Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Most underrated Rifle and caliber

I thought it would prove to be VERY popular, due to its rising trajectory! But no....

this is going to butt hurt a few die hard 308 Win. boys ,another is the politics that the military chose the 308 Win. over 300 Savage .

I think it is hilarious that you wrote a satirical article well enough that people were actually seeking components.

You should do a follow up article on the cartridge extolling its virtues.

"25 years of winning matches and slaying animals with the B29"

....after slaying my third cloven hoofed gazork I realized I needed to update the twist rate....

Even Ross Seyfried got sucked in a little--until he read the part about Monica Lewinsky making the reamers, as part of her career-change retraining after that Clinton deal.

But he did ask how in hell I got the photo of the "cartridge stamp" on the rifle's stainless barrel--which as I recall was actually Eileen's NULA .257 Roberts. Told him I placed a strip of "matte" Scotch tape on the barrel--on the opposite side from where Melvin stamped 'em--and wrote it with a black ballpoint pen. But had to do it a couple of times before getting it right enough for the photo.

John
You could have bought some clear address labels and used your printer to create one.

Rick,

I doubt my printer would have done that back then. The article appeared in the February 2000 edition of Handloader.

The possibility of an article about such an imaginary (but of course superior to any previously developed wildcat or factory round) occurred during an around-the-campfire conversation between me, Ron Spomer and Dave Scovill during a pronghorn hunt, where we camped in tipis on the prairie of north-central New Mexico. In fact my printer back then might still have been a dot-matrix, which used the paper with "tractor" holes alongside, which had be removed, and the pages separated from each other.

I know I was then mailing "floppy disks" to editors, because they eventually preferred those to scanning in dot-matrix print-outs. Was also still submitting color slides, in clear plastic holders that held 20, because suitable (and affordable) digital cameras were still a few years in the future.

But even those computers, with either floppy discs or printouts, were still a big improvement over a typewriter using carbon paper between two sheets of paper to make a "copy." Have frightened younger writers with tales about those days--but back then the magazines paid better, making the labor worthwhile.

John

John
In those days I didn’t know diddle about anything digital. I had help!
Pre-smartphone.
Rick

Thinking a T/C Encore in .45-70 would be a very underrated combo.

Its obviously the 351 and 401 Winchester SL cartridges. They were so underrated to the point they needed reintroduced in modern autoloaders and bolt guns to get people to buy them, and buy them they have.

It didn't hurt that economics, ease of manufacturing and actually having tons of available ammo steer the market for them. Its like Henry Ford has been resurrected....

I will go with, savage model 10 in 250 savage. Both rifle and cartridge have been doubted but came through

John, how did you handle the captions for the photos? Were those your words, or the editor's?

Yup, an awesome wildcat !

Didn't see it mentioned unless I missed it, which just adds to the under rated part. 200 yds and under and at woods ranges typically involving out to 150 yds on the far end down to point blank, the 35 Remington.

Especially when hand loaded well above the drab factory levels still safe for the model 14's, 141's, and model 8's still out there in service. I handload hotter in a 760.

Mild recoil, hits hard on the other end, big blood trails if needed, and still slow enough it doesn't tear meat up. 1 bullet such as the 180 Speer FP or the Remington 200 RN will do well on smaller light whitetails on up to hefty black bear. I have plenty of rifles and like them all. The 35 Remington is a really nice cartridge in the woods.

While the concept was sound, we as a nation of expert rifleman, (just ask us, we’ll tell you how expert we are)have come to be proficient at holding over. The idea of holding under is too foreign a concept to grasp and put into practice. 😁

All BS..

For a rifle I guess I'd go with the old JC Higgins bolt action with the commercial FN actions.
Truly one of the quality bargains in the shooting world.

For cartridges I'd say the 6mm Remington and the 280 Remington.
Both were victims of Remington's mishandling and should have been much more popular out of the gate than either one had a chance to be.

For a rifle I will nominate the Ruger American series especially the Go Wild and predator series. Most on here will poo poo them, but they are slam dunk moa shooters. I have several in chambers not listed on the Ruger web site. I have a predator in 6.5 Grendel, which out to 250 yards the equal to the 6.5CM. I will nominate the 6.5 Grendel as the most underrated rifle cartridge.

i use my 1972 Winchester m94 in 35/30-30 (JES reboring) and 200gr RCBS FN GC with 2400/tuft of Dacron going 1726fps. the 200gr cast bullet should be going about as fast as the 35 Remington, but the deer don't mind. i shoot them behind the shoulder, but i'll take the shoulder shot if it comes around. the last deer i shot was a buck (weighed in field dressed at 150lbs) at 53 yards standing broadside. it jogged about 10 - 15 yards after the shot, then stood around for like 15 seconds and then fell down dead. while he was standing around, the blood leaked from both sides, so a second shot was unnecessary. very mild recoil, meat going in and out was a 35ish caliber hole and the rear lungs were trashed.

it is a shame that Winchester did not do 35 caliber way back when they did a 30-30 (30 WCF) and 32 Win Special. i think that Winchester would have really won the "lever action manufactures war". the 35 Remington would have been an afterthought. but Winchester didn't and Marlin came up with the 35 Remington.

i also have a Remington m14 with a Lyman tang sight in 30 Remington that has be taken out for deer season. i'll load a 150gr Speer RN with H322 (wishfully) and that will put a smackdown on deer.

They came close with the 38-55.

The .338 Ruger Compact Magnum in a Ruger Hawkeye is my idea of an underrated combo.