Rifle cartridge in the context of ".22 Long Rifle"

A submachine gun (SMG) or sub-gun is a magazine-fed automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an automatic firearm with notably less firepower than a machine gun (hence the prefix "sub-"). As a machine gun must fire rifle cartridges to be classified as such, submachine guns are not considered machine guns.

In the 20th century, the submachine gun was developed during World War I (1914–1918) as a close quarter offensive weapon, mainly for trench raiding. At its peak during World War II (1939–1945), millions of submachine guns were made for assault troops and auxiliaries whose doctrines emphasized close-quarter suppressive fire. New submachine gun designs appeared frequently during the Cold War, especially among special forces, commandos and mechanized infantrymen. Submachine gun usage for frontline combat decreased in the 1980s and 1990s.

The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, bottlenecked, centerfire rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries.

First developed in the 1940s, the cartridge had first been introduced in U.S. service in 1954 for the M14 rifle and M60 machine gun.

A fully powered cartridge, also called full-power cartridge or full-size cartridge, is an umbrella term describing any rifle cartridge that emphasizes ballistics performance and single-shot accuracy, with little or no concern to its weight or recoil. The term generally refers to traditional cartridges used in machine guns, bolt action and semi-automatic service rifles and select fire battle rifles prior to, during and immediately after the World Wars and into the early Cold War era, and was a retronym originally made to differentiate from intermediate-power rifle cartridges that gained widespread adoption into military service after World War II.

Full-power cartridges often have a caliber comparable to or greater than 7.5 mm (0.30 in) and a maximum effective range of at least 800 m (870 yd), and are intended for engaging targets beyond 300 m (330 yd). However, cartridges with calibers as narrow as 6.5 mm (0.26 in) have been described as being a full-power rifle cartridge. According the cartridge's overall length (COL), full-power cartridges can be grouped into long-action or "standard-action" cartridges, which are traditional cartridges (exemplified by the .30-06 Springfield, 8mm Mauser and 7.62×54mmR) with a COL between 72 and 85 mm (2.8 and 3.3 in); and short-action cartridges (such as the .308 Winchester and 6.5mm Creedmoor), which have a COL between 57 and 72 mm (2.2 and 2.8 in) and largely replaced long-action cartridges as battle rifle service ammunitions since the Cold War. Cartridges with a COL above 85mm are often however considered magnum cartridges instead of "full-powered".

The M14 rifle, officially the United States Rifle, Caliber 7.62 mm, M14, is an American battle rifle chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge. It became the standard-issue rifle for the U.S. military in 1957, replacing the M1 Garand rifle in service with the U.S. Army by 1958 and the U.S. Marine Corps by 1965; deliveries of service rifles to the U.S. Army began in 1959. The M14 was used by the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps for Basic and Advanced Individual Training from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s.

The M14 was the last American battle rifle issued in quantity to U.S. military personnel. In 1967, it was officially replaced by the M16 assault rifle, a lighter weapon with a smaller 5.56×45mm intermediate cartridge. The M14 rifle remains in limited service across all branches of the U.S. military, with variants used as sniper and designated marksman rifles, accurized competition weapons, and ceremonial weapons by honor guards, color guards, drill teams, and ceremonial guards. Civilian semi-automatic variants are used for hunting, target shooting, and shooting competitions.

The 7.92×33mm Kurz (“short” in German) (designated as the 7.92 x 33 kurz by the C.I.P.) is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate rifle cartridge (German: Mittelpatrone) developed in Nazi Germany prior to and during World War II, specifically intended for development of the Sturmgewehr 44 (assault rifle). The ammunition is also referred to as 7.9mm Kurz (German: Kurz meaning "short"), 7.9 Kurz, 7.9mmK, or 8×33 Polte. The round was developed as a compromise between the longer 7.92×57mm full-power rifle cartridge and the 9×19mm Parabellum pistol cartridge.

Long range shooting is a collective term for shooting disciplines where the distance to the target is significant enough that the shooter has to put effort into calculating various ballistic factors, especially in regards to the deviating effects of gravity and wind. While shooting at shorter ranges, a shooter only has to slightly adjust the sights to compensate for limited bullet drop at most, but when the range is extended, wind drift will be the first factor affecting precision to the extent that it must be taken into serious account. Some would argue that long range shooting starts where assessment of wind, distance and various atmospheric conditions are equally important for the results as pure shooting skills - meaning that even if one conducts a technically perfect shot, the shooter will miss the target because of incorrect calculations, neglecting to take some elements into consideration, or merely due to unpredictable downrange conditions. It is widely accepted within interdisciplinary circles that for a standard rifle firing full-powered cartridges (e.g. .308 Winchester), "long range" means the target is more than 600 m (660 yd) away,, while "extreme long range" is generally accepted as when the target distance is more than 1,000 m (1,100 yd) away from the shooter.

There are several competitive match circuits that typically consist of targets at long range. Benchrest shooting events are often between 100 and 900 meters (≈ 100 to ≈ 1000 yards), F-Class is typically the same with 300 to 900 meters (≈ 300 to ≈ 1000 yards). A growing form of interdisciplinary shooting, becoming known as Practical Precision, places targets at virtually any distance from 100 to 1800 meters and the scoring is hit/ miss on steel targets of various sizes and from various positions (standing, kneeling, prone). This type of match is quickly becoming more popular than F-Class.

A center-fire (or centerfire) is a type of metallic cartridge used in firearms, where the primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i.e. "case head"). Unlike rimfire cartridges, the centerfire primer is typically a separate component seated into a recessed cavity (known as the primer pocket) in the case head and is replaceable by reloading the cartridge.

Centerfire cartridges have supplanted the rimfire cartridge, with the exception of a few small calibers. The majority of today's handguns, rifles, and shotguns use centerfire ammunition, with the exception of some .17 caliber, .20 caliber, and .22 caliber rimfire handgun and rifle cartridges, a few small-bore/gauge shotgun shells (intended mainly for use in pest control), and a handful of antiquated rimfire and pinfire cartridges for various firearm actions.