gunnery

Noun

gunnery (usually uncountable, plural gunneries)

1. (usually) The science of guns and gunfire, including aspects of bullet flight and impact.
   • When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery— / When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery,—1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, “I am the very pattern of a modern major-general”, in The Pirates of Penzance […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880...
2. (usually) The design and manufacture of guns, particularly those of a large caliber.
   • Originally, doubtless, that petty officer's function was the instruction of the men in the use of arms, sword, or cutlass. But very long ago, owing to the advance in gunnery, making hand-to-hand encounters less frequent, and giving to nitre and sulphur the preeminence over steel, that function...1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter VII.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC, page 244
3. (usually) The firing of guns.
   • Northward incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles, / Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war.1920, Wilfred Owen, “Exposure”, in Poems, London: Chatto & Windus, page 18
   • The 12th march company telephoned claiming that someone in the office had heard that they were waiting to do some shooting practice at moveable targets and that they would only leave after gunnery practice under front conditions.1973, Jaroslav Hašek, chapter 5, in Cecil Parrott, transl., The Good Soldier Švejk, London: William Heinemann, page 438
4. (countable, usually) A place where guns are tested, or where people are trained in their use.