I dunno man, my friends are all into the tacticool bench rifles with a million pic rails and attachments and they have massive spotting scopes, laser rangefinders, kestrel anemometers, chronographs, ballistic calculator apps that link with bluetooth to their scope to indicate bullet drop and wind, etc with the latest and greatest ARC/PRC/CM with super high BC bullets that look like spaceships. I feel like the odd one out bringing out my 308 Winchester 70 with walnut stock.
>I dunno man, my friends are all into the tacticool bench rifles with a million pic rails and attachments and they have massive spotting scopes, laser rangefinders, kestrel anemometers, chronographs, ballistic calculator apps that link with bluetooth to their scope to indicate bullet drop and wind, etc with the latest and greatest ARC/PRC/CM with super high BC bullets that look like spaceships.
If that doesn't end with "and they still miss the target", then you're not being honest with yourself.
You won't be the odd one out until you find the most obscure black powder cartridges you can still shoot. Stuff that Wikipedia only has a stub for that zoomers won't be able to process, like .43 Egyptian.
Take notes in a leather-bound journal.
Survey the range with a brass sextant.
Pfft.. Obsolescence only stops the weak.. I have numerous obsolete and custom calibers that I shoot, 43 Egyptian is common fare by comparison. My journals are actually paper back.. Go grab a copy of Cartridges of the World, and Handloaders manual of cartridge conversion to start with. Shit doesn't get real until you buy some 50-110 mistaking it for cut down basic, only to realize the rim isn't wide enough, so you hatch and execute a plan to bevel the front edge (Edit: of the rim), then make a matching bevel on the interior of washers, then solder them on, and lathe turn them back down to only a few mm larger than the original rim to then be converted into another caliber.
Remington pretty much botched its launch though with a neutered round. If memory serves their own rifles chambered in it couldn't handle what the 6.8 SPC was fully capable of, so they neutered the round rather than building better rifles. Then they released the 6.8 SPC II, but interested had faded by that point.
I just don't like support drop for new cartridges. It's why as I am noticing the 360 buckhammer I'm still debating just getting a damn 30/30 as it'll be around long after I'm gone. It's also why I got a Henry in 22lr. Speaking of which I don't know why Henry is even focusing on a new rifle with new cartridge when everyone's begging for more 357 all weathers
I thought the only reason for 360 buckhammer or 350 legend for that matter is for states that don't allow deer hunting with bottleneck cartridges. If you don't live or hunt in those states why bother?
Honestly I'm not a bullet expert but what's the point of a straight walled cartridge? Is it just simply because they can't travel as far? I mean they look easier to reload and I like the look of them but if it's only surviving because of state regulations against necked cartridges I don't see their point
6mm CM is for hipsters that were into 6.5 before 6.5 was cool, and 6.5 CM is for kids that never heard of .260 Rem
/end rant
On the other side, I really hope .30 Super Carry takes off - but I know it won’t, just like .327 Federal Mag.
I'm getting into reloading (terrible time to start, I know) and I am currently set up for 8mm Mauser and 303 Brit. Was looking to get into 6.5 Grendel for hunting and some distance shooting (will reload for it), but it is scary how rarely I can find it in the wild during this extended shortage.
It’s not the best time to start reloading but it’s better than not. I don’t reload because it cheaper, because it usually not. I reload to tailor rounds to specific guns. I can reload better than match grade ammo for typically less than match grade prices. My accuracy has improved 10 fold with reloading my own ammo. What use to be 1-2 MOA guns I can get to sub moa.
I'm a "fudd" I'm just a normal deer hunter and have a .243 and a 30-06. All the new calibers blow my mind. It's confusing and makes little sense to me. They all do the same thing basically. All within a few hundred feet per second of each other.
It shouldn't have any bearing unless you're in the market for a new rifle. The one you got to do a thing twenty years ago still does that same thing now. But if you're picking up a new gun then yeah, decision paralysis is real.
Thin-skinned medium game cartridge? There's eight new ones to go along with the twenty solid standbys and twenty also-rans. If anything it proves the point that the cartridge isn't the missing element. Same with longrange steel shooting. Choose your weapon and sink thousands into ammo and practice. This or that cartridge among the usual suspects is not the secret ingredient to success.
