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Posted: 3/1/2005 2:41:43 AM EDT
| Between a carbine and a regular rifle.I have a bushmaster XM-15 lower with an armalite upper.16 inch barrel.Is this a carbine.Sorry for the dumb question. |
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not a dumb question at all. In fact it has been asked here many times. By definition, a carbine is a short-barreled rifle. In the AR vernacular, it is generally used to describe those guns with the short length gas system. There are rifles, mid-sized (or mid-length), and carbines. Generally speaking, carbines are guns with 16 inch barrel or less, rifles are 20" +. |
Just so you don't get confused as a lot of other people do, there are two different ways the terms, carbine, mid-length and rifle are used. If you and just talking about the weapon type in general, then redfisher's description is accurate. Where is gets confusing is, an AR with a 16" barrel using a "mid-length" gas system is also a carbine. And that's where most people get confused, when you throw the term mid-length into it. A lot of people assume it's a reference to an AR with an 18" barrel. That is not correct. The term mid-length has nothing to do with barrel length, it refers to the location of the gas hole on the barrel. (I'm going to use, hand guard length here because I do not know what the actual measurements are so don't jump on me guys) A "carbine-length" gas system uses a 7" handguard (this is roughly the measure between the Upper and the FSB) A "Mid-Length" gas system uses a 9" handguard A "Rifle-length" gas system uses a 12" handguard A weapon using a "rifle length" gas system can have anywhere between a 18" to 24" barrel typically. A weapon using a "mid-length" gas system will typically have either a 16" or 18" barrel but can go down to at least 14". Carbines can be as short are 10.25" but I don't think I've ever seen one longer than 16" Hopefully I didn't confuse you more?  I will now use this as an excuse to post a picture of my 16" carbine with a mid-length gas system  ...
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