A rifle cartridge is a

firearm A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originate ...

cartridge primarily designed and intended for use in a

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 ...

carbine A carbine ( or ) is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges. The smaller size and ligh ...

, or machine gun.

Types

Full-powered

A full-powered cartridge is a rifle cartridge used interchangeably between service rifles,

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, and general purpose machine guns. It is 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 ...

for rifle cartridges used prior to and during

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 ...

. They are primarily used today in general purpose machine guns,

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, and

Magnum

A magnum cartridge is a cartridge with a larger case size than, or derived from, a similar cartridge of the same

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 ...

caliber and case shoulder shape. Magnum cartridges allow for more

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 ...

to be loaded within the casing, and thus have a higher

muzzle energy Muzzle energy is the kinetic energy of a bullet as it is expelled from the muzzle (firearm), muzzle of a firearm. Without consideration of factors such as aerodynamics and gravity for the sake of comparison, muzzle energy is used as a rough indi ...

. Modern magnum rifle cartridges include .300 RUM, 7mm Remington Magnum, .300 Weatherby Magnum, .460 Weatherby Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum, .338 Lapua Magnum or .338 Norma Magnum. Today they are primarily used in civilian market for

big-game hunting Big-game hunting is the hunting of large game animals for trophies, taxidermy, meat, and commercially valuable animal by-products (such as horns, antlers, tusks, bones, fur, body fat, or special organs). The term is often associated with t ...

, or as a military

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 ...

for some long-range

Intermediate

An intermediate cartridge is a military cartridge that is less powerful than typical full-power cartridges such as the 7.92mm Mauser, .30-06 Springfield, or

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 ...

, but still significantly more powerful than handgun cartridges used in

service pistol A service pistol (also known as a standard-issue pistol or a personal ordnance weapon) is any handgun issued to regular military personnel or law enforcement officers. Typically, service pistols are semi-automatic pistols (previously revolvers) ...

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. As their

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 ...

is significantly reduced compared to full-powered cartridges, fully automatic rifles firing intermediate cartridges are relatively easy to control. This reduced recoil impulse also allows for rapid, accurate follow-up shots with semi-automatic rifles or rifles with a semi-automatic fire mode. However, even though less powerful than traditional full-power cartridges, the external and

terminal ballistics Terminal ballistics is a sub-field of ballistics concerned with the behavior and effects of a projectile when it hits and transfers its energy to a target. This field is usually cited in forensic ballistics. Bullet design (as well as the veloci ...

of an intermediate cartridge are still sufficient for an effective range of {{cvt, 300, –, 600, m, yd, which are the typical maximum engagement ranges for ordinary

infantrymen 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 ...

in modern combat conditions. The introduction of intermediate cartridges allowed for the development of the

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 '' ...

concept, which is 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 ...

-fed selective fire

lighter and more compact than the conventional

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 firing full-powered cartridges. The first intermediate cartridge was the German 7.92×33mm Kurz for the

StG 44 The StG 44 (abbreviation of Sturmgewehr 44, "assault rifle 44") is a German assault rifle developed during World War II by Hugo Schmeisser. It is also known by its early designations as the MP 43 and MP 44 (''Maschinenpistole 43'' and ''44''). ...

, the world's first assault rifle. Other examples include the Soviet 7.62×39mm used in the

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

and AKM series, the .280 British round developed for the EM-2, and the 5.56×45mm NATO for the AR-15/ M16/ M4 series rifles.

References

Pistol and rifle cartridges

Types

Full-powered

Magnum

Intermediate

See also

References