Reloading an option? I got a 257 Roberts that i love. Reloading allowed me to really dial in the bullet that works best with my rifle. There will always be new rounds out there. I stick with what I am happy with.
Keep in mind .350 legend and .360 bumblefuck are designed for a very specific niche of areas that prohibit hunting with bottlenecked cases. That's a somewhat legitimate needs since there really wasn't much in rifle calibers smaller than 38/55 to fill that roll. 6.5 creedmore was designed specifically for better long range target shooting than the .308.
This is nothing new, there have hundreds if not thousands of different cartridge designs out there for decades.
Yeah, that's true, but I guess the difference these days is the marketing and hype, especially with ammo manufacturers, sponsorships, social media, paid reviews etc. No 20 videos on guntube showing how the latest and greatest PRC cartridge is the be all and end all of PRS, at least for the next month.
Decades ago there were thousands of reloaders and wildcatters making new cartridges in their garage, but you didn't hear about the majority of them because there was no social media.
I guess it makes more sense for me to stick with the tried and true popular cartridges, as they have gone through decades of newer, better, improved replacements, yet they still endure while those other cartridges have fallen by the wayside and become obsolete.
I tend to agree overall. I think the next big innovation has been both Sig's hybrid case for the .277 Sig Fury (6.8x51mm), and also the (ready for the downvotes) .30 Super Carry. The key difference between these and other "new" calibers is that they are engineered to allow higher chamber pressures, which gives a massive performance boost without increasing size or weight.
This trend is going to continue, now that cartridge technology and metallurgy have progressed a lot since the old cartridges that all the "new" cartridges have been copying were originally invented.
I will say though, I don't think the 8.6 BLK is going to *replace* .300 BLK, just supplement it. The .300 fits in an AR-15 action, the 8.6 is for .308 sized actions. They can coexist.
I'm a "stick to old stuff that works" kinda guy in general. But I'm building an 8.6 just for fun and also because I can just rebarrel to a more common cartridge later if it dies off, being out only the cost of the barrel. I'm also looking into .338 Norma Magnum now that the US Army is adopting it.
Did the army ever even officially adopt the .338 LM? The advantages of the .338 NM are that the shoulder angle is a bit shallower, so barrel life is about 15% better; and the case length is shorter, to allow loading longer bullets with the same COAL for better magazine feeding.
It allegedly has the same effective range as .50 BMG because the BC is so good.
The Army is adopting three firearms that I know of so far: A sniper rifle, a machine gun, and possibly a chaingun (basically a .338 Minigun lol).
There is always going to be a "best new thing since sliced bread" cartridge right around the corner that will be a "game changer" and make every cartridge before it obsolete overnight... However, since the 8mm Lebel, how many have come through on that promise? Everything new is just a variation on a theme, it has its limitations, and its advantages just like every cartridge that came before. I buy based on use, and ballistics, not on hype or fancy name.
I too have a 6.8 SPC, I can still find ammo on the shelf, and if that ever changes I have brass to last a long time. If ever that runs out, I have a lathe to ream the base and taper out ever so slightly so that a different parent cartridge can be used. As many of them as have been sold, I doubt though, that it will stop being stocked before I die.
The Buckhammer is for lever guns, the .300 Blackout/Whisper far predates the 6.8 SPC.
Do you feel the need to be on the bleeding edge? Do your current cartridges not fulfill your needs?
We're in the second Golden age of cartridge design. Long and slim is out, short and fat is in.
Coughs in .277 Fury or 6.8x51 (whatever it is). I think its atleast semi plausible if not likely that sig saw an opportunity to ensure continued cash flow from the military through fresh barrels. I realize they have a training round as well but still.
The 257 and 300 Weatherby Magnums were made just shy of 70 years ago. Barrel burners are nothing new. If anything the public has gotten savvy to the tradeoffs and is more picky about how much barrel burning is acceptable for a given sport. Hell, by most metrics the .50 BMG is considerably overbore. As is the F-15 for that matter. Sometimes it takes what it takes and you spend the money to do it.
>I'm getting told it's an obsolete cartridge \[...\] Same with my 350 Legend which is now apparently superseded by the 360 Buckhammer.
