Small, Medium, Large?

[Daryl Crawford]

I might say .44 and below is small, .45 to .58 is medium, and over .58 is large. I guess I'm thinking pistol, rifle, large bore older rifles so I'm not being very scientific.

 

[Blogman]

Was thinking about this today on the toilet:

Small: .25-.40 (no worries to one grunt)

Medium: .41 to .49 (two to three grunts)

Large: .50+ (One hip to the side and what ever grunts needed)

 

[Dr5x]

No, not your T shirt? Bore size.

And yes, this is sort of a frivolous topic but I'm just wondering what others consider to be small, medium and large bores?

I'll Bite!
Small would bebores below .45 and Large would be anything above the .50's
Medium would then be .45 up to .58 although .58 is pretty big.
The small bores give us a wider spread. I believe the French had a very small bore for use in doing indoor shooting. Probably smaller than the BB gun. I used to know it but have forgotten.

Dutch schoultz

 

[Tanglefoot]

A good friend of mine hunted for years with a .38 caliber. He could shoot, and shot placement beats bore size most times. Deer hit in the boiler room with one of his .375 round ball loads tended to fall down a right soon. A good .40 caliber will take most mid-size game with no problem if you do your job. That said, I prefer a .50 or a .54 for deer, mulies, elk, and other large game with the exception of bears. The larger calibers are good at reducing the number of times I have to spend the rest of my hunting light trailing a wounded critter.

 

[tenngun]

Size doesn’t matter, it’s placement, hmm.
.58 on the small side, till breechloaders and nitro powder, that is for cape guns. alaska or Siberia might think .58 a tad small too.
By late federal times lots of guns were made in the east that were .36 or so.
Do you need a .54 for paper? While a .36 might be a tad lite for Bambi.
A guns the perfect size of used in the way it was intended.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Small bore rifle for me is Under .45
Medium bore rifles are .45, up to .53
Large bore rifle for me is .54 up to .62
Extra Large bore rifle is larger than .62, and up to .82
Artillery begins with a bore of .83 or larger

LD

 

[Brian Gibbs]

Small: .45 and below
Medium: .50 to >58'ish
Large: .62 and above

 

[30coupe]

I only own three calibers so for me 32 small 36 medium 45 large. White tail is the biggest animal I hunt so I am covered. However I am having a 32 with some pitting re-bored to 40 so now my ratings are all messed up.

Well, you could just have it relined and keep it a .32, I suppose. Just to keep your ratings intact, of course, lol!

I think so too. Unfortunately I keep reading this forum and looking at all the beautiful guns posted and cant stop buying. My next purchase however will definitely be a custom build. I had to literally force myself to quit following the show us your squirrel rifle forum. Nothing good was going to come out of that but a really expensive custom build with extra fancy maple, Chambers flint lock, Rice barrel and engraved TG and patch box. Maybe I did not quit looking at that forum soon enough.

That custom flintlock squirrel rifle does sound interesting though. Not that I'm trying to encourage you or anything.

 

[Bassdog1]

I dont need encouragement anymore just gotta work enough overtime to finance it

 

[ugly old guy]

Traditionally, Small Bore was/is up to .34 caliber.
Medium Bore was/is .35 to .44 caliber.
Large Bore/Big Bore was/is .45 caliber and above.