History Main / UniversalAmmunition

* ''VideoGame/RemnantFromTheAshes'': Ammo comes in two forms: handgun ammo, and long gun ammo. Each will fit anything in their category, from pistols to shotguns to sniper rifles to grenade launchers to crossbows to future-tech energy weapons to magical replicas made by fairies.

** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2019'' and onward handle this differently depending on mode and circumstances. Weapons identify their ammo by specific caliber, and so picking up ammo from a dropped weapon in single- or multiplayer requires it to use the same ammo as your weapon - otherwise, you're reliant on teammates dropping munitions boxes or running the Scavenger perk. Warzone, however, identifies ammo types by weapon category instead, many of which are used by more than one weapon type even beyond what they're identified as - as the most obvious instance, "[=AR/LMG=]" ammo works with anything the game identifies as an assault rifle, a battle rifle, or a machine gun.

** Most ridiculously, in ''Far Cry 2'' "flame" ammo - used by the flamethrower, molotovs, and flare gun - is shown as a small gas can - which can somehow turn into magnesium flares.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': There are four ammo types -- pistol, rifle, shotgun, and sniper -- ColorCodedForYourConvenience. How universal is it? All sidearms/secondaries share the 'pistol' ammo type. Aside from actual pistols this category also includes shotgun pistols, [=SMGs=], throwing knives, crossbows, laser guns, handheld rocket launchers, small flame throwers, remotely detonated sticky bombs, and ''bits of mutated flesh that burst open on impact to release toxic gas''. A Grineer Assault Rifle and Corpus Plasma Rifle can even run off the same rifle ammo pack. Despite the fact one shoots bullets and the other shoots ''plasma bolts''.
** And then there are "ammo mutation" mods, that, when equipped on a weapon, can convert any ammunition pickup into the relevant ammunition, so you get sniper/bow ammo from pistol/shotgun/rifle ammo pickups, and an AttackDrone designed to act as an ItemCaddy that can do the same for '''all''' your weapons.

* The Medusa M47 revolver inverts and exaggerates the trope by being able to take ''any'' bullet that has a diameter of 9mm or less and up to or shorter than a .357 Magnum by using special extractor fingers that clamp onto the cartridge to properly hold it in place. Though, given the fact that the extractor fingers are very fragile and that anything of a smaller diameter than 9mm won't properly grip the rifling, [[AwesomeButImpractical you'll be lucky to score a shot beyond point-blank range.]]
* Due to the extremely similar diameter between .308 Winchester (7.62x51mm) and the 7.62x39mm Soviet round, it's rather simple to convert weapons in the former to fire the latter, such as Norinco's [=M305A=] - a rechambered version of their M14 copy - which differs from a standard M14 mostly by a slightly modified magazine release and some internal framework added into the magazine well to fit AK-pattern magazines. The existing bolt-locking mechanism even works properly with mags designed for [=AKs=] with their own bolt-hold devices (presumably in part due to that the AK's bolt is derived from that of the M1 Garand, itself a direct predecessor to the M14), though with iffy results - [[WebVideo/ForgottenWeapons Ian McCollum]] had to push up on the bottom of a Yugoslavian magazine to ensure it fed reliably in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byeMLdt2r-I his video on]] the [=M305A=], while a Russian AK mag that didn't lock the bolt open fed perfectly.

* One of the main advantages to the .22 Long and its variations was that a rifle fitted for one caliber could take any that had a shorter casing. This even means that weapons chambered for the long-obsolete .22 Extra Long (discontinued in 1935) can still be fired, as the still-produced .22LR will work just fine with them. A few other calibers, such as the .38 or the aforementioned 12-gauge, also did this. However, this only works with rimmed cartridges.

** A very rare exception to this was Smith & Wesson's variation of the M1917 revolver, to supplement the M1911 pistol in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. It was specifically designed to be able to take regular .45 ACP cartridges without use of a moon clip, while Colt's version of the same weapon required either a moon clip to hold .45 ACP, or a special .45 Auto Rim version of the ammo; though this in turn meant reloading S&W's version with regular .45 ammo required shaking the casings loose manually, since there's no rim or clip for the ejector to catch onto. S&W's more modern updates on the concept, the Models 22 and 25 and their derivatives, eschew this ability in favor of requiring moon clips, since they're easy enough to acquire in the modern day and ''far'' faster than even speedloaders, both for unloading and reloading.