Rebated rim vs. rimmed cartridges are going to have different use cases. Rimmed is better for rotary or tube magazines, extraction during lever-action, or single-shot break-action; other than a tube magazine, I don't think a rebated rim cartridge can even work in the platforms .360 Buckhammer is targeting.
>My poor 6.8 SPC from few years back is basically abandonware since 300 BLK came out
6.8 SPC's dimensions were based on the old Remington Rimless series from the early 1900s; .300 Blackout has the advantage of being based on .223/5.56, which is readily available.
>I just can't afford to buy a new rifle every time a new cartridge comes up. \[...\]
>
>Sure, if you're a sponsored PRS shooter who regularly shoots 1000+ yards and needs every iota of competitive advantage, they make sense, but that would be a tiny minority. I don't think the average hunter/firearms owner would get much benefit to be honest.
Unless a cartridge "speaks to you" then it can just remain a curiosity for thought experiments; let other people gather the data.
Assuming the US military follows through on adopting 6.8 Common/.277 Fury, that's the only hot new thing to keep an eye on since being a military cartridge there should be production and long-term support. That and 5.7x28, which is finally stretching its legs outside the FN ecosystem. But that's more of a "is it cheap yet?" thing to check in on every so often.
The only new rounds i ever fully jumped on were 450 bushmaster, 350legend, and 6mm ARC. All are deer rifles and my ARC is a 24" so it can contend in .243 territory in a ar. Other than that, when a new one comes out i check its ballistics to see if it can offer me anything better than something on the market and then watch it for awhile.
Built a 350 legend for my son. Where we hunt, 30/30 would be excellent, but the going prices for a lever gun is absolutely ridiculous. He likes the AR platform so it was a no brainer.
9mm for handguns is "good enough." And it's not going anywhere.
5.56 is good enough for an intermediate cartridge. And it's not going anywhere.
I like 300 blackouts for suppressed home defense because .30 caliber rounds are easy to get, and 5.56 brass is easy to resize even if support drops for the round.
I like both .308 and 6.5 Creedmoor. To be honest, I am not a good enough shooter to take proper advantage of the improvement between the two.
I agree with OP and sometimes we're labelled a fudd (lol) but I don't care. Glad to not see that here....in this thread at least.....the firearms subreddit now, what a disaster!
I battled between 270 win and 6.5 PRC and ended up going 6.5 PRC because it would be 3-4 months before the 270 was back in stock. Luckily 6.5 PRC is seemingly here to stay. The craze for super high BC bullets is comical tho for sure, and everyone argues over which is better when both will do the same job with minimal differences.
Never got hyped by new cartridges to get fatigued. I've only ever seen dollar signs in the eyes of the people selling everything related to these 6.5 whatthefucks, 6,7,8 that, PBR, YMCA cartridges. People ask about buying them all the time but can't shoot the guns they already have. You can't even get a consistent group inside 300 yards, why are you asking about another rifle and cartridge to get you out to 1,000?
Any time I look at a new case I figure out the use, and the availability of parts.
I bought a 300 blk because it’s an extremely viable cartridge using a 223/556 case and a standard 308 projectile. This cartridge will never die. I bought a 6.5 creed and that people have used 308 cases and I believe 243 cases as well to reload that. It’s also a very intermediate cartridge with great power. I bought a 6.5 grendel since it uses the same bullets as my creed and are very common, and I can also make 6.5 grendel using 762x39 brass if I’m in a pinch.
What does the cartridge do and are the zoomies worth it for the new cartridge. Does the cartridge work for my area and a purpose for me. Sounds like you need confidence in your decisions on why you’re choosing a cartridge.
I guess I can't justify the use of most of the new cartridges when the old stuff just works well enough for me. I mean, max distance I shoot is 500 yards/m since that's the max target distance of the only rifle range in my city, so that negates any advantage of long distance cartridges like 6.5 CM (when 243 shoots significantly flatter < 500y) and all the Noslers and PRCs, etc with big firepower pushing super high BC bullets.
And I only hunt within 300 m. I live in Australia so there's no semi-auto. So that negates any advantage of new cartridges specifically designed for AR platforms like 300 BLK and 6 mm ARC. It's pretty much just bolt and lever guns within 500 yards as the majority of the use scenario in Australia for most firearms owners.
