High Powered Rifle

But then what is bottom of the line?
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Because the term is so general, I think that any centerfire rifle cartridge would probably qualify in most people's minds. By "most people" I'm talking about "most people", not "most people on a gun forum" or "most gun historians" or "most gun designers".

Now, if a person wanted to try to educate an audience, they might be able to make an argument for disqualifying rounds like the .22 Hornet, the .30 carbine, and maybe some of the really old rifle rounds that were originally designed for black powder but I doubt many people using the term in the media care enough to listen.

I do think it's safe to slap down anyone who refers to a high-powered rifle when they are talking about a rimfire or a long gun chambered in a pistol caliber.
 
Reading some articles about the two people planning a shooting in Richmond, both articles I've read said that the police recovered "223 rounds of ammunition" and I can't help but think that has got to be someone who heard ".223 ammo" and thought it was the numeric value of the amount of rounds found.
 
Generally speaking, the people doing the reporting, and the police "sources" either don't know, or don't care about using the correct terms when it comes to guns, and gun related things.

And they seldom take being corrected very well, often responding with some variation of "it doesn't matter, everyone knows what we're talking about, anyway"....

One inaccuracy that doesn't seem to go away is "bullet casings" Whenever I see that one, my mind asks, are they talking about the box bullets come in??? does it say Speer, or Hornady or..???... :rolleyes:

One I got a bit of a kick out of was a few years back. There had been several shootings of homeless people in the Seattle area. The police had "bullet casings" from the shootings and said they were all done with the same gun. A 9mm Luger pistol.

Immediately after releasing that nugget of information, some "journalist" (and I use the term lightly) wrote about how somebody was stalking and shooting the homeless with an "antique German WWI pistol"!! :eek:
 
Sharkbite said:
The media startedcalling AR-15’s “high-powered” awhile ago.
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I thought they were calling them “high caliber”? I think the 9mm Luger was also noted as powerful…something about blowing the lungs out…..

High Power Rifle This Wiki seems to describe it pretty well.

“High Powered Rifle” is a media term. If you substitute “media induced panic” for that phrase, the news will make more sense…..e.g.
 
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Maybe we should have a thread devoted to mistakes journalists (heck, let's include our elected officials too!) make in talking about guns.

Seems they are PROUDLY ignorant about the subject.

One of my favorite sites is the Babylon Bee and here's their video of 'Gun Facts'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmyyEbvDgr8

My favorite 'journalistic' mistake, which I've posted before, is the one by Popular Mechanics where they said in June and July of 1945 the U.S. Navy used an atomic bomb on obsolete U.S. Navy ships. It's still up.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/mi...ations-crossroads-video-navy-nuking-warships/
 
That's not a legal definition. My understanding is that the NRA, for match purposes, considers all centerfire rifles to be "high powered" simply to distinguish them from rimfire.
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That is so funny that the NRA would call them high power to distinguish from rimfire when the difference is centerfire versus rimfire.

However, if your understanding is correct, then the NRA considers centerfire rifles to be high power rifles and the NRA is who represents us. They have done this to us and set the precedent. There is no reason to blame the police or the media when it is the NRA that proudly and boldly announces what calibers or cartridges are included in high power matches.

If a reporter wants to call a .223 a high powered rifle, they aren't wrong, at least not by NRA standards. There is no getting away from this. We may not like it. We may call it silly that people consider .223 high powered, but we, as part of the NRA, did it to ourselves.
 
For as long as I can remember, going back to the late 1960's at least, a "High Powered Rifle" described any rifle chambered in a center-fire rifle cartridge. Not rim-fire, and not rifles chambered in a pistol caliber.
 
MxV2 When smokeless powder was invented there was a large increase in velocity. That's the power in high power.

There was at least one pretty long thread about this after a previous mass shooting.

CarpeDiem: Wow, now I remember why I never started up with rifles. Way too much information for me to digest and understand. All of you who responded are amazing founts of knowledge.
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There's just as much info on handguns. But yeah these guys know a lot.
 
What about the lever action guns chambered for cartridges commonly used in handguns?
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I believe you were responding to this quote:
WyMark said:
For as long as I can remember, going back to the late 1960's at least, a "High Powered Rifle" described any rifle chambered in a center-fire rifle cartridge. Not rim-fire, and not rifles chambered in a pistol caliber.
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44 AMP said:
answer: Yes.

:D
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;)

You saw through my ruse.

I generally think of the .44-40 as a revolver cartridge but, looking at WyMark's post:

WyMark said:
For as long as I can remember, going back to the late 1960's at least, a "High Powered Rifle" described any rifle chambered in a center-fire rifle cartridge. Not rim-fire, and not rifles chambered in a pistol caliber.
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I think it's appropriate to remember that the .44-40 was originally a rifle cartridge, that was only chambered in revolvers a number of years after its introduction. Does that make a Winchester lever action chambered in .44-40 a "high powered rifle"? After all, it's a rifle, and it's a center-fire. Since the round was designed for the rifle and only later adapted to handguns, it's not a "rifle chambered in a pistol caliber."
 
A point like that is lost on anyone other than a true gun nut.

