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Canadian hunting terms glossary

By Hunters Guide. Written against the published course outlines for CORE and the CFSC, checked September 21, 2026.

Hunter education exams test vocabulary directly, so these are the terms a Canadian CORE or CFSC student actually meets, defined in plain language and grouped the way the courses group them.

There are eighty, alphabetical inside each group. If a term has its own page on this site, the term itself is the link.

• Firearms and actions
• Ammunition
• Safe handling
• Wildlife and conservation
• Identification
• Field and hunting technique
• Survival and first aid
• Licensing and documents

Firearm and action terms

An action is the assembly of moving parts that loads a cartridge, holds it for firing and gets the case back out. The rest of the group is barrel parts and the different ways an action gets worked.

• Action. The moving parts. They load a cartridge, lock it in for firing, then extract the case.
• Bolt action. Worked by hand: lift the bolt handle, draw it back, push it forward again.
• Bore. The hollow inside of the barrel, which the projectile travels down.
• Break action. Hinged at the breech. A lever opens it, and the barrel drops to expose the chamber.
• Breech. Rear end of the barrel. The cartridge sits here, and it's where the action closes.
• Calibre. Bore diameter of a rifle or handgun, given in fractions of an inch or in millimetres.
• Chamber. Holds one cartridge at the breech end, ready to fire.
• Half-cock. An older hammer position, resting partway back. Not a safety, and never treated as one.
• Lever action. Swing the lever below the receiver down, then back up, and the action cycles.
• Magazine. Where the spare cartridges wait. A box magazine stacks them below or beside the action, while a tube lines them up nose to tail under the barrel.
• Muzzle. Front end of the barrel. The projectile leaves through this opening.
• Muzzleloader. A firearm with no ready-made cartridge: powder, projectile and ignition go in separately, loaded from the muzzle.
• Pump action. The forend slides back and forward along the magazine tube to cycle it.
• Rifling. Spiral grooves cut into a rifle bore. They spin the bullet, and the spin steadies it in flight.
• Safety, mechanical. A device that blocks part of the firing mechanism. It can fail. It never replaces muzzle control.
• Semi-automatic action. Gas or recoil ejects the case and chambers the next round. One shot per trigger pull.

Ammunition terms

A cartridge is one complete round of ammunition, and case, primer, powder and projectile are its four parts. Most of the confusion on exam day starts with calling the whole round a bullet.

• Bullet. Only the projectile. The whole round is a cartridge.
• Cartridge. A complete round, all four parts together: case, primer, powder, projectile.
• Case. It holds the other three components together, then seals the chamber as the round fires.
• Centrefire. Primer in the centre of the case head. That's what makes reloading possible.
• Gauge. Count how many lead balls of bore diameter make a pound. Bigger number, smaller bore.
• Hangfire. Delayed ignition: nothing happens, and then the round fires. Keep the muzzle safe and wait.
• Headstamp. Markings pressed into the base of a case. They name the calibre or gauge, and usually the maker.
• Misfire. The firing pin strikes, and the round doesn't fire.
• Powder. The propellant. It burns and builds the pressure that pushes the projectile down the bore.
• Primer. An impact-sensitive charge. The firing pin hits it, and it ignites the powder.
• Rimfire. Here the priming compound sits in the rim of the case head, so the strike lands at the edge.
• Shot size. The number for pellet diameter in a shotshell. It runs backwards, like gauge: larger number, smaller pellets.
• Squib load. A weak round that may leave the projectile stuck in the bore. Check before you fire again.

Safe handling terms

Safe handling is the set of habits and checks that keep a muzzle pointed somewhere harmless and keep you certain whether a firearm is loaded. Two acronyms do most of the work.

• ACTS. Four rules that stay on as long as a firearm is in your hands: Assume it is loaded, Control the muzzle, finger off the Trigger, See that it is unloaded.
• Carrying positions. Trail, cradle, sling, shoulder, elbow and two-hand are the standard field carries, and each one points the muzzle a different way.
• Muzzle control. The muzzle stays in the safest available direction at every moment. That includes while you walk and turn.
• PROVE. Five steps that confirm a firearm is unloaded: Point it safely, Remove the ammunition, Observe the chamber, Verify the feeding path, Examine the bore.
• Target identification. Before the safety comes off, confirm species, sex where it matters, and what lies beyond. Vision in the field is where it fails.
• Zone of fire. The arc each hunter may safely shoot into. It's agreed in advance so nobody swings onto anybody else.

Wildlife and conservation terms

Conservation is managing a renewable resource so it keeps producing, which for wildlife means managing habitat and harvest together. The words below are about what land can support, and what holds a population back.

• Annual surplus. Each year a population produces more animals than the habitat can carry through winter. That extra is the surplus.
• Carrying capacity. How many animals a habitat can support through its hardest season, not its easiest.
• Conservation. Managing a renewable resource so it keeps producing. Regulated use is part of that, rather than shutting use out.
• Edge effect. Where two habitat types meet, wildlife variety and density go up. That rise is the edge effect.
• Habitat. Food, water, cover and space, arranged so an animal can reach all four.
• Limiting factor. Whatever runs short first and caps a population. Food, water, cover, space, disease or predation can each be the one.
• Succession. Gradual change in a plant community over time, from bare ground to mature forest.
• Wildlife management. Monitoring populations and habitat, then adjusting harvest and habitat work to meet an objective.

Animal identification terms

Identification vocabulary names the physical cues that separate one species from a similar one: shape, tail, ears, headgear and movement. Colour and size are the cues that fail most often.

