Heeled bullet

A heeled bullet is a bullet that is necked-down at its base to allow a projectile the full internal diameter of a gun barrel to fit in a cartridge case of the same or narrower dimension. Heeled bullets mostly disappeared with the advent of smokeless powder cartridges, though older rimfire designs, such as the .22 caliber cartridges, still use heeled bullets, and many cartridges that date back to the black powder era still reflect their heeled bullet origins in their caliber designations.

More powerful smokeless powder allowed the use of smaller, non-heeled projectiles in existing caliber guns. Two examples are a ".38 caliber" firearm actually shooting bullets of .357 in (9.1 mm) diameter, and a ".44 caliber" bullets of .429 in (10.9 mm) diameter. This legacy of historic heeled bullets is the cause of confusion among many shooting enthusiasts over the actual physical diameters of the bullets they fire.

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