Can someone explain grain???

[chevyfumes]

Man there is a ton of terminology about bullets and balistics I don't get "necking down" ,"grains" both powder and bullet weight. How do you reduce the "grains" of a bullet? More jacket material??? I have no idea whats going on. pound away at the stoobid n0ob I may learn something...

 

[Rhinopkc]

The weight of a bullet (grains) is usually reduced by simply reducing the length. If you take a 150 grain .30 cal bullet and stand it up next to a 220 grain .30 cal bullet you will see a big difference in overall length.

"Necking down" is a term used to describe the process of reducing the size of the neck of the case without reducing the powder carrying capacity of the case. A smaller bullet with a large powder charge gives the hand loader a very high velocity round. This type of custom cartridge is referred to as a "wildcat" cartridge, these are cartridges that are not commercially available from the big ammo manufacturers.

 

[pauly383]

Like rhino was saying . Some manufacturers and experimenters , find good combinations of stopping power and speed by using lighter , smaller diameter bullets , with a larger cartridges case which holds more grains of powder . Grain is easy , its takes more grains of powder to fire heavier bullets .

An example would be the .40s+w case necked down for the 9mm bullett ( .355 ) , creating the .357sig ( .357 is ad hype ) .

So with the powder charge for a heavier bullet , the smaller bullett is faster , offering good penetration and fragmentation .

 

[mofugly13]

Yup, grain is simply a unit of weight measure. Heavier bullets go slower, but hit harder, lighter bullets go faster, shoot flatter. There's 437.5-something grains in an ounce. They also use grains to measure the amount of powder in a smokeless powder cartridge.

 

[Thunder]

Fumes........
Of all the people on this board I would think you would be the last person asking about grain. Thought you were our resident expert.

 

[chevyfumes]

Fumes........
Of all the people on this board I would think you would be the last person asking about grain. Thought you were our resident expert.

Just double shotting, err I mean checking... It was pretty much what IO thought it's just abit confusing sometimes with the different terminologies in shooting, loading, ballistics,,,I was tring to figure out it there were a beginners kinda cheat sheet chart that we could make a sticky...Just a thought...

 

[W7NB]

The shooters vocabulary...

A grain is 1/480th of a troy ounce. That combined with a buck and a smile STILL won't get you a decent cup of coffee but I thought I would throw it in.

Actually, like 4 wheeling, shooting is laden with technical terms. "Necking Down" as an example was a term coined by wildcatters (a group of folks who took factory cartidges and tried to improve on them) and refers to taking a factory cartridge and reducing the bullet diameter by "necking down" or reducing the diameter of the case mouth in a loading die.

Good examples of cartridges that came from these "neck down" experiments include the 25-06 and .270 Winchester. Both of these came from the venerable 30-06 cartridge - the 30-06 being 30 caliber, The 270 being .277 caliber and the 25-06 being 25 caliber. With each diameter reduction or "necking down" a smaller and corrispondingly lighter bullet was used. With the smaller and lighter bullet loaded over the same powder charge you get a faster and flatter shooting rifle. The down side is that a .25-06 is a great varmint and deer rifle, but I would not use one for elk. If you want to know why research terminal ballistics in your spare time.

Also, there is also "necking up" of a cartridge. I use a 358 Winchester for elk and bear. It is simply a 308 Winchester expanded to take a 35 caliber and heavier bullet. Great short range hard hitting rifle BUT it do kick like a mule!

By the way, "caliber" is a measurement based on a decimal expression of an inch - IE 30 caliber=.30 inch, or 7.62mm for the metric folks. Still don't get that cup of coffee do I?

There are many wonderful books for shooters who are getting into reloading. I would start off with the Speer reloading manula and go from there. They offer a great explination of terminology with pictures and drawings to support the text, along with loading data on all the different cartridges and some history of where they came from.

Remember, the average mall rat with a rice burner thinks a locker is what he keeps his dope in at school, and you already know what caliber and grains are. Keep it up!

 

[hatchetjack]

There are 7000 grains to a pound av, thus one ounce is 437.5 grains.
25 mm is .984 inch, or a hundred calibers. So, a .243 cal is nominally called a 6mm, the .30 as stated above is 7.62, the 7mm is .284, the 8mm is .323, etc. All of those aren't exact, but are as used in ammunition and reloading. HTH?