Ok, dumb question time

[Stainlessbutcher]

I'm quite sure that this has been answered somewhere on this forum, but I haven't found it yet, so I'll ask it again. All my life I've heard of the "aught six" normally referring to the 30-06 and there are other calibers like the 25-06, what I want to know is that does the -06 stand for? Of course, that opens the door for the question of what does the 250 designate in the 22-250...etc. Anyhow, I've never heard it explained, so any input is better than what I know now.

B.

 

[briansmithwins]

.30-06 is .30 calibers (.3 inch) adopted in 1906.

Don't know for sure about the 22-250.

BSW

 

[W.E.G.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22-250_Remington

The .22-250 started life as a wildcat cartridge developed from the .250 Savage case necked down to take a .224 caliber bullet. In the early days of the cartridge there were several different versions that varied only slightly from one to the next, including one developed in 1937 by Grosvenor Wotkyns, J.E. Gebby and J.E. Smith who named their version the 22 Varminter.

 

[ar24095]

Charles Newton, who designed the .250-3000 for Savage, is usually credited with being the first to neck down the cartridge for the .248" bullet in the late 1920's. Later, in the 1930's, other wildcatters increased shoulder angle to 28 degrees and loaded the cartridge with .224" bullets. One of those wildcatters was gunsmith Jerry Gebby. For those who wanted a ".22 varminter," as Gebby called it, but didn't handload, custom loads were available from J. Bushnell Smith.

Prior to the introduction of the .222 Remington family of cartridges, the .22-250 enjoyed greater popularity than any other varmint cartridge. All of which makes one wonder why it took Remington until 1965 to domesticate the cartridge. Even today the .22-250 is only second only to the .223 Remington is popularity among varmint shooters.

The first factory rifle available in the .22-250 (even before factory loads were available) was the Browning. Remington followed with the Model 700 and now every rifle maker , big and small, offers this chambering. Many serious varmint shooters consider the Remington 40X to be the most accurate factory made .22-250 available since it is capable of placing five bullets into less than 1/2" MOA.

For long range varmint shooting, the .22-250 is an outstanding cartridge and when chambering in a top quality rifle is capable of superb accuracy. The hollow point bullets are fine for punching paper with this cartridge but some don't expand at extremely long range as well as soft point bullets. When all is said and done, the .22-250 is seen at its best when loaded with a 55 grain spitzer. H380 is an outstanding powder for the .22-250. Other propellants worthy of a try are IMR-4064

 

[Stainlessbutcher]

all that information, and still, not one mention of what the "250" in the name means. I got the 30-06 part, but I really don't understand why a lot of the calibers are two numbers with no seeming significance.

 

[mljdeckard]

The "06" is pronounced this way because some .....old timers represent a numerical zero by saying 'ought'. As in double ought and triple ought buckshot. The 30-06 got its name because it was the .30 caliber round adopted by the U.S. military in 1906. It was a significant improvement over the British 1903 .30 caliber round.

The 25-06 was so named because it is a 30-06 shell necked down to a .25 caliber bullet. (I don't know why they didn't name the .270 win and .280 rem the 27-06 and 28-06, it would have made just as much sense, as they are also smaller bullets in '06 cases.)

The 22-250 is so named because it is a 250 savage case necked down to a .22 caliber bullet. The 7mm-08 is so named because it is a .308 case necked down to a 7mm bullet. But they don't call the .243 the 6mm-08, or the .22 CHeetah the 5.56mm-08, even though they are necked-down .308 cases.

No, there is no real system to naming cartridges other than; "That's what the inventor/distributor felt like at the time." It doesn't even have to be the right caliber. .38 and .357 are the same caliber, one is named for the bullet diameter, the other is named for the casing diameter. You can shoot .38 through a .357 cylinder. .22lr and .22 mag ARE the same caliber, but you CANNOT shoot .22lr through a .22 mag cylinder, as the DO NOT have the same shell casing diameter. (The .22 lr uses a heeled bullet, the .22 mag does not.)

Confused yet? take some advil and go to bed.

 

[rizbunk77]

In case you haven't deciphered it yet the 250 in 22-250 comes from the parent cartridge the 250-3000 Savage. The reason the 250-3000 savage used the 250 was because it used a 25 caliber bullet. Since it was necked down to 22 caliber it became the 22-250.
With our cartridges, you will see three number designations followed by a brand name like the .243 Winchester, or the .257 Weatherby because we used to be a free capitalist nation. The three number designation refers to the diameter of the bullet in inches as a decimal.
In Europe the system is more scientific because they are Socialist bastards that don't care about capitalism, at least not anymore. Hence you have the 9.3X64 which is the diameter of the bullet in millimeters in front of the length of the case in millimeters. This same system could be useful in classifying men if you measured certain anatomy in which case I would be in the African Pro Hunting category.

 

[mljdeckard]

Another nonesensical match, look at the stamp on a Garand. it says; U.S. .30 Caliber, M-1. This rifle shoots a 30-06 shell. The M-1 CARBINE shoots much smaller straight-walled (pistol style) .30 cal cartridge, and was issued during the same wars, and the stamp on it says....U.S. .30 Caliber, M-1.

Of course, the military gives its weapons and munitions their own names to eliminate confusion.

 

[Stainlessbutcher]

Well, that certainly makes sense now...BUT, during our formative years of budding capitalism and frontier like exploration, we had cartridges like the 44-40, 45-70, 32-20, 45-120-3 1/4, 45-110-2 7/8, 45-100-2 6/10, 45-90, etc....some are self explanatory when you look at books like the Lyman reloading handbook #49, others not so much.

B.

 

[dakotasin]

older cartridges were so named for capacity.

as was pointed out by mljdeckard, there is no real system to naming cartridges other than that's what the inventor/distributor felt like at the time... ya just sort of accept it, and sometimes reject a chambering because you don't like the name designation (such as myself and the "260"), or fall for it whole hog based on the designation (myself, again, and anything w/ a "7"mm in it - 'specially 7 rum).

 

[Mr_Pale_Horse]

338 Crowly-Jones-Mastodon-Killer anyone?

 

[Art Eatman]

And the .250-3000 was so-named because it was the first factory deer cartridge to achieve a muzzle velocity of 3,000 feet per second. Unfortunately for Savage, they had to retreat to the 87-grain bullet, for all that they had hoped to do it with a 100-grain bullet. No way could they have gotten there with a 117-grain.

 

[Swampy]

Another nonesensical match, look at the stamp on a Garand. it says; U.S. .30 Caliber, M-1. This rifle shoots a 30-06 shell. The M-1 CARBINE shoots much smaller straight-walled (pistol style) .30 cal cartridge, and was issued during the same wars, and the stamp on it says....U.S. .30 Caliber, M-1.

Sorry, but you need to take another look at the heels of your rifles....

The Garand is labeled, "US Rifle Cal 30 M1"
The Carbine is labeled, "US Carbine Cal 30 M1"

It's a distinction that makes the difference.....

Best to all,
Swampy

Garands forever
2007 NRA Missouri State 600 yard Service Rifle Champion
Score 774-23X.... with an M1 Rifle