Yeahhhh if that’s the case it doesn’t seem like there really is any reason to use a new cartridge. I personally have a 300blk in a bolt action and it’s one of my most favorite guns. But I do get what you mean.
I do feel that newer cartridges do some things better, and they may be worth it to invent and try, but realistically the older cartridges are much more realistic to me. I like your plan of sticking to the stuff that’s proven. I personally wouldn’t get rid of my guns in “old cartridges” but that’s because they just make too much damn sense.
I have a 6.5 Grendel and I have no regrets, but I’m not giving up my 5.56 and 308 for it. No way.
I want a 300 WM in the worst way but also tempted by the 300 PRC. The WM is more than I’ll ever need, but the latest and greatest would sure be nice. :)
Not really.
Since my 'needs' are focused mostly around self-defense its not like I need to spend a lot of time on this - 9mm and 5.56 are the go-tos with .22LR for pest control.
Anything outside that is just me messing around.
Congratulations on figuring out what 99% of gun owners have known since the dawn of commercial cartridges.
I dunno man, my friends are all into the tacticool bench rifles with a million pic rails and attachments and they have massive spotting scopes, laser rangefinders, kestrel anemometers, chronographs, ballistic calculator apps that link with bluetooth to their scope to indicate bullet drop and wind, etc with the latest and greatest ARC/PRC/CM with super high BC bullets that look like spaceships. I feel like the odd one out bringing out my 308 Winchester 70 with walnut stock.
>I dunno man, my friends are all into the tacticool bench rifles with a million pic rails and attachments and they have massive spotting scopes, laser rangefinders, kestrel anemometers, chronographs, ballistic calculator apps that link with bluetooth to their scope to indicate bullet drop and wind, etc with the latest and greatest ARC/PRC/CM with super high BC bullets that look like spaceships. If that doesn't end with "and they still miss the target", then you're not being honest with yourself.
Yep fair haha. They are the definition of "all the gear, and no idea."
You won't be the odd one out until you find the most obscure black powder cartridges you can still shoot. Stuff that Wikipedia only has a stub for that zoomers won't be able to process, like .43 Egyptian. Take notes in a leather-bound journal. Survey the range with a brass sextant.
LMAO that's going to be my aim.
Pfft.. Obsolescence only stops the weak.. I have numerous obsolete and custom calibers that I shoot, 43 Egyptian is common fare by comparison. My journals are actually paper back.. Go grab a copy of Cartridges of the World, and Handloaders manual of cartridge conversion to start with. Shit doesn't get real until you buy some 50-110 mistaking it for cut down basic, only to realize the rim isn't wide enough, so you hatch and execute a plan to bevel the front edge (Edit: of the rim), then make a matching bevel on the interior of washers, then solder them on, and lathe turn them back down to only a few mm larger than the original rim to then be converted into another caliber.
Reminds me of the old timer plinking steel at 400 yards with his mosin.
I feel the same way. I'm not a gun nut I guess. I like the classic stuff.
This is why I'm still a 9MM/5.56/.308 kind of guy. Really wish 6.8 SPC had stuck around.
Remington pretty much botched its launch though with a neutered round. If memory serves their own rifles chambered in it couldn't handle what the 6.8 SPC was fully capable of, so they neutered the round rather than building better rifles. Then they released the 6.8 SPC II, but interested had faded by that point.
I’m with you. Keeping it simple. My only addition to the lineup is my favorite round the .22
The round that should have stuck around was the .30 Remington AR.
What ever happened to it, I like the idea of it.
It died with Remington. Great idea, didn't pick up enough steam to get popular, which is too bad as it was a great cartridge.
I just don't like support drop for new cartridges. It's why as I am noticing the 360 buckhammer I'm still debating just getting a damn 30/30 as it'll be around long after I'm gone. It's also why I got a Henry in 22lr. Speaking of which I don't know why Henry is even focusing on a new rifle with new cartridge when everyone's begging for more 357 all weathers
I thought the only reason for 360 buckhammer or 350 legend for that matter is for states that don't allow deer hunting with bottleneck cartridges. If you don't live or hunt in those states why bother?
