I’m not ignorant of firearms at all, but it strikes me as odd that in the 20th century, most firearms ended up using cartridges that are all more or less similar sized .30 caliber bullets, even pistols, although they tended be less powerful bullets due to smaller casings and less powder
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The change from .50 as the most common cartridge to .30 was due to the change from black powder to modern smokeless powder. The later burns faster and with more energy so you get a lot more energy in a smaller bullet. And the smaller caliber gives less air resistance so it goes further and more accuratly. So with the same length of barrel you end up with the same amount of energy in a .30 smokeless cartridge as in a .50 black powder cartridge but are able to shoot much further. This is why a lot of rifles were designed around very similar .30/8mm rifle cartridges.
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