Left to right: .218 Bee, .222 Remington, .222 Remington Magnum, .225 Winchester, .220 Swift. These are all good and useful varmint cartridges--but all have lost popularity races with the .22 Hornet, .223 Remington, and .22-250.

THE .243 WINS
It isn't like we have a vast array of 6mm cartridges. There are several proprietaries and a number of fairly popular wildcats, but the only two viable commercial 6mm's are the .243 Winchester and the 6mm Remington. In terms of velocity, both potential and real, the 6mm Remington is clearly the superior cartridge. Again, this doesn't matter. The .243 Winchester is one of our most popular centerfire cartridges, while the 6mm Remington just barely hangs on. I think it should get the ax.

This is not based entirely on popularity. I believe that the .243, with its short, fat case, is inherently a more accurate cartridge. It can also be housed in a true short bolt action. The 6mm Remington cannot. Anyway, in the 6mm bullet diameter it's a .243 world, and I think that's okay.

NO QUARTER ON QUARTER-BORES
The .25-caliber cartridges from the major manufacturers are: .25-20, .25-35, .250 Savage, .257 Roberts, and .25-06 Remington. I think it's a no-brainer to suggest that the .25-20 WCF and .25-35 WCF should go the way of the dodo. Both were popular in their day, and survive because there are still a lot of rifles out there-which is certainly a viable reason for survival. But I think both have outlived their usefulness.

You could perhaps say the same about the .250 Savage; there are no commercial rifles so chambered today, and it's a rare chambering even in custom rifles. However, I can't bring myself to show it the door. It's an efficient, low-recoiling little cartridge that fits into the tidiest of bolt actions, and with short cartridges now being "in" it just may stage a comeback.

On the other hand, I think we can do without the .257 Roberts. It has made several comebacks over the years, but to my mind it has an inherent problem that has nothing to do with its own merits. Thanks to our adoption of the .30-06 as our military cartridge--which was replaced by the .308 Winchester--we have two primary action lengths. The "standard" bolt action is long enough to house .30-06-length cases; the "short" action will house the .308 Winchester family of cases. Obviously there are also "full-length actions" for the .375 H&H-length cartridges, and "true magnum" actions for the .416 Rigby and larger.

The Roberts case, at 2.233 inches, is too long for a short action, but creates a lot of wasted space in a .30-06-length action. It is a wonderfully efficient and effective cartridge, but it is not as good as the .25-06. And even with the excellent "+P" factory loads currently available it is at its best when handloaded. So I think it should be returned to its original wildcat status.

Left: .243 Winchester, right 6mm Remington. The 6mm Remington is probably a "better" cartridge than the .243 in terms of velocity potential--but it won't fit in true short actions and it is fast becoming a rare bird. It's time for it to go.

6.5'S AND 7MM'S
The 6.5mm, bullet diameter .264, has never done well in this country. Remington's 6.5mm Remington Magnum is long gone and unlikely to come back. The .264 Winchester Magnum had a brief but brilliant blaze of glory in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Along came the 7mm Remington Magnum, and the poor .264 has been eating dust ever since. I used the .264 quite a lot in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and I have a real soft spot for the cartridge--but it has been wallowing for years, and it's time to put it out of its misery. Now comes a tough call. Although it's too early to tell, the little .260 Remington seems to have taken off like gangbusters. It will be interesting to see if it can survive the 6.5 stigma! In any case, it's a wonderfully accurate cartridge that essentially duplicates the performance of the great old 6.5x55--except that it's probably more accurate on average, and can be housed in a short action, while the 6.5x55 cannot. With the .260's arrival I think American manufacturers should give up on the 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser. It is much more popular in Europe, and will (and certainly should) continue in European loadings. American loadings have long been anemic anyway, due to concern over potential use in aging rifles; to obtain anything close to the cartridge's potential it has always been necessary to either handload or buy European ammo. And that's the way it should be.

I can already hear the howls from the 6.5x55 fans--but you ain't seen nothin' yet. One of my personal favorite cartridges is the great old 7x57 Mauser, but I give it thumbs down as an American commercial cartridge. My reasoning is much the same. The 7mm-08 duplicates its performance, but is generally more accurate and can be housed in a true short action. The factories load the 7mm-08 to its full potential, while American 7x57 loads have always been extremely mild, again because of the concern about hundred-year-old rifles. I won't give up my own 7x57--but I sure as heck don't shoot American factory loads through it!

I never saw any utility whatsoever for the 7-30 Waters, at least as a rifle cartridge. It's a pretty good chambering for the single-shot pistols, so I guess in that context it should stay. The .284 Winchester should also go. It hasn't been chambered in a production rifle for many years, and anything it was capable of doing has now been superceded by Remington's new 7mm Short Action Ultra Mag. Its primary value has been as an interesting case for wildcatting but Norma has fixed that with brass for cartridges such as the 6.5/.284.

Remington should drop the 7mm STW in favor of their 7mm Remington Ultra Mag. The STW was a groundbreaking cartridge, but it's extremely finicky to load for and only in rare rifles can it actually produce the velocities its huge case ought to be capable of. The 7mm Ultra Mag is also badly overbore capacity and is limited in the powders it will safely accept-but its wider powder column gives it a huge advantage. Give the STW back to the handloaders, where it belongs.

TRIMMING THE .30'S
The .30-calibers are America's prime beef, so this is an especially difficult herd to trim. Most of them are simply too popular to die, regardless of merit or obvious duplication. The herd continues to grow, too, with the .300 Remington Ultra Mag, .300 Winchester Short Magnum, and .300 Remington Short Action Ultra Mag in the last couple of years alone. So with this many new .30's, there must be a few we can do without.

Indeed there are. The .300 Savage has had its day. It's a great little cartridge, of course--but there are almost no actions that will house the .300 Savage that won't also house the more powerful and much more popular .308 Winchester.

Left to right: .25-20, .25-35, .257 Roberts. All of these are extremely old cartridges, with the .25-20 and .25-35 definitely on their last legs. The Roberts is a fine cartridge, but it won't fit into a real "short action," and only handloaders can realize its true potential.

I'm tempted to give the axe to the .307 Winchester, but I can't. It was and is a great idea, simply a rimmed version of the .308 intended for tubular-magazine rifles. Properly understood, it gives new life to the traditional lever action. I doubt it will survive, but I won't kill it!

On the other hand, the .30-40 Krag is part of history. It was a great cartridge in its day, but that day is done.

As much as I hate to say it, I feel the same about the .300 H&H Magnum. This is another cartridge that I personally revere. But no modern rifles are currently chambered to the great old .300 H&H, and it needs good handloads to reach its potential. Properly loaded, it's a better cartridge than the .300 Winchester Magnum and almost the equal of the .300 Weatherby--but modern factory loads are little better than the best .30-06 loads, and are just as well forgotten.