** AK-pattern rifles, in addition to the original 7.62 and 5.45mm bullets for the AK-47/AKM and AK-74, can be modified for 9x18mm, 9x19mm, 5.56x45mm, 7.62x51mm, and even 12- and 20-gauge, among various other one-off calibers for specific military purposes. The modern AK-12, around 2013, was being advertised for its adaptability, able to swap between various Russian and NATO calibers (including most of the listed ones just above) with little more than a barrel and magazine change; as of it entering production, this doesn't appear to be the case, though there are still separate variants of the weapon for different calibers as before (the AK-12 in 5.45mm, an AK-15 in 7.62mm Soviet, and an AK-19 and AK-308 for foreign customers in respectively 5.56mm and .308 Winchester).

** [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyZombies Zombies mode]] also uses this, which is probably to be expected since [[WidgetSeries it isn't even trying to be realistic]]. Save for purchasing a weapon from off the wall and then going back to purchase ammo, your only other option for replenishing ammo is the Max Ammo pickup randomly dropped by zombies that will refill everything you have, whether it's a revolver that predates either World War, a submachine gun from the 1960s, a belt-fed machine gun from the ''20''60s, or a [[{{Zeerust}} retro-futuristic raygun]] developed by Nazi super-science.

** A revolver chambered for .357 Magnum[[note]]dimensions: .379 x 1.59 inches[[/note]] can safely use .38 Special[[note]]dimensions: .379 x 1.55 inches. The slugs in both are ⌀.357[[/note]] or +P rounds. They're the same diameter, but the .357 case is slightly longer, so it cannot be used in a .38 weapon for safety reasons. Likewise, the .44 Magnum and .44 Special. And the .45 Long Colt and its lengthened and more powerful brothers, the .454 Casull and .460 S&W Magnum. Some modern revolvers are also sold with a second cylinder meant for an automatic pistol cartridge of the same diameter, e.g. a .357 Magnum revolver (9x33mmR) coming with a cylinder for 9x19mm. As a general rule with revolvers: if it fits in the hole, then it's OK. Automatics firing revolver rounds are generally okay, as well, though there are more factors to take into consideration, including the strength of the recoil springs (generally requiring swapping between weaker and stronger springs for respectively Special and Magnum loads; stronger means weaker cartridges won't be able to push the slide back far enough to cycle properly, while weaker means full-power cartridges kick harder and can outright damage the gun).
** A very rare exception to this was Smith & Wesson's variation of the M1917 revolver, to supplement the M1911 pistol in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. It was specifically designed to be able to take regular .45 ACP cartridges without use of a moon clip, while Colt's version of the same weapon required either a moon clip to hold .45 ACP, or a special .45 Auto Rim version of the ammo; though this in turn meant reloading S&W's version with regular .45 ammo required shaking the casings loose manually, since there's no rim or clip for the ejector to catch onto.

* ''VideoGame/TurningPointFallOfLiberty'' suffers from a glaring lack of ammo commonality. No two of the game's many 9mm weapons can share ammo. In fact, if you had the scoped and unscoped versions of the same gun, they still do not share ammo. Did we mention the game is an ObviousBeta?

** Due to a [[GoodBadBugs bug]] in ''Fallout 2'', the P90 {{expy}} gun was originally loaded with 9mm ammo, which was extremely rare and only designed to be used in this one gun (it wasn't even the only specialized 9mm ammo, either - elsewhere in the game is a Mauser that takes 9mm (ball) ammo). However, once emptied, it then took extremely common 10mm ammo.

** The .32 Caliber pistol and Hunting Rifle both use .32 caliber ammo, however the rifle is much more powerful than the pistol. The pistol is probably the weakest weapon in the game. This is because the Hunting Rifle is actually firing .308 projectiles, and someone accidentally set it to use the wrong ammo; even if it weren't a glitch, the long-barreled rifle with a sealed chamber would be able to fire the bullet with much more energy than the tiny, unsealed revolver anyway.

