Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters So what makes a cartridge exciting?

One word....MARKETING

Pretty easy actually.

I just bought a new Shimano Chronarch baitcaster reel and I was pretty excited as I was opening the box.

A semantic deficiency of the English language made up for by a generally recognized and accepted misuse of a specific word. That's not a definition of the word "cartridge", just why the word was used. We had this same discussion a time or two before IIRC.

The word cartridge when referring to firearms is a single round of ammunition and is not limited to any specific shape or size, it does not even have to have a metallic case. It is also not restricted to the firearms lexicon. Printers can have an ink or toner cartridge.

The word caliber is also technically incorrect since it references a property of a rifle barrel or bullet diameter but is still generally used as an accepted reference to cartridges of a specific form. "What caliber is that rifle?" "It's a 7.59x67 1/2 Semi-rimmed Express". Neither question nor answer is technically correct but both are accepted and thus both are understood.

"Chambering" would be the more correct term to use here; "what makes a chambering exciting?", but is clumsy.

However, referring back to the first sentence, when one says "cartridge" in the context of a counterpart to a thread about a specific chambering, i.e. the .30-06, most folks recognize what one is referring to, hence its use here.


Now, what makes an explanation exciting? Not sure, but this one is not an example of it...

Very likely true.

And the cartridge name champion (or at least first runner-up) in the poetic-phonetic category is the Six-point-Five by Fifty-Four Mannlicher-Schönauer. The name has all the desirable attractive qualities mentioned above, including the implicit precision of "6.5x54". A proper pronunciation of the paired three-syllable distinguishing names is wonderfully melodious. The words themselves in translation enhance the effect. Mannlicher is a German adjective meaning literally "like a man", that is, masculine or virile. (It's little wonder that Earnest Hemingway, a man's man, included the 256 Mannlicher in his stories.) Schönauer means "beautiful meadow". So, it's a manly cartridge, excitingly suitable for stalking in lovely landscapes.

The cartridge evokes memories of stories of Bell and others like him, whacking elephants and other outsized beasts.

My rifle chambered for the cartridge arrived three months ago. And nobody I know has one.

--Bob

I've always like the names "Triple Duce" and "Swift", but the names didn't help keep them alive...

I get excited when making the acquaintance of a .22 wildcat from the 1930's. .22K-Hornet, R2 Lovell, .219 Donaldson Wasp, .22 Baby Niedner, et al , really get my juices flowing. Cartridges designed by bright eyed inventors flying by the seat of their pants.

Workaday cartridges like the '06, .30-30, and Euro "X's" are the ones I reach for when trips into the deer woods are in store, but it's the .22's that stir my imagination the most. Probably speaks of a mis-spent youth, cruising the fields with a .22 rimfire and wishing for something that would reach out to the far side of beyond.

a unique name with marketing really helps like the name Creedmoor and yes the 6.5 Creedmoor is a good cartridge too , so who knows what will be next in a new cartridge ? myself this year i killed a buck with my 257 Weatherby .Mag. a 50 some year old cartridge and a doe with a 256 Newton a 100 year old rifle and cartridge, so i guess for hunting cartridges go : i am way behind with todays trend of new cartridges. next year will be a inherited old Pre-64 30-06 i guess i am going the wrong direction in cartridge selection, but sure is fun reloading old neat cartridges and shooting these old unique rifles !

Interesting that you think the 257 Weatherby mag is a 50 year old cartridge. Roy used it on his 1948 Safari

You are right ..... Those old cartridges are only exciting on old exciting rifles. The sum of excitement in the combination of cartridge and rifle is more than the separate amounts of excitement derived from the cartridge and rifle separately. Like who wants a nice FN-98 custom in 6CM? That rifle needs to be a 275Rigby or 9.3x57 to be truly exciting.

It's actually pretty exciting when you think about it..

that`s why i posted a 50 year old some cartridge, but thanks for the little correction i feel so much better

Which is more exciting?

The 280 Remington or the 7mm Express?

Thank you, Jim in Idaho. Your reply was worth reading..

I'm with Elvis in that I like the classics and having something that's not in every gun cabinet or deer camp. My last three rifles were in 6.5x55 (I'm probably the only guy who has puked up the Creedmoor Kool Aid.) a 38/55 on a high wall action and a 300 H&H on a #1 action. I had my interpretation of a British stalking rifle built in what else a 275 Rigby it sounds better than 7MM Mauser which I have one a wonderful Pre64 carbine. I like the big boys as well and took a deer this year in a #1 chambered in 450/400 NE. Now not only does that sound cool but how many have you seen in a deer camp? I'm contemplating having a #1 built in 300 Savage just because I can.

I like rimmed cartridges. Cartridges with sultry, sloping shoulders and nice lines. A cartridge with personality. Cheeky. One with a little experience that's been around.

A cartridge that's well travelled. One whose ancestors and immediate family have taken game in Africa and Asia. One that has seen military service. One that can laugh at the newcomers, and demands that they prove themselves with years of dedicated service, not just a short time.

One that can handle lead or jacketed bullets, and can use copper too. A cartridge that isn't afraid of black powder, Berdan and Boxer primers, or wooden stocks.

