Is a 30.06 a Big Bore Rifle?

[uncleted327]

Living in the Northeast I have never heard anyone call any 30 caliber a "big bore". The best delineation I can see from all the gun media I have ever seen is medium bores start above 30 caliber. 35 Whelen, 338s, with the 375s being the top of the mediums. Big Bores start with a 4 and go up from there. Of course this is for rifles. Handgun rounds throw a bit of a curve into things. I would never call a 40 S&W or 10mm a big bore for example...

 

[steelslaver]

What's above .50 BMG?

the 20mm Vulcan (80 caliber) Anzio a bolt action with a 3` round magazine.

Price tag appox $12,000 without a scope, $17,000 with the bells and whistles.

The Anzio 20mm rifle[1] is an American anti-materiel rifle designed and marketed by Anzio Iron Works. It is the first American anti-materiel rifle designed and mass-produced for public sale with a bore diameter in excess of .50 caliber in over 80 years.[2] The rifles are available in three calibers, with the rifle's predominant chambering being the 20mm Vulcan caliber.[3]

At approximately 48,000 ft⋅lbf (65,000 J) of kinetic energy, the 20mm round, as fired out of the Anzio rifle, has nearly four times the energy of the .50 BMG firing a 1600gr bullet at 3300fps

Also available in 14.5×114mm Russian (57 cal) which is the Russian heavy machine gun round which coast a 1026gr bullet out there at 3300fps

For Plinking you can get it in the 20/50 a wildcat made from a 20mm necked to 50 cal and fires a 750 gr bullet at 3300fps, 500 fps faster than a 50BMG

As for being able to stick your finger in the bore to determine if it is a big bore, the tip of my little finger won't go in the muzzle off my .58 cal muzzle loader.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

"big bore" is a nonsense term. .243 is "big bore" compared to .17 Rem, and .348 Lott is "big bore" compared to .243, etc.
There's no definitive number or magic diameter that makes a rifle "big bore".
In pistol terms, lots of folks say the caliber has to start with a "4" to be "large caliber" but a .40S&W pistol has nothing on 9x25 Dillon, for example, or even .38 Super.
So the term is nonsense and relative from one discussion to the next. In my collection it would be 45/70, but before I had that it was .32 Special, which was a monstrous thumper compared to most of my other rifles.
Maybe we should talk "big bore" in terms of bullet weight. Anything over 210 grains, in most collections, is a whopper.

You spelled out what I was thinking......When reading the title I thought....Oh Geesh.....Here we go again...

 

[CptCurl]

Big bore?

How about a Holland & Holland 10 bore Paradox? The bullet is sized to .805".

Curly