From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A
self-loading rifle
or
autoloading rifle
is a
rifle
with an
action
using a portion of the
energy
of each
cartridge
fired to load another cartridge.
Self-loading pistols
are similar, but intended to be held and
fired
by a single hand, while rifles are designed to be held with both hands and fired from the shoulder.
[1]
Evolution
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Hungarian prototype 7.92×33mm Assault Rifle prototype (center) compared to Matyas Zoller caplock (above) and Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifle (below) at the Hadtorteneti Muzeum Budapest
Early
breech-loading
firearms were
single-shot
devices holding a single cartridge. When that cartridge had been fired, the person using the firearm would remove the empty cartridge, find another cartridge from a pocket or other carrying apparatus, and load that cartridge into the firearm
chamber
before another shot could be fired. Later
repeating rifles
and pistols were equipped with a
magazine
holding several cartridges with a
spring
to push those cartridges into position to be loaded by manually operating the action of the firearm?as by a lever, bolt, or pump mechanism?thus avoiding the procedure of locating and manually positioning each new cartridge. Later first developed in the early 1900s
[2]
self-loading firearms avoid manual operation of the action by using energy of the cartridge being fired to operate the action, so the shooter may fire additional cartridges without manually operating the firearm action until the magazine is empty.
[3]
Variations
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Self-loading rifles include:
- Semi-automatic rifle
, a type of firearm which fires a single shot with the pull of a trigger, and uses the energy of that shot to chamber the next round.
[4]
Examples:
- Automatic rifle
, a firearm that automatically loads and fires rounds, through the bullet's energy, as long as its trigger is held down.
[4]
Examples:
- Selective-fire
rifle, e.g.
assault rifle
, that is capable of switching between semi-automatic, fully automatic and/or
burst fire
mode of operation. Examples:
See also
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References
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