Yeah it's a heavily overused term. Best I can tell, it's come to mean a particular barrel length, somewhere between 14 and 16 inches but it can be any caliber

Yeah it's a heavily overused term. Best I can tell, it's come to mean a particular barrel length, somewhere between 14 and 16 inches but it can be any caliber or cartridge type really. It's supposed to be a short handy rifle, where a full size rifle is somewhere at 20+ inches.