Educate me!

P

Pond James Pond

New member
I'm interested in what different rifle calibres are good for.

I doesn't help that the various calibres mean nothing to me, but I gather that ".308" seems a favourite, but what are they all good for?

What are their qualities?
What are their weaknesses?

My curiousity beckons!
I should mention I have a permit to buy one!! :D
 
How do you eat an elephant?

Subtitled: "Are you pulling our legs?"

No way to begin to answer your question.
Rifles vary from .17 to 600 nitro and that is not all inclusive. With a rifle, you can target shoot or kill any animal on the face of the earth including man.
What are you interested in?
What do you see yourself using a rifle for?
That may narrow down responses to a manageable sector.

Your question sort of reads like. "I am thinking about going on vacation; tell me about planet earth"

I included a wiki link for the heck of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifle

Get "Hatcher's Notebook"

decide what area of the sport you are interested in, start educating yourself.

Then, ask a few more concise questions.
 
If you have ever played golf you may understand that different rifle cartridges are like a bag of golf clubs...you can play the whole game with just one club if you want to, but most people feel that a better game can be played if they have a bag containing many different clubs. So it is with rifles, you can just about use a single gun for all shooting, but it gives more comfort to be able to choose one that the person shooting thinks gives some advantage over another, albeit sometimes slight.
 
Hmmm.
Point taken.
When I said "educate me" you can see that I need it!

OK: uses would be target shooting mainly.
Possibly shooting a spot of lunch if I can bring myself to pull the trigger (I'm a lover, not a fighter :p): no more than rabbits etc.

I should note that I should be getting hold of two family guns in the next 6 months: a 12 (semi) and 16 ga (single shot). They are old. But if they work, I may only want a rifle for targets. (My guess is you'll say .22LR)

However, more generally speaking, taking the top 5 rifle cartridges in terms of likely popularity, rifles being bolt action or semis: what cartridges might they be, so I can at least research them a bit.
 
there are way too many to name for specific purposes, it's easier to name a specific caliber and list the uses. I'll list off a few of the big ones.

7.62x39mm
this is a heavy bullet with a light charge behind it. it is suited for close range self defense and close range hunting of up to deer sized game.

5.56x45mm(223)
is able to be accurate up to 1000 meter shots. it is usually called underpowered even as a self defense round but any hunters(myself included) have had no issues taking up to deer sized game with it.

7.62x51mm(308)
this is good round that can can be used for long range shots and is more than powerful enough for deer and most European large game.

303 brit
is a good deer rifle and hand loads are able to do long range shots with a great deal of accuracy.

7.62x54r is a lot along the same lines as 303 brit, except the ammo is normally cheaper and a lot of the surplus is corrosive
 
my shot at this:

caliber refers to diameter of the bullet. A 50 caliber would equal 1/2 inch, a 30 caliber would equal .3 of an inch, a 22 caliber would be .22 of an inch.

Most popular for "plinking" for me is the .22 LR. It is the cheapest to shoot. $20 will buy an afternoon of shooting.

Military calibers that are the most popular currently appear to be .223 (5.56) and 7.62x39. Your average "AR" rifle shoots the .223 or 5.56 and your average AK variant shoots the 7.62x39. These two have relatively cheap ammo for range shooting. .308 is a very popular cartridge that has seen use all over the world in the military. It is a great hunting round also, but not as cheap to shoot as the previously mentioned calibers.

Then, of course, you have MANY other rounds available depending what you want to use them for. Everything from little zipper rounds for varmints to big bruisers for elephants.

Shotguns are a different beast.
 
So...Lets see if I can help at all...If I had to narrow it down to 5 cartridges only, for the uses you specify I would have to think the list would look something like this..I will also go by widely available and relatively inexpensive as I think this would better suit you since it doesnt look like you are a handloader..

.308-Wildly popular and excellent all around cartridge, known for its inherant consistency (accurate). Was used in most sniper systems for decades and excellent for medium to large game . A great target round for medium to long range targets.

.270-Thought of by some to be a better cartridge than the 30-06 because its lighter projectile has a flatter trajectory. Also capable of medium to large game at long range, but is more susceptable to wind. A good sporting cartridge but not necessarily accepted as a "target" cartridge.

.243- a good accurate cartridge capable of taking medium game. With light recoil and accuracy are its main draws.

.223- Fast, lightweight projectile that can be extremely accurate out of a wide variety of weapons platforms, capable of long range target and varmint shooting. Cheap and widely available. Not recognized by most for game hunting anything other than afformentioned varmints.

