A rifle is a long-barreledfirearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with both hands and braced firmly against the shooter's shoulder via a buttstock for stability during shooting. Rifles are used extensively in warfare, law enforcement, hunting and target shooting sports.
The term was originally rifled gun, with the verbrifle referring to the early modernmachining process of creating grooves with cutting tools. By the 20th century, the weapon had become so common that the modern noun rifle is now often used for any long-shaped handheld ranged weapon designed for well-aimed discharge activated by a trigger.
The distinct feature that separates a rifle from the earlier smoothborelong guns (e.g., arquebuses, muskets) is the rifling within its barrel. The raised areas of a barrel's rifling are called lands; they make contact with and exert torque on the projectile as it moves down the bore, imparting a spin. When the projectile leaves the barrel, this spin persists and lends gyroscopic stability to the projectile due to conservation of angular momentum, increasing accuracy and hence effective range. Early long rifles were muzzle-loaders firing spherical balls; the introduction of breech-loading allowed the use of elongated and aerodynamically efficient bullets, which did not yaw or tumble significantly in flight due to the spin.[citation needed]
Terminology
Names of parts of the M1 Garand rifle, World War II era, from US Army field manual
Historically, rifles only fired a single projectile with each squeeze of the trigger. Modern rifles are commonly classified as single-shot, bolt-action, semi-automatic, or automatic. Single-shot, bolt-action, and semi-automatic rifles are limited by their designs to fire a single shot for each trigger pull. Only automatic rifles are capable of firing more than one round per trigger squeeze; however, some automatic rifles are limited to fixed bursts of two, three, or more rounds per squeeze.
Modern automatic rifles overlap to some extent in design and function with machine guns. In fact, many light machine guns are adaptations of existing automatic rifle designs, such as the RPK and M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle. A military's light machine guns are typically chambered for the same caliber ammunition as its service rifles. Generally, the difference between an automatic rifle and a machine gun comes down to weight, cooling system, and ammunition feed system. Rifles, with their relatively lighter components (which overheat quickly) and smaller capacity magazines, are incapable of sustained automatic fire in the way that machine guns are; they trade this capability in favor of increased mobility. Modern military rifles are fed by magazines, while machine guns are generally belt-fed. Many machine guns allow the operator to quickly exchange barrels in order to prevent overheating, whereas rifles generally do not. Most machine guns fire from an open bolt in order to reduce the danger of "cook-off", while almost all rifles fire from a closed bolt for accuracy. Machine guns are often crewed by more than one soldier; the rifle is an individual weapon.
In many works of fiction "rifle" refers to any weapon that has a stock and is shouldered before firing, even if the weapon is not rifled or does not fire solid projectiles (e.g. "laser rifle").
Historical overview
Rifling in a .35 Remington microgroove rifled barrelGirdled bullet and twin rifle groove of the Brunswick rifle, mid-19th century
The origins of rifling are difficult to trace, but some of the earliest European experiments seem to have been carried out during the 15th century. Archers had long realized that a twist added to the tail feathers of their arrows gave them greater accuracy. Early muskets produced large quantities of smoke and soot, which had to be cleaned from the action and bore of the musket frequently, either through the action of repeated bore scrubbing, or a deliberate attempt to create "soot grooves" that would allow for more shots to be fired from the firearm. Some of the earliest examples of European grooved gun barrels were reportedly manufactured as early as 1440 and further developed by Gaspard Kollner of Vienna c.1498, although other scholars allege they were a joint effort between Kollner and Augustus Kotter of Nuremberg c.1520.[1][2] Military commanders preferred smoothbore weapons for infantry use because rifles were much more prone to problems due to powder fouling the barrel and because they took longer to reload and fire than muskets.[citation needed]
Rifles were created as an improvement in the accuracy of smoothbore muskets. In the early 18th century, Benjamin Robins, an English mathematician, realized that an elongated bullet would retain the momentum and kinetic energy of a musket ball, but would slice through the air with greater ease.[3] The black powder used in early muzzle-loading rifles quickly fouled the barrel, making loading slower and more difficult. The greater range of the rifle was considered to be of little practical use since the smoke from black powder quickly obscured the battlefield and made it almost impossible to aim the weapon from a distance. Since musketeers could not afford to take the time to stop and clean their barrels in the middle of a battle, rifles were limited to use by sharpshooters and non-military uses like hunting.[citation needed]
Muskets were smoothbore, large caliber weapons using spherical ammunition fired at relatively low velocity. Due to the high cost and great difficulty of precision manufacturing, and the need to load readily from the muzzle, the musket ball was a loose fit in the barrel. Consequently, on firing the ball bounced off the sides of the barrel when fired and the final direction on leaving the muzzle was unpredictable.[4]
