Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Cartridges That Are Vanishing

With the exception of French military offerings, of which I have none, I am most fond of the military cartridges of the World Wars...thanks to PPU imports, I am keeping them fed.

jwp and Swifty,

I'm somewhat baffled by your statements that the Winchester Short Magnums were dropped by various companies, including Browning and Winchester, after Jamison won the court case. This is partly because purchased not one but two new Winchester Model 70's in .300 WSM from a local gunstore, one in 2008 (not long after the suit) and another in 2016. (The second was one of the "Portugese" 70s, purchased mostly because I kept hearing derogatory statements about them from various people who'd never owned one. The only one the store had in stock was a .300 WSM.)

Plus, both Browning and Winchester still chamber the .270, .300 and .325 WSMs--and a bunch of other rifle manufacturers chamber at least the .300 WSM, both in the U.S. and Europe.

You rarely see the 7mm Wby anymore.....which besides the ballistics is a reason why it is one of my favorites....

.284 is more easily found now than when I first got mine. Heck, I am hoping to get a NULA .284 before too long if I can swing the price.

https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/category/categoryId/715?

Than why are they still being offered?

7mm-08 is better than the 284?

On what fuggin planet? LOL

John, it can be said truthfully that Winchester dropped em like a hot potato is true. Jamison won his lawsuit in Sept. 2005. 6 mos later March 2006 Winchester ceased to exist.
Now it is not impossible for local gun shops to still have one in stock as I kept seeing Winchesters for sale for a long time although the price had escalated a lot.
Now any agreement made between Browning who is licensed to use the Winchester name and Rick Jamison who owns the patents to make a WSM will probably never be known.
Either way, Winchester dropped em real fast.
Didn’t mean to ruffle feathers by stating what is public record. Winchester tried to steal the concept, got caught then went belly up.

I was lucky enough to find a left handed Win 70 in 270 wsm.....no feeding issues and very accurate. Not gonna give it up until I find a lefty .270 Win Model 70 for a decent price.

No one has mentioned the 264 win mag. They are still making it but I don't see a lot of people buying.

Also, it seems to me that sales of the 25-06 may be slipping .

I think all the proprietary lever calibers such as 308 Marlin along with the 30TC are dead on arrival. Ruger 300 RCM fits the mold too.

I am familiar with all that, partly because (like many gun writers) I was contacted by Winchester and asked my opinion on various aspects of the case before the suit was decided.

This thread is titled "Cartridges That Are Vanishing." The WSMs are not vanishing.

Might also add that the .300 WSM Model 70 I purchased in 2008 was a Limited Edition Featherweight Deluxe, one of a run only produced in 2008. So no, it was not a leftover from pre-suit production.

Wow John you are getting testy, calling me out and all I did is correct what was posted in this thread above. It wasn’t copyright infringement, it was patent infringement. Big difference. Call em out initially or suffer through. And since when on the fire does a thread title mean a damn thing. How many threads have started on one track then gone off on 30 different spurs. Mellow out.

Addendum, there are a lot of cartridges that are not dead, but the guns that shoot them will be in about 6 months. Also, the cartridges will be dead when you can’t get primers or powder to shoot them. This site might also be dead due to comments, conservative leanings and the fact that guns and ammo selling is allowed on this site.

Out.

One that is very hard to find today is 11MM Maurada. Wal-Mart just never seems to have any at all.
Can't seem to see why.....................................................

I went to half a dozen sporting goods stores last Saturday, and saw no 30-30, 308, 30-06, or 300WM ammo at all. Those cartridges seem to have vanished.

The .260 Remington is having a hard time getting life insurance these days, at least going by ammo availability vs. the 6.5 Creedmoor and even the 6.5x55 which is still hanging on.

Pre-shortage availability, of course. All loaded ammo is in short supply right now.

One of my favorites, the .25-20, can be said to have pretty much vanished. Remington stopped making the 86 grain component bullet a while back. Factory ammo??? Good luck with that. We are now making brass from .32-20 brass and a couple of commercial bullet casters offer bullets that are suitable. It's a shame. It's a mild-mannered cartridge that is reloadable. In my experience (never mind paper, foot-pounds performance) it puts the smack on such as coons, beaver, porcupines, foxes etc much more decisively than any of the rimfires and it's RELOADABLE. It's an adequate deer cartridge for one who is happy to hunt close and be careful with bullet placement. For woods loafing or high-volume backyard plinking it's mild-mannered and very inexpensive to shoot....especially if you cast your own.

Maybe have to see if Starline will make it in the future.

They didnt drop them. Winchester, browning, Kimber and others still chamber them.

That would be great. Last fall I was out in Missouri at my son's, and got him going making them from Starline .32-20's, which is not difficult. It would be much better though to have the correctly headstamped, real thing.

As far as the 223WSSM, I built one as soon as the chamber dimensions were published. Had a lot of fun wringing it out, and I’ll agree with earlier posters that the 1/10 twist was one of the nails in the coffin. Another was the horrible accuracy of some factory guns when Winchester threw some leftover parts together, including barrels without the chrome lining.

As a reloader, the case presents some particular challenges, nail number three. The brass is so heavy and the neck so thick that consistent neck tension pretty much demands annealing.

Other than that, it goes bang and sends a 22 bullet down range pretty fast and plenty accurate. But there are simply better ways to do that.

I hope the .220 Swift doesn't fade away. Only reason I don't have one is LH rifles in the Swift are pretty scarce. I will either have to get a Ruger or build one most likely unless I get lucky and find a Dakota at a garage sale. I would say the parent 6mm Lee is almost gone, want one of those too for some perverse reason or the AI version. There are a number of 22 rounds that are fading like the Zipper, Bee and the 222 which is still popular in Europe or was. They are still hanging in in an increasingly narrow niche. The Hornet has made at least a minor comeback, a Lazarus cartridge.

Forgot two other mediums that I want but don't have rifles for them now: the 358 Norma Magnum and the 8mm Rem. Magnum. Both are just barely hanging in there mostly because of rifle loonies.