What does "BBL" stand for?

DougB · February 25, 2002, 01:03 AM

I feel a little silly asking this, but I've never been sure what BBL stands for. I know it refers to the barrel, and I used to think it meant "bull barrel," but I've frequently seen it used to refer to barrels that I wouldn't consider "bull barrels" (which, to me, means a large diameter heavy barrel with little or no taper). Anyway, I'm sure many here can clarify this for me. Thanks.

Doug

**Mal H** · February 25, 2002, 01:07 AM

BBL stands for barrel only, not bull barrel. I'm not sure where or why the initials originated, but I believe the petroleum industry used it first to stand for their standard measure barrel of oil and the firearms public picked it up from them.

[added]
You piqued my curiosity on the origin of bbl. First of all, it should be lower case only. BBL stands for Billion Barrels of Oil as it turns out. "bbl" came about in the 1800's when oil was delivered in barrels of lots of different capacities. Standard Oil standardized their oil delivery in 42 gallon barrels and painted them all blue - hence bbl stands for blue barrel. Funny how the original meaning still fits the firearms industry, or at least it did until stainless steel barrels came along!

Johnny Guest · February 25, 2002, 07:02 PM

I am in awe! Thank you for the explanation. It has been bothering me for decades, but I hadn't realized it.

Best,
Johnny

stans · February 25, 2002, 10:29 PM

And all this time I just thought it was a stuttering problem.

P-99er · February 26, 2002, 01:09 AM

Now wait a minute. That is a term for those "plus" sized "healthy" women.

Big Beautiful Ladies.

Ever heard the song "Whole Lotta Rosie"

4thHorseman · February 27, 2002, 02:40 AM

That's really interesting.

Thanks
The term the "whole nine yards" came from the WW1 aircraft. Thier gunes had nine yards of ammo on the feed belt. If they used all their ammo for their machine guns, they would say,"the whole nine yards"

makarov · February 27, 2002, 04:29 AM

I have heard COP stands for constable on patrol - you guys probably knew that, but I wanted to throw something in...

Nice work on explaining bbl

- Makarov

4thHorseman · February 27, 2002, 04:48 AM

makarov, In reference to "cop" I heard at one time that the buttons of prison guard's uniforms where made of copper. Hence the "cop". But like everything else, it's just what you hear. Your explanation sounds better than mine. Maybe I'll go with yours from now on.

**Mal H** · February 27, 2002, 10:17 AM

I have also heard and read (before Al Gore invented the internet) that Cop came from the copper buttons and I agree that "constable on patrol" makes more sense. However, the beat officers in Jolly Ol' were commonly called "Coppers" and it was shortened to "Cop", so I have to stick with the unofficial Cu theory.

Jbar4Ranch · February 27, 2002, 10:51 AM

How 'bout lbs. as an abbreviation for pounds?
Why is Colonal pronounced with an "r" in there so it sounds like kernal?
Why does a mirror reverse left and right but not up and down?
If you hook your car battery up backwards, why don't your headlights cast shadows? Why doesn't your radio listen to you? Why doesn't your horn suck?

4thHorseman, there's a lot of different explanations for "the whole nine yards" and yours is one of 'em alright. Another is that bolts of cloth originally came in lengths of 9 yards and when a customer wanted the entire bolt he would ask for "the whole nine yards". Here's a bunch of "whole nine yards" explanations.

Trivia question for the day: Where did the word sabotage come from?

BTR · February 27, 2002, 11:31 AM

From wooden shoes people would throw into machinery stop it...

hksigwalther · February 27, 2002, 01:01 PM

"Why are pounds, when used as a weight, abbreviated lbs?"

The origin is in the Latin word libra, which could mean both balance scales (hence the symbol for the astrological sign Libra, which was named after a constellation that was thought to resemble scales) and also a pound weight, for which the full expression was libra pondo, the second word being the origin of our pound.

World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996-. All rights reserved.
Page created 3 October 1998.

stans · February 27, 2002, 02:17 PM

"Why doesn't your radio listen to you? "

You mean yours doesn't? TV's listen and watch. It's all part of a huge conspiracy that dates back to.....No!! Wait!! I wasn't finished!! No, I don't want to back to my padded room!

