Pronunciation: [ɹˈa͡ɪfləɹi] (IPA) 
Riflery, the sport of shooting with rifles, is often misspelled as rifelry, riflary, and even rifflery. The correct spelling of riflery is /ˈraɪfləri/, with stress on the first syllable and a long "i" sound in both the first and second syllables. The "-ery" suffix indicates a place or activity, as in archery or cookery. Remembering this simple phonetic rule can help avoid misspelling riflery in the future.
Riflery is a noun that refers to the sport or activity involving the use of rifles. It encompasses the skills, techniques, and competitions associated with shooting rifles accurately. In riflery, participants usually aim at targets placed at varying distances to test their accuracy and precision.
The term "riflery" specifically focuses on the use of rifles, which are long-barreled firearms designed for accurate shooting over long distances. Rifles typically feature spiral grooves on the inner surface of the barrel, known as rifling, which spin the fired bullet to improve its stability in flight, thus enhancing accuracy.
Riflery involves several key aspects, including proper body posture, breathing control, target acquisition, aiming, trigger control, and follow-through. Participants of this sport often require a high level of concentration, discipline, and patience to excel.
Competitive riflery encompasses various events and disciplines such as small-bore rifle shooting, high-power rifle shooting, and precision air rifle shooting. These events can take place in both indoor and outdoor settings.
Aside from its sportive aspects, riflery can also encompass other practical applications, such as military training, law enforcement exercises, and hunting. However, the focus of riflery as a traditional sport lies in the precision, accuracy, and skill required to hit targets with consistency.
The word "riflery" is derived from the noun "rifle", which refers to a firearm with spiral grooves in its barrel (called rifling) that cause the bullet to spin. The term "rifle" has a complex etymology, stemming from various languages.
The word "rifle" can be traced back to the Middle French word "rifler", meaning "to scratch" or "to strip", which was used to describe the act of scratching the barrel of a gun to create rifling. This term was adapted from the Old High German word "rifilen", meaning "to scrape or file". The German word, in turn, is likely related to the Old Norse word "rifa", which means "to tear apart".
Ultimately, "riflery" is the noun form derived from "rifle", referring to the sport or skill of shooting with a rifle.
