I am always amazed at how many caliber bolt guns are out there

[longshot2000]

Personally, I gravitate to the military rounds. So, .308/7.62, check. .30-06, check for M1 types. .300WM, yes, sir ! .8mm Mauser. Ja. 338 Lapua. I get it. 6.5 Grendel. New, interesting. 6.5 Creedmoor. Gonna see more of you.

Beyond that, I am dazzled at all of the varieties of calibers and chambers. Why do you think we have so many? What is a .243 anyway?

 

[Ledzep]

Well someone measures the inside of their magazine box, then the ogive of the pointiest available bullet, then picks a parent case that Lapua makes brass for, draws up some dimensions with a 30 or 40 degree shoulder... thinks a little too much about some stuff he doesn't really understand but has a strong feeling about efficiency, reliability, recoil, or some such.... sends a few emails gets some reamers made (chamber, dies, etc.), come up with a buzz word to slap behind the bullet diameter... And away you go, fighting for every little bit of case capacity you can squeeze out of what is out there. Push the pointiest bullet the fastest or claim the best barrel life or something.

I can't really say anything. I'm shooting a 6.5 4s and piecing together a 6 Grendel... If you're going to exclusively reload for the gun anyway, it doesn't really matter if someone makes factory rifles/ammo/etc. for it or not.

 

[spife7980]

Why do you think we have so many? What is a .243 anyway?

Its a 308 necked down to 6mm.
Why are there so many? Because why not? There is always something better.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

I went through this for up to about a decade ago, complicated by the fact that I also handloaded all the chamberings. I eventually culled most of the chamberings, even eliminating my .308's (which are just recently back). These days I find that most of the remaining ones are, yes, military chamberings.

.223, .260, .308, .30-06, 7.62x39, 7.62x54R. By and large, the vast majority of my shooting gets done with the .223. I am still wildly vacillating about the 6.5CM. The .22 Nosler holds some of my attention, but It's still very long shot (pun intended) on my horizon.

My x39's are a Yugo SKS (still unfired, by me anyway, and in the cosmoline) and a Savage 10FCM Scout. The Scout uses a .308 diameter bore, and the x39 can be loaded to pretty great accuracy using 110-135gr bullets in that Scout's barrel

The x54R is the remnant of a Mosin-Nagant 91-30 project from which I retained one of the four project rifles. Like the Garand, it's a sweetheart nostalgia rifle with which I simply cannot part.

For all of my chamberings, except the x54R and the .260, I maintain a pair (at least) of rifles, with a semi and a bolt version in each; ad I may still acquire semis for those.

Greg

 

[demolitionman]

What's a 243? Are u kidding? It's everything a 308 is but WAY BETTER.

just stirring the pot a little......

 

[Supersubes]

I think cartridge evolution is interesting. Go back to the 1860's and follow the progression up to now. Loading manuals have a pretty good breakdown of the "why's" with the common stuff. firearm type, propellants, bullet technology, drove most of it. Wiki is a resource, as is a cartridges of the world book. You can make comparisons with how the US did it as compared to Europe. While killing was the goal, clearly we placed importance in different areas than they did. We see the same sort of variance here. Some place importance on brass life, velocity, energy, efficiency, "Inherent accuracy", neck length, barrel life, etc. Everything is a compromise. It's a diverse subject, and one you could spend many years studying.

 

[TylerN]

Why so many? Because it's easy to do for bolt guns (compared to semi-autos) and people like to tinker or market new innovations.
- No need to tune a gas system
- Mags are more forgiving; they don't need to feed as fast
- Bolt guns are commonly chambered from blank barrels so easy enough to ream different chambers
- reforming custom brass is achievable

 

[longshot2000]

What's a 243? Are u kidding? It's everything a 308 is but WAY BETTER.

just stirring the pot a little......

Then man-up and shoot the real thing, and call it a 7.62.

 

[demolitionman]

Then man-up and shoot the real thing, and call it a 7.62.

Egh, unlike some, I am not into this hobby to prove my manliness. I like soft recoiling easy to shoot and load for calibers. Im too small framed and slenderly built to be shooting magnum cartridges or even a 308 in quick succession. But therein lies the exact answer to your question. Lots of guys find 308 is superior to the 243. There's many different calibers and cartridges for the same reason theres many different types of vehicles. They all go down the road but each model does something that appeals more or less to a consumer. The apacolypse zombie preppers like the military cartridges, the benchrest guys like the more esoteric often non sammi specd customer chambers, the prs guys are shooting 6 and 6.5 for the most part which could consist of a vast array SA and LA chambers of which I couldn't count on my hands and feet.

A caliber is the bullet size. Cartridge may have been the word you were looking for in your original post title seeing how you mentioned two chamberings of the same caliber. It really is amazing how many different spec' d chambers there are and what makes bolt guns great is so long as theres someone able to create a reamer there will always be guys trying to make something their own. Or at least wild cat existing cartridges which I find fascinating and an appealing aspect of it. Guys like to tinker around in the shop, and on a bench; the bolt gun makes a perfect tinker platform.....as such a multitude of chamberings exsist.

 

[spife7980]

Then man-up and shoot the real thing, and call it a 7.62.

 

[hamstur]

same reason there are so many dog breeds. along history, somebody had an improvement idea or defined a more specific need/capability. like cross breeding dogs for instant change, one could neck up, neck down, blow out, shorten, and modify cases easily to birth something different.