For many years I have collected cartridges, many of them from foreign manufacture as well as domestic. I have this penchant for items that look fast and are well proportioned. I like sleek boats, cars and airplanes. There is nothing that can compare to a Ford F-40 or a Triumph Bonneville of the late 60's or the North American P-51 D airplane. Hirschoff designed some of the worlds most beautiful sail boats. Then there is the coach work of Pininferina the coach builder for many of Itlay's finest sports cars. All of these objects look as though they are ment to simply look fast while not in motion. Thus I decided to find the best proportioned cartridge in my collection. To each one of us beauty is in the eye of the beholder therefore there will never be a perfect looking cartridge that can be agreed upon by all. I looked at some 100 rounds more or less just to check my preception of what I felt to be the perfectly shaped round. This is not based on any thing to do with ballistics it is simply form.

My personal favorite, best looking round is the......6.5 x 55 Swede it has to my eye the best proportinal lines of all cartridges ever commercially made.

What is your favorite round to look at.

Bullwnkl.

338 RUM

257Wby.................

.222 Rem.

425 WR

.45-70 Government (it just looks like death).

Bullwnkl,

I was thinking of the 6.5x55mm Swede while still reading your post!

Great minds eh? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'll bet some of you guys like chunky chicks, too... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Short and fat might make a fast cartridge, but how would they confuse that with well-proportioned? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
art

Chunky women, like mopeds are fun to ride....you just don't want to let any of your friends so you on one <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Now back to the subject of good looking cartridges The .280 rem AI gets my vote. All performance and no belt.

Never thought about cartridges from your angle before, but since my first look at your post, I've been gazing at several cartridges with your idea in mind. I'm sure that my choice won't surprise you -- my hot new .220. And yes, it's a factory cartridge, although what I'm looking at are handloads. (Not a bit surprised, are you? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />)

300 H & H (with the 270 Win a close #2)

JimF

338 Win. Mag. with a 250 grain Nosler Partition resting on top.

got to agree with jimF on this one: 300 h&h. it just looks imperially slim - and effective. my second choice is the .303 british. third is 7x57. fourth is .270.

.17HMR, So petite and sleek in one package.

257 WBY <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

338 Lapua

I reckin' thet 300 WSM is 'bout the cutest round I've seed. Don't have one, ain't likely to ever need a new rifle. But I 'spect its a fine shooter too.

When I read the post, I thought 300 H&H. It's what a cartridge should look like.

6.5x55, to me it just looks like a round should with 140 grain pill. With 156 grain RN it just looks like pure business.

The 30/06 Springfield.

When I look at the 06 I see the cartridge that will do it all without question. It's the round that helped win the two world wars and most of all the round associated with the greatest country on earth. I heard another old club member just passed on. Joe J. was a marine in the South Pacific in WW11 where my uncle died fighting for the US Army. He said that they were issued armor piercing for the 06 as it would penetrate the bunkers better that the japs used.

On collecting. A friend just gave me a cartridge marked Peters .300 Magnum. It has a 220 gr hollow point bullet that's a copper alloy at the nose, a nickle looking belt on the bullet about a half inch long and then the remainder of the bullet is the copper alloy.

There is only one... the .22-250 Silvertip in the nickle case with the moly bullet head and the little white tip.... sweet as !

Nickel cases .30-06 with a 168 grain Barnes XLC sitting atop a stiff load of IMR 4350. Aww....heaven. Flinch

That 7mm WSM with a Fail Safe stuffed on top just looks BAD!



I am really looking forward to knocking something over with it this year.

Whichever cartridge I happen to be shooting any particular day. In other words, I only own the best looking factory cartridges and like them all! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

How about a thread about the ugliest cartridges? My vote would go for the .35 Rem.- Sheister

220 Swift!

The 25-06 first followed by 270 Win. -- no

Gonna have to agree with you there, CAS. Same goes for the 300 WSM - it just looks mean with that 180 grain fail safe on top. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I'm shooting it, not screwing it, performance is what counts......in both activities now that I think about it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

But I do like the 6.5 Swede, tho.

