“Caliber confused”

[thorborg]

Any caliber is better than no caliber.
especially when you are old and can't outrun a dust bunny.

 

[Ruger Rich]

No I will not be drawn into a best pistol cartridge debate again.
No I will not be drawn into a best pistol cartridge debate again.
No I will not be drawn into a best pistol cartridge debate again.
No I will not be drawn into a best pistol cartridge debate again.
No I will not be drawn into a best pistol cartridge debate again.
No I will not be drawn into a best pistol cartridge debate again.
No I will not be drawn into a best pistol cartridge debate again....

My blackboard's bigger than your blackboard !

 

[Flopsweat]

My blackboard's bigger than your blackboard !

Do you use regular or dustless chalk? You're not one of those chalk snobs who only uses a chalk pen are you?

 

[Ruger Rich]

Do you use regular or dustless chalk? You're not one of those chalk snobs who only uses a chalk pen are you?

Regular chalk only for me, and I have more than you do.

 

[1775usmc]

This debate has been going on for years and will continue to do so. There is no confusion really, carry and shoot what you shoot the best. It's really that easy.

Wrong..... The answer is always 9mm. Lol.

 

[tac]

The calibre question was always a very easy one for me - and I never gave it a moment's thought when I was carrying my service-issue 9mm pistol. I trained and trained and trained and TRAINED my actions for 'just-in-case'. My pistol held 13+1 and was carried with the hammer down. In case of need I'd be attempting to put a large number of rounds smack bang in the middle of the face in front of me, in the sure and certain knowledge that some of them were going to sting like crazy, particularly as they passed through the mouth and directly into the medulla oblongata - the 'off-switch'.

I saw a few people that had had this method of quietening down administered to them, and talking to the people who had done the administering, it rarely took more than four or five to the face drop them in their footprints.

My all-time favourite occurrence took place when a well-known gunman decided to use a local phone booth, sadly for him, just as a bunch of our black-hand gang drove by, all tooled up with HK MP5Ks...this delightful device, still greatly loved by my generation, has a three round fire selector, and by the time that four of them had emptied all their ready ammunition in the phone booth it was only about a foot high and smoking. The former occupant looked as though he had been tattooed head to foot with leopard spots, called florettes , which, as you know, can often appear as a three-dot cluster...very arty, noted the ME. He counted no less than 68 of these endearing little clusters on the cooling cadaver.

As he noted wryly - any of the thirty-something shots to the head would likely have done it, but when ammunition is free then you can afford to be generous, right?

 

[DirectDrive]

Holy schitt.
What a way to assume sidewalk temperature.

The first time I recall seeing an MP5 in action was in a newsreel of the Tet Offensive.
Plainclothes guy (maybe CIA) was spraying inside one of the buildings taken over by the VC.

 

[JuglansRegia]

The .357 magnum is the "gold standard" handgun chambering if you don't trust your fellow man, everything else is just a compromise. I don't think it ever lost its reputation as the best one shot show stopper, back in the day it was the famous Remington 125gr semi jacketed hollow point that was hard to top. Here are some in the 140gr flavor.

 

[Deerhurst]

All y'all are missing the obvious! 7.62x25 is obviously the best!

 

[SrMachoSolo]

Caliber confused... I think this happens most often to women when they are at college. At least that's what I've been told.

-Robert

 

[gmerkt]

Cartridge = What your firearm is chambered for
Caliber = Diameter of bullet (projectile)

We have to discipline ourselves to use the correct terms. I like the word "chambering" for a specific round for a firearm.

Another thing, you don't use ".30 caliber," it's, "30 caliber" if you're going to include the word. Without the word, you simply use the decimal, ".30"

Some people don't know that "caliber" is defined as 1/100th of an inch. The decimal tells you it's 30/100ths, so you don't need the decimal and the word caliber together. ".30 caliber" would be 3/1000th of an inch, technically.

These things seem picky, but if we are going to sound halfway knowledgeable, it's good to get them straight.

 

[JuglansRegia]

We have to discipline ourselves to use the correct terms. I like the word "chambering" for a specific round for a firearm.

Another thing, you don't use ".30 caliber," it's, "30 caliber" if you're going to include the word. Without the word, you simply use the decimal, ".30"

Some people don't know that "caliber" is defined as 1/100th of an inch. The decimal tells you it's 30/100ths, so you don't need the decimal and the word caliber together. ".30 caliber" would be 3/1000th of an inch, technically.

These things seem picky, but if we are going to sound halfway knowledgeable, it's good to get them straight.

Strong copy, so the perfect "chambering" would be .357 magnum L14

 

[DirectDrive]

We have to discipline ourselves to use the correct terms. I like the word "chambering" for a specific round for a firearm.

Another thing, you don't use ".30 caliber," it's, "30 caliber" if you're going to include the word. Without the word, you simply use the decimal, ".30"

Some people don't know that "caliber" is defined as 1/100th of an inch. The decimal tells you it's 30/100ths, so you don't need the decimal and the word caliber together. ".30 caliber" would be 3/1000th of an inch, technically.

These things seem picky, but if we are going to sound halfway knowledgeable, it's good to get them straight.

Proper nomenclature.

