The word "猎枪" is formed by combining the character "猎", meaning "hunt", which itself consists of the radical "犭" indicating relation to animals and the phonetic component "昔", with the character "枪", meaning "gun", composed of the radical "木" suggesting wood and the phonetic component "仓"; in this compound, "猎" modifies "枪" to specify its use for hunting, resulting in the meaning "hunting rifle".