On the other hand, if we are going to argue it as gun nuts. It would be reasonable to make the point that any round that came into being as a black-powder round probably doesn't fit the definition of high-powered rifle, as I mentioned in an earlier post.

If you want to get into that kind of mess, how about the .221 Fireball, a .224" caliber bottlenecked cartridge capable of ~3000fps in a rifle length barrel? It was originally introduced as a pistol cartridge--for the XP-100.
 
how about the .221 Fireball, a .224" caliber bottlenecked cartridge capable of ~3000fps in a rifle length barrel? It was originally introduced as a pistol cartridge--for the XP-100
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I have one of those..., and I'd point out that not only was it a pistol round initially, it was specifically tailored for the XP-100 and its 10" (approx) barrel.
 
The discussion about high-powered rifles is moot. 30 years ago when my eyes were better and I could hold my Ruger Super Redhawk without any assistance I was shooting bowling pins at 200 yards off-hand with a non-magnified red dot sight. Another shooter came by to investigate what I was doing. I showed him the revolver, the 200gr cast, and the 180gr JHP I was playing with. A week later I happened to walk into the local gun shop, and there he was, at the counter, buying a Redhawk. When he saw me he said to the guy behind the counter, "There he is...that's him!." So what's the big deal about a "high-powered rifle?"
 
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mythical big deals

A couple of points, in no particular order:
-regards big deals, the OP was an inquiry regards defining or categorizing rifle "high power" cartridges. That is why it is being discussed on this thread. I have no argument that a Redhawk in capable hands, well sighted and shot, is an effective killer of bowling pins or hunting weapon to a certain range and size, but it has nothing to do with the discussion. I hesitated to reply to the comment, but a polite reminder of what is being discussed seemed reasonable

-the term "assault rifle" is phrase used heavily by certain groups to
sensationalize and promote a certain agenda, both of which we are all well aware. Likewise, it is fairly common knowledge that the Nazi "sturmgewehr" (storm rifle) gets translated loosely from German to English
as assault rifle. I don't use the phrase. A similar media term these days
is "gun violence. Hogwash!!!! If a drunk driver runs a red light a kills or injures another motorist, the event is not labeled "car violence" .

-the issue of defining high power seems largely one of context and circumstance. One of the parameters of the sturmgewehr was that it used a cartridge of lesser power than the Nazi bolt rifle or MG, a so called intermediate cartridge. In casual conversation, that is how I refer to the various .22 centerfire varminters, the 5.56/.223, the 7.62x39, the .30 carbine and others, perhaps up to .30-30. I would include the the entire family of AR based special cartridges like the Blackout and the Grendel and even the AR bigbores the same way. Again, in simple conversation, for myself, highpowers are everything else, , whether long or short action, up to the various magnums, which I refer to as "magnums". Pistol caliber carbines are simply chambered in pistol calibers or for clarity, magnum pistol calibers.

Contrastly, the NRA, an established organization which for years, perhaps since inception, has overseen and conducted formal competition at the national level, has defined highpower differently to establish parameters for competition.

As used by the media and other sources, again, a term to sensationalize.

The .50 BMG.......in a class all it's own!:eek:
 
A .223 does not qualify as "high
power" but it's enough to make a
bunch for cops in body armor and with
a ballistic shield run away like rabbits
in Ulvalde, TX.

The press should have reported they
scurried when faced by a "low power"
rifle round.
 
Likewise, it is fairly common knowledge that the Nazi "sturmgewehr" (storm rifle) gets translated loosely from German to English
as assault rifle. I don't use the phrase. A similar media term these days
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The problem with translations is multiple meaning in both languages, with the correct meaning depending on context, and usual syntax of conversational usage in different languages.

Sturm is German for "storm". Both the weather storm, and the military usage as in "storming an objective" depending on context.

And in English, a storming attack is an assault. I know of three German WWII weapons with "Sturm" in their name. Sturmgeschuetz, a turretless tank with a large caliber gun mounted in the hull for infantry support, first fielded in 1940. Every English language book on the subject always translates the name as "Assault Gun"

Sturmgewehr First fielded in 43 under the designation of MP (Maschinen Pistole) the German term for SMG, and renamed by Hitler as the Sturmgewehr (Assault rifle) in 44.

And, Sturmvoegel the name given to a variant of the Messerschmitt Me262 jet fighter. This name is always translated as "Storm Bird". Probably because in English, "Assault Bird" sounds foolish...:rolleyes:

I consider "Assault Rifle" to be a valid term, It has had a definition used by firearms people (both in and out of the military) since the Germans produced them, and uses three of the Sturmgewehr's features to define the class.

And those are, Magazine fed (not belt fed), SELECT FIRE (meaning safe, semi or full auto selectable by the shooter), and an "intermediate power cartridge. Intermediate power was defined as more powerful than the standard pistol round and less powerful than the standard infantry rifle round.

Today, the 5.56mm/,223 fits in that group. More powerful than the .45acp, less powerful than the .30-06.

NRA match rules are NRA match rules and only apply to NRA matches.

The press and the anti gun people don't care. They will misuse terms however they feel like to create the greatest emotional effect, including making up their own terms (like "assault weapon") when called to task over their misuse of valid pre-existing terms, which is what they did with term assault rifle.
 
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