BORE - CALIBRE - GAUGE ..

'BB' used to be my school boy fantasy ..

Brigette Bardot - Better Looking than Elon Musk:

The population of America is around 350 Million while Elon Musk is said to be worth $420 BILLION - that means he could give every man, woman, child, and baby $1,000 each to ease their hardships AND still walk away with $70 Billion to continue using his genius to enrich the world further ..

Yeah well you can take it from me that I might be an 'Old Bore' .. which is something like a "Fud" - but this piece started when I saw a gun described as a "50 Bore" and I wondered was this a .50 inch caliber or was it a .44" (.45") smoothbore which is 50 bore (- many 44s are 45s - but a 44 Magnum measures .429 inch !). Like many things in American society - nothing much is what it is presented as being. - American pork/beef  Hotdogs are made from dyed and flavored waste chicken & turkey slush.

I do not recomend going down this numbers game rabbit hole on Google as much confusion exists there. - I am trying to get this clear in my head - not just to be a smart prick ..

BALLS

Commonly we now use BORE & GAUGE interchangeably as meaning the same thing. It is a reference to the size of the inner diameter of the hole bored through a gun's barrel .. BUT this is NOT a linear measurement - but rather it is a "multiplicative inverse" of the weight of a spherical ball of lead as a fraction of a pound weight .. 

SO - a 1 Gauge is a gun bored to accept a ball weighing 1 Pound

a 2 Gauge is bored to use balls that come two to the pound .. (1/2 a pound)

a 4 Gauge uses leaden balls each weighing 1/4 of a pound .. four to the pound

The conversion of this, balls into a linear measurement, is complicated crap and there is a basic formula ..

- That's best ignored .. as the actual size measurement takes no interest in whether the ball is to be naked or PATCHED .. or how thick the patch material is recommended - OR if the gun is to be used with SHOT  or is it - as a Shotgun - to be 'Back Bored' to improve performance. - Or is it a rifled bore ..

Consider: A 12 Gauge Shotgun bore will vary between .720"-.740" whereas the British 'Brown Bess'  Musket started at around .750 inch (using .70 patched balls) but would grow bigger up to .80 inch caliber as they were re-bored after rough use.

You need a table to consult as to which BORE or GAUGE relates to what size hole you've got for example a '50 BORE' gun has it's smooth-bored barrel measuring internally .453 inch. approximately.

Here is a good page with Tables ..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauge_(firearms)

CALIBER or CALIBRE is a true measure of that hole size BUT it might not be the actual size of the NAMED size as these are nominated according not only the bore but also the brass shell case size and capacity.

e.g. There are around TWENTY different power 30 caliber rifles and they don't all use the same sized bullets.

And 'rifling' only compounds the issues as some rifles are christened after their GROOVE diameters while others are sized from their LANDS. 

Then there was METRIFICATION ..

I mean for gawd's sake - the planet's politicians can't even sort-out which side of the road to drive on.

Ridiculous .. and - how the hell did my gorgeous Brigitte Bardot get to be 90 years old ?

Are You Fit and Proper?

Are NZ Police 'FIT AND PROPER PERSONS'?

FIREARMS LICENCES FOR NZ POLICE.

Marty K.