One that has a history and can tell a thousand interesting
stories.

There's a few of these around that interest me. The rest? Well, call them posers. 😄

Might have been said. But a cartridge with a SAAMI spec that has any production rifle made with the right throat & twist is pretty special.

I can be old school & know that a 30 or 40 year old load & rifle can serve most purposes, but the modern stuff is with out a doubt worth a look.

Exciting rifle times, 2021.

When I got my first 22 LR rifle, it was an exciting cartridge, as I wanted to learn how to shoot well, explore its accuracy potential, have fun plinking. I wound up shooting first team varsity rifle in college as a result of that early excitement. I still get a wee bit excited holding the 22 LR and loading it in my S&W k22, or squirrel rifle, or plinking..

When I got my first centerfire rifle at age 16, it was a 30-3O Marlin 336a I loved holding a loaded 30-30 in my fingers and looking at its long neck, and the scalloped lead nose of the Remington corelokt bullet. I was going to be able to hunt with my dad now. Reloads would shoot near MOA, which is exciting. I loved the look of the cartridge, the heft, and the shape-and still do 45 years later.

When I got my first woodchuck hunting cartridge/rifle, a 222 Rem, it was exciting. High velocity. Economy of shooting, long distance potential, days of being in rolling hayfields with my woodchuck buddy (or brother) enjoying life was exciting-and still is. The diminutive shape of the case, with its sharp shoulders, tiny bullet, stories of how Mike Walker developed it, and how fast it turned the benchrest accuracy world on its ear in the 1950-60's were all exciting aspects of the 222 Rem to me. The 222 Rem still bets me going,c when I pull out my Sako A1 Varmint , and cluster 5 shots in a sub 1/2 MOA 200 yard group..

My "powerful big game" bolt gun, a 30-06 JC Higgins model 50, created excitement. I finally had a "powerful cartridge" that was used all over the world, with great success. The potential of the 30-06 was exciting to me. I knew I was never going to Africa or Alaska, so my 30-06 was good for "anything else." When you think of it, that IS pretty exciting. The 30-06 had a long neck and case ( compared to my 30-30). It would shoot 150-200 grain jacketed bullets accurately and with good velocity. A cartridge that offers that kind of usefulness, and potential, is exciting. Chambered in a commercial FN Mauser 98 action, with all the milling, forging, metallurgy a!loy upgrades, with its great design-it just amplifies the excitement of the 30-06.

As much as the OP wants to focus on just "the brass bottle" ( cartridge itself) to be "exciting," he/she is wrong. "Excitement" is an emotional response, enhanced by non-tangible factors. It is never just about "the brass bottle" itself.

My current "cartridge of interest" on the radar is the 6.5 Grendel (do I rebarreling my CZ 527?). Seems like a very efficient cartridge. Is it exciting? Not really, but it is interesting to me.

So, it IS about hitting an aspirin at 50 yards with my 22 LR rifle, using my 30-30 while hunting with my dad, or reading about Townsend Whelen's hunting trips with a 30-06, or making a 300 yard shot on a woodchuck with a 222 Rem hand load, and my brother spotting the shot. If if excites me, it is due to the tangible and intangible things associated with the cartridge. Excitement related to a cartridge is NOT just "the brass bottle.". Never was. Never will.

First, being a fan of Elmer, the .338 is the right caliber. Anything less makes you a "needle blower." Anything bigger just drips out of the muzzle and falls on the ground. He wrote in 1957 that his OKH series should be updated from .333 to .338 as better stuff would be available with the dawning of the 338 win mag. Next, one has to "try" all of the cartridges, .338-06 (sadly, it never got the "proper" OKH appellation), .338 win mag .340 Wby, and of course the .338-378 which Bob Hagel discussed early on, in Handloader. The .338 RCM is somewhat exciting even though it is just a short-and-fat .338-06. Just "yesterday" Federal finally adopted the .308 casing and that is exciting, too. The .338 Federal is their first and only entry into the cartridge world. Dare we think that with today's better projectiles and also when velocities are moderate, the "lightweight" .338 stuff works as well or better than the old Elmer standard of 250-300 grains?

My friend and neighbor was hellbent on getting a 6.5 Grendel and I discouraged the idea. We hunt problem hogs several days/nights a week. He bought the Grendel anyway and my thoughts on it being not much better than .223 were quickly dispelled. He mostly uses the Nosler Long Range Accubond 129 and the Nosler BT 120. The rifle in our limited field use on large hogs has proven very effective out to 300 yards. I would almost say it works as well as .308W without the recoil which is quite helpful for multiple shots on multiple targets that are heading for cover.

Using the same cartridges our nations warriors used to defend the world and having many pictures of gut pile that only required one shot to make. Having a selection of good factory loads. Being able to find components if you loan your own.

Im with hanco and TrexF16. The 30-06 is exciting as there are endless combinations of loads.

It's making em then shooting em thats fun and if you can get one to do something you think is special or haven't done before, all the better. Of course, all the others are equally exciting for the same reasons although im partial to the oddball and obscure.