Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Whats the best cartridge developed in last 20 years.

Oh, they'll still try, because once in a while a new cartridge takes off and sells a bunch of rifles. But most new rounds lose money, because it takes considerable money to develop one, which means they've got to sell a lot of rifles to break even.

I must comment for the second time on this thread that most of the "new" centerfire cartridges mentioned on this thread are just tweaks of really old cartridges, especially the various 6.5's mentioned. Several that not many Americans even know existed appeared very early on in Europe, and even the .260 was a wildcat long before Remington and Jim Carmichel claimed to "develop" it. I believe Ken Waters made up his version, called the .263 Express, in the early 1960's.

Even the .300 WSM is just another version of wildcats going back to the 1950's, and all it does is reproduce the .300 H&H in a shorter case. Of course, some people still believe Winchester's PR claims that the .300 WSM's case shape results in ballistic magic allowing higher velocities with less powder than other .300's, but so far no pressure-testing has found that magic.

The main reason so many shooters believe many cartridges are "new" is most shooters don't know much about the history of cartridge development. I suppose even the .17 HMR could be considered a tweak of the 5mm Remington--but unlike Remington, Hornady didn't try to develop a rimfire cartridge to directly compete with Winchester's .22 Magnum.

The original factory load of the 5mm was a 38-grain bullet at a claimed 2100 fps, but it simply didn't exceed the original 40-grain load of the .22 Magnum by enough to make any difference, especially in public perception. But the .17 HMR's an entirely different deal ballistically, using much lighter bullets at much higher velocity--and is also consistently far more accurate than the .22 Magnum. Which is why it became so popular, so quickly.

In contrast, most of the new cartridges mentioned here don't do anything much older cartridges didn't do ballistically, except fit in shorter magazines. But that's because shorter actions became popular, requiring new cartridges to fit them. The basic ballistic performance isn't any different than a pile of other rounds that were developed long ago, some more than a century.

Many shoopters think a strain-gauge will reveal the "real" pressure of their handloads. In reality, a strain-gauge doesn't provide actual pressures, and direct strain-gauge readings typically run lower than piezo-electronic readings. This is all presented clearly in the A-Square manual by Dr. Gary Minton, who was in charge of the ballistics and ammo department at A-Square, but a number of other professional ballistic lab people told me the same things over the years. Strain gauges are used widely in the ammo and bullet business, but are reasonably accurate only when their readings can be adjusted with reference ammunition worked up with piezo equipment.

I think that's the best of the WSM's and it's all but gone from any production rifle chambering line-up. Tough to find brass for them too.

I always thought that the A-Square reloading manual was the best product that Art produced, and I bought several copies to give to reloading friends...

jim

I think what we really need is some rounds built for the AR15 frame (maybe with some modification) that are truley effective deer rounds. Yes I know the 223 with the right bullets will do it as will the 300Black Out and 6.8SPC but in honesty they're all on the small side. The AR10 frame is so big and heavy that it's not nearly as handy as the AR15 frame.

Some company needs to take this by the horns instead of just making the same thing that 50 other companies are making right now.

It's getting to the point where I might be able to retire by selling my "rare books." Also have a copy of RIFLE ACCURACY FACTS by Harold Vaughan, and a few dozen others that are going for quite a bit. Unfortunately, I don't really want to retire. What would I do? More hunting and shooting?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Any-Shot-You-Want-The-A-Square-Handloading-And-Rifle-Manual-/331623883418?hash=item4d3652e29a:g:RBkAAOSw9N1VxhtM

$750 on feebay

I'll let my copy go for $500