page_title: Repeating rifle
section_title: Recoil-operated
hierarchical_section_title: Repeating rifle / Mechanisms / Autoloading / Recoil-operated
caption_attribution_description: English: Johnson M1941 Semi-Automatic Rifle with original spike bayonet and leather sheath. The 10-round rotary magazine could be quickly reloaded using two clips of .30 Caliber M2 Ball ammunition.
context_page_description: A repeating rifle, or repeater for short, is a rifle capable of repeated discharges from a single barrel between ammunition reloads. This is typically achieved by having multiple cartridges stored in a magazine and then fed into the chamber by the bolt via either a manual or automatic mechanism, while the act of chambering the rifle typically also recocks the action for the following shot. In common usage, the term "repeating rifle" most often refers specifically to manually-operated weapons, as opposed to self-loading rifles, which use the recoil and blowback of the previous shot to cycle the action and load the next round, even though all self-loading firearms are technically a subcategory of repeating firearms.
  Repeating rifles were a significant advance over the preceding single-shot breechloading rifles when used for military combat, as they allowed a much greater rate of fire. Repeating rifles saw use in the American Civil War during the early 1860s, and the first repeating air rifle to see military service was the Windbüchse Rifle.
context_section_description: In a recoil-operated firearm, the breech is locked, and the barrel recoils as part of the firing cycle.  In long-recoil actions, such as the Browning Auto-5 shotgun, the barrel and breechblock remain locked for the full recoil travel, and separate on the return; in short-recoil actions, typical of most semiautomatic handguns (e.g. the Colt M1911), the barrel recoils only a short distance before decoupling from the breechblock.
caption: M1941 Johnson rifle
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