The performance of early muskets defined the style of warfare at the time. Due to the lack of accuracy, soldiers were deployed in long lines (thus line infantry) to fire at the opposing forces. Precise aim was thus not necessary to hit an opponent. Muskets were used for comparatively rapid, imprecisely aimed volley fire, and the average soldier could be easily trained to use them.[citation needed]
In the Province of Pennsylvania, one of the most successful early rifles, the long rifle, was developed over the course of the 18th century. Compared to the more common Brown Bess, they had a tighter bore with no space between bullet and barrel, and still used balls instead of conical bullets. The balls the long rifle used were smaller, allowing the production of more rounds for a given amount of lead. These rifles also had longer barrels, allowing more accuracy, which were rifled with a helical groove. These first started appearing sometime before 1740, one early example being made by Jacob Dickert, a German immigrant. By 1750 there were a number of such manufacturers in the area. The longer barrel was a departure by local gunsmiths from their German roots, allowing bullets to achieve a higher speed (as the burning gunpowder was contained longer) before emerging from the barrel.[5][bettersourceneeded]
The rifle was used for precise shooting, aiming, and firing at individual targets, instead of the musket's use for imprecise fire.[6]
By the time of the American Revolutionary War, these rifles were commonly used by frontiersmen, and Congress authorized the establishment of ten companies of riflemen. One of the most critical units was Morgan's Riflemen, led by Daniel Morgan. This sharpshooting unit eventually proved itself integral to the Battle of Saratoga, and in the southern states where General Morgan commanded as well. Taking advantage of the rifle's improved accuracy, Morgan's sharpshooters picked off cannoneers and officers, reducing the impact of enemy artillery.[7] This kind of advantage was considered pivotal in many battles, such as the battles of Cowpens, Saratoga, and King's Mountain.[8]
Later during the Napoleonic Wars, the British 95th Regiment (Green Jackets) and 60th Regiment, (Royal American), as well as sharpshooters and riflemen during the War of 1812, used the rifle to great effect during skirmishing. Because of a slower loading time than a musket, they were not adopted by the whole army. Since rifles were used by sharpshooters who did not routinely fire over other men's shoulders, long length was not required to avoid the forward line. A shorter length made a handier weapon in which tight-fitting balls did not have to be rammed so far down the barrel.[9]
The invention of the Minié ball in the 1840s solved the slow loading problem, and in the 1850s and 1860s rifles quickly replaced muskets on the battlefield. Many rifles, often referred to as rifled muskets, were very similar to the muskets they replaced, but the military also experimented with other designs. Breech-loading weapons proved to have a much faster rate of fire than muzzleloaders, causing military forces to abandon muzzle loaders in favor of breech-loading designs in the late 1860s. In the later part of the 19th century, rifles were generally single-shot, breech-loading guns, designed for aimed, discretionary fire by individual soldiers. Then, as now, rifles had a stock, either fixed or folding, to be braced against the shoulder when firing.[citation needed]
The adoption of cartridges and breech-loading in the 19th century was concurrent with the general adoption of rifles. In the early part of the 20th century, soldiers were trained to shoot accurately over long ranges with high-powered cartridges. World War I Lee–Enfield rifles (among others) were equipped with long-range 'volley sights' for massed firing at ranges of up to 1.6km (1mi). Individual shots were unlikely to hit, but a platoon firing repeatedly could produce a 'beaten ground' effect similar to light artillery or machine guns.[citation needed]
Currently, rifles are the most common firearm in general use for hunting (with the exception of bird hunting, where shotguns are favored). Rifles derived from military designs have long been popular with civilian shooters.[10]
During the Napoleonic Wars the British army created several experimental units known as "Rifles", armed with the Baker rifle. These Rifle Regiments were deployed as skirmishers during the Peninsular war in Spain and Portugal, and were more effective than skirmishers armed with muskets due to their accuracy and long range.[citation needed]
Gradually, rifles appeared with cylindrical barrels cut with helical grooves, the surfaces between the grooves being "lands". The innovation was shortly followed by the mass adoption of breech-loading weapons, as it was not practical to push an overbore bullet down through a rifled barrel. The dirt and grime from prior shots were pushed down ahead of a tight bullet or ball (which may have been a looser fit in the clean barrel before the first shot), and loading was far more difficult, as the lead had to be deformed to go down in the first place, reducing the accuracy due to deformation. Several systems were tried to deal with the problem, usually by resorting to an under-bore bullet that expanded upon firing.[11]
The method developed by Delvigne for his rifles, with the lead bullet being supported by a wooden sabot at its base.
