The word "rifle" has different meanings to different people. Everyone pictures a different type of weapon when thinking of a rifle. Many people regard any long barreled weapon to be a rifle. Throughout history there have been many different shoulder-fired, long-barreled weapons that were not rifles. A musket, as used in the Revolutionary War, is not a rifle. A shotgun is not a rifle. What makes a rifle a rifle is the rifling in its barrel. Rifling can be put into a barrel in several different ways. However, the purpose of all rifling is the same. The spiraling twist of the rifling engraves into the bullet and causes it to spin at a rate that is proportional to the spin in the rifling. By spinning the bullet, it gains stability and keeps it from tumbling after leaving the barrel. This allows for a straight and predictable flight, time after time. The rifling of gun barrels began sometime in the 15th century.
Today we have many different types of firearms that are referred to as rifles. While they all have long rifled barrels they differ in how they function and load. The four most common types are single shot, lever action, bolt action and semi-automatic.
 Single Shot: Single shot rifles are exactly what their name implies. They are only capable of holding a single cartridge and firing one shot before needing to reload. They fall into to sub action types, The first being what is known as the falling block design. In this design a lever causes a breach block to slide down opening the chamber for loading. Since the breach block is heavy and firmly supported in it's travel it is very strong and can contain the pressure of virtually any known rifle cartridge. A classic example of this design is the Ruger No. 1 rifle. The second and more common type of single action rifle is the break open design. In this design, the barrel is hinged at the bottom and when a latch is released the gun breaks open revealing the chamber for loading. This action is identical to that used in single and double barrel shotguns. The strength of this action is less than the falling block and these rifles are offered in smaller number of calibers. However, for typical hunting applications (excluding very large game) both types are perfectly adequate performers. An examples of this types of rifle the H&R 1871. See our listing at the right for more manufacturers of single shot rifles.
 Lever Action: If you've ever seen an old western movie -- then you've seen a lever action rifle. It's the classic rifle of the Old West and continues to be popular, even today. From the 1860's with the introduction of the Spencer repeating rifle, to the Henry, Winchester and Marlins, the lever action has been a workhorse. The lever action rifle has several advantages and disadvantages compared to other rifle types. Since it is a repeating rifle, it can fire several shots before reloading. Depending on the cartridge, this can be 10 rounds or more in limited cases. It is also very fast to reload by stroking the lever and can deliver a fast rate of fire. In these aspects it beats the single shot and bolt action rifle by a wide margin. However, the action of the lever action is not as strong as other types and it can only handle a limited number of cartridges. High power hunting rounds like the belted magnums are out of the range of the lever action. In addition, except for a few obscure variations, all lever actions use a feeding tube that sits under the barrel. Each cartridge sits in this tube with the nose of the one cartridge touching the primer of the one in front of it. Therefore, only flat or round nose ammunition can be used to avoid a sharp pointed bullet form igniting the primer of the round in front of it. This results in not being able to use highly aerodynamic bullets which therefore drop rapidly and lose velocity quickly, at long range. This makes the lever action a short to medium range weapon. Recently, Marlin has introduced a new lever caliber that uses a soft pointed tip to overcome this. However, the power range of this new caliber is still in the mid range as far as rifle cartridges go. Where the lever action shines is as a deep woods hunter using tried and true hunting calibers. In addition, cartridges like the 450 Marlin and the old 45-70, loaded to modern pressures, have transformed the lever action into a powerful cartridge for protection against dangerous game. 
Bolt Action: The bolt action rifle was the prime military firearm in the early part of the 20th century, up until World War II. The US Springfield 1903, English Lee-Enfield and German Mauser 98 were the main battle rifles of World War I. They were eventually replaced during World War II with semi-automatic and fully-automatic rifles. However, the bolt action is still very popular to this day, both in the military as a sniper rifle and with hunters around the world. The bolt action is an extremely strong design and many modern bolt action rifles can handle any cartridge. Modern bolt action rifles have a lot in common with their turn of the 20th century counterparts. The Mauser design has been copied by many manufacturers and is the design of choice for dangerous game rifles due to it's reliability. Because of their rigid and strong design they can be made into very accurate weapons. Even out of the box hunting rifles exhibit excellent accuracy likely exceeding the ability of the average shooter. Bolt action rifles are available in a stunning array of calibers from the tiny .22 to the giant .50 BMG. In between are classic cartridges like the .270 Winchester, 30-06 Springfield, and all of the famous belted magnums including the .458 Winchester Magnum and Lott and the 460 Weatherby Magnum. There are many quality manufacturers of bolt action rifles all over the world. See the list at the right for more details.
Semi-Automatic: As discussed previously, the modern semi-automatic rifle was developed during the era leading to World War II and became the main battle rifle for that war. With the introduction of the M1 Garand into the US arsenal, the amount of firepower a soldier had increased dramatically. many countries developed their own designs and today there are many different types of semi-automatic rifles. These rifles are erroneously referred to by many in the media and politics as "assault rifles". There are very few differences between a  semi-automatic hunting rifle, many based on the original military designs, and a military semi-automatic rifle. As the technology developed, the military advanced to fully automatic weapons for the soldiers in the field. The fully automatic rifles the military uses will fire multiple shots with a single pressing of the trigger. A semi-automatic rifle will not. The only thing automatic about a semi-automatic rifle is that the next cartridge is loaded automatically instead of the user having to rack a bolt or cock a lever. This is a giant difference that is not apparent by just superficially looking at the rifle. Stereotyping a weapon as being bad because of how it looks as opposed to how it behaves is really no different than any other type of stereotyping that goes on in the world. The military style M14 shown above and the popular Ruger 10-22 rifle shown here are both examples of semi-automatic rifles. Although the M14 fires the relatively powerful .308 Winchester cartridge and the 10-22 the tiny .22 Long Rifle both are used by many people for target shooting and hunting. In addition, the M14 is an excellent self defense weapon. However, neither is an assault weapon by any stretch of the imagination. Semi-automatic hunting rifles are also offered by manufacturers like Remington and Browning. |
Manufacturers
Barrett
Beretta
Browning
Bushmaster
CZ-USA
H&R 1871
Kimber
Marlin
Olympic
Remington
Ruger
Sako
Savage
Smith and Wesson
Springfield Armory
Taurus
US Firearms
Weatherby
Winchester
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