Self-loading rifle

A ”’self-loading rifle”’ is a rifle in which the next cartridge is loaded into the chamber from the magazine as part of the action of the weapon upon firing a shot. Self-loading actions include both automatic and semi-automatic. In a semi-automatic weapon, once loaded and cocked, each depression of the trigger will fire one shot, while an automatic firearm will continue to discharge rounds as the mechanism cycles, until the magazine is emptied or the trigger is released. They may be operated by a number of mechanisms, all of which derive their power from the explosion of the powder in the cartridge that also fires the bullet. Historically, the self-loading design was the successor to the repeating rifle, which stored a number of cartridges within the weapon, but required manual action to load a fresh cartridge before each shot. Automatically loading the next round more easily allows for rapid fire.

The term “self-loading rifle” is a synonym for “semi-automatic rifle“, although it can also refer specifically to the L1A1 SLR (Self-Loading Rifle) adopted by the British and Commonwealth militaries in the mid to late 1950s.