standard or magnum cartridges?

[todd]

This pretty sums up all of the hoop la over new firearms, cartridges, and do I dare say, molds. Ian mentioned Hornady's Zombie Max line, what a stroke of genius. Yep, may sound silly, replacing the red tip for a lime green one and packaging in a snazzy eye colorful eye catching box reflective of what was socially popular at the time. It provided revenue for jobs, more product R&D, and competition for new ideas. Some folks go off about fad or niche rounds, so what, they need to look at the big picture it helps keep our passion alive. How boring would life be if we only had 22 Hornet, 30-30, 30-06, 375 H&H, 9mm, 38 Spcl, 45 Colt, and 45-70, etc? Yea, many of us suffer a bit of severe gastric reflux when we hear 6.5 and Creedmoor. Likely the same feelings some folks had close to 100 years ago when they heard the words ".270 Winchester", or the early 60's when the 22-250 was commercialized.

Whether we want to admit it or not our sport has benefited from hair brained ideas, technology, and/or marketing. Did I mention medium bore '06 based wildcats (sorry just couldn't resist).

i think it was about the time (late '90s?) Lazzeroni rifles began and then the manufacturers came up with the Ultra Mags, Short Mags and the Short Action Ultra mags that i gave up on magnums. the last "new" cartridge i bought was the 6.5 Creedmoor (i think i bought it in 2009 or '10) but now it is older and somewhat obsolete cartridges, like the 30 rem and 7.65x53 and the 30-40 krag. i would say that the 30-06 is King. i shot alot of deer with '06. i have only one '06, jap type 99 that will either be rebored or rebarreled. heck, my deer count would be nothing if it weren't for the 30-30. i retired my win m94 30-30 about 20 some years ago, but i gave it to JES and he returned me with the 35/30-30. i know that it has only 3 or 4 deer to its credit, but the m94 still impresses me.

the 7 Mauser is #2 on the deer kills list for me. i consider the 7 Mauser to be THE perfect deer cartridge. actually, i would say any of x57 Mauser's is a good deer cartridge.

i have a 1973 ruger #1 in 270 win that shoots much better than i can. i haven't used it in 10-11 years (i started hunting with cast boolits) but gosh durn it, the #1 makes deer quake with fear!!!

 

[Bret4207]

Short action Savage. 7.62×39 bolt head purchase an appropriate barrel , you'll probably need a blank from Green Mountain , ream ream for 38-55 or 375 Win . Buy 30 Rem brass at graffs , blow it straight , and viola' bolt action 375/38-55 rimless bolt action . If needed it can be loaded to Ruger #1 levels .

The mere fact there is 30 Rem brass available anywhere leaves me wondering what else I've missed...

 

[JustJim]

For me at least, the biggest "push" in favor of the belted mags was also some of the writers of yesteryear. Jobson wrote an article (maybe published in the '84 Gun Digest?) about his "pair of aces": the 300 H&H and 375 H&H. Over the years I've owned several .375s, never have gotten around to a .300 H&H but I do occasionally bid on pre-64s so chambered, and if I won one I wouldn't be disappointed.

 

[popper]

The 4 empty 50 BMG cases on the counter (8$ each) were impressive but nope, not for me. 308W is enough. One GK thought he got a 270 WSM BLR but it turned out to be just 270. More than I need for anything.

 

[Bret4207]

For me at least, the biggest "push" in favor of the belted mags was also some of the writers of yesteryear. Jobson wrote an article (maybe published in the '84 Gun Digest?) about his "pair of aces": the 300 H&H and 375 H&H. Over the years I've owned several .375s, never have gotten around to a .300 H&H but I do occasionally bid on pre-64s so chambered, and if I won one I wouldn't be disappointed.

The biggest thing pushing the belted mags years back was Roy Weatherby and The Weatherby Trophy! I don't know if the thing even exists anymore but from the 50's into the late 70's anyway that was THE Big Game Hunting award to get. Oddly, if you used a Weatherby rifle and cartridge, you seemed to have a better chance at winning. No offense to the Holland and Holland cartridges, but in the post war safari days, there was a lot of $$$ made my Roy and Co. off that belt!

And yes, I'm showing my age by even remembering things like that!

 

[david s]

Old joke, A new hunter ask Warren Page, Elmer Keith and Jack O' Conner what cartridge he should get for hunting. Page chimes in with the 7mm Magnum, Keith says 338 Winchester and O'Conner the 270 Winchester. Then O'Conner ask the hunter what he's trying to accomplice when hunting. The Nimrod responds that he wants to win the Weatherby trophy. All three authors respond in unison 300 Weatherby!

 

[RBHarter]

The mere fact there is 30 Rem brass available anywhere leaves me wondering what else I've missed...