** Similar ideas have also fueled the creation of some more modern rounds, like the 6.5x25mm CBJ or .300 AAC Blackout, which are designed to be as compatible as possible with their parent cartridges, respectively 9mm Para and 5.56mm NATO. The new rounds are essentially the existing casings simply necked differently to take a different-diameter bullet, requiring nothing more than a barrel change to convert an existing 9mm or 5.56mm weapon to 6.5 or .300 - the actual casing is the same size, so they will still fit in the same magazines and still work with the same bolts. This goes back at least to 1994 with the design of the .357 SIG cartridge, which was based on the .40 S&W, to the point that they have the same base diameter and almost the same overall length (.357 SIG is only about a tenth of a millimeter longer), so all that's absolutely necessary to convert between the two is a barrel change - however, quick caliber conversions were not one of the design priorities, so switching a .40 S&W gun to .357 SIG may also require a stronger recoil spring to handle the .357's higher operating pressures. In turn, the .40 S&W is based off of 10mm Auto, but with a case shortened by about three and a half millimeters, about like the difference between a Magnum round and its Special counterpart - one can technically fire .40 S&W through a 10mm Auto pistol, and if it does work it can even be safer and more convenient (lower pressure generated for less wear on the gun, less recoil for a more comfortable experience - though with the caveat that it increases the risk of the gun failing to cycle - and cheaper ammo to keep it fed), but 10mm Auto through a .40 S&W gun simply won't work without more extensive modification, since the 10mm Auto won't fit in the smaller gun,[[note]]even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzh16zi55G0 this video]] of a [=USP40=] converted to 10mm notes that, among other modifications, it required modifying a metal mag from a different 10mm gun - the plastic walls of the existing [=USP40=] mags are too thick to fit the longer 10mm Auto - and that the end result still can't eject an unfired 10mm cartridge through its ejection port, requiring the user to remove the magazine and push an unfired round down through the magazine well[[/note]] and would probably damage the gun even if it did - keep in mind even a lot of early guns designed for .40 S&W had this issue, the cartridge becoming so popular so quickly in part because designers noticed they could stick .40 barrels onto their existing 9mm frames, [[DidntThinkThisThrough without realizing those frames weren't designed for the higher pressures that .40 generates]].

* Most [[SlowLaser blasters]] in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe use a substance called Tibanna Gas and Power Packs. Apparently power packs come in a universal format too; the power packs for E-11 rifles and DH-17 pistols are visibly identical (being based on the same real life submachine gun).
** ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords KoTOR 2]]'' had you run a across a ProudWarriorRaceGuy who was hiding from some predators. If you choose to mock him for managing to run out of ammo, he will ask if you have ''ever'' emptied a blaster and needed to reload (thus also hanging a lampshade on the fact that the two games have BottomlessMagazines).

* Similar to the ''Invisible War'' example in above, in John Scalzi's ''Literature/OldMansWar'', the rifles used by the Colonial forces use nanotechnology-based ammo that reconfigures itself into whatever you're asking for--including rockets, grenades, bullets, and ''microwaves''. You can even create your own custom firing macros (eg., fire a grenade followed by a blast of flame for good measure).

* Discussed in The Chieftain's Hatch when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juluyzxVSZY covering the M3 Medium tank]]. The initial ammunition used for the 75mm cannon had reliability issues. The British Army, who was a prime user of the tank, solved the issues by using another country's ammunition of the same caliber. For the high explosive rounds, they found the French 75mm field gun's projectile had a better fuse, and since the American 75mm shell was based off of it to the point of being completely identical in layout, it was a matter of swapping the fuses. For the armor piercing round, the Brits captured several lots of projectiles made for the Panzer [=IV's=] 7.5cm main gun and they happened to fit in American shell casings with only minor modifications.

