Hunting rifles as well as sporting rifles, which have a rifled barrel from which the so-called "bullet" is fired individually, are called rifles. The decisive factor is the rifle barrel, which is composed of so-called rifling and fields, which give the projectile the necessary stability in the trajectory of the bullet by means of a twist, in order to be able to hit the target precisely even at long distances. For shooting sports, there are sporting shotguns specially adapted to their needs. Self-loading shotguns are particularly popular in the USA.
Shotguns have smoothbore barrels and are designed to shoot buckshot. Rifles, on the other hand, are designed for bullet shooting and have rifled barrels. Visual differences, which immediately catch the eye of the observer: Shotguns are usually longer than rifles and have much thicker barrels than rifles. A shotgun in the most common shot caliber 12 has so the inner diameter of the barrel of 18.53 mm, the other calibers that are still widespread to any significant extent, 16 and 20 come barrel inner diameters of 16.84 and 15.63 mm - even the extremely rare and extremely large hunting caliber .416 Rigby has "only" a bullet diameter of 10.54 mm.
As with all firearms, rifles come in a variety of price ranges. Used rifles in a reasonable condition are already available for under 500 euros, new models start from about 1000 euros, the limit upwards is of course open.
Rifles come in different varieties. In addition to the very common bolt-action rifles, there are also more specialized rifle forms such as double rifles, buck double r ifles and break-barrel rifles. Small-caliber rifles are also used in shooting sports and hunting.
In relation to rifle ammunition, the caliber is generally understood to be a size specification regarding the outer diameter of projectiles. Often, however, the type of cartridge or ammunition is also referred to as caliber.
For example, in 7 x 64 caliber, the projectile has a diameter of about 7 mm, and the length of the cartridge case (without the projectile) is 64 mm.
The number of different rifle calibers is in the hundreds, with most gun manufacturers limiting themselves to a selection of about twenty calibers.
Both new and used rifles can be purchased at your local gunsmith / gun dealer or online. On Gunfinder.com you can quickly find the ideal rifle for you thanks to intelligent filters and great offers.