DocMurphy · February 5, 2012, 04:01 PM

The copper button theory as I was told came from Napoleon, as his gaurds stood watch or attention they were to be obedient and professional. As the weather got cold the gaurds were wipping their noses with their cuffs and he didn't want to apear sloppy so he had these buttons sowen on the cuffs so they couldn't wipe their noses with their sleeves. But who knows the real story.

Scharfschuetzer · February 5, 2012, 06:37 PM

How about "It's cold enough to freeze the balls of off a brass monkey?"

Brass monkeys were used to hold cannon balls on the deck of a warship so that they didn't roll around and damage things. They were like a big plate with circular dishes to hold iron cannon balls.

When warships sailed in the cold arctic and antarctic seas, the brass would shrink from the cold faster than the iron balls shrunk and the balls would pop off of the monkey. Thus the saying.

SIGSHR · February 5, 2012, 07:57 PM

The version I read years ago (forget where, of course) is that "BBL" stands for
Bored Barrel Length. I have a hazy recollection that was meant to distinguish the actual lenght of the barrel from the chamber. IIRC they used to have something called a "Paradox"-a large caliber should arm that was rifled for only half its barrel length, the other half being smooth.

chadio · February 5, 2012, 08:13 PM

bible

Nickel Plated · February 5, 2012, 09:05 PM

BBL is a pretty strange abbreviation for barrel considering that the word only has on B in it. So I've always thought it was an abbreviation of bull barrel and people just incorrectly used it to refer to any kind of barrel (as people are apt to do).

Here's another. "Balls to the wall" was used to refer to a plane being put into full throttle. Since the throttle levers usually have balls on the ends where you would hold them. On some planes pushing them all the way forward (to full throttle) would cause the balls to touch the instrument panel. Hence balls to the wall.

And here I've always thought it was something dirtier (and weirder) than that

bedbugbilly · February 5, 2012, 10:29 PM

Interesting . . . now awe me gentlemen . . . can anyone of you explain how LE got to be known as the "FUZZ"? Curious minds would like to know!

Scharfschuetzer · February 6, 2012, 12:43 AM

Probably from the fuzzy wool of the early uniforms. So I've heard anyway. I was alway quite careful to use tape to remove any fuzz or cotton lint from my navy blue uniform.

How about "balls out?" From the old governor on steam engines. When the spinning governor spun at high speed, the weighted balls would cause a valve to release steam pressure to keep the engine from over reving.

GFlory · February 6, 2012, 10:12 AM

Regarding the abbreviation for pounds. As correctly pointed out it is derived from the Latin word libra (pound) but it is abbreviated as lb, preferably without a period. lb is also the abbreviation for the plural, librae (pounds), never with an "s" at the end (which might be intended as an English-language plural), lb should always be lower case. lb is both the official abbreviation and the international symbol (symbol can never have a period and must be lower case). The symbol lb would recognized in all languages as pound/pounds, with 1 lb = 453.59237 g exactly.

Which brings up the point that muzzle energy is rated as ft·lb or the more modern technical designation of ft·lbf meaning foot-pound-force. lbf, pound-force refers to a force of 1 pound as opposed to a mass of 1 pound.

Probably more than most people ever wanted to know about the matter. And yes, almost all gun writers write it wrong.

Revision for precision: Rather than my reposting, let me revise "all languages" above to what I really mean, namely all countries who have occasion to use the pound. Obviously, some languages are not even written, and many people have never even heard of the pound.

mes227 · February 6, 2012, 10:15 AM

[

Quote:

added]
You piqued my curiosity on the origin of bbl. First of all, it should be lower case only. BBL stands for Billion Barrels of Oil as it turns out. "bbl" came about in the 1800's when oil was delivered in barrels of lots of different capacities. Standard Oil standardized their oil delivery in 42 gallon barrels and painted them all blue - hence bbl stands for blue barrel.

