New cartridges keep guys like me in business, and Lord knows there have been plenty of new cartridges to write about these past few years. Most of them are pretty darned good, but cartridges that might have appealed to our fathers, grandfathers--perhaps even our great-grandfathers--are still effective today. Because of this, some people like to go against the tide and shoot "retro" cartridges. Sometimes I join them, even though it is part of my job to report on as many of the new cartridges as I can get my hands on.

Now, there's retro and then there's retro. For instance, many of us use cartridges such as the .270 Winchester (1925), .30-06 (1906), .300 Weatherby Magnum (1944) and .375 H&H (1912) because we like them and they do their respective jobs, not because we're consciously being reactionary. When I say retro I'm thinking about older cartridges that are not especially popular today but are still effective and therefore interesting.

In recent years my small retro rebellion has centered on just three cartridges, the 7x57 Mauser, .264 Winchester Magnum, and .300 H&H Magnum. I will address each in order of age, not beauty or attributes.

7x57 MAUSER
This cartridge (a.k.a. 7mm Mauser, .275 Rigby) dates clear back to 1892, nearly the dawn of smokeless powder. In this country, the 7x57 has come and gone, and come back again. I can hear the howls of its fans when I suggest the 7x57 isn't currently popular, but it is not. Its fans are fiercely loyal but few in number. The only factory bolt action currently produced is Blaser's straight-pull R93. Ruger still offers it in the No. 1.

There is factory ammo from all major manufacturers, but most factory loads available today are extremely mild because of legitimate concerns about their use in older, weaker (pre-'98 Mauser) actions.

It requires handloading to bring the 7x57 to its maximum potential, but it has a problem in that it is an odd size for modern actions--a bit too long for a short bolt action yet a bit short for a .30-06-length action. The more popular 7mm-08 Remington is probably an inherently more accurate cartridge, definitely fits into short actions, and 7mm-08 factory ammo is loaded to the gills. So, by almost any sensible parameter, if you want a low-recoiling 7mm that offers exceptional performance, you'd get a 7mm-08.

On the other hand, charisma and nostalgia must count for something. The 7x57 is San Juan Hill, where Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders fought uphill to glory under withering fire from Spanish 7x57s. It's the Boer War, where the Brits faced those same 7mm Mausers. The 7x57 is Karamoja Bell and Jim Corbett and Eleanor O'Connor.

I've almost always had at least one 7x57 on hand, including a modern synthetic-stocked rifle from Mark Bansner. My retro 7x57, however, is a beautiful rifle crafted by Dallas gunsmith Todd Ramirez. Todd built it in the fashion of a 1920s "stalking rifle," with express sights, detachable scopes, beautiful wood with a skeleton buttplate and matching pistol-grip cap.

It may seem odd to you, but from the very first the only cartridge we considered for this special rifle was the 7x57 Mauser, although we did briefly discuss using its British designation of .275 Rigby. We decided not to because differences between barrel markings and cartridge headstamps can cause problems in some countries.

The end result is quite the finest rifle I have ever owned, and I have used it now on four continents. While it's true the 7x57 "made its bones" with long, heavy-for-caliber bullets, I tend to use 139- and 140-grain bullets at reasonable velocity. They shoot flat enough and provide spectacular bullet performance. I have used it out to 300 yards, which I think is starting to push the cartridge's capability, and I have used it on game up to greater kudu, which is also pushing the cartridge's capability. On the deer-sheep-goat class of game, well, the little 7x57 is neither fast nor flashy, but man does it get the job done.