Having a 32 Rem and a 6.8 SPC tends to keep one aware of what's available. The 30 Rem brass is a new development in availability . Last week I learned Privi Partisan is producing also .

Funny thing happened when I was searching for about 50 pieces of correct 264 WM . I actually found more 32 Rem than 264 WM ...... One guy even sent me 20 rounds of Remington factory ammo , it got to be 60 yr or more old .

 

[todd]

Having a 32 Rem and a 6.8 SPC tends to keep one aware of what's available. The 30 Rem brass is a new development in availability . Last week I learned Privi Partisan is producing also .

Funny thing happened when I was searching for about 50 pieces of correct 264 WM . I actually found more 32 Rem than 264 WM ...... One guy even sent me 20 rounds of Remington factory ammo , it got to be 60 yr or more old .

i know about Grafs 30 Rem brass, but i didn't know about Prvi. my neighbor's older brother has a rem m141 in 30 rem. i have a rem m14 in 30 rem too. i'm glad that Grafs and now Prvi still make the old time brass.

the 30-40 krag brass was darn near done (remmie made it.......occasionally), but then Graf's started to make the brass available.

 

[Tom]

Every time I hear "6.5 Creedmore," "Creedmore" or "'Creed," I automatically roll my eyes. Can't help it.

YET, I believe it's one of the best things that has happened in shooting in some time - the hype anyway, because it finally got more people to recognize the 6.5mms. A good friend asked which 6.5 he should get (not which 6.5 I would get) and I told him 6.5 Creedmore. I think that surprised him. Hey, you can get brass, bullets, loaded ammo, easier than for the ones it artificially crowded out and it does the same thing.

I do like many of the "little" cartridges designed to fit into an AR magazine. They also fit into tiny bolt actions, like the CZ 527, which is cool.

I just don't like the collateral damage of other established and reliable older stuff that goes to the bottom of the production schedule because of it though.

I have my old favorite, my 6.5 swedemore. In the ar, I like the grendel. Maybe I got lucky, but I picked up a chrome lined barrel from gpc for about $100 that easily shoots .5-6 from the bench. It was from sabre defense. My bartlein barrel does better, but at a little higher cost.
Iirc, it was Al Miller that wrote a few articles about the swede that motivated me to buy a 96 mauser. Put a new surplus barrel from sarco on it and became a charter member of the 6.5 cult.

 

[Bret4207]

Al Miller produced a lot of thought provoking, solid articles. He was one of the good writers, and he knew cast.

 

[Tom]

Al Miller produced a lot of thought provoking, solid articles. He was one of the good writers, and he knew cast.

I liked Al Miller and Ross Seyfried because they wrote about old firearms rather than advertising the latest thing.

 

[todd]

Gene Hill and Keith McCafferty and John Wooters and Ed Zern and John Barness......they were all good

they are gun ho's pimping from the gun rags now.

 

[Winelover]

I have subscriptions to two gun rags. American Rifleman (member) and G&A. Subscriptions are < $2 / issue. Only reason I subscribe is to be up to date on new firearm releases. Hardly, read any of the articles. Not interested in AR-15's or 1911's. I have a stack of at least two years worth of back issues, that I've only thumbed through. I take them to doctor's waiting rooms, to kill time, cause they are never on time.

 

[Bret4207]

Gene Hill and Keith McCafferty and John Wooters and Ed Zern and John Barness......they were all good

they are gun ho's pimping from the gun rags now.

Gene Hill. Only gun writer I ever read that could get me teared up. The man had a way with words. "Whoever said money can't buy happiness forgot puppies."

 

[todd]

it used to be Field & Stream, Peterson Hunting and Shooting Times. sometime in '98 or '99, i was sick and tired of the gun ads that people were writing, so i let them go.

Gary Sitton, Finn Aagaard, Elmer Keith........they were true writers.

 

[todd]

Rick Jamison was another. i have heard somewhere that Rick sued Winchester for them using a 404 Jefferies case which Rick already did. or something, i forget. i used to read about Rick doing the 404 Jefferies either cutting or necking down or both.

 

[Tom]

How in the heck did I forget Finn Aagaard? One of the greats!

 

[fiver]

winchester copied Jamison's cartridge and called them the WSM.
they were in court for like 10years and it kind of wrecked Rick's writing career for that whole time frame.
i don't remember the details of the settlement, but IIRC Rick pretty much come out on the short end of the stick, and then got some sort of financial [a little too little a little too late] to sort of make up for things.

 

[todd]

Rick was the only bright spot in Shooting Times.

 

[Glaciers]

Yeah before the short magnums came to be I was wanting to build a 375/350 Remington mag but got side track on some other cartridge and never happened. I’m thinking that would have been a good one on a standard long action.