds are fired till you let off of the trigger

Answer 2

The question has been pretty much answered, but I would like to add some additional information. First to re-state the answers.

Semi-Automatic, pull the trigger one shot.

Automatic, pull the trigger it continues to shot untill released.

On Semi-automatic when you pull the trigger the gun is in the ****** position. Pulling the trigger starts the rest of the firing process and ends with the gun in the ****** position ready to fire again. In most cases you have a sear which will catch and stop the action of the bolt thus preventing the gun to continue on with the firing cycle.

Compared to single action the gun will be uncocked and you have to manually cock the gun before firing. After firing the gun remains in the uncocked position and you have to cock it yourself before firing another shot.

An auotmatic however when you pull the trigger you hold the sear down and out of the action. This allows the weapon to continue to fire untill the fireing sequence is interupted. This interuption is cause by realesing the trigger and thus the sear re-engages the bolt causing an interuption the the fireing sequence, or you run out of ammunition or else there is a malfunction somewhere in the fring sequence.

When I talk about he fireing sequence, I'm refereing to the cycle of operations. Every gun out there has the same basic cycle of operations.

Feeding – round is pulled out of the magazine by the bolt

Chambering – the round is pushed into the chamber by the bolt

Locking – the lugs on the bolt align with the lugs on the barrel extension

Firing – pull the trigger and GET SOME!

Unlocking – bolt rotates so the lugs are no longer aligned

Extracting – the extractor claw strips out the cartridge

Ejecting – the ejector and spring get rid of the cartridge

Cocking – the chamber resets for another round

Chad

Answer 3

A semi-automatic weapon, fires one round every time you pull the trigger.
The automatic part means it will reload a round in the chamber and cock the hammer, be ready to fire as fast as you can keep pulling the trigger.
A Full automatic weapon will continue to fire as long as you hold the trigger down, until it runs out of ammo.

Answer 4

Semi-Automatic means that the weapon reloads itself with every shot but the first. Meaning, every time you squeeze the trigger, you get a shot.
Automatic is when the weapon keeps firing as long as you hold the trigger down until the ammo source is depleted.

Answer 5

Semi-Auto: You pull the trigger and hold it-1 round is fired
Auto: Pull the trigger and hold-will fire multiple times. Some will fire until the magazine is empty. Others have a cam that will fire only a select number of times. The M-16A2 will fire 3 times on its Burst setting. The older M-16A1 will clean out the magazine when set on Auto fire.

Assault Rifle: Has a select fire switch to allow semi-auto or auto/burst, depending on the users need.

Answer 6

An AR-15 is a civilian version of an M16. According to veterans who have used both, including the M16 in combat, there is no significant difference between the two weapons. That's why your question is meaningless.

Answer 7

semiautomactic reloads automatically, but fires one shot per one trigger push.
full auto fires a burst at one push - as long as you hold the trigger and there is ammo in the magazine.

when setting your assault rifle /mine was the Sa 58/ to the semi-auto, it fires one shot at a time. when selecting auto=burst, it fires as long as you hold the trigger. short bursts are made through short pushes. with a soft finger you can even fire a single shot "burst"

the popular three shots are just a common burst, used for the enough precise fire. the longer bursts are not precise anymore, without the stable gun support.

Answer 8

Great answers above. Now if we could only get the media to educate themsleves before they open their mouths, we'd have less "typos" in our news reports where weapons are involved.

Answer 9

a semi-automatic weapon fires burst fire or 3 bullets while an automatic weapon fires rapidly for assault rifles my opinion is setting it to semi-automatic because it improves its accuracy and for sub-machine guns automatic because it has good accuracy i hope this answer helps you

Answer 10

Simply:

One goes: BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR till the magazine is empty or the belt of ammo used up.

The other goes:

Bang, pause, Bang pause, Bang pause or, Brrrrrrrrrr, pause, Brrrrrrrr, pause, Brrrrrrr, depending on how many times the trigger is pulled after each pause, until the magazine or belt is used up.