Howa Golden Bear is a bolt-action rifle that was manufactured by Howa Industries in the past.
99-628: Howa Industries established its firearms manufacturing plant in 1960 after World War II. In the same year, Howa released the M300 as a hunting gun for domestic markets. Soon after releasing the Howa M300, the company began working on a new type of a hunting rifle in order to meet the demand for large-caliber bolt-action rifles in Japan. During the development, the designers used the Finnish SAKO L61R "Finnbear" as
198-401: A closed bolt for accuracy. Machine guns are often crewed by more than one soldier; the rifle is an individual weapon. The term "rifle" is sometimes used to describe larger rifled crew-served weapons firing explosive shells, for example, recoilless rifles and naval rifles . In many works of fiction "rifle" refers to any weapon that has a stock and is shouldered before firing, even if
297-495: A 9 mm Luger handgun, reaches speeds of only 2,200 kilometres per hour (1,370 mph). Similarly, an AK-47 , has a muzzle velocity of about 2,580 kilometres per hour (1,600 mph). The first true gun evolved in China from the fire lance (a bamboo tube that fired porcelain shrapnel) with the invention of the metal hand cannon sometime around 1288, which the Yuan dynasty used to win
396-614: A French infantry officer, invented a breech with abrupt shoulders on which a spherical bullet was rammed down until it caught the rifling grooves. Delvigne's method, however, deformed the bullet and was inaccurate. In 1855, a detachment of 1st U.S. Dragoons , while on patrol, traded lead for gold bullets with Pima Indians along the California–Arizona border. Square bullets have origins that almost pre-date civilization and were used in slings. They were typically made out of copper or lead. The most notable use of square bullet designs
495-561: A German immigrant. By 1750 there were a number of such manufacturers in the area. The longer barrel was a departure by local gunsmiths from their German roots, allowing bullets to achieve a higher speed (as the burning gunpowder was contained longer) before emerging from the barrel. During the 1700s (18th century), colonial settlers, particularly those immigrating from Germany and Switzerland, adapted and improved upon their European rifles. The improved long rifles were used for precise shooting, aiming, and firing at individual targets, instead of
594-593: A cartridge) often leads to confusion when a cartridge and all its components are specifically being referenced. The sound of gunfire (i.e. the "muzzle report") is often accompanied with a loud bullwhip -like crack as the supersonic bullet pierces through the air, creating a sonic boom . Bullet speeds at various stages of flight depend on intrinsic factors such as sectional density , aerodynamic profile and ballistic coefficient , as well as extrinsic factors such as barometric pressure , humidity, air temperature and wind speed. Subsonic cartridges fire bullets slower than
693-456: A decisive victory against Mongolian rebels. The artillery cannon appeared in 1326 and the European hand cannon in 1364. Early projectiles were made of stone. Eventually it was discovered that stone would not penetrate stone fortifications, which led to the use of denser materials as projectiles. Hand cannon projectiles developed in a similar manner. The first recorded instance of a metal ball from
792-425: A firearm. The problem of proper seal creation had been solved with the use of brass cartridge cases, which expanded in an elastic fashion at the point of firing and effectively sealed the breech while the pressure remained high, then relaxed back enough to allow for easy removal. By the end of the 19th century, the leading bolt-action design was that of Paul Mauser , whose action—wedded to a reliable design possessing
891-451: A five-shot magazine —became a world standard through two world wars and beyond. The Mauser rifle was paralleled by Britain's ten-shot Lee–Enfield and America's 1903 Springfield Rifle models. The American M1903 closely copied Mauser's original design. Barrel rifling dramatically increased the range and accuracy of the musket. Indeed, throughout its development, the rifle's history has been marked by increases in range and accuracy. From
990-506: A greatly shortened length of pull, which is necessary to accommodate children. Youth stocks are available for many popular rifles, such as the Ruger 10/22 , a semi-automatic .22 LR rifle, allowing a youth rifle to be made from a standard rifle by simply changing the stock. The typical ages of shooters for such rifles vary from about age 5+. The usual form of rifling was helical grooves in a round bore. Some early rifled firearms had barrels with
1089-463: A hand cannon penetrating armor was in 1425. Shot retrieved from the wreck of the Mary Rose (sunk in 1545, raised in 1982) are of different sizes, and some are stone while others are cast iron. The development of the hand culverin and matchlock arquebus brought about the use of cast lead balls as projectiles. The original round musket ball was smaller than the bore of the barrel. At first it
SECTION 10
#17329028690451188-675: A hardened bullet. The combined result was that, in December 1888, the Lee–Metford small-bore ( .303 ", 7.70 mm) rifle, Mark I, was adopted for the British army. The Lee–Metford was the predecessor of the Lee–Enfield . The next important change in the history of the rifle bullet occurred in 1882, when Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Rubin , director of the Swiss Army Laboratory at Thun, invented