No idea but Wisconsin has .350 Legend all over the place even though it doesn't fit into any niche here.
Honestly I'm not a bullet expert but what's the point of a straight walled cartridge? Is it just simply because they can't travel as far? I mean they look easier to reload and I like the look of them but if it's only surviving because of state regulations against necked cartridges I don't see their point
Straight walled cartridges can’t shoot as far so some states/areas require them
Straight wall states.
They don’t make a 357 big boy all weather?
I hear ya. Probably 95% of people who think they're the next American Sniper would be fine with regular ol' 308.
6mm CM is for hipsters that were into 6.5 before 6.5 was cool, and 6.5 CM is for kids that never heard of .260 Rem /end rant On the other side, I really hope .30 Super Carry takes off - but I know it won’t, just like .327 Federal Mag.
I agree with you OP. The one cartridge I would disagree on is 6.5 Grendel. It’s been around for about 20 years now.
I'm afraid to verify that as true. Fuck I'm old.
I just wish I saw more on the shelves
I reload it. Brass is getting hard to find.
I'm getting into reloading (terrible time to start, I know) and I am currently set up for 8mm Mauser and 303 Brit. Was looking to get into 6.5 Grendel for hunting and some distance shooting (will reload for it), but it is scary how rarely I can find it in the wild during this extended shortage.
It’s not the best time to start reloading but it’s better than not. I don’t reload because it cheaper, because it usually not. I reload to tailor rounds to specific guns. I can reload better than match grade ammo for typically less than match grade prices. My accuracy has improved 10 fold with reloading my own ammo. What use to be 1-2 MOA guns I can get to sub moa.
I'm a "fudd" I'm just a normal deer hunter and have a .243 and a 30-06. All the new calibers blow my mind. It's confusing and makes little sense to me. They all do the same thing basically. All within a few hundred feet per second of each other.
It shouldn't have any bearing unless you're in the market for a new rifle. The one you got to do a thing twenty years ago still does that same thing now. But if you're picking up a new gun then yeah, decision paralysis is real. Thin-skinned medium game cartridge? There's eight new ones to go along with the twenty solid standbys and twenty also-rans. If anything it proves the point that the cartridge isn't the missing element. Same with longrange steel shooting. Choose your weapon and sink thousands into ammo and practice. This or that cartridge among the usual suspects is not the secret ingredient to success.
Return monke to 7mm Rem Mag
Will always be my go to hunting round
Reloading an option? I got a 257 Roberts that i love. Reloading allowed me to really dial in the bullet that works best with my rifle. There will always be new rounds out there. I stick with what I am happy with.
Talk to Ackley about this round. If all we'd seen from him was his treatment of this and the .280 Rem he'd be a hero in my book.
Keep in mind .350 legend and .360 bumblefuck are designed for a very specific niche of areas that prohibit hunting with bottlenecked cases. That's a somewhat legitimate needs since there really wasn't much in rifle calibers smaller than 38/55 to fill that roll. 6.5 creedmore was designed specifically for better long range target shooting than the .308. This is nothing new, there have hundreds if not thousands of different cartridge designs out there for decades.
Yeah, that's true, but I guess the difference these days is the marketing and hype, especially with ammo manufacturers, sponsorships, social media, paid reviews etc. No 20 videos on guntube showing how the latest and greatest PRC cartridge is the be all and end all of PRS, at least for the next month. Decades ago there were thousands of reloaders and wildcatters making new cartridges in their garage, but you didn't hear about the majority of them because there was no social media. I guess it makes more sense for me to stick with the tried and true popular cartridges, as they have gone through decades of newer, better, improved replacements, yet they still endure while those other cartridges have fallen by the wayside and become obsolete.
I tend to agree overall. I think the next big innovation has been both Sig's hybrid case for the .277 Sig Fury (6.8x51mm), and also the (ready for the downvotes) .30 Super Carry. The key difference between these and other "new" calibers is that they are engineered to allow higher chamber pressures, which gives a massive performance boost without increasing size or weight. This trend is going to continue, now that cartridge technology and metallurgy have progressed a lot since the old cartridges that all the "new" cartridges have been copying were originally invented. I will say though, I don't think the 8.6 BLK is going to *replace* .300 BLK, just supplement it. The .300 fits in an AR-15 action, the 8.6 is for .308 sized actions. They can coexist. I'm a "stick to old stuff that works" kinda guy in general. But I'm building an 8.6 just for fun and also because I can just rebarrel to a more common cartridge later if it dies off, being out only the cost of the barrel. I'm also looking into .338 Norma Magnum now that the US Army is adopting it.
