Bore diameter tells you almost nothing about whether a cartridge will work in a given gun. The base of the case does: a rim for a revolver cylinder, no rim for a magazine, and in a few cases a deliberately awkward length that keeps a hot round out of the wrong chamber.

Sorting this set by that one feature takes a minute and prevents most of the expensive errors.

Rimmed, for a revolver cylinder

russian 44, 454 ammo, 460 magnum ammo, .480 ruger ammo and 500 jrh revolver ammo are all rimmed designs that headspace on the cylinder and eject with a star extractor. 38 40 is rimmed too, though for the lever gun's tubular magazine as much as for the Colt revolver that shared it.

Rimmed on purpose, to fix an autoloader round

45 auto rim ammo is the interesting one. It is a .45 ACP case given a rim in 1920 so the surplus M1917 revolvers could load it without half-moon clips — an autoloader cartridge re-engineered to behave like a revolver round.

Rimless, for a magazine

429 desert eagle and .45 win mag are rimless magnum-pressure rounds built for gas-operated semi-automatic pistols. Neither will headspace in a revolver, and neither is a drop-in for anything with a similar bore.

Lengthened so it cannot fit the wrong gun

special 500 illustrates the other safety trick in reverse: it is short enough to chamber in any .500 S&W Magnum revolver, but a Magnum round will not chamber in a gun cut only for the Special. The same length logic is what keeps the whole big-bore family from being fired in guns never rated for it.

A quick check on a listing

A lip wider than the case body means a revolver or lever-gun round. A smooth taper to the mouth means a magazine round. Then check length against what is stamped on the gun — in this category, two cartridges with the same bore and different lengths are usually different pressure classes on purpose.

Never substitute a similarly-named cartridge without confirming case length and rim design against your firearm's chamber markings or owner's manual, and verify current stock and any state shipping restrictions before ordering.