1287-497: A harder alloy of lead and tin or typesetter's lead (used to mold linotype ) works very well. For even higher-speed bullet use, jacketed lead bullets are used. The common element in all of these, lead, is widely used because it is very dense, thereby providing a high amount of mass—and thus, kinetic energy—for a given volume. Lead is also cheap, easy to obtain, easy to work, and melts at a low temperature, which results in comparatively easy fabrication of bullets. Poisonous bullets were
1386-414: A high standard, as surface imperfections can affect firing accuracy. The physics affecting the bullet once it leaves the barrel is termed external ballistics . The primary factors affecting the aerodynamics of a bullet in flight are the bullet's shape and the rotation imparted by the rifling of the gun barrel. Rotational forces stabilize the bullet gyroscopically as well as aerodynamically. Any asymmetry in
1485-489: A higher melting point , and greater specific heat capacity , and higher hardness , copper-jacketed bullets allow greater muzzle velocities. European advances in aerodynamics led to the pointed spitzer bullet . By the beginning of the 20th century, most world armies had begun the transition to spitzer bullets. These bullets flew for greater distances more accurately and transferred more kinetic energy . Spitzer bullets combined with machine guns greatly increased lethality on
1584-490: A long series of rifle experiments and proved, among other points, the advantages of a smaller bore and, in particular, of an elongated bullet. The Whitworth bullet was made to fit the grooves of the rifle mechanically. The Whitworth rifle was never adopted by the government, although it was used extensively for match purposes and target practice between 1857 and 1866. In 1861, W. B. Chace approached President Abraham Lincoln with an improved ball design for muskets. In firing over
1683-511: A platoon firing repeatedly could produce a 'beaten ground' effect similar to light artillery or machine guns. Currently, rifles are the most common firearm in general use for hunting (with the exception of bird hunting, where shotguns are favored). Rifles derived from military designs have long been popular with civilian shooters. During the Napoleonic Wars the British army created several experimental units known as "Rifles", armed with
1782-645: A removable seven-round tube magazine, enabling the rounds to be fired one after another. When the magazine was empty, it could be exchanged for another. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, military observers from Europe and the United States witnessed a major conflict fought with high velocity bolt-action rifles firing smokeless powder . The Battle of Mukden fought in 1905 consisted of nearly 343,000 Russian troops against over 281,000 Japanese troops. The Russian Mosin–Nagant Model 1891 in 7.62 mm
1881-517: A rifle from the earlier smoothbore long guns (e.g., arquebuses , muskets ) is the rifling within its barrel . The raised areas of a barrel's rifling are called lands ; they make contact with and exert torque on the projectile as it moves down the bore, imparting a spin. When the projectile leaves the barrel, this spin persists and lends gyroscopic stability to the projectile due to conservation of angular momentum , increasing accuracy and hence effective range. Historically, rifles only fired
1980-441: A shorter barrel did not impair accuracy as much. As a result, cavalry saw limited, but noteworthy, usage in 20th-century conflicts. The advent of the massed, rapid firepower of the machine gun , submachine gun and rifled artillery was so quick as to outstrip the development of any way to attack a trench defended by riflemen and machine gunners. The carnage of World War I was perhaps the greatest vindication and vilification of
2079-655: A single projectile with each squeeze of the trigger. Modern rifles are commonly classified as single-shot, bolt-action, semi-automatic, or automatic. Single-shot, bolt-action, and semi-automatic rifles are limited by their designs to fire a single shot for each trigger pull. Only automatic rifles are capable of firing more than one round per trigger squeeze; however, some automatic rifles are limited to fixed bursts of two, three, or more rounds per squeeze. Modern automatic rifles overlap to some extent in design and function with machine guns . In fact, many light machine guns are adaptations of existing automatic rifle designs, such as
SECTION 20
#17329028690452178-464: A smoothbore musket to about 300 yards for a rifle using the Minié system. The expanding skirt of the Minié ball also solved the problem that earlier tight-fitting bullets were difficult to load as black powder residue fouled the inside of the barrel. The Minié system allowed conical bullets to be loaded into rifles just as quickly as round balls in smooth bores, which allowed rifle muskets to replace muskets on
2277-462: A stem at the bottom of the barrel that would deform and expand the base of the bullet when rammed, therefore enabling accurate contact with the rifling. However, the area around the stem clogged and got dirty easily. One of the most famous was the Minié system, invented by French Army Captain Claude-Étienne Minié , which relied on a conical bullet (known as a Minié ball) with a hollow skirt at
2376-530: A stock, either fixed or folding, to be braced against the shoulder when firing. The adoption of cartridges and breech-loading in the 19th century was concurrent with the general adoption of rifles. In the early part of the 20th century, soldiers were trained to shoot accurately over long ranges with high-powered cartridges. World War I Lee–Enfield rifles (among others) were equipped with long-range 'volley sights' for massed firing at ranges of up to 1.6 km (1 mi). Individual shots were unlikely to hit, but