.22 long rifle- Cheap, cheap, cheap..And very accurate out to about 100 yards. Rifles chambered for it are generally inexpensive, yet reliable and accurate. Capable of taking varmints and great for an inexperienced shooter to learn the basics.

Thats the facts as I see them, hope it helps
 
And the basic "magnums" are just the above cartridges but using more powder to shoot flatter and longer range. Much more recoil also.
 
Either spend a lifetime researching various calibers or just go out and buy a 30.06. By the time you understand that caliber, you will be on your way to understanding the basics of all hunting calibers.
 
You have asked a legitimate question. Your best bet is to pick up any of the major reloading manuals. All the good ones have a cartridge diagram and they are sorted by caliber, smallest to largest, and there is a lot to be learned by simply reading through the book. It's also very interesting.

I recently had my daughter enrolled in a gun safety class through 4-H with the primary emphasis on safe gun handling. They start with an air rifle and move up through the ranks so to speak, she just finished the 22 rimfire course as a next step after air rifle. The course material covers a lot of different topics and they encourage parental participation.

But to illustrate my ramblings ... I took in a bunch of different dummy rounds to use as show and tell. I showed a family of 22 caliber cartridges all of which shot a 22 caliber bullet (.224") but with different names and case sizes (218 Bee, 22 Hornet, 221 Fireball, 222 Rem, 223 Rem, 22-250). The guy that was teaching the course was not a reloader and did not know all those cartridges used the same caliber bullet. He assumed because they had different numbers in the name they shot different size bullets.

22calcartridges.jpg


Another illustration showed different calibers built on the same parent cartridge. Example: A 30-06 can be necked up and down with the shoulder placed in a slightly different position as a safety measure to keep people from using them in the wrong gun. All these are based on the 30-06 parent case - 25-06 Rem, 270 Win, 284 Rem (7mm-06), 30-06, 8mm-06, 35 Whelen. You find the same thing with the 308 parent case and the belted magnums. This was news to the 4-H instructor too. I have since gifted him my dummy rounds he uses as an educational tool for his young students.

There is plenty of room for confusion. Don't feel you asked a dumb question.
 
I see you use The Queens English as in "favourite" and "calibre" and you need a permit to own a rifle. I am assuming you live outside the U.S.. What calibers can you readily purchase where you live?
 
He doesn't need to buy a book, the link I posted above has a list of damn near all rifle cartridges, with links to descriptions of most.

Even for someone who has been shooting a long time, it is an easy way to kill a couple hours.
 
Where to start?

There are "rifle types" which could be considered to group rifles by their "action" or receiver type, ie, bolt action, lever, semi-auto, pump, etc.

Then there are rifle "calibers" or the cartridge for which the rifle is chambered. This designation can vary and may be an expression of bore or projectile diameter, manufacturer, or metric measurment of bore dia and case length, or an "english measurement of bore diameter and some other element, say original powder charge when first introduced.
Some examples :

The .308 you refer to is a cartridge introduced in the US and is also known as the 7.62 x 51mm . The designation of .308 Winchester was attached when it was released as a sporting cartridge by that firm after initial trials as a military ctg. It is a reference to the bore dia (roughly speaking) and is representitive of a ".30 caliber" ctg.

The 7.62x39mm ctg you may see in print is a Russian (Soviet) assault rifle ctg that is also roughly .30 caliber and has a brass case 39mm in length as opposed to the .308's case which is 51mm in length.

There is a wide variety of designations. The 45-70 case is an early metallic cartridge, still popular, that was of .45 caliber (bore diameter) and initially held 70 grs of black powder.

It is a very wide field. Suggest you find a copy of "Cartridges of the World".
If the rifle bug has bit , you will not tire of reading it.
 
I'll play, sounds pretty fun.

Since you appear to live outside of the US, I would recommend .22lr, 6.5x55 and the 2 shotguns you mentioned. This will have your prepared for 95% of the shooting situations you will likely find yourself in.

.22lr - practice round, cheap entertainment, and great for rabbit and squirrels.
6.5x55 great for hunting most game at reasonable distances, great ballistics so you could shoot long range at targets (although precision rifles and hunting rifles typically not the same rifle). Its my understanding that is Europe's .30-06 based on popularity and all around usefulness.. might be wrong on that though.
12ga - self defense, hunting deer-sized game with buckshot
16ga - hunt birds pheasants with bird shot.

The only segment I don't see covered is hunting really big or dangerous game. Not really my area of expertise, but maybe something like a .375 H&H would be an option.
 
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