Carbine vs Short Rifle

In general, the carbine was for horse solders, and the short rifle was for humping it on foot.

The carbine has a turned down bolt handle to ride a horse without poking him in the ribs, side mounted sling, better protected front sight, etc.

If you pull up images of each you can see the differances.

rc

I want to sat something. Carbine vs Short Rifle.

What the heck is the difference ?

"Historically" Carbines are less than say 21" , with the sweet spot around 18" and allmost all longer than 15".
"Short rifles" were generally longer than say 21" and less say 26".
Hey it made a difference then and it still does!
The are divisions with in at least the "Carbines" with Calvary, Mountain, Paratroop and Engineers model differences as all ready noted by RC
I think there are FEW divisions in "Short rifles" , the Japanese folding paratroop is actually a short rifle which comes to mind.
Short rifles seem to have militarily reached their Zenith from after WW1 until thru WW2.They still rule the roost among civilian hunters.

rc nailed it. You can see the differences with the Yugo M1924, several variations, cavalry, infantry-different bolt handles, different sling points.

carbine is just an generic term. Take for instance 86 winchesters. They consider a 22 inch gun a carbine. In a 94 its 20 inch. theres no real distiction in barrel lenght that constitutes a carbine.

To round it all up, A carbine is a short rifle.

In regards to lever actions a carbine has 2 barrel bands, a rifle uses an endcap with no barrel bands. A short rifle is a rifle with an endcap and no barrel bands and a shorter barrel than the standard rifle.

A Marlin 336C or 336W with any barrel length barrel is a carbine. (barrel bands)
A Marlin 336A with any barrel length is a rifle (No barrel bands)
A Marlin 1895 with a 22" barrel is a rifle. (No barrel bands)
A Marlin 1895 Guide gun with an 18.5" barrel is a short rifle. (no barrel bands)

Exactly how it is determined in other actions, I'm not sure. At any rate the terms are pretty much not used anymore.

dak0ta said:

Um.. that was the original question..

In addition, with the advent of smokeless powder, is there much of an effect on velocity, terminal ballistics, and accuracy when comparing a full length barrel approx 28-30 inches and a carbine barrel 20-22 inches?

Discount shorter sighting plane using leaf sights for a carbine.

Click to expand...

Right on Gunny.......

A carbine (play /ˈkɑrbiːn/ or /ˈkɑrbaɪn/[1]), from French carabine,[2] is a longarm similar to but shorter than a rifle or musket. Many carbines are shortened versions of full rifles, firing the same ammunition at a lower velocity due to a shorter barrel length.

The smaller size and lighter weight of carbines makes them easier to handle in close-quarter situations such as urban or jungle warfare, or when deploying from military vehicles. The disadvantages of carbines relative to rifles include inferior long-range accuracy and a shorter effective range. Being larger than a submachine gun, they are harder to maneuver in tight encounters where superior range and stopping power at distance are not great considerations. Firing the same ammunition as rifles gives carbines the advantage of standardization over those personal defense weapons (PDWs) that require proprietary cartridges.

Carbines are issued to high-mobility troops such as special-operations soldiers and paratroopers, as well as to mounted, supply, or other non-infantry personnel whose roles do not require full-sized rifles.