2475-558: A subject to an international agreement as early as the Strasbourg Agreement (1675) . The Saint Petersburg Declaration of 1868 prohibited the use of explosive projectiles weighing less than 400 grams. The Hague Conventions prohibits certain kinds of ammunition for use in war. These include poisoned and expanding bullets. Protocol III of the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons , an annexed protocol to
2574-419: A tighter bore with no space between bullet and barrel, and still used balls instead of conical bullets. The balls the long rifle used were smaller, allowing the production of more rounds for a given amount of lead. These rifles also had longer barrels, allowing more accuracy, which were rifled with a helical groove. These first started appearing sometime before 1740, one early example being made by Jacob Dickert,
2673-456: A twisted polygonal bore. The Whitworth rifle was the first such type designed to spin the round for accuracy. Bullets for these guns were made to match the shape of the bore so the bullet would grip the rifle bore and take a spin that way. These were generally large caliber weapons, and the ammunition still did not fit tightly in the barrel. Many different shapes and degrees of spiraling were used in experimental designs. One widely produced example
2772-431: Is a 3D printed .22-caliber rifle created around August 2013. It was created using a Stratasys Dimension 1200es printer. It was created by a Canadian only known by the pseudonym "Matthew" who told The Verge that he was in his late 20s, and his main job was making tools for the construction industry. The original Grizzly fired a single shot before breaking. Grizzly 2.0 fired fourteen bullets before getting damaged due to
2871-415: Is from Early French, originating as the diminutive of the word boulle ( boullet ), which means "small ball". Bullets are available singly (as in muzzle-loading and cap and ball firearms) but are more often packaged with propellant as a cartridge ("round" of ammunition) consisting of the bullet (i.e., the projectile), the case (which holds everything together), the propellant (which provides
2970-463: Is not achieved, gas from the propellant charge leaks past the bullet, thus reducing efficiency and possibly accuracy. The bullet must also engage the rifling without damaging or excessively fouling the gun's bore and without distorting the bullet, which will also reduce accuracy. Bullets must have a surface that forms this seal without excessive friction. These interactions between bullet and bore are termed internal ballistics . Bullets must be produced to
3069-611: Is now often used for any log-shaped handheld ranged weapon designed for well-aimed discharge activated by a trigger . Like all typical firearms, a rifle's projectile ( bullet ) is propelled by the contained deflagration of a combustible propellant compound (originally black powder and now nitrocellulose and other smokeless powders ), although other propulsive means are used, such as compressed air in air rifles , which are popular for vermin control , small game hunting, competitive target shooting and casual sport shooting ( plinking ). The distinct feature that separates
Howa Golden Bear - Misplaced Pages Continue
3168-561: Is only time- and cost-effective for solid lead bullets. Cast and jacketed bullets are also commercially available from numerous manufacturers for handloading and are most often more convenient than casting bullets from bulk or scrap lead. Propulsion of the ball can happen via several methods: Bullets for black powder, or muzzle-loading firearms, were classically molded from pure lead . This worked well for low-speed bullets, fired at velocities of less than 450 m/s (1,475 ft/s). For slightly higher-speed bullets fired in modern firearms,
3267-474: Is rare on rifles designed for extreme accuracy, as the plating process is difficult and liable to reduce the effect of the rifling.) Modern ammunition has a hardened lead core with a softer outer cladding or jacket, typically of an alloy of copper and nickel – cupro-nickel . Some ammunition is coated with molybdenum disulfide to further reduce internal friction – the so-called 'moly-coated' bullet. Rifles were initially single-shot, muzzle-loading weapons. During
3366-627: The 7.92×33mm Kurz (short) round, the MKb-42 , and ultimately, the assault rifle . Today, an infantryman's rifle is optimized for ranges of 300 m or less, and soldiers are trained to deliver individual rounds or bursts of fire within these distances. Typically, the application of accurate, long-range fire is the domain of the marksman and the sniper in warfare, and of enthusiastic target shooters in peacetime. The modern marksman rifle and sniper rifle are usually capable of accuracy better than 0.3 mrad at 100 yards (1 arcminute ). The Grizzly
3465-585: The Baker rifle . These Rifle Regiments were deployed as skirmishers during the Peninsular war in Spain and Portugal, and were more effective than skirmishers armed with muskets due to their accuracy and long range. Gradually, rifles appeared with cylindrical barrels cut with helical grooves, the surfaces between the grooves being "lands". The innovation was shortly followed by the mass adoption of breech-loading weapons , as it
3564-460: The Battle of Saratoga , and in the southern states where General Morgan commanded as well. Taking advantage of the rifle's improved accuracy, Morgan's sharpshooters picked off cannoneers and officers, reducing the impact of enemy artillery. This kind of advantage was considered pivotal in many battles, such as the battles of Cowpens , Saratoga, and King's Mountain . Later during the Napoleonic Wars ,