• Antler. Bone. Grown and shed every year, and carried by the deer family, moose and elk included.
• Dabbling duck. Tips forward to feed in shallow water. When flushed, it springs straight up.
• Diving duck. Dives to feed, and runs along the water to get airborne.
• Grizzly bear. Look for a high shoulder hump, a dished face, short rounded ears and long front claws. Coat colour identifies nothing.
• Horn. Kept for life: a permanent sheath over a bony core. Sheep, goats and bison carry them.
• Mule deer. Oversized ears, a white rump and a thin black-tipped tail. It bounds stiff-legged, where a white-tailed deer runs smoothly.
• Upland bird. Ground-dwelling game birds of field and forest: grouse, ptarmigan, partridge and turkey.

Hunting technique terms

Hunting technique vocabulary names the ways a hunter closes distance on an animal, and what happens after the shot. Most of these name a decision, not a piece of gear.

• Access. Permission to hunt land you don't own, sorted out with the landowner before the season.
• Broadhead. A bladed arrow point. It kills by cutting, and it's used instead of a target point.
• Draw weight. Force in pounds to pull a bow to full draw. It's matched to the archer.
• Effective range. How far away you can put shots where they need to go, every time.
• Fair chase. Hunting in a way that leaves the animal a real chance to escape.
• Field dressing. Taking out the internal organs soon after recovery, so the carcass can start cooling.
• Hunter orange. High-visibility clothing. No game animal wears the colour.
• Quartering away. The animal is angled away from you. It's an accepted angle, because the path leads into the vitals.
• Shot placement. Where the projectile goes in and what it passes through. That decides a clean kill.
• Spot and stalk. Find the animal at distance with optics, then close the gap using wind and terrain.
• Stand hunting. Waiting in one chosen place, on the ground or up high, where animals are expected to move.
• Still hunting. A few steps at a time through cover, then a long pause. The aim is to see the animal first.
• Tracking. Following the sign an animal leaves behind: tracks, blood, beds, rubs, hair.
• Vital area. Heart and lungs, behind the shoulder. That's the target for a killing shot.

Survival and first aid terms

Survival vocabulary describes the order in which things go wrong outdoors, and the order you fix them in. Every Canadian curriculum teaches it. The weather that gets people into trouble here is ordinary weather.

• Direct pressure. First response to severe bleeding. Press firmly with the cleanest dressing to hand.
• Hypothermia. A drop in core body temperature. Cool, wet and windy conditions are where it happens most often.
• Rule of threes. Roughly three minutes without air, three hours exposed without shelter, three days without water, three weeks without food.
• Shock. Circulation failing after a serious injury. Watch for pale clammy skin, a rapid weak pulse and confusion.
• Survival kit. Small, and carried every time. It covers shelter, fire, water, signalling and first aid.
• Trip plan. A note left with someone reliable: where you're going, who with, and when to raise the alarm.

Licensing and document terms

A hunting document is a record a government issues, and each of the thirteen jurisdictions names its own and decides what it covers. The definitions here are general. None of them is a rule.

• CFSC. The Canadian Firearms Safety Course: the federally standardised course for non-restricted firearms.
• CORE. Short for Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Education. It's British Columbia's hunter education programme.
• Hunter education credential. The provincial or territorial record showing a person passed that jurisdiction's hunter education course.
• Licence. Dated permission from a government to a named person. The issuing jurisdiction sets what it covers and for how long.
• Management unit. A numbered geographic area. Provinces and territories use these units to organise their regulations.
• PAL. Possession and Acquisition Licence, the federal firearms licence issued by the RCMP.
• POL. Possession Only Licence. A legacy federal firearms licence, no longer issued to new applicants.
• Seal. Issued by a jurisdiction to go with an animal that has been taken.
• Synopsis. Each year's plain-language summary of a jurisdiction's hunting regulations, with a general section, unit maps and species tables.
• Tag. Issued alongside a licence and tied to a species or one animal. Usage varies across the country.

Those last five are thin on purpose. A glossary can tell you what a tag is. When one is needed, or which season it covers, is another question, and thirteen governments answer it thirteen ways. Read the regulations where you hunt.

Questions about hunting terms

How many of these terms actually show up on the exam?

More than most students expect. Vocabulary is quick to ask and unambiguous to mark, so hunter education exams lean on it. Action types, cartridge components, gauge and shot size, carrying positions, zones of fire, carrying capacity and limiting factors turn up in almost every provincial exam.

What is the difference between a licence, a tag and a seal?

In general terms, a licence is the dated permission a government issues to a person. A tag is issued alongside it and tied to a species or one animal. A seal is a marker that goes on an animal already taken. Those words aren't used identically across the country, though, so read the regulations where you intend to hunt rather than treating a general definition as a rule.

Is gauge the same thing as calibre?

No. Calibre measures bore diameter directly: bigger number, bigger bore. Gauge counts how many lead balls of bore diameter make one pound, so its numbering runs the other way and a 12 gauge is wider than a 20. The odd one out is the .410. It's measured in inches, so it's properly .410 bore, not 410 gauge.

What is the difference between ACTS and PROVE?

ACTS is four rules you live inside the entire time a firearm is in your hands. PROVE is the five-step procedure that confirms a firearm is unloaded, and the last letter of ACTS is what sends you to it. So one is a standing habit. The other is a check, with a start and an end.

Do these terms mean the same thing in every province?

The firearms and ammunition vocabulary is national. The Canadian Firearms Safety Course is one federal course, taught everywhere. Conservation, safety and field terms are close to identical across the provincial curricula too. Licensing words are where it comes apart, since each of the thirteen jurisdictions names its own documents.

Get the words solid first. The marks are in the pages behind them: the study guides cover each subject, and the practice exams will tell you which group you skimmed.