What is the difference between a rifle and a shotgun?
There are two types of long guns, rifles and shotguns. Long guns are defined as firearms that have a barrel length of >16″ for a rifle or >18″ for a shotgun. Many people confuse shotguns and call them rifles. There are two key differences between rifles and shotguns. First, shotguns are smoothbore while rifles have, as their name indicates, rifling inside the barrel. Second, rifles fire one piece of lead (slug) while shotguns fire as many as several dozen smaller lead (or steel) pellets known as “shot”. To clarify exactly what that means, we’ll first discuss what rifling is, what it does, and how it differs from smoothbore guns such as shotguns. Next, we’ll discuss how a rifle round differs from a shotgun shell and what the two are used for. Rifling is simply grooves cut into the inside of a barrel that allow the bullet to spin while being pushed down the barrel. This gives the slug increased accuracy and range. Rifling operates on the same principle as a quarterback throwing a footbal