 

[gmerkt]

Proper nomenclature.

I remember those days. Same rifles, even. They didn't say 30 Caliber, they said 7.62mm on the receiver heels. Only I didn't have R. Lee Ermey, I had PSG Seacrest. But just as big of a ball-buster. We had five platoons in my BCT company. Four of them had young, short-timer drill sergeants. I got the remaining platoon with a hard-core lifer. CIB worn over the left pocket with two stars = combat infantryman in three wars. We were out running every morning in the dark before the other platoons were even awake. And last in the breakfast chow line.

That movie, "Full Metal Jacket," the first half I felt was very realistic at least in my own experience of army recruit life. Even the weird stuff, like the guy putting the muzzle of an M14 in his mouth and pulling the trigger, certainly not an impossibility. BCT is the first stop in the army; not all the misfits have yet been weeded out. It's a process. We had lots of guys wash out of my BCT company for all kinds of reasons.

The second half of the movie, highly ficticious and I never watched it a second time.

 

[Flopsweat]

We have to discipline ourselves to use the correct terms. I like the word "chambering" for a specific round for a firearm.

Another thing, you don't use ".30 caliber," it's, "30 caliber" if you're going to include the word. Without the word, you simply use the decimal, ".30"

Some people don't know that "caliber" is defined as 1/100th of an inch. The decimal tells you it's 30/100ths, so you don't need the decimal and the word caliber together. ".30 caliber" would be 3/1000th of an inch, technically.

These things seem picky, but if we are going to sound halfway knowledgeable, it's good to get them straight.

Just like "$". This -> $ <- is a "dollar" sign. It means the same thing as "dollars". You wouldn't say five dollars dollars and you don't say $5 dollars.

<whew> Been holding that one in for a while.

 

[Capn Jack]

The calibre question was always a very easy one for me - and I never gave it a moment's thought when I was carrying my service-issue 9mm pistol. I trained and trained and trained and TRAINED my actions for 'just-in-case'. My pistol held 13+1 and was carried with the hammer down. In case of need I'd be attempting to put a large number of rounds smack bang in the middle of the face in front of me, in the sure and certain knowledge that some of them were going to sting like crazy, particularly as they passed through the mouth and directly into the medulla oblongata - the 'off-switch'.

I saw a few people that had had this method of quietening down administered to them, and talking to the people who had done the administering, it rarely took more than four or five to the face drop them in their footprints.

My all-time favourite occurrence took place when a well-known gunman decided to use a local phone booth, sadly for him, just as a bunch of our black-hand gang drove by, all tooled up with HK MP5Ks...this delightful device, still greatly loved by my generation, has a three round fire selector, and by the time that four of them had emptied all their ready ammunition in the phone booth it was only about a foot high and smoking. The former occupant looked as though he had been tattooed head to foot with leopard spots, called florettes , which, as you know, can often appear as a three-dot cluster...very arty, noted the ME. He counted no less than 68 of these endearing little clusters on the cooling cadaver.

As he noted wryly - any of the thirty-something shots to the head would likely have done it, but when ammunition is free then you can afford to be generous, right?

tac,
That's what the Sheriff said when the reporter asked him why the perp was shot 37 times.....Because that's all of the ammunition we had.

 

[CLT65]

Discussions of caliber and nomenclature can get confusing when talking to a Navy salt who knows something about the big guns. A friend once asked me if I had dies to reload some 5"/38 caliber rounds. No, I don't think I could afford gunpowder by the carload.

The term "Caliber" is commonly understood and accepted to refer to bore diameter in hundredths of an inch, but if you really want to be technical, all the word really means is "size" or "measurement", with no real regard for any particular unit of measurement. Digging into the etymology of the word, it's clear that it would actually be technically correct to say .45" caliber or 9mm caliber, even though it sounds wrong.

When it comes to naval guns, though, it refers to barrel length. A 5"/38 caliber gun had a 5" bore, and a barrel that is 38 calibers long, or 38x5", about 16'.

 

[edzz]

Just like "$". This -> $ <- is a "dollar" sign. It means the same thing as "dollars". You wouldn't say five dollars dollars and you don't say $5 dollars.

<whew> Been holding that one in for a while.

And where did the 500$ crap come from? In the French speaking sections of Canada I get it, but in the United States the $ sign belongs in front of the number... Is this what happens when teachers unionize?

 

[NoMeat 2]

Caliber as defined in Hornady Illustratated glossary: "The diameter of a bullet or other projectile in decimals of an inch or millimeters ; the nominal or approximate diameter of a bore expressed similarly." Also as CLT 65 above when referring to Naval or Coastal defense guns.
Cartridge: Primer. Cartridge Case, Primer, Smokeless Powder (or black), and bullet.
Cartridges and caliber discussion here not so critical, but when politicians commonly speak of, or make laws concerning such things, and are enforced accordingly words and definitions matter.
Kind of like referring to clips and magazines as the same.
Seems most important to me that having a handgun that fits your hand is more critical than cartridge it's chambered for, sights, or type. Point and shoot, accurately.

 

[CLT65]

I had to chuckle a while back when I saw a reference in a news article to a ".40 mm handgun".