Most rifles are firearms - powered by gunpowder - although some of the earliest rifled weapons were powered with compressed air. Air rifles remain popular today, for plinking and hunting small game.

Some manufacturers make rifled shotguns, or rifled chokes for shotguns, which are designed to fire large lead slugs. Although these weapons are no different from 18th century rifles, they are nonetheless still referred to as shotguns, as they are quite rare. Artillery and tank cannon barrels are often rifled but, being crew-served weapons over a certain length, they are not referred to as "rifles", but are, in fact, referred to, in the proper sense of the word, as "guns".

Use

The rifle was originally a sharp-shooter's weapon used for targets of opportunity and sniper fire. In the early part of the 20th century, soldiers were trained to shoot accurately over long ranges with high-powered cartridges. Equipped with long-range 'volley sights' for massed fire at ranges of up to a mile (1600 m) - individual shots were unlikely to hit, but a platoon firing repeatedly could produce an effect similar to artillery.

It has become accepted that most infantry engagements ranges less than 100 metres. Today, an infantryman's rifle is optimised for ranges of 300 meters or less, and soldiers are trained to deliver individual rounds or bursts of fire at these ranges. Accurate, long-range fire is the domain of the sniper and of enthusiastic target shooters. The modern sniper rifle is generally capable of accuracy greatly below that of one minute of angle.

In recent decades large-calibre anti-materiel sniper rifles, typically firing Browning 50 (12.7 mm) heavy machine gun rounds, have been developed. Weapons are typically used to strike critical, vulnerable targets such as radar antennae or the jet engines of enemy aircraft. Anti-materiel rifles can certainly be used against human targets, but the much higher weight of rifle and ammunition, and the massive recoil and muzzle blast, make them impractical for such use.