Category talk:Battle Rifle

What role does the cartridge play in this category?

I thought that a battle rifle was defined by not using a pistol or intermediate cartridge. Right now, the most common "full-size rifle" cartridge is 7.62x51mm NATO. In World War 1 and 2, they were the .303 British, the .30-06 for the Americans, the 8x57mm Mauser for the Germans, and the 7.62x54mmR for the Russians. Unless those old rifles for those calibers were made for sniper usage, wouldn't they be battle rifles?

I'm not sure about automatically including rifles that happen to be standard issue for a National Army under the term "Battle Rifle," because that then means it's no different from the term "service weapon." If the term Battle Rifle were dependent on the firearm's caliber, then the term would be more specific and have more meaning. Under this, the M4 Carbine is just the service weapon of the US Army, but is still an assault rifle (or assault carbine) thanks to its cartridge, for instance.

There's also the problem of differentiating Battle Rifles from WWII and earlier from more modern examples, since their characteristics have changed a lot. Wouldn't it be easier to create separate sub-categories for "Pre-Modern Battle Rifles" to denote those used in WWII and earlier, while "Modern Battle Rifle" would be for those used later (such as the G3, FN FAL, etc.). A working definition for a modern battle rifle would be the need for select-fire capability, and chambering in 7.62x51mm NATO or similar full-sized rifle cartridge (a rifle manufactured in modern times using a full-sized rifle cartridge that is semiautomatic-only or bolt action are usually Designated Marksmen or Sniper Rifles). A pre-modern battle rifle would not have this select-fire capability, but would still be chambered in one of the older full-sized rifle cartridges. --Mazryonh 18:41, 22 July 2011 (CDT)