Ever Wonder Why a Rifle is Called a “Rifle” and a Rifled Handgun is not?
Why is a rifle called a "Rifle”? Afterall, pistols and some shotguns have rifled groves as well. Why aren’t they all called rifles?
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves (called rifling) cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas between the grooves are called lands, which make contact with the projectile, imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the direction of travel.
Imagine a football that spins through the air when thrown properly. The spinning/spiraling action creates balance, allowing the football to be thrown further with more accuracy. It’s the same concept with the rifling in a barrel. The rifling causes the bullet to spiral, giving it much more accuracy and reliability at greater distances. Modern day marksmen can hit targets at ranges over 1 mile away!
A Quick history of how the rifle came to be:
1200-1400's
The Chinese invented the first forms of gunpowder around the 9th and 10th centuries. They experimented with different types of weapons using their "flaming medicine" until the base for the modern gun was created around the 1400s.
1500's
Over the next couple hundred years the design and ideas spread throughout the world. In the 1500 inventors and shooters started to realize that a longer barrel resulted in more accuracy and greater force. The primitive "smooth bore" long gun had a greater impact than the bow and arrows of ancient times but the reloading time was inconvenient and slow. Many people opted for the most advanced crossbows of the day versus the primitive versions of the guns. The advanced crossbows were much more accurate at longer distances and could be reloaded much quicker than a primitive long gun.
1600's
By the 1600's the "smooth bore" musket was being used by developed countries around the world. Typically a person could hit their target within 7 meters with the primitive smooth bore guns but beyond that, there wasn't much accuracy. Thus the reason for the "gun dual". Many gun duels resulted in neither side getting hit because of the inaccuracy of the primitive gun. The first smooth bore long guns were used in war and fired from a firing line into the opposing side's firing line. Since there were so many people standing next to each other a person was bound to hit something. There wasn't much aiming going on. They would just point their gun in the direction of the enemy and fire.
The first rifles were created in the 16th century and were very different from modern rifles. They had long barrels, large balls, and a rudimentary form of rifling. The primitive form of rifling helped with the accuracy but not enough to warrant the additional work and cost of adding the rifling to a long gun. These early rifles were rare and the mass adoption of a rifled gun didn't take place until the 18th century.
1700's
These “red coats” used smooth bore muskets during the revolutionary war which were easy to make and were well suited for the battle strategy of the day, Which was firing into a large group or line of opposing soldiers.
In the 1700's inventors around the world, some on accident, some on purpose started to put grooves in the barrel to help stabilize a bullet in flight to make it more accurate. Thus the modern rifle was born.
During the Revolutionary war in the 1700s most front line soldiers still had smooth bore muskets. However, hunters and frontiersmen would bring their custom rifled muskets to join the fight. These rifled guns were highly sought out due to their increased accuracy and distance. These guns became known as "long rifles" in the US because of their length. Hunters knew that the longer barrels would allow for better accuracy over longer distances. So, rifling was reserved for these long distance hunting firearms until the 1800's when inventors started placing rifling in handguns and shotguns to increase their accuracy as well.
These early guns in the USA were known as the "Long Rifle", "Kentucky Rifle", "Pennsylvania Rifle", etc. Thus, during the 1700's the term "rifle" was reserved for any long gun designed to hold against your shoulder with a rifled barrel.
The "Industrial Revolution" in the late 1700's was the first time that these rifled guns could be produced in large quantities with better specifications, also allowing ammunition to be mass produced for a specific model of rifle.
This Percussion Cap rifle was produced around 1860.
Over the next couple hundred years "rifles" became more accurate, then "repeating rifles" and metal cartridges allowed for quick reloading, then semi-automatic and automatic rifles became common place after World War I. Today there is a wide variety of firearms that are known as "rifles" but they all have rifled barrels, are long in length, and designed to be fired from the shoulder.
(A side note, the ATF defines an automatic rifle as a machine gun and not a rifle.)
Modern Day Variations
The lever action rifle (bottom), pump action Shotgun (middle), and revolver pistols (top), are examples of the different types of manual loading, repeating firearms.
So now that we know the history, let's talk about the modern day variations. There are four main types: single shot, manual action, semi-automatic (or self loading), and fully automatic weapons.
Modern Semi-Automatic Rifles look quite different than their primitive ancestors, but they are still held at the shoulder, longer in length, and have rifled bores.
Modern day single shot rifles are not very common and are primarily reserved for specific hunting seasons that require muzzleloading rifles.
Bolt action, pump action, and lever action rifles all fall under manual action rifles. Each one requires manual cycling between each shot by pulling back the bolt, lever, or forearm pump before firing again. Bolt action rifles are designed for long range hunting and precision shooting since their simplicity of design allows for tighter tolerances. They use a bolt to chamber rounds and so fire more slowly than other types of weapons. Lever action rifles are typically associated with cowboy shooting styles, but can be used for hunting as well. A lever action rifle is a type of repeating firearm that uses a lever mechanism, typically with a loop for easy manipulation, under the gun. When this lever is pushed down it causes the breach to open up and the spent round is extracted. When the lever is pulled back it loads the next round and closes the breach.
Semi-automatic rifles are the most common rifles and fire one shot with each trigger pull and do not require the user to manually move any mechanism to automatically load the next round as they are constantly being loaded from the magazine or clip using energy from the previously fired round. Modern sporting rifles based on the AR platform that are sold in most gun stores are not fully automatic weapons. They look like the military grade M16 or M4 but lack the "burst" or "automatic" firing capabilities.
Fully automatic rifles, such as the AK-47 or M16, are capable of firing multiple shots with just one squeeze of the trigger due to their ability to fire in bursts and automatically load a new round when fired. Automatic rifles are heavily regulated and are considered military grade weapons. Contrary to popular belief automatic firearms are hard to get within the United States and one must purchase a certain stamp and endure a rigorous background check to purchase one of the rifles legally. As mentioned above, fully automatic rifles are not classified as "rifles", they are classified as "machine guns".
Since the creation of gunpowder by the Chinese around 1000 years ago there has been a form of gun or cannon in existence. Fast forward hundreds of years, long guns with spiral grooves cut in the barrel known as rifling were created to increase accuracy at greater distances. These guns became known as "rifles''. Today there are many types of rifles and they can be used for anything from hunting, to target practice, to warfare. Do you have any historical facts about guns or rifles? What rifles do you like the most?