The original muzzle-loading rifle, with a closely fitting ball to take the rifling grooves, was loaded with difficulty, particularly when foul, and for this reason was not generally used for military purposes. With the advent of rifling, the bullet itself did not initially change but was wrapped in a greased, cloth patch to grip the rifling grooves.[12]
The first half of the 19th century saw a distinct change in the shape and function of the bullet. In 1826 Delvigne, a French infantry officer, invented a breech with abrupt shoulders on which a spherical bullet was rammed down until it caught the rifling grooves. Delvigne's method, however, deformed the bullet and was inaccurate.[13]
Soon after, the Carabine à tige was invented by Louis-Etienne de Thouvenin, which had a stem at the bottom of the barrel that would deform and expand the base of the bullet when rammed, therefore enabling accurate contact with the rifling. However, the area around the stem clogged and got dirty easily.[citation needed]
One of the most famous was the Minié system, invented by French Army Captain Claude-Étienne Minié, which relied on a conical bullet (known as a Minié ball) with a hollow skirt at the base of the bullet. When fired, the skirt would expand from the pressure of the exploding charge and grip the rifling as the round was fired. The better seal gave more power, as less gas escaped past the bullet. Also, for the same bore (caliber) diameter a long bullet was heavier than a round ball. The extra grip also spun the bullet more consistently, which increased the range from about 50 yards for a smoothbore musket to about 300 yards for a rifle using the Minié system. The expanding skirt of the Minié ball also solved the problem that earlier tight-fitting bullets were difficult to load as black powder residue fouled the inside of the barrel. The Minié system allowed conical bullets to be loaded into rifles just as quickly as round balls in smooth bores, which allowed rifle muskets to replace muskets on the battlefield. Minié system rifles, notably the U.S. Springfield and the British Enfield of the early 1860s featured prominently in the U.S. Civil War, due to their enhanced power and accuracy.[citation needed]
Over the 19th century, bullet design also evolved, the bullets becoming gradually smaller and lighter. By 1910 the standard blunt-nosed bullet had been replaced by the pointed, 'spitzer' bullet, an innovation that increased range and penetration. Cartridge design evolved from simple paper tubes containing black powder and shot, to sealed brass cases with integral primers for ignition, and black powder was replaced by cordite, and then other nitro-cellulose-based smokeless powder mixtures, propelling bullets to higher velocities than before.[citation needed]
The increased velocity meant that new problems arrived, and so bullets went from being soft lead to harder lead, then to copper-jacketed, in order to better engage the spiral grooves without "stripping" them in the same way that a screw or bolt thread would be stripped if subjected to extreme forces.[14]
From 1836, breech-loading rifles were introduced with the German Dreyse Needle gun, followed by the French Tabatière in 1857, and the British Calisher and Terry carbine made in Birmingham and later in 1864 and the better known British Snider–Enfield. Primitive chamber-locking mechanisms were soon replaced by bolt-action mechanisms, exemplified by the French Chassepot in 1866. Breech-loading was to have a major impact on warfare, as breech-loading rifles can be fired at a rate many times faster than muzzle-loaded rifles and significantly can be loaded from a prone rather than standing position. Firing prone (i.e., lying down) is more accurate than firing from a standing position, and a prone rifleman presents a much smaller target than a standing soldier. The higher accuracy and range, combined with reduced vulnerability generally benefited the defense while making the traditional battle between lines of standing and volleying infantrymen obsolete.[citation needed]
Revolving rifles were an attempt to increase the rate of fire of rifles by combining them with the revolving firing mechanism that had been developed earlier for revolving pistols. Colt began experimenting with revolving rifles in the early 19th century, and other manufacturers like Remington later experimented with them as well. The Colt Revolving Rifle Model 1855 was an early repeating rifle and the first one to be used by the U.S. Government and saw some limited action during the American Civil War. Revolvers, both rifles and pistols, tend to spray fragments of metal from the front of the cylinder.[15]
