repeating

A repeating rifle, or repeater for short, is a single-barrel rifle capable of repeated discharges following a single ammunition reload, typically by having multiple cartridges stored in a magazine (within or attached to the gun) and then fed into the chamber by the bolt via either a manual or automatic mechanism, while the act of chambering the rifle typically also recocks the action for the following shot. In common usage, the term "repeating rifle" most often refers specifically to manually-operated weapons, as opposed to self-loading rifles, which use the recoil and blowback of the previous shot to cycle the action and load the next round, even though all self-loading firearms are technically a subcategory of repeating firearms.
Repeating rifles were a significant advance over the preceding single-shot breechloading rifles when used for military combat, as they allowed a much greater rate of fire. Repeating rifles saw use in the American Civil War during the early 1860s, and the first repeating air rifle to see military service was the Windbüchse Rifle.

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