HalfaDouble,
Maybe it would a little less confusing if instead of grouping "families" by nominal bullet designations, they were grouped by case designation instead. As an example, .308, 243,260,7-08, and 358 would be a family instead of 30 carbine,308 ,30-06, 300 Win, and 300 Wea. being a family of cartridges. With the 360 grouping you cited, I would consider the 360-2 1/4 and 9.3/360s in a family (there are differences in head dimeters of several thousandths, depending on manufacturers), but I would put the 360#2 in the 450 base family and the 400-360 NE( a couple versions,400-350 a couple versions,9.3x72R S&S,and 9.3x74R) in the 400 base family. You didn't mention the 360 #5, but it is often confused with the larger 360s whereas it is a 380-base cartridge. It is confusing if you expect everything to follow some rule. The way I look at it is similar to a German trying to understand American English (I lived in Germany 9 years), or an American trying to learn German, without taking classes; there are a lot of things thar don't follow a rule, you just have to learn by rote. I don't remember how many times I explained to my translators the difference between fix (to repair) and fix (to attach to). I hope I didn't confuse matters further.
Mike