3663-634: The Minié rifle and beyond, the rifle has become ever more potent at long-range strikes. In recent decades, large-caliber anti-materiel rifles, typically firing between 12.7 mm and 20 mm caliber cartridges, have been developed. The US Barrett M82A1 is probably the best-known such rifle. A second example is the AX50 by Accuracy International . These weapons are typically used to strike critical, vulnerable targets such as computerized command and control vehicles, radio trucks, radar antennae, vehicle engine blocks and
3762-524: The Potomac River , where the Chace ball and the round ball were alternated, Lincoln observed that the Chace design carried a third or more farther fired at the same elevation. Although Lincoln recommended testing, it never took place. Around 1862, W. E. Metford carried out an exhaustive series of experiments on bullets and rifling, and he invented the important system of light rifling with increasing spiral and
3861-492: The RPK and M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle . A military's light machine guns are typically chambered for the same caliber ammunition as its service rifles. Generally, the difference between an automatic rifle and a machine gun comes down to weight, cooling system, and ammunition feed system. Rifles, with their relatively lighter components (which overheat quickly) and smaller capacity magazines , are incapable of sustained automatic fire in
3960-424: The angle of incidence , and the velocity and physical characteristics of the bullet. Bullets are generally designed to penetrate, deform, or break apart. For a given material and bullet, the strike velocity is the primary factor that determines which outcome is achieved. Bullet shapes are many and varied. With a mold, bullets can be made at home for reloading ammunition, where local laws allow. Hand-casting, however,
4059-453: The copper-jacketed bullet — an elongated bullet with a lead core in a copper jacket. It was also small bore (7.5 and 8 mm) and it is the precursor of the 8 mm Lebel bullet adopted for the smokeless powder ammunition of the Lebel Model 1886 rifle . The surface of lead bullets fired at high velocity may melt from the hot gases behind and friction within the bore. Because copper has
Howa Golden Bear - Misplaced Pages Continue
4158-429: The speed of sound —about 343 metres per second (1,130 ft/s) in dry air at 20 °C (68 °F)—and thus can travel substantial distances to their targets before any nearby observers hear the sound of the shots. Rifle bullets, such as that of a Remington 223 firing lightweight varmint projectiles from a 24 inch barrel, leave the muzzle at speeds of up to 4,390 kilometres per hour (2,730 mph). A bullet from
4257-426: The 18th century, breech-loading weapons were designed, which allowed the rifleman to reload while under cover, but defects in manufacturing and the difficulty in forming a reliable gas-tight seal prevented widespread adoption. During the 19th century, multi-shot repeating rifles using lever , pump or linear bolt actions became standard, further increasing the rate of fire and minimizing the fuss involved in loading
4356-465: The British 95th Regiment (Green Jackets) and 60th Regiment, (Royal American) , as well as sharpshooters and riflemen during the War of 1812 , used the rifle to great effect during skirmishing. Because of a slower loading time than a musket, they were not adopted by the whole army. Since rifles were used by sharpshooters who did not routinely fire over other men's shoulders, long length was not required to avoid
4455-563: The French Chassepot in 1866. Breech-loading was to have a major impact on warfare, as breech-loading rifles can be fired at a rate many times faster than muzzle-loaded rifles and significantly can be loaded from a prone rather than standing position. Firing prone (i.e., lying down) is more accurate than firing from a standing position, and a prone rifleman presents a much smaller target than a standing soldier. The higher accuracy and range, combined with reduced vulnerability generally benefited
4554-704: The Golden Bear was adopted by elements within Japanese law-enforcement. Based on the lessons learned from the Kin Kiro Incident in 1968, the National Police Agency deployed a Golden Bear rifles to the prefectural police as equipment for taking down criminals and rescuing hostages . Additionally, all police Golden Bear rifles came with a scope. When the Setouchi Seajacking incident occurred in 1970,
4653-457: The Greener bullet in 1836. Greener fitted the hollow base of an oval bullet with a wooden plug that more reliably forced the base of the bullet to expand and catch the rifling. Tests proved that Greener's bullet was effective, but the military rejected it because, being two parts, they judged it as too complicated to produce. The carabine à tige , developed by Louis-Étienne de Thouvenin in 1844,
4752-683: The Osaka Prefectural Police Special Gun Corps (currently the Anti-Firearms Squadron ) sniper took down the criminal with a Golden Bear rifle, allowing other officers to rescue the hostages. The Golden Bear is also said to have used the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department 's Special Squadron (now the SAT ). According to Megumi Tsukiji of Far East Gun Sales, the Golden Bear used by the Japanese police
