Nogunz here, why are some bullet diameters in calibers and others

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Some come from places like merica or antebellum bongistan, others come from filthy continentals.

>>33018840

because firearms are older than the metric system

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>>33018925
Hey that's pretty neat

>>33018840
>going off of the unsubstantiated belief that this thread isn't bait and someone has a legitimate question on 4chan
Caliber is simply the diameter of the gun barrel, which can be measured in either metric or customary.
The designation of the round (9mm, .45 ACP, etc.) is the common name for a round of ammunition with specific dimensions.

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>>33018840
I capped this just in case this kind of thread ever happens.

TL;DR, European rounds and military rounds after the mid 20th century tend to be metric.

American rounds and civilian rounds are more likely to be conventional.

There is no standardized scheme.

>>33018840
Because ones in inches (Calibers) were made in the US and the rest were made where they can actually measure things.

>>33020889
Which rounds are named to sound cool

I'm going to invent the 1337 calibre. 13/37 = 0.351

>>33020917
Here's one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.50_Beowulf

>>33020819
A swing and a miss

Read more carefully next time

>>33020952
:(

>>33020917
Here's another: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.700_Nitro_Express

>>33018840
If we called .375 magnum, .38spl, 9x19, 9x18, and .380 all "9 millimeter" that would be pretty confusing wouldn't it?

>>33018840
Depends where the ammunition was developed. Don't actually think of these as real measurements. For instance a .223 (that's a fraction measurement) actually has a bullet measuring in .224. A lot of rounds do this, and all of them are actually private patents. You could almost name the bullets something like "buttplug" or "dragon dildo" then you could say "I gotta Henry chambered in buttplug, but I still go plankin with my marlin in dragon dildo"

Look up the difference between .308 Winchester (American measurement, fraction of an inch, developed by the company winchester) and the 7.62x54r (millimeter measure, still a fraction but in metric instead of inch)

Usually you won't see the metric measurements listed with the developer, except where something like the 9x19 is listed as a 9mm luger, as it was developed by a dude named luger.

Whatever comes after the diameter, so 9x19, 7.62x51, etc, is basically how long it is. So diameter x length or DxL

There ya go, basic cartridge mathmatics

No one here has gotten it yet

The .40 is a offspring cartridge of the 10mm. The FBI had little baby hands and limp wrists so they had to cut it down for them. They couldn't very well have two different length cartridges that have to be fired in two different weapons called 10mm. I mean you can technically fire a .40 in a 10mm but it won't cycle

>>33021024
>.375 Magnum
>inb4 "It was a typo you dingus"
yeah but in this day and age we have all of these new meme cartridges so it really wouldn't surprise me at this point

>>33021006
Nitro express is actually descriptive though.

When the NE series of rounds was being introduced, black powder was still the most commonly used, and "nitro" (nitrocellulose based ammunition) was the fancy new thing.

It was a way to distinguish from earlier black powder rifles from the same company.

You can fire a .223 out of a 9mm

You can fire a .460, .454 .45LC and .45 Schofield out of the same revolver

You can fire a .458 Socom out of a .50AE

You can fire a 30-30 and a .45LC out of a .410

There are lots of weird and interesting combinations

>7.62x54R is actually 7.92 in diameter
>8mm Mauser is 8mm in diameter, but called 7.92

>in calibers

Calibre is not a set unit of distance, it's the diameter of the bore. ".40 cal" doesn't mean the diameter is 0.4 calibres, instead it's a sloppy way of saying the calibre is 0.4 inches.

>>33018840

Because people that name this shit don't really have a uniform way of doing it. calling a cartridge "7.62mm x 39mm" is more of a European way of doing things. Calling it a "caliber" by using fractions of inches (.45, .40) is more of a US thing.

And that's it. It's really no more complicated than that. Also be aware the the name of a cartridge isn't always it's exact size either. like what this guys said, >>33021114

also, to clear up a common misconception, calling something a "magnum" means nothing. there are some "magnum" rounds that are very powerful, and other's that are not. usually a "magnum" round is just an powered up version of another cartridge, but it can still be low power, like a .22 magnum. And remember that the numbers in the name of a cartridge only tell you what it is, now how powerful it is. Accuracy and power are not really related to the names of bullets.

also, go buy a gun, faggot

>>33020889
And then you get to shotguns which are usually named as a fraction of a pound of lead: 12ga was originally sized to handle 1/12 pound of lead, 10ga 1/10 pound, etc. Cartridge names are weird.

>>33021255
Also, old school elephant guns were technically shotguns. They were smooth bore side by side that shot brass cased slugs measured in gauge, from 10 all the way down to 2

>>33021316
Just because it was measured by the gauge does not make it a shotgun.

>>33021057
>baby long wrists

And they still had to go back to the 9mm

>>33021357
The smooth bore makes it a shotgun. Rifles got their name because of the rifling

>>33021397
Elephant guns were rifled. Lack of rifling also does not make something a shotgun.

>>33021252
Yeah the .17hmr is proof. Faster than a 22wmr, hits harder that a 22lr. Fucking love that round. I want one so bad.

>>33021415
Old school elephant guns were not rifled and yes, it does.

Unless you're talking about artillery, 'smooth bore' is actually interchangeable with 'shotgun'

>>33021397
Shotguns got their name because they fired shot...

>>33021450
>>33021457
Let's agree to disagree and call them boom sticks

>>33021450
Old school elephant guns were rifled. Some had smooth bore sections to also fire shot somewhat okay but they all had rifling.
Shotguns are those guns designed for shot.
Smooth bore firearms that did not fire shot were called muskets and were quite popular.

>>33021485
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_bore

>>33021100
>You can fire .223 out of a 9mm
Double-Aught post confirms. I'll come back and tell you the results.

>>33020917
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.O._Ackley All the ones made by this dude

I especially love: .22 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer

The Mach 4.2 bullet

>>33021526
It's remarkably unremarkable

>>33021485
A musket is a gun that is long enough to serve, en masse and with a bayonet, in a pike square. A smoothbore gun of a more reasonable length would usually just be called a gun (long gun, coach gun) or by some, more descriptive, moniker (fowler, musketoon, blunderbuss).

>>33021084
Ah I see. That makes much more sense. Thanks anon.

>>33022385
Also didnt know this either. Thank you