I work in mining, oil and gas and didn't know the origin of bbl, just that it now means a 42-gal barrel. Thanks much for this bit of history!

mes227 · February 6, 2012, 10:17 AM

Quote:

The symbol lb would recognized in all languages as pound/pounds, with 1 lb = 453.59237 g exactly.

Having lived in South America for most of 10 years and worked there much longer, I'll assert that "lb" is anything but "recognized in all languages." Without an explanation it wouldn't mean anything to many people down there.

Jim Watson · February 6, 2012, 10:26 AM

I saw a different account for the origin of the 42 gallon oil barrel.
Standard announced that due to the many different size containers in use, they would bill oil sales at 40 gallons to the barrel "with an allowance of two gallons for the meter."

I have been tempted to dream up an exotic term for CTG to abbreviate since it seems to mystify many new Smith & Wesson owners.

**Mal H** · February 6, 2012, 12:37 PM

Jim, I believe that when the .32 S&W first came out, the gun owners would go to the hardware or general merchandise store to buy their cartridges. Now most of those types of stores always had a small shooting range out back so the customers could practice. So the store clerk would ask if they were going to use the cartridges at the range or take them with them. It made a difference in how they packed them up for the customer. After a while, if the customer wanted to take the cartridges with them, they would just tell the clerk something like, "give me 100 .32 S&W cartridges to go". That was soon shortened to ".32 S&W CTG". The abbreviation was carried over to many of the other calibers.

And now you know the rest of the story.

February 25, 2002, 01:03 AM	#1
DougB Senior Member Join Date: July 3, 1999 Posts: 838	What does "BBL" stand for? I feel a little silly asking this, but I've never been sure what BBL stands for. I know it refers to the barrel, and I used to think it meant "bull barrel," but I've frequently seen it used to refer to barrels that I wouldn't consider "bull barrels" (which, to me, means a large diameter heavy barrel with little or no taper). Anyway, I'm sure many here can clarify this for me. Thanks. Doug

February 25, 2002, 01:07 AM	#2
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 17,067	BBL stands for barrel only, not bull barrel. I'm not sure where or why the initials originated, but I believe the petroleum industry used it first to stand for their standard measure barrel of oil and the firearms public picked it up from them. [added] You piqued my curiosity on the origin of bbl. First of all, it should be lower case only. BBL stands for Billion Barrels of Oil as it turns out. "bbl" came about in the 1800's when oil was delivered in barrels of lots of different capacities. Standard Oil standardized their oil delivery in 42 gallon barrels and painted them all blue - hence bbl stands for blue barrel. Funny how the original meaning still fits the firearms industry, or at least it did until stainless steel barrels came along! Last edited by Mal H; February 25, 2002 at 02:06 AM.

February 25, 2002, 07:02 PM	#3
Johnny Guest Moderator in Memoriam Join Date: August 28, 1999 Location: North Texas Posts: 4,123	Mal - - - I am in awe! Thank you for the explanation. It has been bothering me for decades, but I hadn't realized it. Best, Johnny

February 27, 2002, 10:51 AM	#10
Jbar4Ranch Senior Member Join Date: May 20, 1999 Location: Near Helena, Montana Posts: 1,721	How 'bout lbs. as an abbreviation for pounds? Why is Colonal pronounced with an "r" in there so it sounds like kernal? Why does a mirror reverse left and right but not up and down? If you hook your car battery up backwards, why don't your headlights cast shadows? Why doesn't your radio listen to you? Why doesn't your horn suck? 4thHorseman, there's a lot of different explanations for "the whole nine yards" and yours is one of 'em alright. Another is that bolts of cloth originally came in lengths of 9 yards and when a customer wanted the entire bolt he would ask for "the whole nine yards". Here's a bunch of "whole nine yards" explanations. Trivia question for the day: Where did the word sabotage come from? __________________ Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets replaced... SASS 47015

February 5, 2012, 04:01 PM	#14
DocMurphy Junior Member Join Date: February 5, 2012 Location: New Hampshire Posts: 3	Thoes "Copper buttons" The copper button theory as I was told came from Napoleon, as his gaurds stood watch or attention they were to be obedient and professional. As the weather got cold the gaurds were wipping their noses with their cuffs and he didn't want to apear sloppy so he had these buttons sowen on the cuffs so they couldn't wipe their noses with their sleeves. But who knows the real story.

