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Before the 1850s, almost all firearms were of the muzzle-loading type, and virtually all firearms fired round lead balls.

With regards to modern firearms, the word “caliber” carries with it a couple of important qualities that today are distinct and can cause confusion, but which stem from a relatively recent change in the fundamental nature of small arms technology.

50 caliber barrel has a mighty big hole at the end. As a sidenote, the word caliper, referring to a tool used to measure span, seems to be a derivative of the firearms-related word caliber.Į.g. As the firearm was developed, this term made its way through Arabic, Tuscan, Middle French, and then Early Modern English, to become the modern day word caliber, which now means many things from “quality” to “measurement”. At some point, it seems, this term was applied by way of analogy to bullet molds, likely initially with regards to lead sling bullets. It goes all the way back to the Greek καλαπουσ (kalapous), referring to the hard wooden objects used by shoemakers to mold leather into shoes. : What caliber is this cleaning rod?Ĭaliber is perhaps one of the oldest words in the firearms lexicon.

As you have already realized, this first episode will deal with the history and usage of the word “caliber”.ġ : the diameter of a round or cylindrical bodyĮ.g. For the first few installments, we’ll be exploring some very introductory subjects, but hopefully with enough depth that even those readers already familiar will get something out of it, still. Today I begin a series of posts on basic ballistics, and the theory behind them, both external (how a bullet flies through the air) and terminal (how a bullet penetrates a target). 308 caliber bullets), but paradoxically they are all also different calibers (they aren’t interchangeable with one another). All of these cartridges are the same caliber (they all use. Title image: From left to right are the 7.65 Parabellum, 7.63 Mauser. It can mean a lot of different things, but when we use it, what does it really mean, and what’s its significance?