Small Arms Data

The 30-06 round is a common hunting round and was used in WWI in the Springfield rifle. The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced “thirty-aught-six”, "thirty-oh-six") or 7.62 x 63 mm in metric notation, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 (hence “06”) and standardized, used until the 1960s and early 1970s. It replaced the .30-03, 6 mm Lee Navy and .30 US Army (also called .30-40 Krag). The .30-06 remained the US Army's primary rifle cartridge for nearly 50 years before it was finally replaced by the 7.62 x 51 mm NATO (commercial .308 Winchester) and 5.56x45mm NATO (commercial .223 Remington), both of which remain in current U.S. and NATO service. It remains a very popular sporting round, with ammunition produced by all major manufacturers.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.30-06_Springfield

note: The 7.62 x63 refers to the diameter of the bullet and the length of the case in mm (1 inch=25mm). From the bottom of the case to the top of the neck is 63mm. The 7.62x39 is a WWII Soviet round, later used in the AK-47. The rest of the rounds in the picture below are pistol rounds.





  From left to right: 30-06, 7.62x39, .454 Casull, .45 Colt, .357 Magnum, .38 Special, .45 ACP, 9mm, .380, .22 Long Rifle
source:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.62x39mm

Data on some common rounds is shown below. Muzzle energy is the product of bullet mass times velocity squared Kt=1/2  MV²  Big bullets and high velocity means lots of kenetic energy leaving the barrel.

Firearm            Caliber           Muzzle energy

                                              ft-lbf   joules
air gun              .177               15      20

pistol                .22LR             117    159

pistol                 9 mm             383    519

pistol               .45 ACP          416   564

rifle            5.56 × 45 mm        1,325 1,796

rifle           7.62 × 39 mm         1,527 2,070

rifle           7.62 × 51 mm         2,802 3,799

BMG*           .50                     11,091 15,037

*Browning Machine Gun
source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzle_energy