• alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    Metric was too confusing for bullets, so we use both, and but neither of them are actually the diameter of the bullet, most of the time.

    .223" is the same diameter as 5.56mm (which is 5.7mm across), but if you use 5.56 in a 223, it might kill you.

    223 in 556 is fine, might fail to cycle.

      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        556 was the measure of the inner diameter of the rifling of a barrel of a gun that shot 556.

        Metric is confusing. That’s why for most shotguns, we measure the width by the number of lead spheres of that diameter that would equal one lb, eg a 12 gauge shotgun is the diameter of a 1/12lb sphere of lead.

        Nobody knows how big 18.53 mm is, but everyone knows what a 12 gauge shell looks like.

        Oh, and gun powder is measured in grains, maybe early smokeless pellets were about the same size as grains of wheat.

        • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Grains as a measure of weight comes from the Troy weight system, think Troy ounce of gold. It is a very old system that for a long time was mostly used by apothecaries and probably has its origins in Ancient Rome.

          • bluewing@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            Grains Apothecary is used to measure powder charge weight is because it was a “fine” enough scale for measuring small amounts of things that if you get it even a tiny bit wrong, can kill you. So, ammunition manufacturer’s looked around and scales used for accurately measuring small amounts of drugs were commonly available, so they went with that.

            Cool side point: Powder charges are checked by weight and dosed out, (or thrown), by volume as it has always been done since the first gonnes were a thing.

      • Dr. Coomer@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Maybe the original was 5.56mm and some dumbass decide “nah, not enough b u l l e t, better make it 5.7mm.”

        • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          OK, so there is a 5.7mm, that’s the same diameter as 5.56/.223, but it’s not compatible with either because of the french.

            • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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              7 months ago

              Kinda?

              The case is both shorter and narrower than 556/223, so it won’t even sit right in anything not designed for it. But FN makes quite a few guns that use it.

    • bluewing@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Even the “metric” measurements for firearms ain’t necessarily true measurements either. Lots of them get rounded off or simply depend on just how they made the measurement to start with, (land to land or groove to groove). In any case a bullet diameter is almost always going to be just a tiny bit larger than actual bore size for modern cartridge bullets.