What constitutes a "Big Bore" in your mind?

Some cartridges that I enjoy reading about here at AR but which I am absolutely unlikely to buy rifles for or shoot!

Good hunting!

I believe that there is a difference between Big Bore and DGR. There are a goodly number of DGR's that I wouldn't put in the Big Bore catagory, starting with the sainted .375. The Queen of Cartridges is, IMO, the ideal medium, the One Gun to Rule Them All, if you will. For large bore, I prefer to start at .400, though of course many will think that an underestimate. Anything over .50 is a Superbore!

>458=BIG BORE


.404 Jeffery (.423) = Medium BIG BORE

Cheers,

Andr�

Idared,



Small bores are less than 7 mm.

Medium bores are 7 mm through 0.435" or 11.2mm.

Big Bores start @ 0.458" and go up.



ASS_CLOWN

I think a big bore rifle has to have high foot lbs and a large dia bore. Thats my thoughts of a big bore.

Anything bigger than a .416 Rigby, which is a "medium".....

The answer is really culture dependent, and perspectives do vary accordingly.

In Germany for example, calibers are commonly ranked as follows:

4,5mm-6mm: Small bore
6,5mm-8,5mm (probably also 9mmm): Medium bore
9,3mm upwards: Big bore

Regards,
Carcano

I would think that Bigbores start with .458 and above.....not inc. 45/70 rifles. The .404 and .416 Rigby's are heavy mediums while the .375 is a medium bore.

For me big is .620 and up. medium is 458 to 585.Small is
under 458.Of course I a little crazy. but I don't foam at the mouth yet.Ed.

I love my 416's, but they are medium bores.
JCN

To me anything from a .375 up is a big bore, it keeps things simple...

For me a bigbore starts at 9,3x62 and a DGR start at 416

IMO,
Rifles - .40 caliber and up
Handguns - .41 caliber and up

Remember, the definitions keep changing.

At one time, even .577s were once considered 'small bores'.

George

My personal thoughts are:

Small bores are 30 caliber and under.
Medium bores are 8mm to .43 caliber.
Big bores are 45 caliber, and up.

The various 40's are outstanding hunting rounds, and what I'd term heavy medium bores.

Many thanks to all who gave their thoughts on this. I do appreciate the input.

I still have some desire to have a .404 Jeffery and I believe I will ask Dennis if he would condiders it a good "Medium BIG BORE" as Andr� so helpfully named it.
Maybe if I get one of those someday, I will then decide to get an honest to goodness "BIG BORE" rifle.

For what it's worth Dennis said he thought a 500 or a 505 would be a good round to build and have fun with. I guess I just can't bring myself to jump that far from a 375 H&H all at once.

So far as recoil goes--big bore = anything with more recoil than a 300 Mag!

So far as bore size goes IMO--big bore is over 40 cal.

So far as is generally agreed upon by the pundits--big bore = 45 cal and above.

Maybe we need a new designation for over 50 cal--mammoth bore.

For the "modern man" I think big bore starts with a 400gr 40cal bullet at 2000fps, IE the 450/400.
However I like John Taylors definition using medium bores for 330 to 375 cal. rifles, large medium bores for 400 to 440 cal rifles, and large bores for 458 to 500 cal. rifles.
He classes the 577 and 600 Nitro rifles as Ultra large bores. Works for me.

I would go along with 40 cal and bigger as a good starting place for big bores. Then you get bigger from there.

everyone on my ignore list, they're all "Big Bores".

For all those who have posted:

If you were writing a book or a long article titled..Big Bore Rifles and Cartridges....

What bore size would you start with?

Mike

I would start with .416 cal.

I think that most people that have shot one will generally agree that a .416 400gr bullet at 2300-2400 fps is about where things really start to have the feel of a big bore.

Its a pretty gray line when you compare to the souped up 375's though, so I would never fault anyone for including them in their article.

FWIW,
Canuck

I know by the principle that the calibre his class of the following magner
- the small boring ones his 6.5 mm is less
- the boring means his of 6.5 mm has 9.5 mm
- the boring big one his above 9.5 mm

IMHO:
Advances in powder technology, bullet engineering, and rifle manufacturing/barrel metallurgy & tolerances have firmly cemented the start of the 'big bore' at .375 H&H. Poll the gun-savvy public and I'll bet that's they'll say.

