A fully powered cartridge, also called full-power cartridge or full-size cartridge, is an

umbrella term Hypernymy and hyponymy are the wikt:Wiktionary:Semantic relations, semantic relations between a generic term (''hypernym'') and a more specific term (''hyponym''). The hypernym is also called a ''supertype'', ''umbrella term'', or ''blanket term ...

describing any

rifle cartridge A rifle cartridge is a firearm cartridge (firearms), cartridge primarily designed and intended for use in a rifle/carbine, or machine gun. Types Full-powered A full-powered cartridge is a rifle cartridge used interchangeably between servic ...

that emphasizes

ballistics Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets and the like; the science or art of designing and acceler ...

performance and single-shot accuracy, with little or no concern to its weight or

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 ...

. The term generally refers to traditional cartridges used in machine guns,

bolt action Bolt action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the turn-bolt via a bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm (as most users are right-handed). The majority of b ...

and semi-automatic service rifles and

select fire Select or SELECT may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Select (album), ''Select'' (album), a 1982 album by Kim Wilde * Select (magazine), ''Select'' (magazine), a 1990–2001 British music magazine * ''MTV Select'', a 1996–2001 interac ...

battle rifle A battle rifle is a service rifle chambered to fire a fully powered cartridge. The term "battle rifle" is a retronym created largely out of a need to differentiate automatic rifles chambered for fully powered cartridges from automatic rifles cha ...

s prior to, during and immediately after the

World War A world war is an international War, conflict that involves most or all of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I ...

s and into the early

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

era, and was a

retronym A retronym is a newer name for something that differentiates it from something else that is newer, similar, or seen in everyday life; thus, avoiding confusion between the two. Etymology The term ''retronym'', a neologism composed of the combi ...

originally made to differentiate from intermediate-power rifle cartridges that gained widespread adoption into military service after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Full-power cartridges often have a

caliber In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge ( ...

comparable to or greater than and a maximum

effective range Effective range is a term with several definitions depending upon context. Distance Effective range may describe a distance between two points where one point is subject to an energy release at the other point. The source, receiver, and conditio ...

of at least , and are intended for engaging targets beyond . However, cartridges with calibers as narrow as have been described as being a full-power rifle cartridge. According the cartridge's overall length (COL), full-power cartridges can be grouped into ''long-action'' or "''standard-action''" cartridges, which are traditional cartridges (exemplified by the .30-06 Springfield, 8mm Mauser and 7.62×54mmR) with a COL between ; and ''short-action'' cartridges (such as the .308 Winchester and 6.5mm Creedmoor), which have a COL between and largely replaced long-action cartridges as battle rifle service ammunitions since the Cold War. Cartridges with a COL above 85mm are often however considered magnum cartridges instead of "full-powered". Most modern full-power rifle cartridges have their origin in the late 19th century and early 20th century with the advent of

smokeless powder Finnish smokeless powder Smokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to black powder. Because of their similar use, both the original black powder formula ...

. Examples include the

6.5×55mm Swedish 6.5×55mm Swedish, also known simply as , 6.5x55 SE, 6.5x55 Swede, or in its native military as (), meaning "6.5 mm cartridge model 94", referring to 1894, is a first-generation smokeless powder Rim (firearms), rimless bottlenecked rifle Cartr ...

7×57mm Mauser The 7×57mm Mauser (designated as the 7 mm Mauser or 7×57mm by the SAAMI and 7 × 57 by the C.I.P.) is a first-generation smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It was developed by Paul Mauser of the Mauser company in ...

, 7.5×55mm Swiss, 7.5×54mm French,

7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, straight walled, bottlenecked, centerfire rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first be ...

, 7.62×54mmR, .30-06 Springfield, .303 British, 7.65×53mm Mauser, 7.7×58mm Arisaka, 7.92×57mm Mauser, and 8×50mmR Lebel. The US military's Next Generation Squad Weapon Program selected the 6.8×51mm Common Cartridge in 2022 for testing in a new carbine, new light machine guns and possibly in converted general-purpose machine guns. This does not guarantee actual widespread future issue of the brass-steel hybrid cased 6.8×51mm Common Cartridge. Despite the ubiquitous adoption of

assault rifle An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge, intermediate-rifle cartridge and a Magazine (firearms), detachable magazine.C. Taylor, ''The Fighting Rifle: A Complete Study of the Rifle in Combat'', F.A. Moyer '' ...

s and intermediate-power rifle cartridge cartridges as the standard weapon infantry weapon system, full-power rifle cartridges are still widely used today in

designated marksman rifle A designated marksman rifle (DMR) is a modern telescopic sight, scoped high-Accuracy and precision, precision rifle used by infantry in the designated marksman (DM) role. It generally fills the engagement effective range, range gap between a serv ...

s (DMRs),

sniper rifle A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long range shooting, long-range rifle. Requirements include high accuracy, reliability, mobility, concealment, and optics, for anti-personnel weapon, anti-personnel, anti-materiel rifle, anti-materiel and sur ...

s, general purpose machine guns (GPMGs), and conventional

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 ar ...

