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47-413: A remote controlled weapon station ( RCWS ), remotely operated weapon system ( ROWS ), or remote weapon system ( RWS ), is a remotely operated light or medium- caliber weapon system, often equipped with a fire-control system , that can be installed on a ground combat vehicle or sea- and air-based combat platform. Such equipment is used on modern military vehicles, as it allows a gunner to remain in

94-528: A Springfield Model 1861 rifled musket) also stood in the way. However, shortly after the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg , Spencer was able to gain an audience with President Abraham Lincoln , who invited him to a shooting match and demonstration of the weapon on the lawn of the White House . Lincoln was deeply impressed with the weapon, and ordered Gen. James Wolfe Ripley to adopt it for production. Ripley disobeyed

141-496: A rifled barrel, the distance is measured between opposing lands or between opposing grooves ; groove measurements are common in cartridge designations originating in the United States , while land measurements are more common elsewhere in the world. Measurements "across the grooves" are used for maximum precision because rifling and the specific caliber so measured is the result of final machining process which cuts grooves into

188-692: A " 30 caliber rifle", which could accommodate any of a wide range of cartridges using a roughly 0.30 inches (7.6 mm) projectile; or as a "22 rimfire", referring to any rimfire firearms firing cartridges with a 22 caliber projectile. However, there can be significant differences in nominal bullet and bore dimensions, and all cartridges so "categorized" are not automatically identical in actual caliber. For example, 303 British firearms and projectiles are often "categorized" as ".30-caliber" alongside several dozen U.S. "30-caliber" cartridges despite using bullets of .310–.312-inch (7.87–7.92 mm) diameter while all U.S. "30-caliber" centerfire rifle cartridges use

235-405: A .250 inch land diameter and .257 inch groove diameter. The .308 Winchester is measured across the grooves and uses a .308-in diameter (7.82-mm) bullet; the military-specification version is known as 7.62 × 51 mm NATO , so called because the bore diameter measured between the lands is 7.62 mm, and the cartridge has a case 51 mm long. Converting a rifle to fire a different cartridge in

282-423: A barrel diameter of roughly 0.45 inches (11.43mm). Barrel diameters can also be expressed using metric dimensions. For example, a "9 mm pistol" has a barrel diameter of about 9 millimeters. Since metric and US customary units do not convert evenly at this scale, metric conversions of caliber measured in decimal inches are typically approximations of the precise specifications in non-metric units, and vice versa. In

329-412: A common, standard .308-inch (7.82 mm) bullet outside diameter. Using bullets larger than design specifications causes excessive pressures, while undersize bullets cause low pressures, insufficient muzzle velocities and fouling that will eventually lead to excessive pressures. Makers of early cartridge arms had to invent methods of naming cartridges since no established convention existed then. One of

376-432: A distance of 26 mi (42 km). Smoothbore cannon and carronade bores are designated by the weight in imperial pounds of spherical solid iron shot of diameter to fit the bore. Standard sizes are 6, 12, 18, 24, 32, and 42 pounds, with some non-standard weights using the same scheme. See Carronade#Ordnance . From about the mid-17th until the mid-19th century, the measurement of the bore of large gunpowder weapons

423-592: A multiple of the bore diameter. For example, a 4-inch gun of 50 calibers would have a barrel 4 in × 50 = 200 in long (written as 4" L/50 or 4"/50). A 16-inch gun of 50 calibers (16" L/50) has a barrel length of 50 × 16 = 800 inches (66 ft 8 in). Both 14-in and 16-in navy guns were common in World War II. The British Royal Navy insisted on 50-cal guns on ships as it would allow 1,900 to 2,700 lb (860 to 1,220 kg) shells to travel at an initial velocity of up to 1,800 mph (2,897 km/h) to

470-482: A pound; therefore, its barrel is smaller than the 12-gauge. This metric is used in Russia as "caliber number": e.g., "shotgun of the 12 caliber." The 16th caliber is known as "lordly" ( Russian : барский ). While shotgun bores can be expressed in calibers (the .410 bore shotgun is measured as .410 in (10.4 mm) in diameter, unlike with rifles the actual bore diameter of a smoothbore shotgun varies significantly down

517-422: A rate of fire of 2–3 rounds per minute, this represented a significant tactical advantage. However, effective tactics had yet to be developed to take advantage of the higher rate of fire. Similarly, the supply chain was not well prepared enough to transport the extra ammunition. Detractors also complained that the amount of smoke produced was such that it was hard to see the enemy, which was not surprising since even