This has turned out much as I thought it would, several of you looked at the cartridge as I do for pure shape of the object, others saw the preformance offered by that shape...that is ok too. But Schiester the ugliest cartridge can not go to the 35 Rem as it is beautifull and I happen to own one. Nope the ugly cartridge has to be the 32 Win Special.
Wade the 45-70 is a beauty unto it self, simple straight foreward and big.
Now guys don't get me wrong there are those of you out there who would prefer Sophia Loren in her prime to Anna Nicole Smith in her on the hoof todays model and Visa Versa. Ken I'll take a 100 rounds and the dies, let me know when you get them I'll send the money or sooner. To all of you, this little exercise simply shows that we are individuals, we look at things, objects, from different perspectives. Some of us see the physical shape while others see what that shape has the potential to do.
So many guns so little money

Bullwnkl.

I always thought that the 7x57 was perfectly proportioned. The short, ultra-fat WSSMs get my vote for the ugliest - with their tiny necks and bloated bodies they remind me of some of the characters in the comics of R. Crumb.

A brand-spanking-new set of Hornady "Custom Grade New Dimension" dies and a hundred AHR cases sit here awaiting your next visit to the Bitterroot Valley.

And I agree that (a) the .35 Remington is far from ugly, and (b) the new short magnums are. The Weatherbys' "Venturi" shoulders make 'em among the ugliest, but I can't think of a factory cartridge that can take the lead crown for sheer ugly away from a wildcat whose moniker I can't recall -- it has a hemispheric shoulder, of all things! Looks like a jug with no handle ring on the shoulder. (Now I'll probably have nightmares about it tonight. Had a dream so beautiful the other morning, BTW, that I hated waking up -- a friend handed me the loveliest engraved schuetzen rifle I'd ever seen and said "It's yours." I just had time to dine sumptuously but briefly on some tiny details of its loveliness before I woke.)

There was once a cartridge -- a European or English factory cartridge, at that, I think -- with an 89� or 90� shoulder. I can't recall its designation, either. Nothing factory-loaded today is anywhere near as ugly, IMO.

Ken,
Hate to contribute to the nightmares but here you go. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I agree on the appearance, however, since the designer is a friend of mine I've reserved judgment on the whole deal until I get some time spent with the system. And yes, that is a patent drawing.

I love the 30/40 Krag with the 220 grain as the prettiest girl on the block. Or maybe it's the 6 BR or the ....... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

rdinak;

What "factory" is currently loading the .280 AI ????

.284 Winchester followed very closely by the .220 Swift.....

Sorry gotta disagree with you Ken, The .300 Wby is some pretty medicine <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Kinda wants me to be a doctor (wait ... I'm working on that now) so I can prescribe that pill over and over <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Bullwnlk
Has to be the 6.5 x 55......followed by the 8 x 57 and the 9.3 x 62..........no wait...........its got to be the 9.3 Sisk <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Charlie

Charlie, if I had to pick a second cartridge it would be the 250-3000 and a third would be a 257 Roberts. If I were picking jet aircraft it would be the F-104 StarFighter and the F-4 Phantom. There has never been a prettier car than the 250 Ferarri GTO, with the 427 AC Cobra a very close second. And for boats It's gotta be the old Allison powered Pride of Pay N Pack unlimited hydroplane. nothing but viseral sound and evil looking. My kinda boat.

Bullwnkl.

I'd have to say the 243 winchester with 100 gr Hornady spire pt.

That seems to be the most beautiful to me. Why? well probably not cause of any outstanding ballistics but because it was in my first big game rifle I ever owned. AND it was the cartridge that I was taught how to reload on.

25-284
It looks like it's haulin ass, just sittin on the bench....
Virgil B.