Repeating rifle
The Winchester repeating rifle was invented in 1866. The firer pulled on a lever to reload the rifle with a stored cartridge.[6]
Cartridge storage
An important area of development was the way that cartridges were stored and used in the weapon. The Spencer repeating rifle was a breech-loading manually operated lever-action rifle that was adopted by the United States. Over 20,000 were used during the American Civil War. It was the first adoption of a removable magazine-fed infantry rifle. The design was completed by Christopher Spencer in 1860.[16] It used copper rimfire cartridges stored in a removable seven-round tube magazine, enabling the rounds to be fired one after another. When the magazine was empty, it could be exchanged for another.[17]
Modern
Czechoslovak rifle vz. 24
In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, military observers from Europe and the United States witnessed a major conflict fought with high velocity bolt-action rifles firing smokeless powder.[18]:179,229,230[19]:104,105 The Battle of Mukden fought in 1905 consisted of nearly 343,000 Russian troops against over 281,000 Japanese troops. The Russian Mosin–Nagant Model 1891 in 7.62mm was pitted against the Japanese Arisaka Type 30 bolt-action rifle in 6.5mm;[19]:104,105,155 both had velocities well over the 19th-century black powder velocities of under 2,000 feet per second (610m/s).[19]:187[20]:28,29
Until the late 19th century rifles tended to be very long, some long rifles reaching approximately 2m (7ft) in length to maximize accuracy, making early rifles impractical for use by cavalry. However, following the advent of more powerful smokeless powder, a shorter barrel did not impair accuracy as much. As a result, cavalry saw limited, but noteworthy, usage in 20th-century conflicts.[citation needed]
The advent of the massed, rapid firepower of the machine gun, submachine gun and rifled artillery was so quick as to outstrip the development of any way to attack a trench defended by riflemen and machine gunners. The carnage of World War I was perhaps the greatest vindication and vilification of the rifle as a military weapon.[citation needed]
The M1 Garand was a semi-automatic rapid-fire rifle developed for modern warfare use in World War II.[6]
During and after World War II it became accepted that most infantry engagements occurred at ranges of less than 300m; the range and power of the large full-powered rifle cartridges were "overkill", requiring weapons heavier than otherwise necessary. This led to Germany's development of the 7.92×33mm Kurz (short) round, the MKb-42, and ultimately, the assault rifle. Today, an infantryman's rifle is optimized for ranges of 300m or less, and soldiers are trained to deliver individual rounds or bursts of fire within these distances. Typically, the application of accurate, long-range fire is the domain of the marksman and the sniper in warfare, and of enthusiastic target shooters in peacetime. The modern marksman rifle and sniper rifle are usually capable of accuracy better than 0.3 mrad at 100 yards (1 arcminute).[citation needed]
The Grizzly is a 3D printed .22-caliber rifle created around August 2013. It was created using a Stratasys Dimension 1200es printer.[21] It was created by a Canadian only known by the pseudonym "Matthew" who told The Verge that he was in his late 20s, and his main job was making tools for the construction industry.[21][22]
The original Grizzly fired a single shot before breaking.[21] Grizzly 2.0 fired fourteen bullets before getting damaged due to the strain.[22]
In October 2020, another 3D-printed 9mm rifle known as the "FGC-9mm" was created. It is reported that it can be made in 2 weeks with $500 of tools. A second model was later made in April 2021.[23]
Youth rifle
A youth rifle is a rifle designed or modified for fitting children or other small-framed shooters. A youth rifle is often a single-shot .22 caliber rifle, or a bolt-action rifle, although some youth rifles are semi-automatic. They are usually very light, with a greatly shortened length of pull, which is necessary to accommodate children. Youth stocks are available for many popular rifles, such as the Ruger 10/22, a semi-automatic .22 LR rifle, allowing a youth rifle to be made from a standard rifle by simply changing the stock. The typical ages of shooters for such rifles vary from about age 5+.[citation needed]
The usual form of rifling was helical grooves in a round bore.