February 25, 2002, 10:29 PM	#4
stans Senior Member Join Date: November 9, 2001 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 838	And all this time I just thought it was a stuttering problem.

February 26, 2002, 01:09 AM	#5
P-99er Senior Member Join Date: December 9, 2001 Posts: 102	Now wait a minute. That is a term for those "plus" sized "healthy" women. Big Beautiful Ladies. Ever heard the song "Whole Lotta Rosie"

February 27, 2002, 02:40 AM	#6
4thHorseman Senior Member Join Date: February 26, 2001 Posts: 698	That's really interesting. Thanks The term the "whole nine yards" came from the WW1 aircraft. Thier gunes had nine yards of ammo on the feed belt. If they used all their ammo for their machine guns, they would say,"the whole nine yards"

February 27, 2002, 04:29 AM	#7
makarov Senior Member Join Date: January 27, 2000 Location: Washington State Posts: 709	I have heard COP stands for constable on patrol - you guys probably knew that, but I wanted to throw something in... Nice work on explaining bbl - Makarov

February 27, 2002, 04:48 AM	#8
4thHorseman Senior Member Join Date: February 26, 2001 Posts: 698	makarov, In reference to "cop" I heard at one time that the buttons of prison guard's uniforms where made of copper. Hence the "cop". But like everything else, it's just what you hear. Your explanation sounds better than mine. Maybe I'll go with yours from now on.

February 27, 2002, 10:17 AM	#9
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 17,067	I have also heard and read (before Al Gore invented the internet) that Cop came from the copper buttons and I agree that "constable on patrol" makes more sense. However, the beat officers in Jolly Ol' were commonly called "Coppers" and it was shortened to "Cop", so I have to stick with the unofficial Cu theory.

February 27, 2002, 11:31 AM	#11
BTR Senior Member Join Date: July 14, 1999 Posts: 570	From wooden shoes people would throw into machinery stop it...

February 27, 2002, 01:01 PM	#12
hksigwalther Senior Member Join Date: November 18, 1998 Location: NE OH, USA Posts: 3,198	"Why are pounds, when used as a weight, abbreviated lbs?" The origin is in the Latin word libra, which could mean both balance scales (hence the symbol for the astrological sign Libra, which was named after a constellation that was thought to resemble scales) and also a pound weight, for which the full expression was libra pondo, the second word being the origin of our pound. World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996-. All rights reserved. Page created 3 October 1998.

February 27, 2002, 02:17 PM	#13
stans Senior Member Join Date: November 9, 2001 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 838	"Why doesn't your radio listen to you? " You mean yours doesn't? TV's listen and watch. It's all part of a huge conspiracy that dates back to.....No!! Wait!! I wasn't finished!! No, I don't want to back to my padded room!

February 5, 2012, 06:37 PM	#15
Scharfschuetzer Senior Member Join Date: January 28, 2012 Location: Puget Sound Posts: 293	Brass Monkey How about "It's cold enough to freeze the balls of off a brass monkey?" Brass monkeys were used to hold cannon balls on the deck of a warship so that they didn't roll around and damage things. They were like a big plate with circular dishes to hold iron cannon balls. When warships sailed in the cold arctic and antarctic seas, the brass would shrink from the cold faster than the iron balls shrunk and the balls would pop off of the monkey. Thus the saying. Last edited by Scharfschuetzer; February 6, 2012 at 12:38 AM.

February 5, 2012, 07:57 PM	#16
SIGSHR Senior Member Join Date: September 13, 2005 Posts: 4,712	The version I read years ago (forget where, of course) is that "BBL" stands for Bored Barrel Length. I have a hazy recollection that was meant to distinguish the actual lenght of the barrel from the chamber. IIRC they used to have something called a "Paradox"-a large caliber should arm that was rifled for only half its barrel length, the other half being smooth.

