Quote:
Originally Posted by Kale
It's interesting how even with metric 'labeled' cartridges you get odd numbers. What was the 7.92mm based on?
|
Ooh! I know that one! 7.92 mm is 0.3
Zolle, where one
Zoll is a twelfth of a
Fuß. The English weren't the only people to have a bewildering mess of customary units before adopting metric!
Quote:
Did some armorer have a random stick lying around and that happened to be the size he used for the bore of the prototype? I can understand 'customary' unit to metric conversions, which is where 7.62mm comes from, but is that always how non-integer metric calibers come to be?
|
The same question has often puzzled me with respect to Imperial and US units. Why .357 magnum? Why .303 British? Why .276 Enfield? Why .455 Webley? Why .338 Lapua magnum? Why .351 Winchester? Why .454 Casuli?