Cartridge names?

[bullcan]

I am curious if anyone hear know how they get names for the cartridges. For instance, the 270 win or the 243 rem, does the win or rem part of the name mean that winchester and remington developed the caliber?

[Solitary Man]

The Win. or Rem. name doesn't necessarily mean they developed the CARTRIDGE (not caliber), though they could have.Chances are a wildcatterdid it first. More than likely it means they were the first to commercialize it and put it on the market for public consumption.

[ShatoDavis]

First off Its 243 win.

Second Yes in some case you are correct, the win or rem does denote who designed it. But not always. Naming cartridges is an inexact science at best. I won't even go into the "magnum" nomenclature, wildcats.

[trailer]

You might find this of some interest... www.chuckhawks.com/cartridge_timeline.htm ...

[FastShootingCarts]

More great info from Chuck Hawks.

[bigbulls]

Read, Read, and Read some more.

There are four basic ways that most, but not all, cartridges are named as far as the number is concerned.

#1 is the groove diameter of the barrel/ the actual diameter of the bullet. The groove diameter is the distance across the inside of the barrel that is the widest. An example would be the .308 Winchester. The groove diameter as well as the bullet diameter is .308 thousandths of an inch.

#2 is the bore diameter. Bore diameter is the distance from rifleing to rifleing or another way to put it is the size of the hole in the barrel before the rifleing is cut. This is the shortest distance from one side of the inside of the barrel to the other. An example is a 300 magnum. While the 300 uses the same bullet as the .308 Winchester it is named a 300 because each side of the rifleing is 4 thousandths of an inch tall. Double this number for each side of the barrel and you get 8 thousandths. Subtract 8 thousandths from 308 thousandths and you get 300 thousandths of an inch.

#3. They pull a number out of the sky. An exampole of this would be a 44 Remington Magnum. If one didn't know you would guess that the bullet diameter would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 440 thousandths of an inch but in fact it is only .429 thousandths of an inch. So it should really be called a 42 or 43 magnum. But I guess that doesn't sound as cool as 44 magnum.

#4 is cartridges like the 30-06. 30 meaning 30 caliber and 06 meaning the year that it was adopted in its final form... 1906.




The names associated with the cartridges are......

If it is a manufacturer the they are usually the ones responsible for commercializing the cartridge and possibly inventing it. Such as the .308 Winchester, 280 Remington, 40 S&W, .357 Sig, .480 Ruger etc...

If a persons name is attached then that person is usually the one responsible for actually inventing or creating it before it was ever commercialized. Such as the 416 Rigby, 257 Roberts, 7-30 Waters, 35 Whelen, etc...

[Duffy]

Just to add
A lot of european cartridges have names like 7 X 57 or 6.5 X 55. These mean the bullet dia. in mm (7mm) X the case length in mm (57mm).

Often if a cartridge came about as a "wild cat" (some one modified a cartridge by making the neck bigger or smaller [necking up or down] then loading a larger or smaller dia. bullet in the case) then the name will be (in North America) the new bullet dia. then the old or parent cartridge. As in 7mm/08 (a .308 necked down to take a 7mm bullet) or a .25/06.

Down here in Australia they use the old .303 british cartridge a lot. And they neck it down to .25 cal. but call it a .303/25. A favorite round for shooting kangaroos.

Some British rounds arenamed (parent cartridge)/(bullet or bore dia.)

Robin

[Hairtrigger]

I bought an old Savage 99 because I thought the 250/300 was a cool cartridge name!!
Metric cartridges tend to be quite boring in their names (dia and length)

[longrifle1000]

Some also get their names from the nomenclature of the cartridge. 45-70, it is .45 caliber, and originally held 70 grains of black powder.

[bullcan]

Great info, thanks for the replies!