Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Least hyped hunting cartridge that became popular

350 legend?

The .308 is also the parent of the .358 and the .358 has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.. The .338 Federal is flailing for a foothold right beside it..

Maybe heresy, but I've not been overly impressed with the .358, much preferring the 35 Whelen.






My first 338 Federal was a disaster, but I'm liking the heck out of my AR-10 upper in 338 Federal loaded with the 185 Gr. Hornady GMX for a hog-thumper.



ya!


GWB

Definitely the 6.5 Creed

Nice, but, I was kinda hoping to find that they'd made a 284 and I just didn't know about it.

Ive got it!!!! 22 long rifle , bytch

I think the 7mm-08 fills the bill as the least hyped, but super successful cartridge. I know that I don’t remember much being said about it for it’s first 10 or 15 years. I think it started out as the darling of the silhouette crowd. It took me about 25 years to understand that I needed one. It does all that my 270 before it did, and has become one of my favorite cartridges. From what I can tell, it is continuing to grow in popularity and rightfully so.

6.5x55 and 7x57

I think popularity and hype often go hand-in-hand. Sometimes the hype comes first, and sometimes the popularity comes first, but I can't think of a single popular hunting cartridge that hasn't been hyped to death at some point. A better question would be: what is the most hyped hunting cartridge that never gained popularity?

WSMs

or maybe WSSMs?

Definitely over-hyped. And still fairly popular, I bet. But nothing like what they were right after they came out. The claims about what they could do were absurd. I still think they are a good idea, just not in the platforms they are stuck in. Put a longer neck on a WSM and put it in a standard-length action, and you have something sweet. That matches other magnums on standard-length actions.

My experience with the WSSMS proved to me that there are about 5 reasons why they were ill-conceived. And I still have one. It will become something else sometime soon. But yes, hyped, and crap, and deservedly unpopular. Everyone seems to know it too.

1000 elephants and 8000 moose I consider to be a fair amount of hype

I’m thinkin’ of hyping the 222. Don’t the Inuits hunt polar bears with those things? Accurate as heck and powerful enough to kill the largest terrestrial predator on earth!!! 😉

For little to no hype, the 6.5X55 and the 9.3X62 both "got found" and more popular. The 7mm-08 is another but it was hyped a bit by silhouette shooters who found it made pretty good hunting round.

It was only a kid when it came out but seems the .280 has for sure had its ups and downs.

Just curious. What else can you put into those super short actions?

7-08 is a very good cartridge. But I wouldn't call it popular. I don't know a single person who currently, or who has ever owned one. Finding ammo locally is near impossible, it would have to be hand loaded or ordered online.

The 270 had been on the market for 25 years and sales were so bad Winchester almost dropped the round. Had it not been for Jack O'Connor writing about it the round would have died in the 1950's. While the hype came long after it was introduced it was still hyped pretty well.

I can't think of a single popular round that didn't receive a lot of hype at some point. But my vote goes for the 280. I wouldn't call it popular, but it has seen more use in relation to what I hear about it than any other cartridge.

In the guns stores around here a 7mm08 would be a special order item. It is all 243, 308, 25-06, 270, 30-06, 7mm Rem mag and 300 in mag. There is a 6.5 Manbun in every make as well.