Rifle facts for kids

A modern hunting rifle.

A rifle is a type of gun that you hold against your shoulder when you shoot. It has a long tube called a barrel. Inside this barrel, there are special twisting lines called rifling. These grooves make the bullet spin very fast as it leaves the barrel. This spinning helps the bullet fly straight and hit targets far away.

Rifles can shoot many different sizes of bullets. They use different amounts of gunpowder to push the bullets out. People use rifles for many reasons. Some rifles are for hunting animals. Others are used by soldiers in war or by police officers. Many people also use rifles for target shooting as a sport.

How Rifles Work

A diagram showing a bolt-action rifle about to load a bullet.

Rifles can work in different ways to load and fire bullets. These different ways are called "actions."

Bolt-Action Rifles

Some rifles have a bolt action. To load a bullet, the shooter uses a small handle to move a part called the "bolt." Moving the bolt backward and then forward does two things:

• It puts a new bullet into the chamber, ready to be fired.
• It throws out any empty bullet casings from bullets that were fired before.

The rifle in the picture at the top of this page is a bolt-action rifle.

Semi-Automatic Rifles

Semi-automatic rifles are different. When you pull the trigger, one bullet fires. Then, the rifle automatically loads the next bullet into the chamber. This means you can fire another shot just by pulling the trigger again, without having to manually load each bullet.

Fully Automatic Rifles

Fully automatic rifles work like semi-automatics, but they can fire many bullets very quickly. If you hold down the trigger, the rifle will keep firing bullets one after another. It only stops when you let go of the trigger or when it runs out of bullets.

Images for kids

• 

  A Henry rifle, one of the first successful lever action repeating rifles.

• 

  Rifling inside a barrel. These grooves make the bullet spin.

• 

  A special bullet and barrel from the Brunswick rifle from the mid-1800s.

• 

  The method developed by Delvigne for his rifles, showing how the bullet was supported.

• 

  A British-made Minié rifle used in Japan during the Boshin War (1868–1869).

• 

  The loading part of a Chassepot rifle.

• 

  A Colt Model 1855 Carbine.

• 

  A Czechoslovak rifle vz. 24.

• 

  A Remington Model 700 hunting rifle with a telescopic sight and suppressor.

• 

  A person doing Benchrest shooting with a Mauser rifle.