Some early rifled firearms had barrels with a twisted polygonal bore. The Whitworth rifle was the first such type designed to spin the round for accuracy. Bullets for these guns were made to match the shape of the bore so the bullet would grip the rifle bore and take a spin that way. These were generally large caliber weapons, and the ammunition still did not fit tightly in the barrel. Many different shapes and degrees of spiraling were used in experimental designs. One widely produced example was the Metford rifling in the Pattern 1888 Lee–Metford service rifle. Although uncommon, polygonal rifling is still used in some weapons today, one example being the Glock line of pistols (which fire standard bullets). Many of the early designs were prone to dangerous backfiring, which could lead to the destruction of the weapon and serious injury to the person firing it.
As the bullet enters the barrel, it inserts itself into the rifling, a process that gradually wears down the barrel, and also causes the barrel to heat up more rapidly. Therefore, some machine guns are equipped with quick-change barrels that can be swapped every few thousand rounds, or in earlier designs, were water-cooled. Unlike older carbon steel barrels, which were limited to around 1,000 shots before the extreme heat caused accuracy to fade, modern stainless steel barrels for target rifles are much more resistant to wear, allowing many thousands of rounds to be fired before accuracy drops. (Many shotguns and small arms have chrome-lined barrels to reduce wear and enhance corrosion resistance. This is rare on rifles designed for extreme accuracy, as the plating process is difficult and liable to reduce the effect of the rifling.) Modern ammunition has a hardened lead core with a softer outer cladding or jacket, typically of an alloy of copper and nickel – cupro-nickel. Some ammunition is coated with molybdenum disulfide to further reduce internal friction – the so-called 'moly-coated' bullet.[24]
Rifles were initially single-shot, muzzle-loading weapons. During the 18th century, breech-loading weapons were designed, which allowed the rifleman to reload while under cover, but defects in manufacturing and the difficulty in forming a reliable gas-tight seal prevented widespread adoption. During the 19th century, multi-shot repeating rifles using lever, pump or linear bolt actions became standard, further increasing the rate of fire and minimizing the fuss involved in loading a firearm. The problem of proper seal creation had been solved with the use of brass cartridge cases, which expanded in an elastic fashion at the point of firing and effectively sealed the breech while the pressure remained high, then relaxed back enough to allow for easy removal. By the end of the 19th century, the leading bolt-action design was that of Paul Mauser, whose action—wedded to a reliable design possessing a five-shot magazine[25]—became a world standard through two world wars and beyond. The Mauser rifle was paralleled by Britain's ten-shot Lee–Enfield[25] and America's 1903 Springfield Rifle models. The American M1903 closely copied Mauser's original design.
Range
Barrel rifling dramatically increased the range and accuracy of the musket. Indeed, throughout its development, the rifle's history has been marked by increases in range and accuracy. From the Minié rifle and beyond, the rifle has become ever more potent at long-range strikes.