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564-432: A related expression. The gauge of a shotgun refers to how many lead spheres, each with a diameter equal to that of the bore, that amounts to one pound (454 g (1.0 lb)) in weight. In the case of a 12-gauge (18.5 mm) shotgun, it would take 12 spheres the size of the shotgun's bore to equal a pound. A numerically larger gauge indicates a smaller barrel: a 20-gauge (15.6 mm) shotgun requires more spheres to equal

611-465: A smaller diameter, lighter bullet and larger powder charge to increase power and range over the original .56-56 cartridge, which was almost as powerful as the .58 caliber rifled musket of the time but under-powered by the standards of other early cartridges such as the .50–70 and .45-70 . When Spencer signed his new rifle up for adoption right after the American Civil War broke out, the view by

658-484: A spent cartridge from the chamber and collecting a fresh round from the tubular magazine in the buttstock . Closing the lever chambers the new cartridge and the breechblock then rises vertically to close the breech. The hammer of the Spencer needs to be manually cocked after each loading cycle. The Spencer was initially produced as a carbine , chambered for the .56-56 Spencer rimfire cartridge. The magazine of

705-451: A superior number of Cheyenne warriors led by Roman Nose. The battle is known as the Battle of Beecher Island . Forsyth's band was armed with Spencer repeating carbines and 150 rounds of .56-50 Spencer cartridges. Forsyth and his men were able to hold off and turn away a vastly larger force. It is claimed that this was largely due to the "rapid firepower of the seven-shot Spencer carbines." In

752-495: Is based. The following table lists some of the commonly used calibers where both metric and US customary units are used as equivalents. Due to variations in naming conventions, and the whims of the cartridge manufacturers, bullet diameters can vary widely from the diameter implied by the name. For example, a difference of 0.045 in (1.15 mm) occurs between the smallest and largest of the several cartridges designated as ".38 caliber". Shotguns are classed according to gauge,

799-419: Is much variance in the use of the term "small-bore", which over the years has changed considerably, with anything under 0.577 inches (14.7 mm) considered "small-bore" prior to the mid-19th century. While modern firearms are generally referred to by the name of the cartridge the gun is chambered for, they are still categorized together based on bore diameter. For example, a firearm might be described as

846-520: Is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore matches that specification. It is measured in inches or in millimeters . In the United States it is expressed in hundredths of an inch; in the United Kingdom in thousandths; and elsewhere in millimeters. For example, a US " 45 caliber " firearm has

893-451: The Battle of Hanover and at East Cavalry Field . As the war progressed, Spencers were carried by a number of Union cavalry and mounted infantry regiments and provided the Union army with a firepower advantage over their Confederate opponents. At the Battle of Nashville , 9,000 mounted infantrymen armed with the Spencer, under the command of Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson , chief of cavalry for

940-477: The Department of War Ordnance Department was that soldiers would waste ammunition by firing too rapidly with repeating rifles, and thus denied a government contract for all such weapons. (They did, however, encourage the use of breech-loading carbine , which is also single-shot like most firearms of the day, but is shorter than standard rifles and thus more suited to mounted warfare) More accurately, they feared that

987-708: The Argentine cavalry (Specially the President's Escort Squadron) and a few to the Navy; and were used against natives. In 1867 Brigadier General James F. Rusling of the Quartermaster's Department recommended cavalry exclusively use the carbine against mounted Indian raiders, after completing a one-year tour of the new western territories. In September 1868 Major Frederick A. Forsyth led a small force of veterans, an "elite mounted attack-and-pursuit force", and came into heavy contact with

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1034-569: The Army's logistics train would be unable to provide enough ammunition for the soldiers in the field, as they already had grave difficulty bringing up enough ammunition to sustain armies of tens of thousands of men over distances of hundreds of miles. A weapon able to fire several times as fast would require a vastly expanded logistics train and place great strain on the already overburdened railroads and tens of thousands of more mules, wagons, and wagon train guard detachments. Its unit cost (several times that of

1081-583: The Military Division of the Mississippi, rode around Gen. Hood's left flank and attacked from the rear. President Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth was armed with a Spencer carbine at the time he was captured and killed. The Spencer showed itself to be very reliable under combat conditions, with a sustainable rate-of-fire in excess of 20 rounds per minute. Compared to standard muzzle-loaders, with