4851-663: The U.S. Armory at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia , improved the Minié ball further by eliminating the metal cup in the bottom of the bullet. The Minié ball first saw widespread use in the Crimean War (1853–1856). Roughly 90% of the battlefield casualties in the American Civil War (1861–1865) were caused by Minié balls fired from rifled muskets. A similar bullet called the Nessler ball was also developed for smoothbore muskets. Between 1854 and 1857, Sir Joseph Whitworth conducted
4950-628: The US Market, Weatherby , which had business connections with Howa, also sold Howa rifles ( OEM ) under the name of Weatherby Vanguard . In 1979, an updated design/model of the Howa Golden Bear, the M1500 were introduced, with the older Golden Bear model becoming discontinued in same year. Howa Golden Bear is very similar to its parent weapon, the Sako L61R "Finnbear". Despite being designed for hunting,
5049-399: The action and bore of the musket frequently, either through the action of repeated bore scrubbing, or a deliberate attempt to create "soot grooves" that would allow for more shots to be fired from the firearm. While many people contributed to the development of the concept of rifling and rifles, Friedrich Engels claimed it as a German invention in his extensive writings about the history of
SECTION 50
#17329028690455148-408: The addition of "ball grooves" which are known as " cannelures ", which moved the resistance of air behind the center of gravity of the bullet. Tamisier also developed progressive rifling: the rifle grooves were deeper toward the breech, becoming shallower as they progressed toward the muzzle. This causes the bullet to be progressively molded into the grooves which increases range and accuracy. Among
5247-417: The aerodynamic shape changed little for centuries. Generally, bullet shapes are a compromise between aerodynamics, interior ballistic necessities, and terminal ballistics requirements. Terminal ballistics and stopping power are aspects of bullet design that affect what happens when a bullet impacts with an object. The outcome of the impact is determined by the composition and density of the target material,
5346-491: The barrel and because they took longer to reload and fire than muskets. Rifles were created as an improvement in the accuracy of smoothbore muskets. In the early 18th century, Benjamin Robins , an English mathematician, realized that an elongated bullet would retain the momentum and kinetic energy of a musket ball, but would slice through the air with greater ease. The black powder used in early muzzle-loading rifles quickly fouled
5445-698: The barrel, it inserts itself into the rifling, a process that gradually wears down the barrel, and also causes the barrel to heat up more rapidly. Therefore, some machine guns are equipped with quick-change barrels that can be swapped every few thousand rounds, or in earlier designs, were water-cooled. Unlike older carbon steel barrels, which were limited to around 1,000 shots before the extreme heat caused accuracy to fade, modern stainless steel barrels for target rifles are much more resistant to wear, allowing many thousands of rounds to be fired before accuracy drops. (Many shotguns and small arms have chrome -lined barrels to reduce wear and enhance corrosion resistance. This
5544-573: The barrel, making loading slower and more difficult. The greater range of the rifle was considered to be of little practical use since the smoke from black powder quickly obscured the battlefield and made it almost impossible to aim the weapon from a distance. Since musketeers could not afford to take the time to stop and clean their barrels in the middle of a battle, rifles were limited to use by sharpshooters and non-military uses like hunting. Muskets were smoothbore, large caliber weapons using spherical ammunition fired at relatively low velocity. Due to
5643-413: The base of the bullet. When fired, the skirt would expand from the pressure of the exploding charge and grip the rifling as the round was fired. The better seal gave more power, as less gas escaped past the bullet. Also, for the same bore ( caliber ) diameter a long bullet was heavier than a round ball. The extra grip also spun the bullet more consistently, which increased the range from about 50 yards for
5742-531: The basis of the design. In 1967, Howa introduced the Howa Golden Bear large-caliber rifle at the US Open rifle exhibition in Chicago, USA. At the time, it was the only large caliber hunting rifle available domestically in Japan. Approximately 3000 golden bear rifles were sold to the United States and passed every test at the renowned HP White Laboratory, one of the world's most renowned firearms testing facilities. Following
5841-479: The battlefield. Minié system rifles, notably the U.S. Springfield and the British Enfield of the early 1860s featured prominently in the U.S. Civil War , due to their enhanced power and accuracy. At the time of the Crimean War (1853-1856) the Minié rifle was considered the "best in military use". Over the 19th century, bullet design also evolved, the bullets becoming gradually smaller and lighter. By 1910
5940-411: The battlefield. Spitzer bullets were streamlined at the base with the boat tail . In the trajectory of a bullet, as air passes over a bullet at high speed, a vacuum is created at the end of the bullet, slowing the projectile. The streamlined boat tail design reduces this form drag by allowing the air to flow along the surface of the tapering end. The resulting aerodynamic advantage is currently seen as
6039-444: The bullet is largely canceled as it spins. However, a spin rate greater than the optimum value adds more trouble than good, by magnifying the smaller asymmetries or sometimes resulting in the bullet breaking apart in flight. With smooth-bore firearms, a spherical shape is optimal because no matter how the bullet is oriented, its aerodynamics are similar. These unstable bullets tumble erratically and provide only moderate accuracy; however,