In recent decades, large-caliber anti-materiel rifles, typically firing between 12.7mm and 20mm caliber cartridges, have been developed. The US Barrett M82A1 is probably the best-known such rifle. A second example is the AX50 by Accuracy International. These weapons are typically used to strike critical, vulnerable targets such as computerized command and control vehicles, radio trucks, radar antennae, vehicle engine blocks and the jet engines of enemy aircraft. Anti-materiel rifles can be used against human targets, but the much higher weight of rifle and ammunition, and the massive recoil and muzzle blast, usually make them less than practical for such use. The Barrett M82 is designed with a maximum effective range of 1,800m (1.1mi), although it has a confirmed kill distance of 2,430m (1.51mi) in Afghanistan during Operation Anaconda in 2002.[26] The record for the longest confirmed kill shot stands at 3,540m (11,610ft), set by an unnamed soldier with Canada's elite special operations unit Joint Task Force 2 using a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle.[27]
Bullet rotational speed (RPM)
Bullets leaving a rifled barrel can spin at a rotational speed of over 100,000 revolutions per minute (rpm) (or over about 1.67 kilohertz, since 1 RPM = 1/60Hz). The rotational speed depends both on the muzzle velocity of the bullet and the pitch of the rifling. Excessive rotational speed can exceed the bullet's designed limits and the inadequate centripetal force will fail to keep the bullet from disintegrating in a radial fashion.[28] The rotational speed of the bullet can be calculated by using the formula below.
MV/ twist rate = rotational speed
Using metric units, the formula divides the number of millimeters in a meter (1000) by the barrel twist in millimeters (the length of travel along the barrel per full rotation). This number is then multiplied by the muzzle velocity in meters per second (m/s) and the number of seconds in a minute (60).
Using imperial units, the formula divides the number of inches in a foot (12) by the rate of twist that the barrel has. This number is multiplied by the muzzle velocity (MV) and the number of seconds in a minute (60). For example, a bullet with a muzzle velocity of 3,000 feet per second (910m/s) leaving a barrel that twists once per foot (1/12") would rotate at 180,000rpm.[29]
MV (in fps) × (12 in. /twist rate) × 60 s/min. = Bullet RPM
For example, using a barrel that has a twist rate of 1 turn in 8" with a muzzle velocity of 3000ft/s:
Rifles may be chambered in a variety of calibers (bullet or barrel diameters), from as low as 4.4mm (.17 inch) varmint calibers to as high as 20 mm (.80 caliber) in the case of the largest anti-tank rifles. The term caliber essentially refers to the width of the bullet fired through a rifle's barrel. Armies have consistently attempted to find and procure the most lethal and accurate caliber for their firearms.
The standard calibers used by the world's militaries tend to follow worldwide trends. These trends have significantly changed during the centuries of firearm design and re-design. Muskets were normally chambered for large calibers, such as .50 or .59 (12.7mm or 15mm), with the theory that these large bullets caused the most damage.
During World War I and II, most rifles were chambered in .30 caliber (7.62mm), a combination of power and speed. Examples would be the .303 BritishLee–Enfield, the American M1903.30-06, and the German 8mm Mauser K98.
Detailed study of infantry combat during and after World War II revealed that most small-arms engagements occurred within 100 meters, meaning that the power and range of the traditional .30-caliber weapons (designed for engagements at 500 meters and beyond) were essentially wasted. The single greatest predictor of an individual soldier's combat effectiveness was the number of rounds he fired. Weapons designers and strategists realized that service rifles firing smaller-caliber projectiles would allow troops to carry far more ammunition for the same weight. The lower recoil and more generous magazine capacities of small-caliber weapons also allow troops a much greater volume of fire, compared to historical battle rifles. Smaller, faster traveling, less stable projectiles have also demonstrated greater terminal ballistics and therein, a greater lethality than traditional .30-caliber rounds. Most modern service rifles fire a projectile of approximately 5.56mm. Examples of firearms in this range are the American 5.56mmM16 and the Russian 5.45×39mmAK-74.
In firearm designs, the term single-shot refers to guns that can hold only a single round of ammunition inside and thus must be reloaded manually after every shot. Compared to multi-shot repeating firearms ("repeaters"), single-shot designs have no moving parts other than the trigger, hammer/firing pin or frizzen, and therefore do not need a sizable receiver behind the barrel to accommodate a moving action, making them far less complex and more robust than revolvers or magazine/belt-fed firearms, but also with much slower rates of fire.