** Particularly egregious with flintlocks, which shouldn't even ''fire'' bullets (the point of the flintlock mechanism is to set fire to some powder that propels a lead ball, while bullets contain their own propellant).
* On a larger scale in ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'', one unit of a certain "size" of projectile ammunition can be chambered in up to five calibers. For example, one unit of "Large projectile ammunition", meant to be fired from battleship guns, can be used interchangeably in Dual 425mm, 650mm, 800mm, 1200mm, and 1400mm guns. Also, a unit of ammunition unloaded from a 800mm autocannon takes up the volume as ammunition unloaded from a 1400mm howitzer.

** It's invoked even more poorly in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilGunSurvivor'', where all four of your available handguns use 9mm rounds, which includes the Nambu pistol, a gun that was chambered exclusively in 8mm. This is very weakly {{Hand Wave}}d by the gun being described as "Custom," even though a Nambu would likely blow apart if one ever did go to the trouble of rechambering it for 9mm.

** Particularly egregious with fintlocks, which shouldn't even ''fire'' bullets (the point of the flintlock mechanism is to set fire to some powder that propels a lead ball, while bullets contain their own propellant.

* Averted in ''7.62mm High Caliber'', with each gun taking the proper caliber and many calibers coming in multiple brands and types that can be mixed and matched in the magazines, and each gun takes its own magazine. One error is that the Mauser pistol and carbine take 7.62x25mm Tokarev ammo (which will load in a Mauser but are too powerful to safely use, and require 7.63x25mm Mauser ammunition instead).

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' again may fall into this. Among the weapons that share ammo are the Broken Butterfly revolver and the semi-auto VideoGame/{{Killer7}}, both of which take .45-caliber rounds. So long as they were rimmed cartridges or at least attached to a moon clip, this would be entirely possible; revolvers will generally shoot anything you can fit into their cylinders. Also, the two scoped rifles, the Springfield M1903 and the H&K [=SL8=], share ammo; while the Springfield in reality uses .30-06 rounds, the in-game description flat-out states this one has been rechambered for the [=SL8=]'s .223 Remington.
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'' fixes leftover issues of this nature from the original game. Claire now gets two revolvers, her first one being a Smith & Wesson Bodyguard in .38 Special that actually could, at least in theory, take 9mm Para rounds like Leon's [=VP70=]. Her second, replacing the SAA as her bonus weapon in a B scenario, is a Ruger Blackhawk, which gets its own unique ammo type (.45ACP, which is a real chambering for the Blackhawk) that is only shared with Leon's equivalent bonus weapon, an M1911.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'', where the only weapons that share ammo are pump-action and sawed-off 12 gauge shotguns, which are reloaded with loose rounds. Every other ammo type is identified by the weapon it matches; even the other guns that do share ammo in real life (the 9mm Beretta 92s and M11s, or the also-12 gauge Jackhammer) use entirely different magazines.

* All firearms in ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'', barring a few exotic examples, take the same bullets. Larger guns just shoot more than one at a time. Of course, the [[ItemCrafting Bullets schematic]] only requires the ingredients for black powder, so it's unclear just what exactly you're shooting.

** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2019'' and onward handle this differently depending on mode and circumstances. In single- and multiplayer, weapons identify their ammo by specific caliber, and so picking up ammo from a dropped weapon requires it to use the same ammo as your weapon - otherwise, you're reliant on teammates dropping munitions boxes or running the Scavenger perk. Warzone, however, identifies ammo types by weapon category instead, many of which are used by more than one weapon type even beyond what they're identified as - as the most obvious instance, "[=AR/LMG=]" ammo works with anything the game identifies as an assault rifle, a battle rifle, or a machine gun.

(e.g. assault rifles and machine guns use one ammo type).

** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2019'' and onward handle this differently depending on mode and circumstances. In single- and multiplayer, weapons identify their ammo by specific caliber, and so picking up ammo from a dropped weapon requires it to use the same ammo as your weapon - otherwise, you're reliant on teammates dropping munitions boxes or running the Scavenger perk. Warzone, however, identifies ammo types by weapon category instead, many of which are used by more than one weapon type (e.g. assault rifles and machine guns use one ammo type).

