Yawn. Another HV rimfire. The .17 HMR seems to have been developed for the eradication of western ground squirrels and nothing else. It is too powerful for edible Eastern tree squirrels, cottontails and grouse, but insufficient for Woodchucks and other critters of that size.

This Eastern Hunter would like to see an updated .25 Stevens Rimfire with a 65 grain bullet at 1150-1200 fps for edible small game and a 60 grain JHP at close to 2,000 fps for critters up to Coyotes to 100 yards. A fast turkey load would be nice too.

Since so few of us hunt edible small game anymore, there will never be a market to develop such a load not to mention the expense of developing suitable firearms.

Oh well...

This is an update from the guy who originally released the info.

We broke the news here that Winchester is introducing what is going to be the fastest rimfire cartridge in the world in early 2013. What’s clear is that this round will up the performance bar for rimfires by quite a margin giving it a clear ballistic advantage over other rimfire rounds.

But how will it do with respect to the two “A”s: accuracy and affordability? I know that one of Winchester’s main goals is to keep the round affordable, about within 10 to 15 percent of the price of current premium rimfire ammunition—so it should be competitively priced.

With respect to accuracy, I have reason to be optimistic and reason for concern. Some key elements of this cartridge have a proven track record when it comes to accuracy, while others are venturing into uncharted, and potentially hazardous territory—at least from the standpoint of turning in small groups.

But Winchester's key partner in this venture—the company that is making the first rifles for this round—takes its accuracy very seriously, so I’d be surprised if the round doesn’t turn in varmint-sized groups at 200 yards.

But I’ll only know the answer to that question once I get behind the trigger.

Another update, more info found.


If you think the 300 Win. Mag. is a significant improvement over the .30-06, wait until you shoot the new ground-breaking rimfire cartridge from Winchester. I'm not allowed to disclose its name or caliber yet, but it's scheduled to storm the market in 2013, beginning as soon as early or mid-March. Its performance exceeds current cartridges in its class by a wider margin than the 300 Win. Mag. over the .30-06.

I don't say this based merely on rumor or manufacturer hype. I've shot the new round. It does everything Winchester says it will. The bullets fly from the muzzle 500 fps faster than any other rimfire cartridge I'm aware of. At 250 yards, they retain nearly double the energy of the next-best round in their class. During my testing off sand bags from a portable bench, five bullets clustered just over 1 inch at 100 yards in light but variable winds. A single four-shot group went into a .39-inch spread, and one 300-yard four-shot group fell inside of 2.5 inches. All this was accomplished with a prototype bolt-action rifle so unrefined that cartridges had to be hand fed and extracted from the chamber with a knife blade.

Ballistic coefficient and velocity of the bullets are so high that this new round should hold a Maximum Point Blank Range of 250 yards on an 8-inch target. This means you aim at the center of the 8-inch target and hit it at any and all distances out to 250 yards. Last but not least, the new rounds should cost within 10 percent of currently available rimfire rounds in their class, or about a third less than some centerfire rounds with similar ballistic performance.

Because dimensions of the round are significantly different from any others currently made, at least one gun maker is reportedly building newly designed bolt-action rifles to fire it. Two more are reportedly working on additional models. Whether those are bolt actions, break actions, levers, semiautos or something else remains to be revealed.

“New” cartridges are a tried and sometimes true method for ramping up sales in the shooting industry, but most of them provide only incremental improvements over existing rounds. This new cartridge from Winchester is more than that. Much more. It should be a game changer.

F

Ballistic coefficient and velocity of the bullets are so high that this new round should hold a Maximum Point Blank Range of 250 yards on an 8-inch target.

Be interested to hear what it will do the Hornet will not

The main thing that would set it apart from the hornet, or any other centerfire for that matter, regardless of the ballistic charachteristics is that it won't use a replaceable centerfire primer...THAT is the game changer in comparing this "mystery" round to any other centerfire.

It has to do with state hunting regulations more so to me than the ballistic characteristics when compareing to a centerfire.