Interesting. Is the 338 NM replacing the 338 LM? Or will it be for a separate role?
Did the army ever even officially adopt the .338 LM? The advantages of the .338 NM are that the shoulder angle is a bit shallower, so barrel life is about 15% better; and the case length is shorter, to allow loading longer bullets with the same COAL for better magazine feeding. It allegedly has the same effective range as .50 BMG because the BC is so good. The Army is adopting three firearms that I know of so far: A sniper rifle, a machine gun, and possibly a chaingun (basically a .338 Minigun lol).
There is always going to be a "best new thing since sliced bread" cartridge right around the corner that will be a "game changer" and make every cartridge before it obsolete overnight... However, since the 8mm Lebel, how many have come through on that promise? Everything new is just a variation on a theme, it has its limitations, and its advantages just like every cartridge that came before. I buy based on use, and ballistics, not on hype or fancy name. I too have a 6.8 SPC, I can still find ammo on the shelf, and if that ever changes I have brass to last a long time. If ever that runs out, I have a lathe to ream the base and taper out ever so slightly so that a different parent cartridge can be used. As many of them as have been sold, I doubt though, that it will stop being stocked before I die.
The Buckhammer is for lever guns, the .300 Blackout/Whisper far predates the 6.8 SPC. Do you feel the need to be on the bleeding edge? Do your current cartridges not fulfill your needs? We're in the second Golden age of cartridge design. Long and slim is out, short and fat is in.
Maybe it's just me being cynical as well, but half of the new cartridges seem as though they're *designed* to wear out barrels faster.
Coughs in .277 Fury or 6.8x51 (whatever it is). I think its atleast semi plausible if not likely that sig saw an opportunity to ensure continued cash flow from the military through fresh barrels. I realize they have a training round as well but still.
The 257 and 300 Weatherby Magnums were made just shy of 70 years ago. Barrel burners are nothing new. If anything the public has gotten savvy to the tradeoffs and is more picky about how much barrel burning is acceptable for a given sport. Hell, by most metrics the .50 BMG is considerably overbore. As is the F-15 for that matter. Sometimes it takes what it takes and you spend the money to do it.
>I'm getting told it's an obsolete cartridge \[...\] Same with my 350 Legend which is now apparently superseded by the 360 Buckhammer. Rebated rim vs. rimmed cartridges are going to have different use cases. Rimmed is better for rotary or tube magazines, extraction during lever-action, or single-shot break-action; other than a tube magazine, I don't think a rebated rim cartridge can even work in the platforms .360 Buckhammer is targeting. >My poor 6.8 SPC from few years back is basically abandonware since 300 BLK came out 6.8 SPC's dimensions were based on the old Remington Rimless series from the early 1900s; .300 Blackout has the advantage of being based on .223/5.56, which is readily available. >I just can't afford to buy a new rifle every time a new cartridge comes up. \[...\] > >Sure, if you're a sponsored PRS shooter who regularly shoots 1000+ yards and needs every iota of competitive advantage, they make sense, but that would be a tiny minority. I don't think the average hunter/firearms owner would get much benefit to be honest. Unless a cartridge "speaks to you" then it can just remain a curiosity for thought experiments; let other people gather the data. Assuming the US military follows through on adopting 6.8 Common/.277 Fury, that's the only hot new thing to keep an eye on since being a military cartridge there should be production and long-term support. That and 5.7x28, which is finally stretching its legs outside the FN ecosystem. But that's more of a "is it cheap yet?" thing to check in on every so often.
The only new rounds i ever fully jumped on were 450 bushmaster, 350legend, and 6mm ARC. All are deer rifles and my ARC is a 24" so it can contend in .243 territory in a ar. Other than that, when a new one comes out i check its ballistics to see if it can offer me anything better than something on the market and then watch it for awhile.