Long-action vs. short-action

In the first half of the 20th century, the practice of civilian sportsmen experimenting and modifying existing cartridges to suit different ballistic needs, known as " wildcatting", really took off, and the result was the number of newly available cartridges exploded from a couple of dozen to well over one hundred. Having dozens of different cartridges all with unique dimensions was a headache for rifle manufacturers, and still wanting to reach the widest consumer market possible, they had to find a way to economically produce rifles that could be adapted to accept every chambering on the market. While barrels could be custom-made affordably, actions required more time, complex

machining Machining is a manufacturing process where a desired shape or part is created using the controlled removal of material, most often metal, from a larger piece of raw material by cutting. Machining is a form of subtractive manufacturing, which util ...

, and were thus expensive to make, so it made sense to produce the rifle action's dimensions so that a few standardized lengths could reliably use most (if not all) of the cartridges on the market. The so-called "standard length" cartridges are traditional rifle cartridges with a cartridge overall length (COL) between , which is best exemplified by the .30-06 Springfield. Most of today's long-action cartridges had their cases designed around .30-06 Springfield's case dimensions, such as the .270 Winchester, .280 Remington, .35 Whelen, .264 Winchester Magnum, and 7mm Remington Magnum, as well as much newer cartridges like the .26 Nosler and .28 Nosler. The .308 Winchester debuted in 1952 and its militarized version, the

, was adopted by the U.S. military in 1954 for the new M14 rifle. By the 1960s, it had displaced the .30-06 Springfield as the popular cartridge in both the hunting fields and in the battlefields. With a much shorter COL of and using the improved

propellant A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or another motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicle ...

s available in the 1950s, it could do nearly everything traditional military rifle cartridges did, such as the .30-06 Springfield, but was cheaper to make, lighter in weight, more compact in size, and had lower recoil energy. More importantly, while the .30-06 has produced roughly a dozen

wildcat cartridge A wildcat cartridge, often shortened to wildcat, is a custom-made cartridge (weaponry), cartridge for which ammunition and/or firearms are not mass-produced. These cartridges are often created as experimental variants to optimize a certain ballis ...

s, only the .270 Winchester and the .25-06 Remington enjoyed widespread commercial support; in contrast, the .308 Winchester served as the parent case for the wildcat .243 Winchester, .260 Remington, 7mm-08 Remington, .338 Federal, and .358 Winchester, all five of which are used by hunters to this day. The result was a new series of ''short-action'' cartridges, typically with a COL between , that tend to use bullets of different calibers, rather than using a wide variety of the same caliber to achieve the same ballistic effect. The success of short-action cartridges led to the original and longer "standard length" cartridges to be

ously named ''long-action'' cartridges. The

intermediate cartridge An intermediate cartridge is a rifle/ carbine cartridge that has significantly greater power than a pistol cartridge but still has a reduced muzzle energy compared to fully powered cartridges (such as the .303 British, 7.62×54mmR, 7.65×53 ...

s, which later gained ubiquity over the short-action cartridges as the mainstream service ammunition for both military

s and civilian modern sporting rifles, have a COL averaging around , much less than , and are thus also sometimes referred to as the ''super short-action'' or "''mini-action''" cartridges.{{cite web, url=https://blog.gunassociation.org/short-action-vs-long-action-rifles/, title=Short Action vs Long Action Rifles Explained, date=3 August 2020, publisher=American Gun Association, accessdate=2021-10-01

List of Full power cartridges

Service cartridges

Service cartridges are cartridges the service rifles of armies were or are chambered for. *

(NATO) * 7.92×57mm Mauser (Germany) * 7.62×54mmR (Russia) * .303 British (United Kingdom) * 7.5×54mm French (France) * 8×50mmR Lebel (France) * 7x57mm Mauser (Spain) * 7.65×53mm Mauser (Turkey) and (Belgium) * .30-40 Krag (United States) * .30-06 Springfield (United States) * 7.5×55mm Swiss (Switzerland) * 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka (Japan) * 7.7×58mm Arisaka (Japan) * 8×50mmR Mannlicher (Austria) and (Hungary) * 8×56mmR (Austria) and (Hungary) * 11×50mm R Comblain (Belgium) * 11.35x52mmR Dutch Beaumont (Netherlands) * 6.5×52mm Carcano (Italy) * 7.35×51mm Carcano (Italy) *

(Sweden) and (Norway) * 8×58mmR Danish Krag (Denmark) * 6.5×54mm Mannlicher–Schönauer (Greece) * 6.5×53mmR (Netherlands) * 6.5×58mm Vergueiro (Portugal) * 6.8×51mm Common Cartridge (United States)

References

Pistol and rifle cartridges

Long-action vs. short-action

List of Full power cartridges

Service cartridges

See also

References