Another generation of Remington 600/.350 worshippers.
One thing many fans (well, "many" is too strong a word in this instance) of now-obscure cartridges that failed commercially complain about is not enough promotion by the Big Company. This isn't 1920, when there weren't that many available "modern" cartridges, so any round introduced for bolt actions had a pretty fair chance for success. Since World War II the USA has been flooded by bolt-action rounds, plus cartridges for other actions that should have been bolt-action rounds, such as the .284 Winchester and .280 Remington. Consequently there's very little opportunity to squeeze into one of the ever-smaller empty slots.
Rifle manufacturers have countered by bringing out umpteen zillion different models, from short/lights (like the Remington Model 7 and Ruger RCM's) to long/heavys with 26" barrels. Mostly, however, they're chambered for cartridges that have been around for 50 years or more.
Just about every cartridge imaginable has been tried by rifle makers, but what sales tend to indicate is that most shooters want average-sized rifles chambered for the usual suspects, especially the .223, .22-250, .243, .25-06, .270, 7mm Remington Magnum, .308, .30-06, .300 Winchester Magnum, .338 Winchester magnum and .375 H&H. And the truth is that 100% of the world's varmints and big game can be taken handily with those cartridges, and the conventional rifles that fire them.
Once in a while something comes along that succeeds in the marketplace. The Remington Model 7 succeeded because it looked pretty much like a conventional rifle (unlike the 600/660 line) and was chambered for conventional cartridges that didn't kick much, like the .223, .243 and .308 (unlike the 6.5 and .350 Remington Magnums).
The .300 WSM succeeded because a bunch of publicity (which was mostly BS) had built it the concept of a short-far .300 long before it appeared. From more recent sales it looks like it's star is fading.
The .204 Ruger, plus the most recent .17's from the rimfires to the Hornet and Fireball, succeeded because they found a slot BELOW the standard stuff. There isn't much chance of another major hit in cartridges ABOVE the .375 H&H, though. The .416 Remington Magnum pretty much took care of that 25 years ago.
And yet rifle loonies still are astounded and angry when yet another cartridge or rifle that's supposed to fill a tiny slot fails. What did the .260 Remington do that several already popular cartridges didn't? The only people who ended up with one keep yapping about it's "versatility," since it can supposedly do anything any cartridge from the .243 to the .270 can do. But the day is long past when real rifle loonies cared about versatility in their cartridges, and every .260 fan I've met has dozens of rifles, because they want to own rifles in a bunch of different chamberings and obsess about each one. The average guy couldn't care less. Instead he'll just buy a .243 or .270.
The same applies to the .338-06. Most rifle loonies agree its a great round, so balanced and wonderful it should have been a factory round long ago. Guess what? It fell flat on its face because the modern trend has been to more velocity, not less. Hunters bought .30-06's and .338 Winchester Magnums, not some compromise between the two.
American rifle history also indicates that very few people care about "compact" rifles shooting magnum cartridges. That was demonstrated with the Remington 600/660 and the .350 magnum in the 1960's, yet Ruger tried it again with the .338 RCM, with the same results. And the fact that the .338 RCM is basically a short .338-06 didn't appeal to many customers either. Why would it, if the .338-06 didn't sell as a factory round?
American rifle companies can't afford to keep a new round afloat very long, unless it shows signs of taking off, like the .204 Ruger and .300 WSM. Ruger didn't fail to promote the RCM cartridges and rifles. They tried, and 99+% of the hunting public yawned. The RCM's didn't fail. They were still-born, because there never was any real demand for either one--and that could have been foreseen with a little look at the history of American hunting cartridges and rifles since 1950.