** [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyZombies Zombies mode]] also uses this, which is probably to be expected since [[WidgetSeries it isn't even trying to be realistic]]. Save for purchasing a weapon from off the wall and then going back to purchase ammo, any manner in which you can replenish your supplies will refill everything you have, whether it's a revolver that predates either World War, a submachine gun from the 1960s, a belt-fed machine gun from the ''20''60s, or a [[{{Zeerust}} retro-futuristic raygun]] developed by Nazi super-science.

[[folder:Film]]

* Kind of TruthInTelevision for armies of the world. The less kinds of ammo you have to stock and distribute, the easier it is to supply your troops. Imagine the logistics nightmare during World War II for the U.S., when any one squad needed .30-06 (M1 Garand, M1903 Springfield, and various machine guns), .45 ACP (M1 Thompson, M3 Grease Gun, and M1911), and/or .30 carbine (M1 Carbine). Compared to today where a squad usually only needs one caliber: 5.56mm.

* ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor: Allied Assault'' has wildly different guns from four nations all accepting the same carts and mags if they're the same "type" (pistol, rifle, etc.). The original PSX game averted this for pistols and sub-machine guns (for instance, salvaged 9mm guns would not give you ammo for your .45 Colt or Thompson), but played it straight with rifles. The 2010 reboot switches to the standard modern system of weapons sharing ammo based on real-world caliber, and also allows you to ask certain allies for more ammo regardless of whether he would logically be carrying that kind of ammo on him.

* ''VideoGame/TheWorldIsNotEnough'' handled this differently depending on platform. While the [=PS1=] version identified ''every'' ammo type specifically by what weapon it went for - so, for example, having several mags' worth of TMP ammo wouldn't help you keep your P99 or silenced [=MP5=] loaded - the [=N64=] version instead identifies regular ammo types by caliber. For the most part, ammo is only shared by weapons that do, in fact, fire the same bullets in real life (ignoring the OneBulletClips issues that result), but there are still some oddities resulting from the fact that ammo is only identified by its diameter, so for instance you're perfectly capable of keeping the 7.62x51mm [=MSG90=] or SSG 3000 loaded by salvaging dropped 7.62x39mm AKS-47s.

** Once upon a time, picking up ''any'' weapon dropped by a dead player gave you half of your maximum ammunition, even if it was something like the Pyro's flamethrower, the Soldier's rocket launcher, the Demoman's bottle, a wooden bat, 150kg of metal in the shape of a minigun, or a ''dead fish''. Spies could also somehow recharge their cloak meter with these same objects, as could the Engineer regain metal to build sentry guns and teleporters (where this got odd is that dropped hats gave no metal, despite them [[ItMakesSenseInContext being made out of enough of the stuff]] to craft at least ''36'' weapons). With the Gun Mettle update, a dead player will drop both the weapon ''and'' a medium ammo pack. The dropped weapon instead can be [[TheEnemyWeaponsAreBetter freely picked up and used by another player of the respective class]] until their death or the end of the match.

