Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only What Is A Big Bore??

How about any caliber that one man can carry up a mountain with 10 rounds of ammo, shoot off hand, over 35 caliber and can walk down the mountain under his own power.

Jim

I call it anything with a bore from 375 on up. I call my 9.3's (.366's)medium bores.

I am old fashioned I guess, because I call a 375 a medium bore

Me, too!

I like the classification of stopping rifles by "old sarge"

http://ezine.nitroexpress.info/NickuduFiles/Members-PDF/Oldsarge.pdf

Chuck

Is there a practical point to the question or are you conducting an opinion survey?

There is no definable definition of "big bore", its all opinnion. Some have set rules as to what small, medium, and big bores are, but with what authority I have no idea, nor do they. There are calibers by defination and they graduate in size by caliber.

IMO, what difference does it make what you call your caliber?, nothing changes.

the problem with caliber designations is running into rounds like a 50-95 Winchester......its a 50 cal but was designed as an express round for deer sized game, light bullets at "express velocities" the British and Continental made similar chambered rifles......express rifles were for red stag and such nitro express were for dangerous game generally speaking...which is where the energy component mentioned earlier comes in....for the sake of this forum however woudnt bug me if someone started up a discussion on the 50-95 Win anymore than the 9.3 threads bug me.....if i aint interested in teh subject i dont click, have run across many interesting threads on this site that werent under the "right" subforum.....

Well Ray, I was told years ago, when you were a much younger hunter, that a "BIG BORE" was anything .40 caliber and larger in a rifle. Some people in the states call a .375H&H a Big Bore! Those in Europe say this is not correct, I personally don't care one way or another. I have several ant they all have a purpose in my hunting agenda.

That's my take on it, also.

I consider the 375 H&H up a big bore as it is the legal minimum on dangerous game in Africa and it's usually what the rifle manufacturers define as a big bore. Made for one heck of a reality shock when I read John Taylor's "African Rifles and Cartidges" and learned my 375 was a medium bore, not even a medium-big bore, just medium.

The legal minimum doesn't mean "big bore" a 375 is still just a medium bore and it is legal. The bore diameter must be big and a 375 bore ain't big

JWP-475......You are correct! I do like the .40 caliber and above for the discription of a "BIG BORE RIFLE" and the .375H&H falls into the soup with the .338, .358 calibers, as you stated prior, a medium bore caliber period.

The .45 Colt is a big bore and available in rifles, but not many people would refer to it as a big bore and it certainly doesn't come to mind when we think about big bore rifles. When we think big bore, we think power. I feel the definition of big bore is .375 magnum and up.

Just out of curiosity, what's the point of the "bore" designation - i.e. "small bore", "medium bore", and "big bore"? If there is no generally accepted world standard, then the name means nothing ... much like "magnum", which has effectively lost all meaning as far as I'm concerned.

The cartridge is the cartridge, and no amount of nomenclature is going to change that.

In Africa, for instance, they don't say "only big bores allowed" ... they tell you exactly what cartridges are acceptable. That alone tells me that the "bore designation" has lost all practical meaning.

but that's just my conjecture on the topic ... not meant to stir up a hornet's nest.

The nomenclature likely dates to the days of the gauge designations 4 bore, 6 bore, etc. A big bore was probably anything above the size normally used for shooting birds.

No doubt that the nomenclature used to mean something, and was relevant at the time ... However it seems rather ambiguous these days making it a practically useless designation in these modern times ... That's all I was getting at ...

I agree with you. If there was a clear definition, someone would be able to reference it in some recognized document.

Since rifles are referenced in caliber, and shotguns in bore (old english) that's kinda where I drew my conclusion.

Shane ... your thoughts on the matter make the most sense to me ... always good to have you chime in.

Several years ago I purchased a copy of "Big Bores", a Wolfe publication. In it, Al Miller, then the chief editor of it's magazines, wrote that he acknowledged that the term meant different things to different people, but you have to start somewhere, so he started with .350-caliber.

In starting my blogs called "BIG BORES", I started where he did, at .350-caliber but added this caveat: 4000 ft-lbs of K.E.at the muzzle as a minimum.

From there it looks like this:

Light Big Bores: .358" to .366"

Medium Big Bores: .375"

Medium-Heavy Big Bores: .410 to .423"

Heavy Big Bores: .458" to .485"

Extra-Heavy Big Bores: .505" on up!


That was completely arbitrary, but it gave me a framework with which I could work. YMMV.

Bob

www.bigbores.ca