C.I.P., the Commission Internationale Permanente pour l’Epreuve des Armes a Feu Portatives, is the regulatory body that standardizes firearms and ammunition across most of Europe. It publishes the official cartridge dimensions, chamber drawings, and maximum chamber pressure limits that member countries enforce by law. In practical terms it fills the same role in Europe that SAAMI fills in the United States.

The two systems differ in important ways. C.I.P. membership is mandatory in participating nations and includes a legal proof-house regime, where firearms are physically tested and stamped before sale. C.I.P. also tends to specify pressures and measurement methods that differ slightly from SAAMI, which is why the same cartridge name can carry subtly different published limits on each side of the Atlantic.

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