SECTION 60
#17329028690456138-408: The bullet, allowing it to cut through the air more easily, and improves terminal ballistics by allowing the bullet to act as a jacketed hollow point. As a side effect, it also feeds better in weapons that have trouble feeding rounds that are not full metal jacket rounds. Bullet designs have to solve two primary problems. In the barrel, they must first form a seal with the gun's bore. If a strong seal
6237-481: The defense while making the traditional battle between lines of standing and volleying infantrymen obsolete. Revolving rifles were an attempt to increase the rate of fire of rifles by combining them with the revolving firing mechanism that had been developed earlier for revolving pistols. Colt began experimenting with revolving rifles in the early 19th century, and other manufacturers like Remington later experimented with them as well. The Colt Revolving Rifle Model 1855
6336-516: The first pointed or "conical" bullets were those designed by Captain John Norton of the British Army in 1832. Norton's bullet had a hollow base made of lotus pith that on firing expanded under pressure to engage with a barrel's rifling. The British Board of Ordnance rejected it because spherical bullets had been in use for the previous 300 years. Renowned English gunsmith William Greener invented
6435-401: The forward line. A shorter length made a handier weapon in which tight-fitting balls did not have to be rammed so far down the barrel. The invention of the Minié ball in the 1840s solved the slow loading problem, and in the 1850s and 1860s rifles quickly replaced muskets on the battlefield. Many rifles, often referred to as rifled muskets , were very similar to the muskets they replaced, but
6534-479: The high cost and great difficulty of precision manufacturing, and the need to load readily from the muzzle, the musket ball was a loose fit in the barrel. Consequently, on firing the ball bounced off the sides of the barrel when fired and the final direction on leaving the muzzle was unpredictable. The performance of early muskets defined the style of warfare at the time. Due to the lack of accuracy, soldiers were deployed in long lines (thus line infantry ) to fire at
6633-475: The intended applications), including specialized functions such as hunting , target shooting , training, and combat. Bullets are often tapered, making them more aerodynamic . Bullet size is expressed by weight and diameter (referred to as " caliber ") in both imperial and metric measurement systems. Bullets do not normally contain explosives but strike or damage the intended target by transferring kinetic energy upon impact and penetration . The term bullet
6732-522: The jet engines of enemy aircraft. Anti-materiel rifles can be used against human targets, but the much higher weight of rifle and ammunition, and the massive recoil and muzzle blast, usually make them less than practical for such use. The Barrett M82 is designed with a maximum effective range of 1,800 m (1.1 mi), although it has a confirmed kill distance of 2,430 m (1.51 mi) in Afghanistan during Operation Anaconda in 2002. The record for
6831-506: The launch of the weapon, Howa gained popularity and acceptability in the American market. The Golden Bear was launched in Japan and the United States in 1967, and the export specification grades were three types: deluxe, presentation, and medallion. In Japan, only the deluxe model was sold. In the United States, the Howa rifles were sold by Dickson Roses company as "Dickson-Howa Golden Bear". Also in
6930-498: The longest confirmed kill shot stands at 3,540 m (11,610 ft), set by an unnamed soldier with Canada's elite special operations unit Joint Task Force 2 using a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle. Bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile , a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel . They are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax; and are made in various shapes and constructions (depending on
7029-503: The lungs. Bullets are not the only projectiles shot from firearm-like equipment: BBs are shot from BB guns , airsoft pellets are shot by airsoft guns , paintballs are shot by paintball markers , and small rocks can be hurtled from slingshots . There are also flare guns , potato guns (and spud guns ), tasers , bean bag rounds , grenade launchers , flash bangs , tear gas , RPGs , and missile launchers . Bullets used in many cartridges are fired at muzzle velocities faster than
7128-434: The majority of the energy to launch the projectile), and the primer (which ignites the propellant). Cartridges, in turn, may be held in a magazine , a clip , or a belt (for rapid-fire automatic firearms ). Although the word bullet is often used in colloquial language to refer to a cartridge round, a bullet is not a cartridge but rather a component of one. This use of the term bullet (when intending to describe
7227-424: The military also experimented with other designs. Breech-loading weapons proved to have a much faster rate of fire than muzzleloaders, causing military forces to abandon muzzle loaders in favor of breech-loading designs in the late 1860s. In the later part of the 19th century, rifles were generally single-shot, breech-loading guns, designed for aimed, discretionary fire by individual soldiers. Then, as now, rifles had
