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Battle Rifle or Main Battle Rifle. A military longarm firing a full sized rifle cartridge. The rifle may be manually operated, self loading (semi automatic) or capable of selective fire. It is designed to effectively engage targets at ranges in excess of 500 meters with individualy aimed fire. Someone (The author believes it was Jeff Cooper but he doesn't remember where) once classified these rifles in "phases". A Phase 1 rifle was a military bolt action, such as the Mauser or Lee Enfield] rifles. A Phase 2 rifle would be a semi-automatic military rifle, like the Lee Enfield] rifles. A Phase 2 rifle would be a semi-automatic military rifle, like the Garand or SVT-40. And finally the Phase 3 rifle, a select fire rifle in a full sized rifle cartridge, almost always 7.52x51mm . In practice to fully automatic mode of fire was discouraged or disable in most militaries, due to excessive recoil. The Battle Rifle has been replaced in common use by the shorter ranged assault rifle firing cartridges of reduced power.

Examples of cartridges used in battle rifles are the .303 British, 8x57mm 7.62x54mm and 7.62x51mm.