The Canadian Centennial rifles are a superb example of commemoratives that make excellent shooters.
They made 90,301 of them in both 26" rifle and 20" short rifle configurations, far too many to be truly collectible. They are also not overly gaudy like most commemoratives, which again makes them more attractive for use in the field.
The 20" short rifle is commonly, and incorrectly referred to as a "carbine" by many sources, including the Winchester Arms Collectors Association. I suspect WInchester may have referred to it as a "carbine" as well at the time they marketed them.
The 20" still doesn't make it a carbine. Carbines usually have round barrels, and always have a barrel band near the front sight (in front of or behind it depending on the era) as well as a barrel band around a wood forend milled to allow the band to slide over it. Carbines can have curved "carbine" or flat "shotgun" butt plates.
Rifles had barrels that could be round, octagon, or half round bu they were at least 24" in length (up to 32" in some cases) and they always used a hanger dovetailed into the barrel to support the magazine tube. The rifle forend has a metal cap on the end and is secured to the barrel with horizontal screw.
Rifles normally have either a curved crescent butt plate or a flat shotgun style buttplate.
Rifles also can be found with a variety of magazine lengths including full length, 7/8 length, 3/4 length and 1/2 length with the latter basically being a button sticking out the end of the forend.
Rifles can also have straight or curved levers and pistol grips.
Short rifles are rifles with barrels shorter than 24", with 22" and 20" being the most common.
If you look at the 26" and 20" Canadian Centennial rifle and "carbine" below, you'll see the carbine is really a short rifle. That's a plus as in my experience the Winchester rifle and short rifle patterns tends to be more accurate than the carbine pattern.
