Rifles
Created | Updated Apr 12, 2002
A rifle is a gun that has a much greater range and killing power than an any other ordinary gun.
First, let us see how the rifle gets its name. The barrel of a rifle is not smooth as the barrel of say, a pistol1. It has minute aspersions on the inner surface. These asperities cause the bullet to spin around its own axis as it leaves the barrel of the gun and this is called the "Rifling effect" and thus the name. This spin that the bullet gets contributes to the rifle's range and power.
Firstly, the spin imparted to the bullet stabilizes it over long ranges because of the law of conservation of angular momentum.
The rifle is also a nasty killing weapon, and the bullet once it enters the human body, does a lot of damage.
To understand this, consider a top spinning on the floor. Now, place your finger gently on the head of the top, retarding its angular velocity. What happens is that the tip of the nail of the top starts revolving in an ever increasing radius, until the top topples. Exactly the same thing happens when a rifle bullet enters a human body.
When most people think of a rifle, they will probably think of bolt action2 or semi-automatic3 weapons, but there are two other distinct types of rifle; assault rifles and 'sniper' rifles.
Assault Rifles are essentially machine guns with rifled barrels. This has obvious advantages over non-rifled machine guns as the bullets are noticably more accurate. Some better known types of assault rifle are the M-16 and the AK-47.
Sniper rifles, on the other hand, are rifles designed to hit targets over great distances, usually with only one shot. Sniper Rifles are either Bolt Action or Semi-automatic weapons, but are never fully automatic, due to the inaccuracy this would cause. Sniper rifles are built to carry, or have built into them, scopes that magnify the target, giving the sniper an easier time of hitting the target.
Probably the best known Sniper Rifle is the PSG1, a 'real life' sniper rifle that has appeared in the popular games Metal Gear Solid, and Metal Gear Solid 2.
Special thanks to Wills, who began this entry but left before its completion.
1it should be noted that many modern pistols also have "Rifling" in their barrels.2a weapon where the breech must be opened manually to allow the spent round to eject.3semi-automatic weapons, when the trigger is pulled, fire the round, open the breech, eject the spent case, close the breech and load another round without intervention of the firer.