7326-634: The musket's use for imprecise fire. During the American Revolution, the colonist troops favoured these more accurate rifles while their use was resisted by the British and Hessian troops. By the time of the American Revolutionary War , these rifles were commonly used by frontiersmen, and Congress authorized the establishment of ten companies of riflemen. One of the most critical units was Morgan's Riflemen , led by Daniel Morgan . This sharpshooting unit eventually proved itself integral to
7425-497: The old smooth-bore Brown Bess and similar military muskets. The original muzzle-loading rifle , however, was loaded with a piece of leather or cloth wrapped around the ball, to allow the ball to engage the grooves in the barrel. Loading was a bit more difficult, particularly when the bore of the barrel was fouled from previous firings. For this reason, and because rifles were not often fitted for bayonets , early rifles were rarely used for military purposes, compared to muskets. There
7524-498: The opposing forces. Precise aim was thus not necessary to hit an opponent. Muskets were used for comparatively rapid, imprecisely aimed volley fire, and the average soldier could be easily trained to use them. In the Province of Pennsylvania USA, one of the most successful early rifles, the long rifle , was developed over the course of the 18th century. Compared to the more common Brown Bess , these Pennsylvania and Kentucky rifles had
7623-527: The optimum shape for rifle technology. The first combination spitzer and boat-tail bullet, named balle D by its inventor Captain Georges Desaleux, was introduced as standard military ammunition in 1901, for the French Lebel Model 1886 rifle . A ballistic tip bullet is a hollow-point rifle bullet that has a plastic tip on the end of the bullet. This improves external ballistics by streamlining
7722-418: The problem, usually by resorting to an under-bore bullet that expanded upon firing. The original muzzle-loading rifle, with a closely fitting ball to take the rifling grooves, was loaded with difficulty, particularly when foul, and for this reason was not generally used for military purposes. With the advent of rifling, the bullet itself did not initially change but was wrapped in a greased, cloth patch to grip
7821-489: The rifle as a military weapon. The M1 Garand was a semi-automatic rapid-fire rifle developed for modern warfare use in World War II. During and after World War II it became accepted that most infantry engagements occurred at ranges of less than 300 m; the range and power of the large full-powered rifle cartridges were "overkill", requiring weapons heavier than otherwise necessary. This led to Germany's development of
7920-505: The rifle, and the evolution and use of the technology. Some of the earliest examples of European grooved gun barrels were reportedly manufactured during 1440, and further developed by Gaspard Kollner of Vienna c. 1498 , although other scholars allege they were a joint effort between Kollner and Augustus Kotter of Nuremberg c. 1520 . Military commanders preferred smoothbore weapons for infantry use because rifles were much more prone to problems due to powder fouling
8019-502: The rifling grooves. The first half of the 19th century saw a distinct change in the shape and function of the bullet. In 1826 Delvigne , a French infantry officer, invented a breech with abrupt shoulders on which a spherical bullet was rammed down until it caught the rifling grooves. Delvigne's method, however, deformed the bullet and was inaccurate. Soon after, the Carabine à tige was invented by Louis-Etienne de Thouvenin , which had
8118-408: The shooter's shoulder via a buttstock for stability during shooting. Rifles have been used in warfare , law enforcement , hunting and target shooting sports . The term was originally rifled gun , with the verb rifle referring to the early modern machining process of creating grooves with cutting tools. By the 20th century, the weapon had become so common that the modern noun rifle
8217-432: The speed of sound, so there are no sonic booms. This means that a subsonic cartridge, such as .45 ACP , can be substantially quieter than a supersonic cartridge, such as the .223 Remington , even without the use of a suppressor . Bullets shot by firearms can be used for target practice or to injure or kill animals or people. Death can be by blood loss or damage to vital organs, or even asphyxiation if blood enters
8316-731: The spiral grooves without "stripping" them in the same way that a screw or bolt thread would be stripped if subjected to extreme forces. From 1836, breech-loading rifles were introduced with the German Dreyse Needle gun , followed by the French Tabatière in 1857, and the British Calisher and Terry carbine made in Birmingham and later in 1864 and the better known British Snider–Enfield . Primitive chamber-locking mechanisms were soon replaced by bolt-action mechanisms, exemplified by
8415-616: The standard blunt-nosed bullet had been replaced by the pointed, 'spitzer' bullet , an innovation that increased range and penetration. Cartridge design evolved from simple paper tubes containing black powder and shot, to sealed brass cases with integral primers for ignition, and black powder was replaced by cordite , and then other nitro-cellulose-based smokeless powder mixtures, propelling bullets to higher velocities than before. The increased velocity meant that new problems arrived, and so bullets went from being soft lead to harder lead, then to copper-jacketed , in order to better engage
8514-522: The strain. In October 2020, another 3D-printed 9mm rifle known as the "FGC-9mm" was created. It is reported that it can be made in 2 weeks with $ 500 of tools. A second model was later made in April 2021. A youth rifle is a rifle designed or modified for fitting children or other small-framed shooters. A youth rifle is often a single-shot .22 caliber rifle, or a bolt-action rifle, although some youth rifles are semi-automatic. They are usually very light, with
8613-434: The way that machine guns are; they trade this capability in favor of increased mobility. Modern military rifles are fed by magazines, while machine guns are generally belt-fed . Many machine guns allow the operator to quickly exchange barrels in order to prevent overheating, whereas rifles generally do not. Most machine guns fire from an open bolt in order to reduce the danger of " cook-off ", while almost all rifles fire from
8712-435: The weapon is not rifled or does not fire solid projectiles (e.g. "laser rifle"). The origins of rifling are difficult to trace, but some of the earliest European experiments seem to have been carried out during the 15th century. Archers had long realized that a twist added to the tail feathers of their arrows gave them greater accuracy. Early muskets produced large quantities of smoke and soot, which had to be cleaned from
8811-522: Was a distinct change in the shape and function of the bullet during the first half of the 19th century, although experiments with various types of elongated projectiles had been made in Britain, America and France from the first half of the 18th century onwards. In 1816, Capt. George Reichenbach of the Bavarian army invented a rifled-wall musket using cylindro-conical ammunition. In 1826, Henri-Gustave Delvigne ,
8910-409: Was an early repeating rifle and the first one to be used by the U.S. Government and saw some limited action during the American Civil War . Revolvers, both rifles and pistols, tend to spray fragments of metal from the front of the cylinder. The Winchester repeating rifle was invented in 1866. The firer pulled on a lever to reload the rifle with a stored cartridge. An important area of development
9009-481: Was an improvement of Delvigne's design. The rifle barrel has a forcing plug in the breech of the barrel to mold the bullet into the rifling with the use of a special ramrod . While successful in increasing accuracy, it was difficult to clean. The soft lead Minié ball was first introduced in 1847 by Claude-Étienne Minié , a captain in the French Army. It was another improvement of the work done by Delvigne. The bullet
9108-467: Was by James Puckle and Kyle Tunis who patented them, where they were briefly used in one version of the Puckle gun . The early use of these in the black-powder era was soon discontinued because of the irregular and unpredictable flight patterns. Delvigne continued to develop bullet design and by 1830 had started to develop cylindro-conical bullets. His bullet designs were improved by Francois Tamisier with
9207-475: Was chambered in .30-06 Springfield and equipped with an Bushnell Corporation 3-9 scope with magnification. Hunting rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power , with a barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves ( rifling ) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with both hands and braced firmly against
9306-408: Was conical in shape with a hollow cavity in the rear, which was fitted with a small iron cap instead of a wooden plug. When fired, the iron cap forced itself into the hollow cavity at the rear of the bullet, thus expanding the sides of the bullet to grip and engage the rifling. In 1851, the British adopted the Minié ball for their 702-inch Pattern 1851 Minié rifle . In 1855, James Burton, a machinist at
9405-415: Was loaded into the barrel just resting upon the powder. Later, some sort of material was used as a wadding between the ball and the powder as well as over the ball to keep it in place, it held the bullet firmly in the barrel and against the powder. (Bullets not firmly set on the powder risked exploding the barrel, with the condition known as a "short start".) The loading of muskets was therefore easy with
9504-417: Was not practical to push an overbore bullet down through a rifled barrel. The dirt and grime from prior shots were pushed down ahead of a tight bullet or ball (which may have been a looser fit in the clean barrel before the first shot), and loading was far more difficult, as the lead had to be deformed to go down in the first place, reducing the accuracy due to deformation. Several systems were tried to deal with
9603-494: Was pitted against the Japanese Arisaka Type 30 bolt-action rifle in 6.5 mm; both had velocities well over 2,000 feet per second (610 m/s). Until the late 19th century rifles tended to be very long, some long rifles reaching approximately 2 m (7 ft) in length to maximize accuracy, making early rifles impractical for use by cavalry. However, following the advent of more powerful smokeless powder,
9702-552: Was the Metford rifling in the Pattern 1888 Lee–Metford service rifle. Although uncommon, polygonal rifling is still used in some weapons today, one example being the Glock line of pistols (which fire standard bullets). Many of the early designs were prone to dangerous backfiring, which could lead to the destruction of the weapon and serious injury to the person firing it. As the bullet enters
9801-484: Was the way that cartridges were stored and used in the weapon. The Spencer repeating rifle was a breech-loading manually operated lever-action rifle that was adopted by the United States. Over 20,000 were used during the American Civil War. It was the first adoption of a removable magazine -fed infantry rifle. The design was completed by Christopher Spencer in 1860. It used copper rimfire cartridges stored in
#44955