[EQAndyBuzz]

Probably not the place for this, but I do have a question. As a simple man who only shoots a 9mm, can someone explain calibers and ballistics? Like what’s a 357 to a 38 to a .40 to a 45 to a 50 and so on? Size of bullet, how many grains, things like that? I shot a Desert Eagle 50 once, but then I see things like a BMG 50?

An explanation would be greatly appreciated. Pictures even better.

[Syntyr]

You are opening a discussion that falls volumes of books. In short caliber is the diameter of the bullet part of the round. 9mm is .355 of an inch in diameter. Whereas a 50 cal is .5 inches in diameter. Now that said a 50 AE, the desert eagle you fire, and a 50 BMG are both 50 caliber but they are very different cartridges. The ballistics of a cartridge takes into consideration bullet weight, caliber, wind resistance, length, shape of the brass, length of the brass, how deeply the bullet is seated in the brass, crimp pressure, powder amount, powder burn rate, length of barrel, spin rate of barrel rifling on and in. It's a very complex subject with a lot of variables. This is why a competitive long range shooter loads their own ammo by hand, this way they control as many of those factors as they can. 50 ae on the left 50 bmg on the right

[deoetdoctrinae]

Here is an image showing a fairly good variety of calibers.

As far as ballistics info, there are enough charts out there to make your eyes bleed sorting through them, lol.