A firearm that can only shoot one cartridge at a time is?

• A. Semi-Automatic
• B. Automatic
• C. Single shot
• D. Bolt-action

Answer: (C)

Focus on how many rounds a firearm can fire before needing to reload. A single-shot firearm is built to fire only one cartridge and then must be reloaded before it can fire again. There’s no magazine or mechanism to feed another round automatically, so each shot requires a fresh load.

In contrast, the other types involve ways to continue shooting beyond a single round: semi-automatic uses the energy from firing to chamber the next round from a magazine, so you can fire again with another pull of the trigger; automatic will keep firing as long as the trigger is held and ammunition remains; bolt-action requires manually cycling the action to chamber the next round, allowing multiple shots but not automatic feeding.

So the description “fire one cartridge at a time” matches the single-shot option.