For other uses of "gun barrel" or "barrel of a gun", see Barrel of a Gun.

The Tsar Cannon with its massive bore and the stacked barrel-looking exterior

A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type ranged weapons such

as small firearms, artillery pieces and air guns. It is the straight shooting tube, usually
made of rigid high-strength metal, through which a contained rapid expansion of
high-pressure gas(es) is introduced (via propellant combustion or mechanical
compression) behind a projectile in order to propel it out of the front end (muzzle) at
a high velocity. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, and
the diameter of the bore is called its caliber, usually measured
in inches or millimetres.
The first firearms were made at a time when metallurgy was not advanced enough to
cast tubes capable of withstanding the explosive forces of early cannons, so the pipe
(often built from staves of metal) needed to be braced periodically along its length for
structural reinforcement, producing an appearance somewhat reminiscent of
storage barrels being stacked together, hence the English name.[1]