February 5, 2012, 08:13 PM	#17
chadio Senior Member Join Date: June 29, 2011 Posts: 931	bible __________________ Ex - Navy, Persian Gulf Veteran. Loved shooting the M14, 1911, M60, M2

February 5, 2012, 09:05 PM	#18
Nickel Plated Senior Member Join Date: January 17, 2010 Location: Brooklyn, NYC Posts: 610	BBL is a pretty strange abbreviation for barrel considering that the word only has on B in it. So I've always thought it was an abbreviation of bull barrel and people just incorrectly used it to refer to any kind of barrel (as people are apt to do). Here's another. "Balls to the wall" was used to refer to a plane being put into full throttle. Since the throttle levers usually have balls on the ends where you would hold them. On some planes pushing them all the way forward (to full throttle) would cause the balls to touch the instrument panel. Hence balls to the wall. And here I've always thought it was something dirtier (and weirder) than that

February 5, 2012, 10:29 PM	#19
bedbugbilly Senior Member Join Date: November 19, 2009 Posts: 3,290	Interesting . . . now awe me gentlemen . . . can anyone of you explain how LE got to be known as the "FUZZ"? Curious minds would like to know! __________________ If a pair of '51 Navies were good enough for Billy Hickok, then a single Navy on my right hip is good enough for me . . . besides . . . I'm probably only half as good as he was anyways. Hiram's Rangers Badge #63

February 6, 2012, 12:43 AM	#20
Scharfschuetzer Senior Member Join Date: January 28, 2012 Location: Puget Sound Posts: 293	Probably from the fuzzy wool of the early uniforms. So I've heard anyway. I was alway quite careful to use tape to remove any fuzz or cotton lint from my navy blue uniform. How about "balls out?" From the old governor on steam engines. When the spinning governor spun at high speed, the weighted balls would cause a valve to release steam pressure to keep the engine from over reving.

February 6, 2012, 10:12 AM	#21
GFlory Junior Member Join Date: January 9, 2012 Location: Cincinnati Posts: 5	Regarding the abbreviation for pounds. As correctly pointed out it is derived from the Latin word libra (pound) but it is abbreviated as lb, preferably without a period. lb is also the abbreviation for the plural, librae (pounds), never with an "s" at the end (which might be intended as an English-language plural), lb should always be lower case. lb is both the official abbreviation and the international symbol (symbol can never have a period and must be lower case). The symbol lb would recognized in all languages as pound/pounds, with 1 lb = 453.59237 g exactly. Which brings up the point that muzzle energy is rated as ft·lb or the more modern technical designation of ft·lbf meaning foot-pound-force. lbf, pound-force refers to a force of 1 pound as opposed to a mass of 1 pound. Probably more than most people ever wanted to know about the matter. And yes, almost all gun writers write it wrong. Revision for precision: Rather than my reposting, let me revise "all languages" above to what I really mean, namely all countries who have occasion to use the pound. Obviously, some languages are not even written, and many people have never even heard of the pound. Last edited by GFlory; February 7, 2012 at 06:01 PM.

February 6, 2012, 10:26 AM	#24
Jim Watson Senior Member Join Date: October 25, 2001 Location: Alabama Posts: 19,190	I saw a different account for the origin of the 42 gallon oil barrel. Standard announced that due to the many different size containers in use, they would bill oil sales at 40 gallons to the barrel "with an allowance of two gallons for the meter." I have been tempted to dream up an exotic term for CTG to abbreviate since it seems to mystify many new Smith & Wesson owners.

February 6, 2012, 12:37 PM	#25
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 17,067	Jim, I believe that when the .32 S&W first came out, the gun owners would go to the hardware or general merchandise store to buy their cartridges. Now most of those types of stores always had a small shooting range out back so the customers could practice. So the store clerk would ask if they were going to use the cartridges at the range or take them with them. It made a difference in how they packed them up for the customer. After a while, if the customer wanted to take the cartridges with them, they would just tell the clerk something like, "give me 100 .32 S&W cartridges to go". That was soon shortened to ".32 S&W CTG". The abbreviation was carried over to many of the other calibers. And now you know the rest of the story.