I “voted” for the “I own an assault rifle” option. Given common ideas of what what constitutes a “hunting rifle” (though an AR-15 is one of the “varmint hunting” rifles of choice), I do not own a “hunting rifle”, but I own at least one of every other category of weapon mentioned. There are at least two caveats that apply to my case, and one more that probably applies to the way you phrased things.
The first caveat for my specific case is that, technically, an assault rifle is defined as a select fire (has a switch or other way to toggle between firing “semi-auto”, or one shot per trigger pull, and “full-auto” aka “automatic”, or more than one shot per trigger pull) combat rifle that fires an intermediate or carbine cartridge. What I own is a semi-auto (that is, not select fire and not full-auto) AR-15 -- what mainstream media dimwits and politicians who hate scary black firearms often call an “assault weapon”—which is not technically an assault rifle, though the US military’s M16 is a family of assault rifle variants of the AR-15. All AR-15s, including the various M16 variants, fire 5.56x45mm or .223 Remington cartridges (the two cartridge types are close enough to identical than they are essentially interchangeable), an intermediate cartridge.
The second caveat for my specific case is that civilian AR-15s are among the most favored “varmint hunting” rifles available—used for hunting medium-smallish animals often regarded as pests, such as coyotes and rabbits.
Putting both of these conditions together, I selected “assault rifle” because I thought you would probably mean a semi-auto AR-15 rifle with a high-capacity magazine to fall within that category, and probably consider “hunting rifle” to include things more like high-power bolt action rifles with wooden stocks. More on that next.
For the more general caveat about phrasing, a hunting rifle is in many cases going to qualify as “bigger” than an assault rifle by any technical standard. By definition (as already mentioned), an assault rifle is a select fire rifle, usually with a barrel 20 inches or shorter, that fires an intermediate or carbine cartridge. What most people think of as “hunting rifles” are often longer-barrel semi-auto or single-action rifles (bolt action being a common case) that fire a high-power cartridge, making them typically longer than assault rifles and chambered for a bigger cartridge than assault rifles (.30-06 and .308 Winchester being common examples of such high power cartridges, both with a military battle rifle origin -- .308 as the roughly identical 7.62x51mm cartridge). Because they are not as intensively designed for compactness and convenient carrying over long distances as assault rifles, such big game “hunting rifles” are often also heavier and, in some respects, bulkier than assault rifles, even ignoring barrel length. I rather suspect you would have intended the explicitly military-oriented design of assault rifles to qualify as being “higher level” than the “hunting rifle”, though.
I could go on about the definitions of terms like “assault rifle”, “combat rifle”, and “battle rifle”; the history and common uses of the various cartridges and rifles mentioned; and other somewhat-related matters, but the things I already explained comprise the stuff I think directly relevant to this specific survey.
I know this is a lot more than called for by the specific informal survey here, but I thought it might be worthwhile to explain some of my hesitations over answering the survey, how I arrived at the choice I did, and (by application of the information contained in my babbling) how to make such a question more precise in the future.
It was poorly put together, and I can’t edit poll options. I’d put firearms above melee, larger guns above smaller.
Okay, thanks.
I “voted” for the “I own an assault rifle” option. Given common ideas of what what constitutes a “hunting rifle” (though an AR-15 is one of the “varmint hunting” rifles of choice), I do not own a “hunting rifle”, but I own at least one of every other category of weapon mentioned. There are at least two caveats that apply to my case, and one more that probably applies to the way you phrased things.
The first caveat for my specific case is that, technically, an assault rifle is defined as a select fire (has a switch or other way to toggle between firing “semi-auto”, or one shot per trigger pull, and “full-auto” aka “automatic”, or more than one shot per trigger pull) combat rifle that fires an intermediate or carbine cartridge. What I own is a semi-auto (that is, not select fire and not full-auto) AR-15 -- what mainstream media dimwits and politicians who hate scary black firearms often call an “assault weapon”—which is not technically an assault rifle, though the US military’s M16 is a family of assault rifle variants of the AR-15. All AR-15s, including the various M16 variants, fire 5.56x45mm or .223 Remington cartridges (the two cartridge types are close enough to identical than they are essentially interchangeable), an intermediate cartridge.
The second caveat for my specific case is that civilian AR-15s are among the most favored “varmint hunting” rifles available—used for hunting medium-smallish animals often regarded as pests, such as coyotes and rabbits.
Putting both of these conditions together, I selected “assault rifle” because I thought you would probably mean a semi-auto AR-15 rifle with a high-capacity magazine to fall within that category, and probably consider “hunting rifle” to include things more like high-power bolt action rifles with wooden stocks. More on that next.
For the more general caveat about phrasing, a hunting rifle is in many cases going to qualify as “bigger” than an assault rifle by any technical standard. By definition (as already mentioned), an assault rifle is a select fire rifle, usually with a barrel 20 inches or shorter, that fires an intermediate or carbine cartridge. What most people think of as “hunting rifles” are often longer-barrel semi-auto or single-action rifles (bolt action being a common case) that fire a high-power cartridge, making them typically longer than assault rifles and chambered for a bigger cartridge than assault rifles (.30-06 and .308 Winchester being common examples of such high power cartridges, both with a military battle rifle origin -- .308 as the roughly identical 7.62x51mm cartridge). Because they are not as intensively designed for compactness and convenient carrying over long distances as assault rifles, such big game “hunting rifles” are often also heavier and, in some respects, bulkier than assault rifles, even ignoring barrel length. I rather suspect you would have intended the explicitly military-oriented design of assault rifles to qualify as being “higher level” than the “hunting rifle”, though.
I could go on about the definitions of terms like “assault rifle”, “combat rifle”, and “battle rifle”; the history and common uses of the various cartridges and rifles mentioned; and other somewhat-related matters, but the things I already explained comprise the stuff I think directly relevant to this specific survey.
I know this is a lot more than called for by the specific informal survey here, but I thought it might be worthwhile to explain some of my hesitations over answering the survey, how I arrived at the choice I did, and (by application of the information contained in my babbling) how to make such a question more precise in the future.
Agreed.