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Originally Posted by Agemegos
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!
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0.3 Zolle? Why didn't they use 1/3 of a Zolle? What's with all this mixing of fractional and decimal standards!? :) (Aside: I love base 60 and base 12 systems because they divide by whole numbers so easily)
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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?
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Some of the 'three digit' caliber labeling is because it sounds cool. Examples: .454 sounds like a car engine. .444 Marlin is a bigger .44 Magnum. .357 sounds better than .38++ or .36 Long etc. although I think Sam's note that it has to do with groove vs. lands measurements apply in most of the cases.