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rifle gun noun A long-barreled firearm, one whose bore has been grooved or rifled. [probably from rifled gun; DARE labels this form "now chiefly southern Appalachians, Ozarks" in the U.S.]

1796 Dunlap Will To son Adam Dunlap—the plantation on which I now live agreeable to the lines already mentioned to the other boys and the dwelling house at his mother's death, a black mare, one cow and calf, the rifle gun he now has. 1914 Arthur Western NC 280 The word "rifle" is too generic a term for the average mountaineer; but he knows what a "rifle-gun" is. Some of the older [people] have seen them made—lock, stock and barrel. The process was simple: a bar of iron the length of the barrel desired was hammered to the thickness of about three-sixteenths of an inch and then rolled around a small iron rod of a diameter a little less than the caliber desired. 1939 Hall Coll (Mt. Sterling NC) He put him a turnip hull on the end of his rifle gun, till he could see the darkness of the bear. 1991 Haynes Haywood Home 44 About the only thing I can remember that wasn't shared much or loaned out was a man's rifle-gun.