1128-419: The Spencer company went out of business in 1869, ammunition was manufactured in the United States into the 1920s. Later, many rifles and carbines were converted to centerfire , which could fire cartridges made from the centerfire .50-70 brass. The original archetype of rimfire ammunition can still be obtained on the specialty market. Argentina purchased 500 carbines between 1865 and 1869. They were issued to

1175-406: The Spencer holds seven rounds. It is filled by withdrawing the spring assembly from the butt plate. Rounds can be loaded individually; however, Erastus Blakeslee invented a cartridge box containing cylinders with seven cartridges each. These cylinders can be quickly emptied into the magazine tube. Unlike later cartridge designations, in the Spencer .56-56 the first number referred to the diameter of

1222-422: The bore diameter and the length of the cartridge case; for example, the 6.5×55mm Swedish cartridge has a bore diameter of 6.5 mm and a case length of 55 mm. The means of measuring a rifled bore varies, and may refer to the diameter of the lands or the grooves of the rifling. For example, the 257 Roberts and 250 Savage both use a .257 inch projectile; both 250 Savage and 257 Roberts rifle bores have

1269-545: The bullet weight in grains was designated, such as 45-70-405. This scheme was far more popular and was carried over after the advent of early smokeless powder cartridges such as the 30-30 Winchester and 22 Long . Later developments used terms to indicate relative power, such as .44 Special and .44 Magnum . Variations on these methods persist today, with new cartridges such as the 204 Ruger and 17 HMR (Hornady Magnum Rimfire). Metric diameters for small arms refer to cartridge dimensions and are expressed with an "×" between

1316-568: The cartridges because of their dire copper shortage, their utilization of the weapons was limited. Notable early instances of use included the Battle of Hoover's Gap (where Colonel John T. Wilder 's "Lightning Brigade" of mounted infantry effectively demonstrated the firepower of repeaters), and the Gettysburg Campaign , where two regiments of the Michigan Brigade (under Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer ) carried them at

1363-435: The case just ahead of the rim, while the second number is the case diameter at the mouth; the actual bullet diameter was .52 in (13 mm). Cartridges were loaded with 45 grains (2.9 g) of black powder , and were also available as .56-52, .56-50, and a wildcat .56-46, a necked down version of the original .56-56. Cartridge length was limited by the action size to about 1.75 in (44 mm). Later calibers used

1410-451: The contemporary English ( avoirdupois ) pound massed of approximately 454 g (1.001 lb). Thus, a French 32-pounder at the Battle of Trafalgar threw a shot with 1.138 kg (2.51 lb) more mass than an English 32-pounder. Complicating matters further, muzzle-loaded weapons require a significant gap between the sides of the tube bore and the surface of the shot. This is necessary so

1457-471: The early established cartridge arms was the Spencer repeating rifle , which Union forces used in the American Civil War . It was named based on the chamber dimensions, rather than the bore diameter, with the earliest cartridge called the "No. 56 cartridge", indicating a chamber diameter of .56 in; the bore diameter varied considerably, from .52 to .54 in. Later various derivatives were created using

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1504-432: The end of their barrel life, whereby the rifling is worn down to a point where a rifle loses some of its accuracy , the choice to make a caliber or cartridge change is often done at the same time as when a new rifle barrel is fitted to the rifle by a gunsmith . There are a few important factors to consider when converting a rifle to a different caliber or cartridge. The action of the rifle should be long enough to contain

1551-421: The length of the barrel, with the use of chokes and back-boring. In the United Kingdom, "gauge" is referred to as "bore" and in the United States "bore" is referred to as "gauge", e.g. a "12-bore shotgun or 12-gauge shotgun" has a bore or gauge that can accommodate a lead sphere weighing 1/12th of a pound. The term caliber is used as a measure of length of artillery barrels from muzzle to breech, expressed as

1598-451: The most common sizes encountered, although larger, smaller and intermediate sizes existed. In practice, though, significant variation occurred in the actual mass of the projectile for a given nominal shot weight. The country of manufacture is a significant consideration when determining bore diameters. For example, the French livre , until 1812, had a mass of 489.5 g (1.079 lb), whilst

1645-426: The new cartridge, the magazine should also be able to hold the new cartridge, the bolt face should be the correct diameter and the extractor the correct size to hold the head of the new cartridge. The most common of these caliber conversions on rifles, are usually done to change from a parent cartridge to a new cartridge based on it, like when converting a rifle to a 6.5 mm Creedmoor from a 308 Winchester on which it

