Quote:
Originally Posted by RetLT
And what is with the British and their 6lb, 17lb, and 25lb guns?
How does the weight of the shell correspond to the diameter of the barrel and why on earth would anyone use such a system?
|
It goes back to a time of cannonballs where a gun was rated and sized by what weight of shot it fired. (A similar reason spawned the "gauge" system for shotguns - ie 12 gauge fires a single ball 1/12 of a pound). With standardised composition of cannon shot it worked - everyone knew what was being measured, rather than "which diameter exactly?".
The system stayed even when cannon balls were no longer used giving us the WWII era 2 pounder (40mm), 3 pounder (47mm), 6pounder (57mm), 17pounder (76.2mm) and 25pounder (87.6mm) amongst others.
Re: Weapons sizes
Threaded Mode