Firearms Stack Exchange Archive

Overview of common rifles calibers in US

I’m kind of lost looking at all the different calibers available. Can someone list the common rifle calibers in an order like least powerful to most powerful, or grouped by application, or whatever makes sense? I don’t even know enough about them to know what a sensible way to compare them would be, so some sort of overview of the options would be very helpful.

Answer 1072

Here’s an attempt, although the term ‘powerful’ is ambiguous and calibers could be listed by size (bullet caliber), velocity, momentum (mass x velocity), or energy (mass x velocity^2)). Depending on what you’re doing each of these might make sense.

Caliber: is how most cartridge collectors organize their cartridges due to disputes in the other methodologies.

Velocity: is important to most shooters, but perhaps a key scale to target shooters who aren’t concerned with terminal performance. (Of course they’re also concerned with the bullets ballistic coefficient…)

Momentum: is a scale to those in the ‘mass is most important in terminal ballistics’ school of thought.

Energy: is the scale to the ‘shock effect’ school of thought in terminal ballistics.

Some principle rifle cartridges in the US in quasi-ranking of power: (velocities listed are representative, but differing loads and bullet weights will go either way).

  1. 22 LR - rimfire, small bullet, low (~ 1200 fps) velocity
  2. 30-30 - a .30 cal bullet, still lower velocity. An old black-powder cartridge it’s name means a 30 caliber bullet propelled by 30 grains of black powder.
  3. .223 - our common military small bore, high velocity cartridge. Pretty high energy, particularly for a tiny bullet. velocities ~3000 fps varying with bullet weight.
  4. .308 - our former small arms weapon caliber, and a popular hunting round good for most, if not all, North American big game. A .30 caliber bullet at velocities of ~2600 fps. Very comparable to the less common .300 Savage.
  5. .30-06 (The name meaning .30 caliber developed in 1906). Another old military cartridge. Uses a longer, heavier action than the .308 with only small gains in velocity. Think .30 bullet at ~2800 fps. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of cartridges that have been based on the venerable ‘06 (pronounced “ought six”).
  6. .45-70 Another old black-powder cartridge meaning a .45 caliber bullet with 70 grains of black powder, this is a big beast and commonly associated with the old buffalo hunters. A modern sibling is the 450 Marlin. It launches a very heavy, large slug at pretty good velocities (~1800 fps).
  7. .458 Winchester Another big bore, probably the most common heavy game (think Africa) cartridge that’s frequently seen in the US. A thumper to be sure.
  8. .50 BMG - a scaled up (1.667x) version of the .30-06, originally designed for heavy machine guns (and still used for such) but now popular for long range target shooting.

There are necessarily many omissions in the above list (including some popular foreign calibers like the 7.62x39 and 7.62x54R) and again, the velocities listed are for comparison you can find examples of higher velocities in any of those calibers.

Answer 1085

In addition to the rounds that Gene has mentioned, I think at least these two other common rounds should be added to the list, .270 and .243.

.270 caliber rounds are a relative of the common 30-06. If I remember correctly, they are a necked down version of that round. This caliber used for various types of large game from Antelopes and Sheep to Mule Deer and Moose. I have personally used it for Antelope, and White-Tail (As well as decided it was not the best round for prairie dogs).

.243 rounds are a necked down version of .308 caliber rounds. The round is often used, in the US, for Deer hunting as it is the minimum caliber allowed and is widely available. Due to the high muzzle velocities it has less drop than many other common rounds, but from personal experience is affected by cross winds more.

As a sidenote, 45-70’s are really fun to target shoot! Though only a couple shots per afternoon haha :)

Answer 1096

I would also include .300 Winchester Magnum in a list of common rifle calibers. It’s very popular for big game hunting and also used by military snipers and long range target shooters.

Answer 1084

7.62 NATO is the same as .308. And I think that 7.62x54 is very similar to .30-06.

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