Why are there so many gun models using the same calibre? Doesn’t the bullet determine most of the lethality and range, while the gun is just the vehicle that fires it?
In: Physics
I feel like this question is massively indicative of the way many people think about guns. Nothing against OP at all, but the use of guns varies between a huge swath of uses, from very specific personal defense scenarios, to hunting, to a huge variety of competitive disciplines. Different guns are designed for different things. One caliber can handle many different jobs, but it’s The characteristics of the gun launching it that make all the difference. You wouldn’t use a 24 inch barreled 5.56 gun for personal defense in your vehicle because it’s too damn big and you’d never get it pointing at your target from inside of a vehicle, but, you wouldn’t use a short-barreled 5.56 gun for long range precision, because you’re losing so much velocity with the short barrel and your round is going to slow down too much by the time it reaches a distant target. There are design considerations for size, weight, reliability, ergonomics, features, aptness for certain environments, aesthetics, velocity, accuracy, and any other number of considerations, not to mention, patents! Some people would even be shocked to see the vast array of different bullet components just within a single caliber! There are currently dozens, if not hundreds of different .223 bullets available on the market currently, and that’s just the bullet. Never mind the primer types, the powders used, or the casing. You could hand load a .223 cartridge in any one of thousands of combinations. People literally will hand load specific rounds for their specific gun. Not just their particular model of gun, but that specific barrel in that specific action, on their specific gun. Unfortunately, the general public only knows about guns from TV, movies, and video games, but that doesn’t give an accurate picture of the real shooting world. It’s easy to see, how some people can spend their entire lives shooting, amass a massive knowledge base, and never get bored.
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