** Averted to a slightly unrealistic degree at times in the earlier games. Even the normal and sniper versions of a weapon did not have interchangeable ammunition; while in some cases like most bolt-action rifles this was at least slightly-accurate since attaching a scope made it impossible to reload them using stripper clips (ignoring that your character could just remove the bullets from those clips and load them individually), it was even the case when the weapons ''should'' have used exactly the same ammunition loaded exactly the same way, like the Sten being nearly-impossible to replenish despite taking the same ammo as the [=MP40=]s every other German soldier drops, or a scoped Mosin-Nagant reloading with clips anyway (your character's hand [[GoodBadBugs dutifully clipping right through the scope]] to do so) but still not being able to take more from unscoped ones.
** ''VideoGame/{{Call of Duty 4|ModernWarfare}}'' changed this around and would allow you to take ammo from any dropped weapon if it fired the same kind of bullet as what you already had, and if it isn't already the exact same gun you're using, the gun itself would stay on the ground in case you wanted to swap for it. Somewhat oddly, you can also increase the amount of maximum ammo for a gun by carrying another one that shares ammo (such as the 5.56x45mm M16, M4, and/or [=G36C=], which falls into this when you're using two guns that are clearly ''not'' using the same magazines). Multiplayer and later games are a bit stricter, where attachment differences don't matter, but what type of gun it is does - e.g. you could get ammo for your M4 with grenade launcher from dropped M4s with red dots, [=ACOGs=], or nothing, but would be shit out of luck trying to take ammo from an M16, even one with the same grenade launcher attached. In singleplayer this isn't very limiting for the most part, as you typically have the same gun all your RedShirt allies have (thus allowing you to replenish yourself from their guns when they die) or are given a unique gun with a ridiculous amount of ammo to start with (the silenced ACR with a red dot sight and heartbeat sensor from the ''[=MW2=]'' mission "Cliffhanger" holds over a ''thousand'' bullets in total - more ammo than an entire fire team would be expected to have on-hand in reality), and stolen enemy guns are easy to keep loaded too because enemies are typically randomly given one of three or four guns dependent on the level.
** Multiplayer in later games would occasionally go back to ridiculously strict requirements to pick up ammo from another gun on the ground (some games don't let you take ammo from a dropped gun, even if it's the same weapon with the same attachments, if the ''camo pattern applied to it'' is different from yours), but games since ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2 Modern Warfare 2]]'' also allow this to be played ridiculously straight with the "Scavenger" perk - every casualty (except those killed by explosive weapons in later games) will drop a backpack with one full magazine for whatever guns you're carrying, another piece of your primary equipment, and one special grenade. In ''Modern Warfare 2'', this backpack also contains a 40mm grenade or four shotgun shells if your gun has the grenade launcher/shotgun attachment. Yeesh, good thing the enemy didn't know they were carrying all this stuff... Amusingly, the perk is also available in the singleplayer of ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII Black Ops II]]'', which is probably even more ridiculous than multiplayer, because NewGamePlus combined with it allows you to replenish ammo for various one-off futuristic weapons by picking up packs from people in a time period [[AnachronismStew before those weapons even existed]].

* ''VideoGame/TurningPointFallOfLiberty'' suffered from a glaring lack of ammo commonality. No two of the game's many 9mm weapons could share ammo. In fact, if you had the scoped and unscoped versions of the same gun, they still do not share ammo. Did we mention the game was an ObviousBeta?

* Averted in ''[[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'', where there there are some guns that use unique caliber suitable only for them, not to mention each gun has two or three different types of ammo for various situations. The game does occasionally feature unique versions of guns chambered for a different ammo type or, in later games, the ability to convert a gun chambering Warsaw Pact ammo to use the equivalent NATO caliber (and vice versa) by visiting a tech.

* The first ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'' game had this. The only unique ammo was the rocket launcher. Otherwise, you just had generic bullets. 9mm Parabellum = .45 ACP = 12 gauge = 7.62x51mm = 5.56x45mm = 40mm. For those who don't know ammo, pistol ammo = bigger pistol ammo = shotgun shell = rifle ammo = smaller rifle ammo = grenade.
** Averted in ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2'', each ammo type is ColorCodedForYourConvenience. This even gets lampshaded by one of the [=NPCs=], who notes that another character jammed a pistol by trying to force the ammo from a different pistol caliber into it.

* The first ''VideoGame/ObsCure'' game had pistol and shotgun ammunition used across all weapons in each category. It's justified for the shotguns, which are all presumably 12-gauge, but the pistol ammo is used in everything from the old pocket pistol you find early on to the custom heavy pistol you take from the principal's safe to the HandCannon [[RevolversAreJustBetter magnum revolver]], which all vary widely in power. The second game averts it, with each gun using different ammunition, but the spinoff ''Final Exam'' goes even further and has all guns, from the pistol to the rocket launcher, use the same generic ammo.

* In ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'', each of its 21 firearms are in one of 6 categories: Revolvers, Pistols, Rifles, Repeaters, Sniper Rifles, and Shotguns. Each category has an associated ammunition type (i.e. shotgun ammo for shotguns) which is universal across all weapons in the category.