A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. They are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax; and are made in various shapes and constructions, including specialized functions such as hunting, target shooting, training, and combat. Bullets are often tapered, making them more aerodynamic. Bullet size is expressed by weight and diameter in both imperial and metric measurement systems. Bullets do not normally contain explosives but strike or damage the intended target by transferring kinetic energy upon impact and penetration.
A muzzleloader is any firearm in which the user loads the projectile and the propellant charge into the muzzle end of the gun. This is distinct from the modern designs of breech-loading firearms, in which user loads the ammunition into the breech end of the barrel. The term "muzzleloader" applies to both rifled and smoothbore type muzzleloaders, and may also refer to the marksman who specializes in the shooting of such firearms. The firing methods, paraphernalia and mechanism further divide both categories as do caliber.
Rifling is the term for helical grooves machined into the internal surface of a firearms's barrel for imparting a spin to a projectile to improve its aerodynamic stability and accuracy. It is also the term for creating such grooves.
In guns, particularly firearms, but not artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore matches that specification. It is measured in inches or in millimeters. In the United States it is expressed in hundredths of an inch; in the United Kingdom in thousandths; and elsewhere in millimeters. For example, a US "45 caliber" firearm has a barrel diameter of roughly 0.45 inches (11.43mm). Barrel diameters can also be expressed using metric dimensions. For example, a "9 mm pistol" has a barrel diameter of about 9 millimeters. Since metric and US customary units do not convert evenly at this scale, metric conversions of caliber measured in decimal inches are typically approximations of the precise specifications in non-metric units, and vice versa.
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the (muzzle) end of the barrel.
A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type 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 used to propel a projectile 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.
Internal ballistics, a subfield of ballistics, is the study of the propulsion of a projectile.
The Minié ball or Minie ball, is a type of hollow-based bullet designed by Claude-Étienne Minié, inventor of the French Minié rifle, for muzzle-loading rifled muskets. It was invented in 1846 and came to prominence during the Crimean War and the American Civil War, where it was found to inflict significantly more serious wounds than earlier round musket balls. Both the American Springfield Model 1861 and the British Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled muskets, the most common weapons used during the American Civil War, used the Minié ball.
The Dreyse needle-gun was a 19th-century military breech-loading rifle, as well as the first breech-loading rifle to use a bolt action to open and close the chamber. It was used as the main infantry weapon of the Prussians in the Wars of German Unification. It was invented in 1836 by the German gunsmith Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse (1787–1867), who had been conducting numerous design experiments since 1824.
A rifled musket, rifle musket, or rifle-musket is a type of firearm made in the mid-19th century. Originally the term referred only to muskets that had been produced as a smoothbore weapon and later had their barrels replaced with rifled barrels. The term later included rifles that directly replaced, and were of the same design overall as, a particular model of smoothbore musket.
The Kammerlader, or "chamber loader", was the first Norwegian breech-loading rifle, and among the first breech loaders adopted for use by an armed force anywhere in the world. A single-shot black-powder rifle, the kammerlader was operated with a crank mounted on the side of the receiver. This made it much quicker and easier to load than the weapons previously used. Kammerladers quickly gained a reputation for being fast and accurate rifles, and would have been a deadly weapon against massed ranks of infantry.
The double rifle, also known as a double-barreled rifle, is a rifle with two barrels mounted parallel to each other that can be fired simultaneously or sequentially in quick succession. Synonymous with big game hunting found primarily in Africa and Asia, the double rifle is a sporting weapon with very little military heritage.
The .45-70, also known as the .45-70 Government, .45-70 Springfield, and .45-21⁄10" Sharps, is a .45 caliber rifle cartridge originally holding 70 grains of black powder that was developed at the U.S. Army's Springfield Armory for use in the Springfield Model 1873. It was a replacement for the stop-gap .50-70 Government cartridge, which had been adopted in 1866, one year after the end of the American Civil War, and is known by collectors as the "Trapdoor Springfield".
