Quote:
Just listening to rap, there are so many different sizes of gun...
9mm
.22
.44
.357
.50
.38
Jadakiss has over half of these guns on just one track! (Jada's Gotta Gun)
I mean, to me, it would make more sense just to have one or two different sizes, so that way ammo would be cheaper and easier to get. Are there any other sizes I missed out?
And what is the smallest a gun could be before it just wouldnt actually do much damage, and the biggest it could be, before it wasnt a gun anymore, and was a cannon or a rocket launcher or something?
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Well, to use proper terminology, you’re asking why there are so many different calibers.
But to answer the question, different calibers are developed to try to address different needs or percieved needs for different uses. When someone percieves a new need, they develop a new caliber, such as Hornady’s new .17 round. Other calibers go out of style and may disappear altogether, like some of the .44 rounds from early last century.
Different needs may center around accuracy, number of rounds a particular firearm can hold, velocity, energy transferred to target, intended target, and so on.
And yes, you barely scratched the surface with those calibers. For one thing, .22 comes in .22 short, .22 magnum, .22 hornet, and .22 long flavors. And you haven’t even touched the regular rifle rounds.
Now “damage” is a catch all term and doesn’t really mean anything without qualifiers. Do you mean kill a person? Do you mean killing a coyote or skunk? Do you mean breaking some bottles at the range? Because technically, any device that propels a bullet down a tube is a gun. This means an air gun is still a gun, and some of those Daisy’s can hold enough charge to pierce a human skull, let alone a ground hog or rat. So shot placement becomes very important to a “damage” question.
If you are asking about practical usage (self defense), most people will argue that a decent self defense caliber starts at a 9mm and goes up. But I’ve got a Beretta 950 that shoots .22 shorts that personally I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of.
On the other end of the spectrum, it becomes what is too large to work with. Most people thought that the .44 magnum would be the most powerful hand gun round ever made, and then Smith and Wesson introduced their .500. It’s a specialized round and the gun isn’t cheap, but some owners find a use for it (hunting big game) while others just like the cache. Personally, I’ll buy an H&K USP .45 before I get a S&W .500. But that’s just me.
On the rifle end, it is the same. What can a person handle? Size wise, there have been calibers larger than a .50 BMG rifle (rifles during the civil war shot a larger bullet), but power wise, this rifle is at the top end. Could someone make something bigger? Yes. But would there be a market and could they make a profit? That is the question.
But seriously, gang bangers don’t know sh** about guns. They go for flash, not substance. So I would advise you NOT get your information about guns from them.