Caliber creation: Specific needs or tooling limitations?

[winnre]

Why do we have the calibers we do? Did someone have a solution to a problem which demanded a specific bullet and built exactly what they wanted like with the 10mm and 45ACP?

Or did they only have tools of a certain size and made what they could with what they had?

Who do we have the .25? .32? 44 Special? And what about all the wacky calibers from the Old West days? Was bigger better and they just made a bullet to be bigger for its own sake? Did a .22LR get made because it was the best pricepoint between price and size? Was there a real need for every single caliber out there today or did designers go bonkers like we do with cell phones today?

When I pick up a firearm and it has a strange caliber, I have to wonder what the inventor was thinking. Who knows?

[nick]

Why do we have the calibers we do? Did someone have a solution to a problem which demanded a specific bullet and built exactly what they wanted like with the 10mm and 45ACP?

Or did they only have tools of a certain size and made what they could with what they had?

Who do we have the .25? .32? 44 Special? And what about all the wacky calibers from the Old West days? Was bigger better and they just made a bullet to be bigger for its own sake? Did a .22LR get made because it was the best pricepoint between price and size? Was there a real need for every single caliber out there today or did designers go bonkers like we do with cell phones today?

When I pick up a firearm and it has a strange caliber, I have to wonder what the inventor was thinking. Who knows?

SOmetimes there's a need, sometimes there're limitations (for instance, the size of the magwell on AR-15), and sometimes people just like to tinker.

.25 ACP was created as a centerfire (thus more reliable) equivalent to .22lr. Now that .22lr manufacturing process is better, .25 ACP is obsolete. At a guess, .44 special is there to have a more manageable .44 magnum Another example, .45 GAP was created to have a .45 ACP equivalent in a smaller grip (and still have a double-stack magazine).

A lot of calibers exist because there was a need for something like them at some point, but a better round has replaced them. People still have the guns in those calibers, so they still exist. Many similar calibers exist because several people/companies were competing in solving the same problem. Some were created for a specific gun, and then became popular.

[Peter.Steele]

Some of it comes from the way-back days. Shotgun gauges, for instance. 12 gauge (or 12 bore) means that you could get 12 round balls out of a single pound of lead. Same thing for 16, 20, 8, 10, etc. (Obviously not .410.)

[Merc1138]

SOmetimes there's a need, sometimes there're limitations (for instance, the size of the magwell on AR-15), and sometimes people just like to tinker.

.25 ACP was created as a centerfire (thus more reliable) equivalent to .22lr. Now that .22lr manufacturing process is better, .25 ACP is obsolete. At a guess, .44 special is there to have a more manageable .44 magnum Another example, .45 GAP was created to have a .45 ACP equivalent in a smaller grip (and still have a double-stack magazine).

A lot of calibers exist because there was a need for something like them at some point, but a better round has replaced them. People still have the guns in those calibers, so they still exist. Many similar calibers exist because several people/companies were competing in solving the same problem. Some were created for a specific gun, and then became popular.

I thought .44 special came first?

And yes, a lot of calibers exist due to competing manufacturers, older cartridges being too prolific to become obsolete, custom stuff developed by tinkerers, etc.

[Noonanda]

.44 mag was developed by Elmer Keith as a more powerful version of .44 special

[nick]

I thought .44 special came first?

And yes, a lot of calibers exist due to competing manufacturers, older cartridges being too prolific to become obsolete, custom stuff developed by tinkerers, etc.

I was kidding on the .44 magnum/special, since I have no idea when/how they were developed.

[CrippledPidgeon]

what about all the wacky calibers from the Old West days?

What it came down to was competition and profits.

Let's take a look at this:

The Colt Single Action Army was designed to shoot .45 Colt in mind.
The Remington Model 1875 was designed to shoot .44 Remington.
The S&W Schofield Model 3 was designed to shoot .44 S&W American
The Winchester 1873 was designed to shoot .44 WCF (Winchester Center Fire)

Notice a pattern? Gun manufacturers in the 19th century liked to pair firearms with calibers that they developed, and generally weren't compatible with similar calibers made by other manufacturers. The not only forced consumers to buy ammo made by that manufacturer, but if you wanted to have ammo compatibility between your handgun and your rifle, you needed to buy a rifle from that manufacturer as well.

Case in point, the Army asked S&W to make a version of the Schofield No.3 in .45 Colt so they could continue to use those stores of ammo. S&W instead shortened the case and introduced .45 S&W so that their ammo would be compatible with the Colts, but not the other way around. This meant that the Army would have to buy ammo from S&W, and not from Colt, if they wanted the Schofield.

I thought .44 special came first?

.44 Special, or .44 S&W Special, as it was originally called, was designed for use with smokeless powder in 1907, but was based on their .44 Russian black powder cartridge (slightly larger case capacity).

.44 Magnum was developed by Elmer Keith (and S&W) in the 1950's because he wanted a better handgun hunting load. According to Wikipedia, the origin of the name .44 Remington Magnum is somewhat unclear.