What is Ammo?
“Ammo” is short form of the word Ammunition which in turn is derived from the French word munition. The type of ammunition ranges from smaller caliber weapons like the hand held weapons in the genre of revolvers, pistols and certain rifles to medium caliber automatic and semi automatic rifles and shotguns or the larger caliber artillery guns and special arms.
“Munitions”, on the other hand is a collective term for ammunition and in a broad term it covers all type of materials used in combat and includes bombs, warheads, missiles, mines etc. Ammo or Ammunition also includes those based on the support roles like the pyrotechnic or incendiary types of munitions.
Components of Ammo
The main components of ammunition are:
• Explosive materials and propellants
• Projectiles of all kinds
• Cartridges
A cartridge is the basic unit of ammo as far as its use in the rifles is concerned and is a combination of the bullet, primer and propellant. On the other hand we also use the term “round", which is synonymous with a cartridge containing a projectile, primer, propellant, and casing.
Various Types of Rifle Ammunitions?
Ammo design is based on the type of role or purpose for which it is used. We get various types of Rifle ammunition which could anti-personnel ammunition, Incendiary projectiles, Tracer ammunition, etc. Generally speaking, the ammo one commonly buys is the one most hobbyists use for game hunting as well as self protection.
What do we understand by Caliber of Rifle Ammo
The caliber of Rifle ammo one selects ranges from the type of usage and the need for accuracy. In guns including firearms, caliber or caliber is the approximate diameter of the barrel and by extension the projectile used in it, measured in inches or millimeters.
For a better performance it is important that a bullet closely matches the groove diameter of a barrel to ensure a good seal.
Some Key Rifle Cartridges
If one were to list out some of the most widely used and best cartridges it would read something like this:
.22 Long Rifle – It is the most popular smallest caliber cartridge used all over the world for gaming as well as target shooting.
.223 Remington – The most popular CXP1 class game cartridge for high performance and economy along with the .17 HMR or .22 Hornet.
.243 Winchester –It is excellent, low recoil, long range cartridge for the smaller species of antlered game
.260 Remington and the 6.5x55 – Both have identical ballistic properties, have low recoil and used as big game mountain rifles.
.270 Winchester – It is standard of comparison among long range big game cartridges and one of the great all-around hunting cartridges.
7mm Remington Magnum – This is the most popular of the entire world's magnum rifle cartridges.
Winchester Model 94 and the Marlin 336 - long range cartridge both fast handling lever actions deemed nearly perfect for woods and brush country hunting.
.30-06 Springfield - This is perhaps the most versatile single hunting cartridge of the last Century.
.308 Winchester It is one of the most successful and widely used military and big game cartridges in the world.
.338 Winchester Magnum This is without question the most popular and perhaps the most versatile of the flat shooting and hard hitting varieties.
Above the .338 Caliber are.375 H&H Magnum, the .458 Winchester Magnum elephant cartridges and the .416 Rigby.
.45-70 bore is ideal for woods or brush country hunting of heavy game and the big predators.
So if you are looking for acquiring a rifle it would be better to ponder upon the role and purpose that one would like to use it for and buy the Rifle and Ammo accordingly.
References:
1. Wikepedia on firearms’ dimension. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliber )
2. List of sizes by caliber: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cartridges_by_caliber )
3. Information on cartridges http://www.chuckhawks.com/12_rifle_cartridges.htm )
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