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Arifle cartridge is afirearmcartridge primarily designed and intended for use in arifle/carbine, ormachine gun.
A full-powered cartridge is a rifle cartridge used interchangeably betweenservice rifles,sniper rifles, andgeneral purpose machine guns. It is aretronym for rifle cartridges used prior to and duringWorld War II. They are primarily used today ingeneral purpose machine guns,designated marksman rifles, andsniper rifles.
Amagnum cartridge is a cartridge with a larger case size than, or derived from, a similar cartridge of the samebullet caliber and case shoulder shape. Magnum cartridges allow for morepropellant to be loaded within the casing, and thus have a highermuzzle energy. 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 forbig-game hunting, or as a militaryammunition for somelong-rangesniper rifles.
An intermediate cartridge is a military cartridge that is less powerful than typical full-power cartridges such as the7.92mm Mauser,.30-06 Springfield, or7.62×51mm NATO, but still significantly more powerful thanhandgun cartridges used inservice pistols andsubmachine guns.[1] As theirrecoil 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 withsemi-automatic rifles or rifles with asemi-automatic fire mode.[2] However, even though less powerful than traditional full-power cartridges, theexternal andterminal ballistics of an intermediate cartridge are still sufficient for an effective range of 300–600 m (330–660 yd), which are the typical maximum engagement ranges for ordinaryinfantrymen in modern combat conditions.
The introduction of intermediate cartridges allowed for the development of theassault rifle concept, which is amagazine-fedselective firerifle lighter and more compact than the conventionalbattle rifles firing full-powered cartridges. The first intermediate cartridge was the German7.92×33mm Kurz for theStG 44,[1] the world's first assault rifle. Other examples include the Soviet7.62×39mm used in theAK-47 andAKM series, the.280 British round developed for theEM-2, and the5.56×45mm NATO for theAR-15/M16/M4 series rifles.