Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Top 5 most Overrated Rifle Cartridges

Ain't it true

I think you guys are overreacting.

It's safe to say that the older, carburated cartridges have fewer followers. The availability of tiny Holley or Carter carberators has decreased dramatically since the late 1980s. Nowadaze, the new cartridges all feature electronic performance monitoring internals, straight walled combustion chambers and are fuel injected. Bullets too.

I agree about the 223. The US govt poured so much money into powders, bullets and barrels to make that thing work. It succeeded because it was a military cartridge. That's okay. For me anyway, what I don't like is the necks on them. In order to cram more propellant into the darn case, they shortened it. And as we all know, anything with a short neck isn't too bright or trustworthy. Just look at the WWF.

Geoff McDonald from Woodleigh advised me that .458 comparisons to the Nitro's are fiction.

He tested most of them when developing his Kynoch inspired big game bullets and never found any that met their factory spec's over the chronograph.

Who would you believe over actual experience?

Me too.

Pure blasphemy!!!!!!

+1

7mm Remington magnum.

Great cartridge but everybody who I see use it believes they have some sort of Elephant rifle and they feel vastly superior to the .270/ .30-06 crowd.

Haha yeah....just got off the phone with Dober. He said every one is out jumping from cartridge to cartridge looking for the perfect one....like looking for the perfect woman.

I could not disagree.

a single cartridge will never be perfect

Jeff exactly.

I think it is crap. Everything is overrated if you are shooting what competes against it. [bleep] that [bleep]. What difference does "rated" make and who does the rating? If it works, it works. Done. The only negative from not following the masses is there really aren't enough components around to keep everyone shooting all the choices happy at once so it might, to some degree, make the shortages more acute.

Tom

Sounds like pure truth to me.

The 25 ACP is way over-rated for African hunting or hunting in the Rockies or Alaska for that matter.

That sums it up nicely.

Ernie

That is a good reason not to subscribe to the American Hunter.

I can`t think of a bad caliber I have ever used.I have had bad rifles that were inaccurate .That did not mean the caliber or chambering was bad.A lot of cartridge`s are just duplicates of other ones with a new body shape and different names.Usually it does not matter if you like a 222 or a 223 or a 6MM Rem. or 243.Its the guy doing the driving that makes it perform.Nothing he mentioned gets me riled up because it is just his opinion and opinions are just like azzholes.Everyone has one.

The 223 is nothing without the endorsement of the US Govt. Prior to that, the 222 was where it was at. The 223 is "all that" because of the hardware it is supported by, nothing more. Well, perhaps credit might also be allowed for "most stretched cartridge", since the 223 has been stretched to work even harder than Bell stretched the 7x57. Actually, if compromising all 22 CFs into one was where it was at, Winchester might have had it right with the 225.

More overloaded than overrated!

Little Known Facts about Firearms: The 45 Elias Steamer
Copyright 2015 - Cletus Tenderloin


.........Elias Martineau

In 1889, Elias Martineau, of the Louisiana ‘salt water boiled chicken' Martineaus, constructed the first steam driven, self-contained cartridge – the 45 Elias Steamer.

Elias lived just outside of Lafayette, in the newly created Acadia Parish. God bless him, his intentions were honorable, but he just wasn’t too bright. He figured to capitalize on the family idea of using boiled salt water from the Gulf. Instead of cooking chicken though, he wanted to use steam to propel bullets. Sadly, neither the Martineau chicken recipe nor Elias’ steam driven bullet idea took off.

Originally, Elias thought that he could create something that would rival the black powder and new smokeless powder cartridges of the day. He worked hard to build a tiny steam chamber and water reservoir inside a 45-70 case. He chose the 45-70 because of its availability and the sheer number of single shot rifles piled up in his shed.

For about 18 months he worked tirelessly, modifying cases with wee chambers and a single, steam driven piston. The effort took most of his time and ruined his eyesight. When it became too difficult to use even large magnifying glasses, he imported ‘illegals’ from Tennessee to labor in his small shed. He was determined to succeed, despite employing people from the Smoky Mountains.

Had Elias made one or two prototypes before going into mass production, he might have realized his idea wouldn’t hold water. Or, more to the point, wouldn’t hold enough water. While the principle of steam pressure had been proven in locomotives, it was a new idea in bullet propulsion. This was the golden age of firearms however, when a new idea was born every week, and testing procedures were not standardized.

In July of 1890, Elias’ small staff had produced 10 steam driven cartridges, and the day of testing had arrived. Five men went into Martineau’s backyard, set up a firing bench, a target stand, and one fellow even remembered to bring refreshments and lunch. The very first target was a 30x30 piece of deer hide, held onto the stand with wire.

At the firing line, Elias' men piled boxes of bottles, cans, old shoes and boots, hats and even a small chicken in a cage. After the initial test on the deer hide, these items were to be shot up to demonstrate the accuracy and firepower of the 45 Elias Steamer.

Elias carefully laid out the ten new cartridges on the table. He put on a new shirt, combed his hair and called for his rifle – a well-used Springfield trapdoor. Calvin Victor, his assistant, brought it to him and motioned for the camera. This was a historic moment! That’s when Elias' employees realized that in their haste to construct this new steam driven cartridge, they had forgot to modify a rifle to fire it. So they went home.

Sadly, Elias Martineau would not live to see his dream come true. Two months after the failed test, he was struck and killed by a driverless horse and buggy in the laneway of his farm, while walking to the outhouse.

And now you know the best of the story!

1. 30-06
2. 30-06
3. 30-06
4. 30-06
5. 30-06

If I had to I could make it work for everything.
But I don't have to.

Well,that was 10 minutes I'll never get back.