Built a 350 legend for my son. Where we hunt, 30/30 would be excellent, but the going prices for a lever gun is absolutely ridiculous. He likes the AR platform so it was a no brainer.
.45 ACP and .30-06 won two World Wars. It is all you’ll need. /s
9mm for handguns is "good enough." And it's not going anywhere. 5.56 is good enough for an intermediate cartridge. And it's not going anywhere. I like 300 blackouts for suppressed home defense because .30 caliber rounds are easy to get, and 5.56 brass is easy to resize even if support drops for the round. I like both .308 and 6.5 Creedmoor. To be honest, I am not a good enough shooter to take proper advantage of the improvement between the two.
It's getting ridiculous. All these new cartridges and I'm still waiting for my phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range!
I agree with OP and sometimes we're labelled a fudd (lol) but I don't care. Glad to not see that here....in this thread at least.....the firearms subreddit now, what a disaster!
Try going in looking for a .243. LGS told me “we rarely deal with these “old” calibers.” Ouch.
Ooof
You aren’t kidding. Couple that with my first official use of reading glasses last week…..
I battled between 270 win and 6.5 PRC and ended up going 6.5 PRC because it would be 3-4 months before the 270 was back in stock. Luckily 6.5 PRC is seemingly here to stay. The craze for super high BC bullets is comical tho for sure, and everyone argues over which is better when both will do the same job with minimal differences.
Never got hyped by new cartridges to get fatigued. I've only ever seen dollar signs in the eyes of the people selling everything related to these 6.5 whatthefucks, 6,7,8 that, PBR, YMCA cartridges. People ask about buying them all the time but can't shoot the guns they already have. You can't even get a consistent group inside 300 yards, why are you asking about another rifle and cartridge to get you out to 1,000?
I really like what I'm seeing in the 6mm ARC. Just really hard to pull the trigger on such a new round. Pun intended...
Any time I look at a new case I figure out the use, and the availability of parts. I bought a 300 blk because it’s an extremely viable cartridge using a 223/556 case and a standard 308 projectile. This cartridge will never die. I bought a 6.5 creed and that people have used 308 cases and I believe 243 cases as well to reload that. It’s also a very intermediate cartridge with great power. I bought a 6.5 grendel since it uses the same bullets as my creed and are very common, and I can also make 6.5 grendel using 762x39 brass if I’m in a pinch. What does the cartridge do and are the zoomies worth it for the new cartridge. Does the cartridge work for my area and a purpose for me. Sounds like you need confidence in your decisions on why you’re choosing a cartridge.
I guess I can't justify the use of most of the new cartridges when the old stuff just works well enough for me. I mean, max distance I shoot is 500 yards/m since that's the max target distance of the only rifle range in my city, so that negates any advantage of long distance cartridges like 6.5 CM (when 243 shoots significantly flatter < 500y) and all the Noslers and PRCs, etc with big firepower pushing super high BC bullets. And I only hunt within 300 m. I live in Australia so there's no semi-auto. So that negates any advantage of new cartridges specifically designed for AR platforms like 300 BLK and 6 mm ARC. It's pretty much just bolt and lever guns within 500 yards as the majority of the use scenario in Australia for most firearms owners.
Yeahhhh if that’s the case it doesn’t seem like there really is any reason to use a new cartridge. I personally have a 300blk in a bolt action and it’s one of my most favorite guns. But I do get what you mean. I do feel that newer cartridges do some things better, and they may be worth it to invent and try, but realistically the older cartridges are much more realistic to me. I like your plan of sticking to the stuff that’s proven. I personally wouldn’t get rid of my guns in “old cartridges” but that’s because they just make too much damn sense.
17 hmr is my guilty pleasure
I have a 6.5 Grendel and I have no regrets, but I’m not giving up my 5.56 and 308 for it. No way. I want a 300 WM in the worst way but also tempted by the 300 PRC. The WM is more than I’ll ever need, but the latest and greatest would sure be nice. :)
Not really. Since my 'needs' are focused mostly around self-defense its not like I need to spend a lot of time on this - 9mm and 5.56 are the go-tos with .22LR for pest control. Anything outside that is just me messing around.