Dana Spanyer, age 14, of Marquette, Mich., for his question:
HOW DOES A RIFLE WORK?
A rifle is a gun that is held against the shoulder. Sportsmen use rifles to hunt game and to compete in shooting matches. One of the Olympic events includes the art of shooting a rifle accurately.
A rifle is ready to fire when a cartridge has been fed into the firing chamber. Then the rifle is aimed and the trigger squeezed. The hammer or firing pin strikes the rear end of the cartridge and ignites the primer. The pr1hder in turn ignites the propellant powder in the cartridge. The powder then burns quickly, creating great pressure that drives the bullet down the rifle's barrel.
The rifling in the barrel makes the bullet spin. Rifling is a series of spiral grooves in the gun's barrel. Without the spin, a bullet will not stay pointed forward in flight, but will tumble over and over. A spinning motion caused by the rifling increases the accuracy of a bullet.
The front end of the barrel is called the muzzle and the rear end is called the breach.
The stock of a rifle helps keep the gun steady when firing. The butt of the stock is placed against the shoulder when firing. The front end extends under the barrel. Stocks of military rifles are made of wood, plastic or fiberglass. Many sporting rifles have stocks made of expensive wood and decorative or grip aiding carvings called checkering.
The action is the basic machinery of the rifle. It includes the parts that feed a cartridge into the firing chamber, fire the bullet and then eject the used cartridge.
The sights are used to aim the rifle. When aimed properly, the rear sight, front sight and target should be in alignment. Many sporting rifles have telescopic sights that make distant targets appear closer.
Modern rifles developed from the crude, muzzle loading firearms of the 1400s. Rifling of barrels was invented in Europe about 1500. Smooth bore firearms, or weapons without rifling, could not be depended upon to hit targets more than 100 steps away.
The jaeger rifle of central and northern Europe was the first accurate rifle. The jaeger was developed about 1665. German immigrants brought jaegers to Pennsylvania in the early 1700s and gave them new features, including longer barrels.
The Pennsylvania made Kentucky rifle developed from the jaeger. Some Kentucky rifles were made during the American Revolutionary War.
Rifles used round bullets until the 1850s when the more accurate Minie bullets became popular. Minie bullets had hollow bases and pointed tips and were used during the Civil War.
Improvements of the late 1800s included repeating rifles, smokeless explosive powder and jacketed bullets which have a tough metal cover over a lead or steel core.