Quote:
Originally Posted by jcisbig
I guess overall it just seems inconsistent to me. A cartridge should be labeled as it is, and not have a 'misleading' dimension attatched to it. But hey, I'm not an ammo manufacturer!
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Modern cartridge based ammo has been around for 120+ years, and during that time conventions changed more than once, hence some of the confusion. For example, some ammo is labeled based on the bullet diameter, whereas others are labeled on the overall case diameter. Why? Because that's just the way the people who invented the ammo decided to do it. Is it confusing? Yup.
Originally gun manufacturers and ammo manufacturers were one in the same; the people making the gun made a cartridge/bullet/load specifically for that gun. That's why the 1911-style pistols shoot .45 Auto, also called .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pisol); it was a bullet which was originally designed specifically for the Colt 1911. Not to be confused with the .45 Colt, originally designed for the Colt Single Action Army Revolver. Same diameter, different cartridge. Another example is the 9mm round, also called 9mm Luger, to differentiate it from other 9mm rounds, like the 9mm Makarov (9x18).
In the end, the people that invent the round can call it whatever they want, and we need to decipher it.