1692-689: The order and continued to use the old single-shooters, causing him to be replaced as head of the Ordnance Department later that year. The Spencer repeating rifle was first adopted by the United States Navy and later by the United States Army . It was used during the American Civil War, and it became a popular weapon. The Confederates occasionally captured some of these weapons and ammunition, but, as they were unable to manufacture

1739-405: The projectile may be inserted from the mouth to the base of the tube and seated securely adjacent the propellant charge with relative ease. The gap, called windage , increases the size of the bore with respect to the diameter of the shot somewhere between 10% and 20% depending upon the year the tube was cast and the foundry responsible. The relationship between bore diameter and projectile weight

1786-462: The relative protection of the vehicle. It may be retrofitted onto existing vehicles, for example, the CROWS system is being fitted to American Humvees . [REDACTED] Media related to Remote weapon systems at Wikimedia Commons Caliber In guns , particularly firearms , but not artillery, where a different definition may apply , caliber (or calibre ; sometimes abbreviated as " cal ")

1833-402: The rough bore, leaving the "lands" behind. Good performance requires a concentric, straight bore that accurately centers the projectile within the barrel, in preference to a "tight" fit which can be achieved even with off-center, crooked bores that cause excessive friction, fouling and an out-of-balance, wobbling projectile in flight. Calibers fall into four general categories by size: There

1880-567: The same basic cartridge, but with smaller-diameter bullets; these were named by the cartridge diameter at the base and mouth. The original No. 56 became the .56-56, and the smaller versions, .56-52, .56-50, and .56-46. The 56–52, the most common of the new calibers, used a 50-cal bullet. Other black powder-era cartridges used naming schemes that appeared similar, but measured entirely different characteristics; 45-70 , 44-40 , and 32-20 were designated by bullet diameter to hundredths of an inch and standard black powder charge in grains . Optionally,

1927-504: The same bore diameter, often involves merely re-chambering the barrel to the new cartridge dimensions, if the rim diameter of the new cartridge matches that of the old cartridge. Converting a rifle to fire a different cartridge in a different caliber and bore as what it initially was, means that the barrel of the rifle will also need to be changed. Because many competitive precision rifle shooters often shoot thousands of rounds per year both for practice and competitions, and they more often reach

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1974-421: The smoke produced by muzzleloaders would quickly blind whole regiments, and even divisions as if they were standing in thick fog, especially on still days. One of the advantages of the Spencer was that its ammunition was waterproof and hardy, and could stand the constant jostling of long storage on the march, such as Wilson's Raid . The story goes that every round of paper and linen Sharps ammunition carried in

2021-540: The supply wagons was found useless after long storage in supply wagons. Spencer ammunition had no such problem owing to the new technology of metallic cartridges. In the late 1860s, the Spencer company was sold to the Fogerty Rifle Company and ultimately to Winchester . Many Spencer carbines were later sold as surplus to France where they were used during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Even though

2068-434: The time. Among the early users was George Armstrong Custer . The Spencer is a lever-action repeating rifle designed by Christopher Spencer in 1860. It uses a falling breechblock mounted in a carrier. Firing forces are contained by the receiver at the rear of the breechblock. Actuating the loading lever causes the breechblock to fall. Once the breechblock is clear of the receiver, the carrier "rolls" downward, ejecting

2115-618: Was severed following the widespread adoption of rifled weapons during the latter part of the 19th century. Guns continued to be classed by projectile weight into the mid-20th century, particularly in British service with guns, such as the 2-pounder , 6-pounder , and 17-pounder anti-tank weapons . However, this value no longer definitively related to bore diameter, since projectiles were no longer simple spheres—and in any case were more often hollow shells filled with explosives rather than solid iron shot. Spencer repeating rifle The Spencer

2162-540: Was the world's first military metallic-cartridge repeating rifle, and over 200,000 examples were manufactured in the United States by the Spencer Repeating Rifle Co. and Burnside Rifle Co. between 1860 and 1869. The Spencer repeating rifle was adopted by the Union Army , especially by the cavalry , during the American Civil War but did not replace the standard issue muzzle-loading rifled muskets in use at

2209-444: Was usually expressed as the weight of its iron shot in pounds . Iron shot was used as the standard reference because iron was the most common material used for artillery ammunition during that period, and solid spherical shot the most common form encountered. Artillery was classified thereby into standard categories, with the 3-pounder, 4-pounder, 6-pounder, 8-pounder, 9-pounder, 12-pounder, 18-pounder, 24-pounder, and 32-pounder being

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