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This field is used to indicate the caliber of the weapon.
American and British calibers are expressed in decimals of an inch. Metric calibers are expressed in millimeters (mm). Frequently, the caliber description for a specific firearm contains not only the caliber, but also a partial or complete description of the appropriate cartridge for its chamber. Caliber descriptions are commonly compounded to show:
• Standard weights of smokeless powder first used in loading the cartridge, for example, .30-30 (.30 is the caliber and 30 is the weight of the powder).
• Year of adoption, for example, .30-06 (.30 is the caliber and 06 is the year of adoption).
• Relative case length where more than one case length exists in a specific caliber, for example 8x57 mm (8 mm is the caliber and 57 mm is the case length).
• Originating firm, country of issue, designer, etc., for example, .375 Holland and Holland Magnum (.375 is the caliber and Holland and Holland is the originating firm), .41 Swiss (.41 is the caliber and Swiss indicates the country of issue), .257 Roberts (.257 is the caliber and Roberts is the designer).
CAL field codes for American, British and Metric calibers should be stripped of suffix designators and decimal points for entry. For example:
• Caliber .30-30 is listed under American calibers as 30 and should be entered as 30. Caliber 8x57 is listed under Metric calibers and 8 and should be entered as 8.
Since periods are not permitted in any message text, do not use decimal points when entering the appropriate caliber. Do not convert American to British, American to Metric, British to American, etc.
When entering the caliber for a combination rifle-shotgun, the rifle caliber should be entered in the CAL field. The shotgun gauge should be entered in the MIS field.
For a complete list of caliber codes, see the CALIBER CODES section of this manual.
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