Quote:
Originally posted by Strange Famous
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, the 9mm, .38, and .357 all use the same 'size' bullets. 9mm is .357 inches, and the .38 is a matter of semantics so that cartridges could have different names.
These different rounds evolved over time, with the .38 revolver rounds appearing first, many many years ago. But these were percieved to be 'underpowered." However, it was not practical to make those cartridges more powerfull, because they would likely blow up the guns made for lower pressures. So the .357 magnum was invented.....It's 'almost' the same as the .38 special, but is a little bit longer so that it won't fit in the older .38 special revolvers. They chanced the name to .357 (I think it happenned that way) to avoid confusion. You can shoot .38 special rounds in a .357 magnum gun, but not the other way around.
The 9mm is the autoloading equivalent of the .38 special. The cartridge is shorter, and does not have a rim.
The other cartridges are intended to address specific 'needs' and often stick around simply because a lot of guns were produced to shoot them before something else became available. For instance, .32 ACP was popular before the more powerfull .380 auto became widely available....coincidentally, .380 auto is another 9mm/357/38 round. It is used in small, concealable automatic pistols.