Question /k/ At what point does a bullet stop being a bullet

>>33955087
Technically speaking, a bullet is any projectile fired from a gun, or at least designed to be.

Generally artillery and cannons are considered such when calibers are in excess of an inch or so. Exception are grenade launchers, which sort of get their own class.

>>33955087
20mm

>>33955087
Generally, under 50BMG is small arms. 50 to 14.5mm is heavy machine guns, 20mm to 40mm is autocannon usually, but can include some slightly larger rounds. Bigger becomes artillery.

>>33955087
It's pretty arbitrary.

at the point where it is being fired out of a gun with a designated role as an artillery piece.

>>33955144
This.

>>33955087
If the gun recoil causes instant PTSD, it's either 1) artillery, or 2) a clear indicator to turn in your man card and start shopping for feminine napkins

when it's only capable of being fired from a cannon (not a rifle)

>TFW no single shot break action 30x173 mm rifle

>>33955087
When the round is bigger than your dick.

If it needs a crew.... it is artillery.
If the powder charge is loaded separately, it is artillery.

When it has a fuze, or goes above .50.

>>33955087
Typically after .50 it turns into a cannon round. An argument can be made either way for 14.5 though

>>33957131
> crew served


Captain Pedantic reporting in, but wouldn't that qualify the M2 as artillery?

I would say a .50 is an artillery piece in proper military application.

When I was trained on the M82, it was a crew served weapon and we shot it well past engagement ranges of a human sized target. The M107 and how it's employed now seems to be more of an anti personnel weapon.

In 1994 we trained to shoot at radar dishes, trucks, SCUDs, CIWS, artillery pieces, weak points on tanks like optical systems and so on. We never really thought of it as a weapon you shoot at people with, and the ranges we employed it at we were lobbing the rounds in like a mortar round. A fantastic group would be like 7 yards across at those ranges. We used to shoot 10x10 foot targets at like 2-3km and even hitting it was considered a success. The entire magazine of 10 rounds was considered a single "shot" or engagement. So if you fired 10 rounds and hit it 3-4 times it was considered a kill.

I guess the school of thought has changed.
t. oldfag

>>33955087
Per US law, basically anything above 12.7mm/.50 caliber is considered to have "no sporting purpose" and is therefore a "destructive device" and a lot of people equate this with being a cannon or artillery.

There's of course exemptions, like .600 Nitro Express, .577 Tyran, .700 Express, .959 JDJ, and shotgun slugs.

The US Military broadly defines "Small Arms":

"Handguns, shoulder-fired weapons, light automatic weapons up to and including 12.7mm machine guns, recoilless rifles up to and including 106mm, mortars up to and including 81mm, man-portable rocket launchers, rifle-/shoulder-fired grenade launchers, and individually operated weapons that are portable or can be fired without special mounts or firing devices and that have potential use in civil disturbances and are vulnerable to theft."
>>33957292

An M240 as well.

>>33957307
Oh and by the way we only shot ball in training. In combat we would shoot HE, AP, shaped charges, incendiary, or even sabots.

>>33957307

Well, it's original purpose was engagement of material.
When sold to Sweden in 1988/89, the Swedish purpose was to give the Swedish army a reserve of weapons that could engage material at 500 meters and destroy BMPs and BTRs from the sides and rear, and damage radar stations and missiles with their rangers and other special forces. Mostly they were going to be hunting S-200/S-300s and Tors and their radar stations.
It's a fairly recent phenom to be used against personnel. The M82 isn't even really accurate past 800m with standard ball munition.
It's not really artillery in the traditional sense but yeah, it's not a normal small arm.

t. Also an oldfag.

When it becomes too painful to insert the complete cartridge into your asshole.