That being said, I wish there was more of a standard definition of 'big bore', one that takes into account not only bore size, but terminal kinetic energy as well. Maybe kinetic enery delivered at some standardized (agreed upon average?) typical dangerous game shooting distance.

I can tell you the R.O.'s eyes pop every time I bring my 458 to the range, and I get summarily assigned to the farthest point away from his desk!

For African hunting I think John Taylor had it right. If you don't know what that is, read "African Rifles and Cartridges", I don't want to give away the ending here. For hunting in the USA, I would say 270 to 8mm, small bore and large bore, 33 and over.

465H&H

legally and responsibily able to dispatch dangerous game (any/all power levels) in africa from nominal loads for caliber


Here's part of my thoughts

before nitro powder, the 577 was considered a heavy medium... and a 450 was a deer rifle

nitro powder made the 577 a heavy and the 450 a medium

jacketed bullets made the 450 a heavy and the 577 a super stopping rifle...

and good bullets, powder, and shot placement, the 366/375 area is a DGR... and being a DGR, it's a big bore...


bore diameter doesn't mean it IS or is NOT a big bore...

for example.. a .423 is a big bore... and a .451 aint

jeffe

Well in my opion my 404 Jeffery, then 416 Rem Mag, then 458 Win Mag, 460 Weatherby,these are the bigbores in my collection.
I also have a 9.3X64 Brenneke but I think thats in the class of my 405 Win and my 375 H&H.

quote:

Originally posted by mehulkamdar:
What constitutes a "Big Bore" in your mind? <br /><br />Some cartridges that I enjoy reading about here at AR but which I am absolutely unlikely to buy rifles for or shoot! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /><br /><br />Good hunting!

Anything .40 cal. andd larger.....

Not needed on this planet: anything above .500 bore! developeing a 16 lb rifle or heavier!

Big Bore: .400-500 bore, developeing around 4000 fpe up !

Medium Bore: .338-375 bore developeing 3000-3900 fpe

Small Bore: below .338 bore

Generally, I think of it two ways: caliber and energy.

.338 to .400 medium
.400 to .495 big bore
.500 to .700 ulta big bore

or

3500 to 5500 ft lbs medium
5500 to 8000 ft lbs big bore
8000 to 1200 ft lbs ultra big bore

The energy comparisons allows smaller calibers, ie .375 to be clasified as big bores when they are souped up.

The calibers don't exactly match the energy limits because of velocity and bullet weight, but this is the problem, and it is best solved by using a recoil scale, TKO.etc.

Dak

323 to 375 Medium bore
400's large medium bores
450 to 500 large bore
+500 ultra large bore

JPK

Something like this: http://www.snipercentral.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4216

I have seen a case wich was used in the navy cruisers.. would reach up to your chest, and could probably stand inside it.

Nothing less than a .458 is a big bore, IMO. But I am a traditionalist in that sense.

One who is grossly overweight and cannot carry on an interesting conversation. When I grew up anything over 22 was bigbore all else was smallbore. But the biggest bore is trying to make an absolute as to what constitutes 'bigbore'. Is there a ruling body somewhere that has the final say or does it just go on forever like what constitutes 'GOOD'?

Good is a notion, all statements about it are synthetic not analytic, (G E Moore; Principia Ethica).
It is not so with what constitutes a big bore, that's a matter of convention. We realy should try to move away from the current emphasis on the individual and subjective experience.

Copula ergo sum.

minimum 66mm

URL=http://imageshack.us] [/URL]

I know that my 416 Taylor would be considered a medium by most people, but the way that thing lays waste to scopes should classify it as a big bore.

small bore up to .375
medium bore 375 to 458
big bore anything over 458

Rich

.40 caliber and up.

George

I think this a frame of reference issue.

To sportsman in classic rifles its 45 cal and up.

If your in the military anything under 40 mm is basically small arms. Big bore in this reference probably starts at 105 mm. A 4 duece mortar is defiantely a big bore, but a 30 mm gattling definately isn't. A naval 5" is big bore, and 50 cal isn't.

I spend some time on the Missouri in the first gulf war, talk to the sailors on it and they though a 4-5 inch gun was a pea shooter.

It's all in your frame of reference.

I will throw out that if it doesn't need hydraulics to handle recoil, its probably not a real big bore, that would be be a good reference point I think. And of course none of this applies to sporting rifles.

quote:

Originally posted by julianmb:
minimum 66mm

URL=http://imageshack.us] [/URL]

OK MAN ??????