rifle

rifle, firearm with a rifled bore—i.e., having shallow spiral grooves cut inside the barrel to impart a spin to the projectile, thus stabilizing it in flight. A rifled barrel imparts much greater accuracy to a projectile, as compared with a smoothbore barrel. The name rifle, most often applied to a weapon fired from the shoulder, may also denote a crew-served weapon such as a rifled cannon or recoilless rifle. Although field guns, pistols, and machine guns have rifled barrels, they are not normally referred to as rifles.

Rifled firearms date back to at least the 15th century. As some of the earliest had straight rather than spiral grooves, it is thought that the initial purpose may have been to receive the powder residue, or fouling, that was a problem with early firearms. Gun makers soon discovered, however, that spiral grooves made bullets spin and that spinning improved their range and accuracy. The effect increased when spherical balls were superseded by somewhat-elongated projectiles.

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In early muzzle-loading rifles, ramming the bullet down the bore was difficult, as the bullet had to fit the rifling tightly. Such rifles could not be loaded as rapidly as smoothbore muskets. That problem was solved first by the use of greased patches around the projectile. It was later—and far better—addressed by the Minié ball, a projectile with a conical head and a hollow base that expanded slightly from the force of the propellant charge, thereby fitting tightly into the grooves of the rifling. Somewhat later the invention of metallic cartridges (joining explosive primer, propellant charge, and projectile in a self-contained unit) permitted the development of gastight breech-loading mechanisms. The technology was first applied in the 19th century in single-shot, revolving-cylinder, and lever-action repeating arms. Many breech-loading rifles that achieved widespread use in the early 20th century—such as the Springfield, Enfield, and Mauser—were bolt-operated military arms. Since World War II, however, the assault rifle, a light medium-range weapon with a switch allowing semi- or fully automatic fire, has become the dominant military rifle.

Bolt-action rifles similar to 20th-century military arms remain the most common type for hunting. Bolt action is efficient, reliable, and easy to manufacture and maintain. Most weapons of that type have box magazines to hold cartridges for quick reloading after each shot. Lever-action and slide- or pump-action rifles are less commonly used in the 21st century, but after World War II semiautomatic rifles became popular for hunting in the United States. It is illegal in some countries to hunt with a semiautomatic rifle.

A rifle is usually classified on the basis of the type of action it employs and on the size or calibre of ammunition it fires. Calibre is the diameter of the bore in inches or millimetres, and the full title of a rifle gives other information; e.g., .30-30 means a rifle with a bore diameter of .30 inch (7.62 mm) and a cartridge case designed to hold 30 grains (2 grams) of powder. Power and performance also depend on the weight and shape of the bullet and its velocity. For instance, a .257 Weatherby—the name of the inventor of the rifle and the cartridge—is considerably more powerful than weapons with larger bore diameters such as the .30-30, because the Weatherby bullet travels faster.