From left: 7x57 Mauser, .284 Win., 7mm STW -- three cartridges that could be culled out of the 7mm herd, but for vastly different reasons. The old 7x57 is at its best with handloads and won't fit a short action, no commercial rifles have been chambered to the .284 Winchester for years, and the 7mm STW has been superceded by the new 7mm Remington Ultra Mag.

MY PET 8MM
The 8mm, caliber .323, has always been a rare bird in America. We could easily discard the 8x57, but I've already done away with most of the cartridges that use it as the parent case--6mm Remington, .257 Roberts, 7x57. Better keep the old 8mm Mauser so we'll have some brass!

I trashed the .25-20, but better keep the .32-20. It's a pretty good revolver cartridge, a great small game round, and has some application in cowboy action shooting.

But we can do without the .32 Winchester Special, actually a carryover from the transition from blackpowder to smokeless. It offers absolutely no advantage over the .30-30 Winchester, and no rifles have been chambered to it for a full generation.

Ah, and now we have to trash one of my pets. The 8mm Remington Magnum has become one of my favorite hunting cartridges--but I use either handloads or loads from Superior, one of the many smaller manufacturers who will make almost anything to the customer's specifications. As a factory cartridge the 8mm Remington Magnum has never been popular, and Remington's factory loads have never realized the potential of that seductively large case. I love my Big Eight, but it's okay if it's no longer a factory cartridge.

UNLUCKY .35's
We talk about how unsuccessful the 6.5's and 8mm's have been in America, but, after all, they're European bore diameters. It's much harder to understand why the good old American .35's (which have also been popular in Europe) have fared so poorly. A whole slew of .35's have sprung up and died away, with the only long-term survivor being the .35 Remington. It needs to stay because it's wonderful in specialty pistols.

The .35 Whelen seems to be doing quite well, so it must also stay. Regrettably, the rest of them may as well go away. The .356 Winchester, like its companion .307, has never done well. Might as well give up.

The great old .348 Winchester, which I dearly love, got a new lease on life with the reintroduction of the Model 71. Unfortunately the old factory loads (from a major) that still exists uses a 200-grain bullet, far less effective than the 250-grain loads that made this cartridge's reputation. The .348 will always be a great hunting cartridge, but it's in the province of handloaders and small custom ammo companies.

Exactly the same is true of the .358 Winchester, which was actually officially dropped last year. The .358 is another pet of mine, but its last factory load was a mild 200-grain load, so I don't mourn it. With .308 cases necked down and plenty of good 225 and 250-grain bullets we .358 fans have little to be concerned about.

Left to right: .30-40 Krag, .300 Savage, .300 H&H Magnum. Culling the .30-caliber herd is difficult, but the .30-40 and .300 Savage have just about outlived their genuine utility. So has the great .300 H&H, at least in factory loads, but it remains a wonderful cartridge when properly handloaded.

BORING BIG BORES
There aren't all that many big-bore cartridges, so this herd can't stand much culling. The .375 Winchester never burned up the world, and it could certainly go away. Nostalgic shooting events have saved old-timers like the .38-40, .44-40, and .38-55, and that's certainly fine with me. The .444 Marlin and .45-70 certainly have a place, and while the .450 Marlin won't do anything hot loads for the .45-70 won't do, it does solve the potential safety issue of hot .45-70 loads going into older rifles that won't handle them.

The .416 Remington and .416 Rigby are redundant, but it isn't like we don't have redundancy in our 7mm and .30-caliber families! Even though Winchester boldly dropped the .458 Winchester Magnum, it needs to stay. It is still the least expensive option for a true big bore, and despite the current popularity of .458-bashing, it is absolutely adequate for the world's largest game.

I hope Federal continues to load the .470 Nitro Express, but it's not the end of the world if they drop it because now there are plenty of other sources.

There are, of course, many other old-time big bores, and a wealth of proprietaries and wildcats. This is probably as it should be, because potential sales of large-caliber cartridges are very small. But it's a prestige market, and there may yet be room for one or two factory big-bores that exceed .458 Winchester Magnum performance. Time will tell.

AND WHAT IF . . .
So, by my count, that's an even two dozen rifle cartridges we could do without. That would still leave us with far too many, but it would at least offset the new introductions of the last few years--with a net loss, which would be a good thing. And, before you start sending me death threats, just what would happen in the extremely unlikely event that all of these cartridges were dropped? Actually very, very little. You couldn't go down to the corner hardware store and buy them--but unless you've got an extremely unusual store at your corner, you can't anyway. Thousands of shooters continue to use the many grand old cartridges that have been dropped by the major manufacturers, so it isn't the end of the world. You would just have to work a little harder to keep the ammo locker full. You could load it yourself, but if you prefer not to there are dozens of small ammunition makers and custom loading firms that will load darn near anything, no matter how obscure.

So don't fret. The down side is increased cost of ammo, but the up side is ammunition that is better tailored to your rifle, with the bullet of your choosing.

By the way, whether you like it or not, I do predict that a lot of the cartridges mentioned--and some not mentioned--will be dropped by the majors over the next few years. So if you're shooting a cartridge that you know isn't winning any popularity races you can simplify the future by laying in a supply of ammo and, whether you handload or not, saving your cases. In today's world it's possible to find-or make-cases for darn near anything, but difficulty and cost varies widely. If you have just a couple hundred once-fired cases you can be almost assured of a lifetime's supply of ammo!