Trivia Question

[CTMC(ret)]

OK...let's stir it up: What was the largest caliber gun IN COMMON USE in the USN up until c.2000?

Information

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[JimW in OR]

Only a guess 3in 50

[CTMC(ret)]

At least you took a shot at it!! But, sorry...

[talucah]

5 inch 70 caliber, a guess but I know the new ones are over 50. Whoops they are rifles.
Bob

[Ramboueille]

OK...let's stir it up: What was the largest caliber gun IN COMMON USE in the USN up until c.2000?

5" 54 cal.

[CTMC(ret)]

Give the man a seegar!! Right you are, of course. Around 2000, the Navy developed and put into use a 5"/62 caliber gun.

This is something most always a sure bet to win you a beer - most will guess something like the big guns on a battleship, but those were (generally) 16"/50 caliber - and there is the winner - naval guns are measured by bore size (in this case, 16") AND the length of the barrel, as expressed in the equivalent of the bore size (in this case of the 16" gun, the barrel is 50 times the diameter of the bore - hence the "50 caliber"). Since the bet was the "biggest caliber", the 5'/54 was a larger "caliber". (Be prepared to fight for that beer!)

[Jim K]

After passage of GCA '68, there was a joke that the head of (then) ATTD called in agent Smedley and told him that there was a ship in Boston, the USS Massachusetts, that had a bunch of 16" rifles that had not been registered and were to be confiscated. Good old agent Smedley, eager to please, drove to Boston in his GSA station wagon to bring back the guns.

Sometimes, it pays to really understand the situation before taking action. (I didn't mention Iraq, did I?)

Jim