The M1819 Hall rifle was a single-shot breech-loading rifle designed by John Hancock Hall, patented on May 21, 1811, and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1819. It was preceded by the Harpers Ferry M1803. It used a pivoting chamber breech design and was made with either flintlock or percussion cap ignition systems. The years of production were from the 1820s to the 1840s at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. This was the first breech-loading rifle to be adopted in large numbers by any nation's army, but not the first breech-loading military rifle – the Ferguson rifle was used briefly by the British Army in the American Revolutionary War. The Hall rifle remained overshadowed by common muskets and muzzleloading rifles which were still prevalent until the Civil War. The early flintlocks were mostly converted to percussion ignition.
A muzzle-loading rifle is a muzzle-loaded small arm or artillery piece that has a rifled barrel rather than a smoothbore. The term "rifled muzzle loader" typically is used to describe a type of artillery piece, although it is technically accurate for small arms as well. A shoulder arm is typically just called a "rifle", as almost all small arms were rifled by the time breechloading became prevalent. Muzzle and breechloading artillery served together for several decades, making a clear distinction more important. In the case of artillery, the abbreviation "RML" is often prefixed to the guns designation; a Rifled breech loader would be "RBL", or often just "BL", since smoothbore breechloading artillery is almost nonexistent. A muzzle loading weapon is loaded through the muzzle, or front of the barrel. This is the opposite of a breech-loading weapon or rifled breechloader (RBL), which is loaded from the breech-end of the barrel. The rifling grooves cut on the inside of the barrel cause the projectile to spin rapidly in flight, giving it greater stability and hence range and accuracy than smoothbore guns. Hand held rifles were well-developed by the 1740s. A popularly recognizable form of the "muzzleloader" is the Kentucky Rifle, which was actually developed in Pennsylvania. The American Longrifle evolved from the German "Jäger" rifle.
The Minié rifle was an important infantry rifle of the mid-19th century. A version was adopted in 1849 following the invention of the Minié ball in 1847 by the French Army captain Claude-Étienne Minié of the Chasseurs d'Orléans and Henri-Gustave Delvigne. The bullet was designed to allow rapid muzzle loading of rifles and was an innovation that brought about the widespread use of the rifle as the main battlefield weapon for individual soldiers. The French adopted it following difficulties encountered by the French army in North Africa, where their muskets were overtaken in range by long-barreled weapons which were handcrafted by their Algerian opponents. The Minié rifle belonged to the category of rifled muskets.
The following are terms related to firearms and ammunition topics.
A paper cartridge is one of various types of small arms ammunition used before the advent of the metallic cartridge. These cartridges consisted of a paper cylinder or cone containing the bullet, gunpowder, and in some cases, a primer or a lubricating and anti-fouling agent. Combustible cartridges are paper cartridges that use paper treated with oxidizers to allow them to burn completely upon ignition.
During the American Civil War, an assortment of small arms found their way onto the battlefield. Though the muzzleloader percussion cap rifled musket was the most numerous weapon, being standard issue for the Union and Confederate armies, many other firearms, ranging from the single-shot breech-loading Sharps and Burnside rifles to the Spencer and the Henry rifles - two of the world's first repeating rifles - were issued by the hundreds of thousands, mostly by the Union. The Civil War brought many advances in firearms technology, most notably the widespread use of rifled barrels.
↑ Sadowski, Robert A. (2015). Shooter's Bible Guide to Tactical Firearms: A Comprehensive Guide to Precision Rifles and Long-Range Shooting Gear. Skyhorse. ISBN9781632209351.
↑ "Bullet". Britannica. 9 April 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
↑ "Rifling: Expanding Bullets and the Minie Rifle". Firearms History, Technology & Development. 16 May 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2021. The solution for hundreds of years was to wrap the bullet in a greased cloth patch and ram it down the barrel
1 2 3 Menning, Bruce W. (1992). Bayonets Before Bullets; The Imperial Russian Army, 1861–1914. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University. ISBN0-253-33745-3.
↑ Honeycutt, Fred L.; Anthony, F. Patt (2006). Military Rifles of Japan (Fifthed.). Monticello, Iowa: Julin. ISBN0-9623208-7-0.
Friedrich Engels, "On Rifled Cannon", articles from the New York Tribune, April, May and June, 1860, reprinted in Military Affairs 21, no. 4 (Winter 1957) ed. Morton Borden, 193–198.
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