www.latimes.com
How many weapons has humanity invented that don't still exist in one form or another?
Anti-materiel rifles still exist, we just don't use them against tanks anymore. Still used against light armored vehicles, troop transports, barricades, etc.
That's the thing. Anti-material rifles aren't anti-tank rifles, and they share few parts and design concepts from old anti-tank rifles.
Didn't most anti-tank rifles just get mounted on rotating chairs and become anti-air guns?
Maybe at some point, but they have definitely gone the way of the dodo by now. Even their cartridges aren't in use. When was the last time you heard about .55 Boys?
Anti-tank rifles and anti-materiel rifles are the same thing. Anti-tank rifles are just anti-materiel rifles that were being used to shoot at a tank.
Well no, because anti-material rifles aren't effective against tanks in the way anti-tank rifles are. And the whole concept of a man-portable rifle capable of defeating tank armor died soon after WW2 because you really just can't do that. .50 BMG is the standard anti-material round, but it was never used against tanks and has basically never been effective against tanks. It's an entirely different design concept and just saying "anti-material is anti-tank" is very reductionist and not accurate. An anti-tank rifle is a very very specific tool that existed basically just for the 2 world wars and was quickly disposed of as a concept.
The concept is still the same, a rifle that shoots through armor and barriers. Just because it's not shooting at a specific target doesn't mean it's a different concept or design.
The caliber doesn't matter. Conceptually an anti-tank rifle is just a large man-portable rifle that fires a big bullet going very quickly with an explosive bullet meant to go through light armor. That concept still exists today as an anti-materiel rifle.
You're right, caliber doesn't necessarily matter. But there were rounds designed to be anti-tank rounds, and a lot of them became obsolete within 2 years of introduction. The only anti-tank round I can think of still in use is 14.5x115mm and that's because Russia will never replace anything they can find a use for. So now said round is an anti-material round because if you tried using it for it's original intended role, you might as well use your sidearm pistol, it'll be equally as effective.
The question was
To which you replied
The key being "in one form or another."
They didn't though, apart from one very specific example (from Russia, the same country that's been using the same basic rocket setup for 60 years, they don't count). But otherwise, anti-tank cartridges went the way of the dodo along with the rifles that fired them, because their entire concept is outmoded. You don't see .55 Boys, 13.2 mm TuF, 7.92x94 mm Patronen, 7.92x107 mm DS, so on. You do see other rounds that were designed for an anti-material role still in use though, like .50 BMG, because it's still useful. It's technically still useful in it's original role too, as an anti-aircraft round. But anti-tank rifles? Gone, dust, never to be seen again.
Societies were built through war and conquest, and the ones that weren't no longer exist.
