List your favourite underrated cartridges

Ardent said:
.270 Winchester and .243 Winchester.

The former in particular is popularly discounted by the “in” crowd / 6.5 people, however the .270 remains a modest recoiling, flat shooting game hammer that by its very recipe (light bullets) has resisted the market push to heavy monos. It’s retained it’s bang flop aspects better than most as a result, and is available in every good rifle, and on every hardware store shelf.

The .243 is just a 75% scale .270, and is to the .308 what the .270 is to the .30-06. Another sweet shooting, quick, readily available and disproportionately effective round that was doing the mild but flat shooting thing long before the fancy options came along.

Getting away from readily available, the .250 Savage as the OP mentions, the 257 Roberts, and .257 Weatherby are all inordinately effective and light recoiling. The .30-06 is considered old hat but yet arguably the best rounded non dangerous game round in existence.
Click to expand...

very well spoken
 
SuperCub said:
Many of the cartridges mentioned in this thread are obsolete (not under-rated) and have been eclipsed by better designs.
Click to expand...

Tried & true my friend, hard to beat tried and true.
Always been a big fan of the 358 Norma. Love the old 7mm's and hard to beat the old 6.5's. Partial to .257's as well (which is basically a 6.5).
Bob's & Swede's. I've heard it said that a 6.5 will shoot well out of a sling shot. I can't disagree.
 
Last edited:
SuperCub said:
Many of the cartridges mentioned in this thread are obsolete (not under-rated) and have been eclipsed by better designs.
Click to expand...

Admittedly, in some cases, yes. Quite often though, the governing factor is usually more of commercial and marketing efforts. First off, years ago after seeing my 1st example, I've become a Schultz & Larsen fan. About 1953, Schultz & Larsen, in conjunction with Norma, brought the brainchild of Phil Sharpe and Richard Hart to commercial availability, the 7x61 S&H. About nine years after that, Remington followed suit bringing out the 7mm Remington Magnum. This 'newcomer' had a slight velocity edge over the 7x61 S&H. The advantage fell when Norma and Schultz & Larsen changed the metallurgy of the 7x61 case and also changed the interior profile of the case. Cases are head stamped 7x61 Super. Following that, the remainder of the 7mm Remington Magnum market success is due to marketing efforts and availability.
Also,:) there's a very similar pattern of circumstances in comparing the 308 NM and the 300 Win Mag development.
 
Johnn Peterson said:
Admittedly, in some cases, yes. Quite often though, the governing factor is usually more of commercial and marketing efforts. First off, years ago after seeing my 1st example, I've become a Schultz & Larsen fan. About 1953, Schultz & Larsen, in conjunction with Norma, brought the brainchild of Phil Sharpe and Richard Hart to commercial availability, the 7x61 S&H. About nine years after that, Remington followed suit bringing out the 7mm Remington Magnum. This 'newcomer' had a slight velocity edge over the 7x61 S&H. The advantage fell when Norma and Schultz & Larsen changed the metallurgy of the 7x61 case and also changed the interior profile of the case. Cases are head stamped 7x61 Super. Following that, the remainder of the 7mm Remington Magnum market success is due to marketing efforts and availability.
Also,:) there's a very similar pattern of circumstances in comparing the 308 NM and the 300 Win Mag development.
Click to expand...

You would probably enjoy these pics then.

j7fBhwO.jpg

50MzInc.jpg
 
FreedomIsn'tFree said:
You would probably enjoy these pics then.

j7fBhwO.jpg

50MzInc.jpg
Click to expand...

:)Well done. Being a fan of the Schultz & Larsen, the closest 'thing' I have to a collection is what you see represented on the red cover of the old Norma reloading manual. The three cartridges were the collaborative effort of Norma and Schultz & Larsen.
- 7x61 S&H
- 308 Norma Magnum
- 358 Norma Magnum.
 
Underrated cartridges for me include:

.243 Winchester - load it with 100 grain Nosler Partitions or Speer Grand Slams and they punch way above their weight.
.444 Marlin - really shines with 300 grain Speers or Swift A-Frames. Top end handloads are required.
.30-06 Springfield - it still covers all the bases even though it ain't considered ###y anymore.
.338 Remington Ultra Mag - When 250 grain Barnes LRX are appropriately handloaded, it hits like the hammer of Thor. Extremely accurate .338. Perhaps the military got their .338 choice wrong.
 
350 Mag said:
7mm SAUM....it's a shame it never caught on in hunting circles but it has a cult following now.
Click to expand...

The 7SAUM is another actual underrated cartridge. 280AI in a short action, lots to like about that. It was for sure a victim of bad timing.

Many of the cartridges listed here are as SuperCub says- simply obsolete. Or they are "pet" cartridges. And I am still not buying the listing of the very popular cartridges as underrated. :)

There has been literally thousands of articles and chapters written about how great popular cartridges like 270, 30-06 and 30-30 are. Any discussion on CGN about popular cartridges will have dozens of posts telling us how great they are. If anything, they are overrated. :)
 
The 7mm-08... while it may not be "underrated", there is a stigma around it. Men with a inferiority complex tend to label it as a woman's round or a youth round instead of a remarkable low recoiling round, with an excellent flat trajectory, that is devastating on game. It's bizarre.
 
ChromeArty said:
The 7mm-08... while it may not be "underrated", there is a stigma around it. Men with a inferiority complex tend to label it as a woman's round or a youth round instead of a remarkable low recoiling round, with an excellent flat trajectory, that is devastating on game. It's bizarre.
Click to expand...

I've heard this many times. It always tells me that they don't really know what they are talking about. :)

The same people that tell you a 7-08 is light for shooting a moose at 250 yards will tell you that a 7RM will kill a moose like a bolt of lightening at 400 yards. :)
 
salarguy said:
This^^^^^ and the .35 Remington

Most of you are forgetting about the .257 +P. My tang safety had that rating and a long enough throat to get maximum use from it. 120 gr. partitions were it's regular fodder
Click to expand...

THis is true, I meant the +P rated. My 257 Roberts +P likes 120 Nosler Partitions as loaded Federal Premium. Also had good luck with Sierra 117gr SBTs.

Just got a great deal on a couple of hundred Speer 120gr SPBT bullets as well so will give those a whirl when the 117gr SST Superformances are finished.

Scrummy
 
Johnn Peterson said:
Admittedly, in some cases, yes. Quite often though, the governing factor is usually more of commercial and marketing efforts.
Click to expand...
That's very true. Many very good & modern chamberings fall by the wayside from the makers failure to support and market their offerings. Remington has become famous for this over the recent past. The 7-08 and 260 are two very good examples of this failure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom