A repeating rifle is a single-

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden stave (wood), staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers ...

ed rifle capable of repeated discharges between each

ammunition Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...

reload. This is typically achieved by having multiple cartridges stored in a

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

(within or attached to the

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

) and then fed individually into the chamber by a reciprocating bolt, via either a manual or automatic action mechanism, while the act of chambering the round typically also recocks the

hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...

/ striker for the following shot. In common usage, the term "repeating rifle" most often refers specifically to manual repeating rifles (e.g.

lever-action The toggle-link action used in the iconic Winchester Model 1873 rifle, one of the most famous lever-action firearms Picture showing a Volcanic Pistol A lever action is a type of action for repeating firearms that uses a manually operated cocki ...

pump-action Pump action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by moving a sliding handguard on the gun's forestock. When shooting, the sliding forend is pulled rearward to eject any expended cartridge (firearms), cartridge and typically to co ...

bolt-action Bolt action is a type of manual Action (firearms), firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt (firearms), turn-bolt via a cocking handle, bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm (a ...

, etc.), as opposed to self-loading rifles, which use the

recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, for according to Newton's third law the force requ ...

, gas, or blowback of the previous shot to cycle the action and load the next round, even though all self-loading firearms are technically a subcategory of

repeating firearm A repeating firearm or repeater is any firearm (either a handgun or long gun) that is designed for multiple, repeated firings before the gun has to be reloaded with new ammunition. Unlike single-shot firearms, which can only hold and fire a sin ...

s. Repeating rifles were a significant advance over the preceding

single-shot In firearm designs, the term single-shot refers to guns that can hold only a single round of ammunition inside and thus must be reloaded manually after every shot. Compared to multi-shot repeating firearms ("repeaters"), single-shot designs have ...

, breechloading rifles when used for military combat, as they allowed a much greater rate of fire. The repeating

Henry rifle The Henry repeating rifle is a lever-action tubular magazine rifle. It is famous for having been used at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and having been the basis for the iconic Winchester rifle of the American Wild West. Designed and introd ...

was used by the

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

and

Spencer rifle The Spencer repeating rifle was a 19th-century American lever-action firearm invented by Christopher Spencer. The Spencer carbine was a shorter and lighter version designed for the cavalry. The Spencer was the world's first military metallic-c ...

was used by the

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

and the subsequent

American Indian Wars The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, was a conflict initially fought by European colonization of the Americas, European colonial empires, the United States, and briefly the Confederate States o ...

, and the first repeating

air rifle An air gun or airgun is a gun that uses energy from compressed air or other gases that are mechanically pressurized and then released to propel and accelerate projectiles, similar to the principle of the primitive blowgun. This is in contr ...

to see military service was the Windbüchse rifle.

Early repeaters

A list of various repeating rifles up to the late 1800s. * Kalthoff repeater (about 1630) * Cookson repeater (about 1650) * Chelembron system (1668) * Lagatz Rifle: a modification of the Lorenzoni System, designed by Danzig gunsmith Daniel Lagatz around the year 1700. *

Puckle gun The Puckle gun (also known as the defence gun) was a primitive Crew-served weapon, crew-served, manually operated flintlock revolver patented in 1718 by James Puckle (1667–1724), a British inventor, lawyer and writer. It was one of the earlies ...

(1718) * Harmonica gun (1742) * Cookson repeater (1750) * Fafting rifle: In 1774 a rifle was invented by a Norwegian colonel by the name of Fafting capable of firing 18 to 20 shots a minute and being used as an ordinary rifle by taking off a spring-loaded container attached to the gun's lock. It was also stated that the inventor was working on a gun capable of firing up to 30 times in a minute on more or less the same principles. * The Belton flintlock(<1777) * Girardoni air rifle (1779) * 1789 French rifle: In 1791 it was mentioned in a book published in France that there existed since at least 1789 a rifle that held 5 or 6 shots and was capable of being reloaded three times in a minute for a total of 15 or 18 shots a minute. A rifle similar in type to this was also stated to be kept at the . * Church and Bartemy/Bartholomew gun: A repeating rifle designed by the Americans William Church and Chrostus Bartemy or Bartholomew in 1813 with three separate magazines for containing up to 42 charges of ammunition and capable of firing 25 shots a minute. It could be reloaded in one minute. * Thomson rifle: A flintlock repeating rifle patented in 1814, using multiple breeches to obtain repeating fire. * Collier's flintlock revolver(1814) * Leroy rifle: In 1815 (sometimes incorrectly dated as 1825) a French inventor called Julien Leroy patented a flintlock and percussion revolving rifle with a mechanically indexed cylinder and a priming magazine. * Lepage guns: In 1819 a French gunsmith called Lepage invented and presented at the French industrial exposition of that year percussion 2-shot and 4-shot turn-over rifles. In 1823 he exhibited a volley rifle that fired seven rifled barrels simultaneously as well as a turning carbine. In 1827, the same inventor exhibited at another French industrial exposition eleven percussion and one flintlock firearms which included a 4-shot revolving rifle, a 'double rifle' with a cylinder with five charges and a 'single rifle' and a pair of pistols also with a cylinder with five charges. * Pirmet-Baucheron revolving rifle: In 1822 a French gunsmith called Pirmet-Baucheron presented a revolving rifle with 7 shots and a single lock. * Hewson magazine gun: In 1824 an English gunsmith called W. P. Hewson advertised, amongst other firearms and one air gun, a magazine gun. * Jobard rifle: a turret rifle with 14 shots patented in Belgium in 1826 and presented to the government in 1835. * Silas Day magazine gun: A percussion revolving rifle to which was attached a loose-powder-and-ball magazine patented in the US in 1837. * Colt ring lever rifles (1837) * Bailey, Ripley and Smith magazine rifle: In 1838 the Americans Lebbeus Bailey, John B. Ripley and William B. Smith patented a percussion repeating rifle with a gravity-operated tubular magazine which could hold up to 15 re-useable steel cartridge-chambers. * Eaton rifle: In 1838 a percussion rifle invented in America by James Eaton was described as being capable of holding 24 rounds in a rotating magazine and discharging them all in four minutes for a rate of fire of 6 rounds per minute. * Kratsch rifle: In 1839 it was reported that a mechanic called Kratsch from

Bayreuth Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

had invented a rifle capable of firing 30 times in a minute and being reloaded in one minute. * Devisme guns: In 1844 a French gunsmith known as Devisme presented a variety of repeating firearms for the French Industrial Exposition of 1844 including an 18 shot pistol with no visible hammer or lock, a 6 shot pistol, a rifle with 6 shots and a 'revolving thunder' and a four shot 'double acting' rifle. * Jennings magazine rifle: in 1847 Walter Hunt patented in Britain a repeating rifle he called "the Volitional Repeater". He would patent it again in the United States in 1849. This rifle featured a tubular magazine beneath the barrel and a lever mechanism to raise cartridges into the chamber. Unable to finance the building of the rifle, Hunt sold the rights to George Arrowsmith who in turn had an employee, Lewis Jennings, improve the lever mechanism. Courtland Palmer placed the first order for the "Jennings Magazine rifle" for his hardware store: Robbins & Lawrence. The rifle did not sell well as the ammunition was a hollow based bullet containing gunpowder. Most of the guns were later converted to single shot rifles. Two employees working at Robbins & Lawrence: Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson improved the design and sold it as the "Smith-Jennings Repeating Rifle". At first they used a slightly modified Flobert cartridge, patented in 1853, but later they would switch to a modified Rocket Ball type of ammunition altered so as to function as a self-contained centerfire cartridge. * Cass repeating belt gun: A percussion repeating rifle patented in 1848 in the US using a chain or belt in the stock which carried paper cartridges to the breech of the gun. * Buchel cartridge magazine gun: The first tubular cartridge magazine gun to be patented in the United States in February 1849. * Perry 'faucet-breech' gun: A hinged or tilting breech repeating rifle patented in the US in December 1849 by Alonzo Perry using paper cartridges contained in several gravity-operated tubular magazines in the stock and a separate magazine for fulminate pills which were used for ignition. * Porter self-loading gun: In February 1851 a loose-powder-and-ball percussion magazine gun invented by a Parry W. Porter, better known for the turret rifle he invented and to which the magazine for his loose-powder-and-ball gun was to be attached, was reported on in American newspapers and later in the same year a patent was procured by the inventor. * Needham self-loading carbine: A self-loading carbine demonstrated in June 1851 at the Great Exhibition by Joseph Needham. * Dixon self-loading and self-priming gun: A repeating gun demonstrated by a C. S. Dixon which won a silver award at the Annual Fair of the American Institute in October 1851. * 1854 Lindner revolving rifle: In 1854 the German Edward Lindner patented in the United States and Britain a repeating rifle which used a revolving cylinder to elevate the cartridges, which were paper and could be either self-contained needlefire cartridges or use external percussion caps for ignition, to the breech from a tubular magazine located under the barrel. * Colette gravity pistol: A repeating saloon gun premiered at the 1855 World's Fair. Despite popularly being known as the Colette gravity pistol, its original inventor was actually a Belgian called Jean Nicolas Herman. * Colt revolving rifle (1855) * Leroux magazine gun: At the Exposition Universelle (1855) in France a French gunsmith called Leroux demonstrated a repeating carbine with a magazine for 36 Flobert cartridges and which featured a novel cartridge extractor. *

(1860) * Spencer repeating rifle (1860) * Roper repeating shotgun (1882/1885)

Mechanisms

Manual

Revolver action

Circuit Judge revolver mechanism carbine While some early

long gun A long gun is a category of firearms with long Gun barrel, barrels. In small arms, a ''long gun'' or longarm is generally designed to be held by both hands and braced against the shoulder, in contrast to a handgun, which can be fired being held w ...

s were made using the

revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

mechanism popular in handguns, these did not have longevity. Even though the revolver mechanism was fine for pistols, it posed a problem with long guns: without special sealing details, the cylinder produces a gas discharge close to the face when the weapon is fired from the shoulder, as was the common approach with rifles.

Falling block action

Although most falling-blocks were single-shot actions, some early repeaters used this design, notably the Norwegian Krag–Petersson and the U. S.

. The former loaded from a Henry-style underbarrel magazine; the latter fed from a tubular magazine in the buttstock.

Lever action

Marlin Model 1894C lever-action carbine in .357 Magnum caliber">.357_Magnum.html" ;"title="Marlin Model 1894C lever-action carbine in .357 Magnum">Marlin Model 1894C lever-action carbine in .357 Magnum caliber In a classic lever-action firearm of the Henry-Winchester type, rounds are individually loaded into a tubular magazine parallel to and below the barrel. A short bolt is held in place with an over center toggle action. Once closed, the over center action prevents opening solely by the force on the bolt when the weapon is fired. This toggle action is operated by a hand grip that forms part of the trigger guard. When operated, a spring in the tubular magazine pushes a fresh round into position. Returning the operating lever to the home position chambers the round and closes the breach. An interlock (engineering), interlock prevents firing unless the toggle is fully closed. The famous Winchester rifle#Model 1873, Model 1873 Winchester is exemplary of this type. Later lever-action designs, such as Marlin leverguns and those designed for Winchester by John Browning, use one or two vertical locking blocks instead of a toggle-link. There also exist lever-action rifles that feed from a box magazine, which allows them to use pointed

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 constru ...

s. A one-off example of Lever action reloading on automatic firearms is the

M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun The Colt–Browning M1895, nicknamed "potato digger" because of its unusual operating mechanism, is an air-cooled, belt-fed, gas-operated machine gun that fires from a closed bolt with a cyclic rate of 450 rounds per minute. Based on an 1889 desi ...

. This weapon had a swinging lever beneath its barrel that was actuated by a gas bleed in the barrel, unlocking the breech to reload. This unique operation gave the nickname " potato digger" as the lever swung each time the weapon fired.

Pump action

The Colt Lightning .22 pump action rifle With a pump-action firearm, the action is operated by a movable fore-end that the shooter moves backwards and forwards to eject a spent round, and extract and chamber a fresh round of ammunition. Pump-actions are usually associated with shotguns, but one example of a pump-action rifle is the Remington Model 7600 series. Rifles with pump action are also called slide-action. This style of rifle is still popular with some local law enforcement branches as a rifle that is easy to train officers who are already familiar with the pump shotgun.

