On Tue, 7 Nov 2017 07:54:36 -0800 (PST), rangerssuck wrote:

The recent argument over .223 and 5.56 in another thread has reminded me of a question that's been lingering in the back of my mind for a while: Where do these oddball sizes come from? I understand (pretty much) what they mean, but what the hell, did somebody wake up one morning and decide that .22 (and where did THAT come from) is like a tenth of a percent too small, so I'll start manufacturing .223?

Or did someone turn some stuff on his lathe and measure it afterwards?

There MUST be some interesting stories in there somewhere.

PS: The only things I have fired a
22 (why not 20 or 25?)
38 (why not 35 or 40?)
177 pellet (why not 175 or 200 or even 180?)
9mm (because 8 was too small and 10 was too big?)

In Olde times (Older than you and me ;-) ) barrels were made by hand,
with hand tools, by the same guy who made the rest of the gun... the
bullet diameter could end up being anything within the size range of
what the weapons was purposed for. The smith would make a custom
bullet mold for that specific gun.

In modern times -- with mass production, there's far more
standardization; but if you inestigate, I think you'll find that there
still are a lot of oddball calibers... sometimes as a marketing ploy,
sometimes because a govenment, or somene, wanted to achive a particlar
"engineered" result .

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