Uh ... is that right? I mean, .45 caliber is a pistol cartridge, roughly .41 inches. A 58 caliber would then be 58 inches. And yeah, that's one big gun, but I doubt the projectile is almost 6 feet in diameter.
“A 58 caliber tube” probably refers to the length of the tube stated in by the number of times it is long divided by the diameter of the barrel. Thus a 6 inch in diameter gun (aka 155mm) that is 58 calibers is 348 inches or 29 feet in length. Naval guns are often referred to this way 5/34 meaning 5 inch in diameter with the length being 34 times the diameter.
see posts 32 and 47 for explanations of gun diameter size and barrel length regarding ‘caliber’ measurement. Once one goes from hand guns to artillery, there is a major difference in expressing diameter vs length using the word ‘caliber.’
Post #32 clarifies artillery caliber.
IronJack ~ Uh ... is that right? I mean, .45 caliber is a pistol cartridge, roughly .41 inches. A 58 caliber would then be 58 inches. And yeah, that's one big gun, but I doubt the projectile is almost 6 feet in diameter.
Not caliber, which is bore diameter, but calibers, which is barrel length measured in bore diameters. 58 calibers would be 58 times as long as the bore is wide. If the bore is 155 mm it is 8990mm long (about 29 1/2 ft)
As I understand it, in lager guns the caliber is the ratio of barrel length to bore. So a 58 caliber gun would have a barrel length 58 times its bore.