Bolt action

Opened bolt on a engine turned finish">brushed_metal.html" ;"title="Winchester Model 70. The bolt has an brushed metal">engine turned finish The bolt is a mechanism that is operated by hand to extract a fired cartridge, move a fresh round into the chamber and reset the firing pin, readying the weapon to fire again. The bolt closes the breech end of the barrel and contains the firing pin. The bolt is held in place with a lever that fits into a notch. Moving this lever out of the notch will release the restraint on the bolt, allowing it to be drawn back. An extractor (firearms), extractor removes the spent cartridge, which is then ejected through the lever slot. A spring at the bottom of the

pushes up the reserve rounds, positioning the topmost between the bolt and the chamber at the base of the

. Pushing the bolt lever forward chambers this round and pushing the lever into the notch locks the bolt and enables the trigger (firearms), trigger mechanism. The complete cycle action also resets the firing pin. The

Mauser Mauser, originally the Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik, was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols was produced beginning in the 1870s for the German armed forces. In the late 19th and ...

rifle of the late 19th and early 20th centuries is the most famous of the bolt-action types, with most similar weapons derived from this pioneering design, such as the

M1903 Springfield The M1903 Springfield, officially the U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1903, is an American five-round magazine-fed, bolt-action service repeating rifle, used primarily during the first half of the 20th century. The M1903 was first used in combat ...

and the Karabiner 98 Kurz rifle (abbreviated often as Kar98k or simply K98). The Russian

Mosin–Nagant The Mosin–Nagant is a five-shot, Bolt action, bolt-action, Magazine (firearms), internal magazine–fed military rifle. Known officially as the 3-line rifle M1891, in Russia and the former Soviet Union as Mosin's rifle (, ISO 9: ) and inform ...

rifle, the British

Lee–Enfield The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the standard service rifle of th ...

, and the Norwegian Krag–Jørgensen are examples of bolt-action designs.

Autoloading

Blowback

In blowback operation, the bolt is not actually locked at the moment of firing. To prevent violent recoil, in most firearms using this mechanism the opening of the bolt is delayed in some way. In many small arms, the round is fired while the bolt is still travelling forward, and the bolt does not open until this forward momentum is overcome. Other methods involve delaying the opening until two rollers have been forced back into recesses in the receiver in which the bolt is carried. Simple blowback action is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, but is limited in the power it can handle, so it is seen on small caliber weapons such as

machine pistol A machine pistol is a handgun that is capable of automatic firearm, fully automatic fire, including shoulder stock, stockless handgun-style submachine guns. The Austrians introduced the world's first machine pistol, the Steyr M1912 pistol#Masch ...

s and

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...

s. Lever-delayed blowback, as seen in for example the French FAMAS assault rifle, can also handle more powerful cartridges but is more complicated and expensive to manufacture.

Recoil-operated

M1941 Johnson rifle In a recoil-operated firearm, the breech is locked, and the barrel recoils as part of the firing cycle. In long-recoil actions, such as the Browning Auto-5 shotgun, the barrel and breechblock remain locked for the full recoil travel, and separate on the return; in short-recoil actions, typical of most semiautomatic handguns (e.g. the Colt M1911), the barrel recoils only a short distance before decoupling from the breechblock.

Gas-operated

FN FAL battle rifle In a gas-operated mechanism, a portion of the gases propelling the bullet from the barrel are extracted and used to operate a piston. The motion of this piston in turn unlocks and operates the bolt, which performs extraction of the spent cartridge and via spring action readies the next round. Almost all modern military rifles use mechanisms of this type.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book, last=Boorman , first=Dean , title=The History of Smith & Wesson Firearms , year=2002 , publisher=The Lyons Press , isbn=1-58574-721-1 , pages=16–17 {{cite book , last=Westwood , first=David , date=2005 , title=Rifles: An Illustrated History Of Their Impact , url=http://docslide.us/documents/03-rifles-an-illustrated-history-of-their-impact.html , location=US , publisher=ABC-CLIO , page=71 , isbn=1851094016 {{Cite web, url=https://www.histoire-genealogie.com/Jean-Baptiste-Ambroise-Marcellin-Jobard?, language=fr, title=Jean Baptiste Ambroise Marcellin Jobard - www.histoire-genealogie.com, website=www.histoire-genealogie.com Historical Breechloading Smallarms Association
bibliotecavirtualdefensa.es {{Cite web, url=https://www.forgottenweapons.com/ria-colette-gravity-pistol/, title=RIA: Colette Gravity Pistol, first=Ian, last=McCollum, date=September 1, 2015, website=Forgotten Weapons {{Cite web, url=http://littlegun.be/arme%20belge/artisans%20identifies%20c/a%20colette%20precisions%20gb.htm, title=Nouvelle page 0, accessdate=14 March 2021 Firearm actions