Over in the Great Shotgun vs AR talk... thread @GJM stated/pondered:
And it made me wonder also. I found a nice graphic on Lucky Gunner and did a little spreadsheet (I posted a couple versions in the other thread), and then I kept thinking of things and adding columns. Easy enough to look at the weight, but then I thought about cumulative square inch cross section, and just yesterday I wondered how that would factor to a hypothetical caliber. Not trying to perpetuate the either or discussion (why I started a separate thread, I am not selling any rifles...), but I kept a line for 5.56 just for comparison. I also just plucked out the most common sizes:
So not trying to prove or disprove anything, but wow... a load of buck would be like a single projectile of two inches or more.
This is just a discussion exercise, pretty sure my math is correct but might not be.