.243 cal and lead ban wording

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gonzo

gonzo

Well-Known Member
The official wording went up yesterday:
UK REACH restriction for lead in ammunition, 27 June 2025

Reading the wording for the proposed law changes, I reads:
" ‘calibre’ means the measurement of the interior (the bore) of a firearm’s barrel and the diameter of projectile used"

The way I read this is, the interior measurement of a barrel is that of the lands. For .243 this would be 6mm. Well below 6.17mm ban limit.
It is common to use this minor diam when describing metric calibre designations.. (eg. .308win/7.62 NATO has a lands diam of 7.62mm. The bullet diam is closer to 7.82mm. ) And they are using the metric measurement in the legal wording for the ban, this convention should hold.

And the diameter of the projectile USED, would be the bullet I load with, rather than the nominal bullet for this chambering.

So if loading with a bullet undersized by a thou, it might be arguable that this dodges the ban.

(I'm only playing devil's advocate here. Challenging this is for someone with deeper pockets than me!)
 
I think .243 is .237 6.019mm lands and .243 6.2mm to bottom of grooves. Bullets are 6.2mm

If using the land diameter it’s below 6.17, if groove, it’s above. But if using the land diameter we also fail and have been failing the .240 min test for large deer, so presumably internal bore refers to groove to groove
 
A rifles bore is the hole drilled first before rifling is added.
243 would be below the proposed ban if they hadn't mentioned the bullet as well.

Hopefully it's fcuk up on their part akin to the .240 minimum bore limit for large deer that actually made 243 illegal but everyone turned a blind eye too.
It is also why shotgun gauges should never be called bore except 410 and some other small bores.
For example; a 12 gauge is NOT bored to 12 anything!
 
Smellydog said:
A rifles bore is the hole drilled first before rifling is added.
243 would be below the proposed ban if they hadn't mentioned the bullet as well.

Hopefully it's fcuk up on their part akin to the .240 minimum bore limit for large deer that actually made 243 illegal but everyone turned a blind eye too.
It is also why shotgun gauges should never be called bore except 410 and some other small bores.
For example; a 12 gauge is NOT bored to 12 anything!
Click to expand...
I always thought the bore of a shotgun was defined by the size of the spherical balls produced when splitting a pound of lead equally. So the diameter of the equal balls when split into 12 defined a 12 bore, 16 for a 16 bore and so on, the anomaly being a .410 expressed as a decimal of an inch although I think it’s a 32 bore.
 
25 Sharps said:
I always thought the bore of a shotgun was defined by the size of the spherical balls produced when splitting a pound of lead equally. So the diameter of the equal balls when split into 12 defined a 12 bore, 16 for a 16 bore and so on, the anomaly being a .410 expressed as a decimal of an inch although I think it’s a 32 bore.
Click to expand...
No sir. That is a gauging method.
From a time when little to no accurate measuring devices were available or suitable accurate boring machinery so using a constant that is pure lead one could make a ball mold and cast a pound of lead to see how many balls it cast.
Then you could make a mandrill to the diameter or close to the diameter of the balls to form a strap of iron around to make a barrel. All formed by forge tools and heat. Even the closure was forge welded.
The finished barrel could sold advertised at the known gauging method of such and such gauge. Back then there was little to no boring to make a barrel from stock section.
 
Smellydog said:
No sir. That is a gauging method.
From a time when little to no accurate measuring devices were available or suitable accurate boring machinery so using a constant that is pure lead one could make a ball mold and cast a pound of lead to see how many balls it cast.
Then you could make a mandrill to the diameter or close to the diameter of the balls to form a strap of iron around to make a barrel. All formed by forge tools and heat. Even the closure was forge welded.
The finished barrel could sold advertised at the known gauging method of such and such gauge. Back then there was little to no boring to make a barrel from stock section.
Click to expand...
But if that’s where it originated then it amounts to same thing, obviously with modern tooling nobody follows the process you mention above, but the diameter of the bore of a 12 bore (or 12 gauge) is still defined by the diameter of the spheres you get when splitting an pound of lead equally into 12.

IMG_8294.png
 
Smellydog said:
As the years go by I've seen less and less use of the accurate use of the word gauge to describe the common sizes of shotgun barrels, I think I'm one of the last.

I don't know when bore got slipped in but guess it was off the back of ignorance and laziness.
A similar thing is happening with bullets being stupidly called heads. FFS...
Click to expand...
I’m know you’re a little older than me, but you’re not that old……
IMG_8295.webp
 
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