I suspect two other reasons the .260 didn't sell like Remington hoped were the .25-06 and 7mm-08, which had already been around for a while. Hunters who wanted more power than the .243 could buy a .25-06 if they wanted more zap with lighter-weight bullets, and hunters who wanted more bullet weight could buy a 7-08. As a result the .260 seemed to many a round that was going over already plowed ground.
Of course, that was back before so many hunters had problems running long-action bolts, or were aware of the incredibly enormous advantages of 6.5mm bullets.
Yes, but aren't most, if not all, of the cartridges introduced in the past 50 years, since 1967, redundantly covering already plowed ground?
Not all newly introduced cartridges achieve the degrees of success that their designers surely hoped that they would, for examples of such I'd cite, among others, the 17HM2, the SAUMs, the WSSMs, and the 338 FED.
Do you know the number of cartridges introduced since 1967 and, of that group, which have been successful enough to be considered mainstream?
PS - this isn't intended to be argumentative, just curious and not motivated enough to mine my own data.
