Rifle Cartridges from 2000-Present

[LRRPF52]

Rifle Cartridges 2000-2020
(AR15-compatible/produced versions in Bold):

6mm XC from David Tubbs
.338 Remington Ultra Magnum (RUM)
.458 Marlin (Hornady and Marlin joins venture)
.300 Winchester Short Magnum (WSM)
.408 Cheytac
.50 Beowulf
.458 SOCOM
7mm Remington Ultra Magnum
7mm WSM
.17 HMR
.270 WSM
.300 Remington Short Action Ultra Magnum (RSAUM)
.375 RUM
6.5 Grendel
6.8 Remington SPC
.223 WSSM
.243 WSSM
.400 H&H Magnum
.465 H&H Magnum
7mm RSAUM
.17 Hornady Mach 2
.204 Ruger
.25 WSSM
6.5x47 Lapua
.325 WSM
.308 Marlin Express
.416 Barrett
.17 Remington Fireball
.280 Ackley Improved
.300 Ruger Compact Magnum
.338 Federal
.338 Ruger Compact Magnum
.375 Ruger
.30 Remington AR
.338 Norma Magnum
.300 Whisper
.450 Bushmaster
.338 Marlin Express
.300 AAC Blackout (.300 Whisper re-branded by AAC/Remington)
6.5 Creedmoor
.17 WSM
.300 Norma Magnum
.22 Nosler
.26 Nosler
.28 Nosler
.45 Raptor
6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum
.30 Nosler
.224 Valkyrie
.33 Nosler

Waiting for or recent SAAMI approval:
20 Nosler
24 Nosler
6mm Creedmoor
6.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge
300 Precision Rifle Cartridge
300 HAM'R
350 Legend

[Bigs28]

With all that said maybe you can answer my thoughts. Ive been pondering my next rifle. I want a bolt gun from precision firearms that will shoot out to 1k at sea level through my 6.5 ultra 7 suppressor and be enjoyable to shoot. My savage bolt 270 (before my suppressor) was not fun to shoot which is why i sold it. Can't decide on caliber and i do reload. Im new to reloading but very thorough.

[LRRPF52]

Bolt gun out to 1k through Ultra 7 6.5?

6.5 Creedmoor

Where I was going with the thread is looking at the success vs "never heard of it" in relation to these recent cartridges.

What makes one gain traction, vs one that has all the backing from the biggest rifle/ammo manufacturers with huge marketing budgets and glossy ads in all the major gun rags, and is a total flop?

[FRB6.5]

Pretty sure .300 Whisper was created in the early 1990's (J.D. Jones/SSK). I recall shooting a memorial match in Tucson 1995, for the late Bruce Nelson. There was a competitor running a suppressed .300 Whisper AR.

There is also a .375 Cheytac that is popular for ELR.

[FRB6.5]

.22 Nosler and .224 Valkyrie also fit your timeline and theme.

Despite just about every AR manufacturer making .224 Valkyrie uppers and barrels it seems to be a flop. Ammo isn't common on any store shelf and performance is well short of the hype (unless you have a very long barrel).
LaRue wasn't even shipping their SUURG in .224 V and seem to have removed it even as an selection due to performance issues.

[LRRPF52]

Pretty sure .300 Whisper was created in the early 1990's (J.D. Jones/SSK). I recall shooting a memorial match in Tucson 1995, for the late Bruce Nelson. There was a competitor running a suppressed .300 Whisper AR.

There is also a .375 Cheytac that is popular for ELR.

Roger that. The list I'm working off of has dates of formal acceptance. Some of them seem off to me.

I remember when .300 Whisper was first mentioned and it was a JD Jones creation in the 1990s. I mentioned that in the other thread about advertising or lack thereof for 6.5 Grendel.

Of all these cartridges, I bet 6.5 Grendel, .300 BLK, and .17 HMR have the highest production numbers, along with 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.8 SPC.

[Growler]

6.5 PRC belongs in this list.

Agree with your main point, lots of one hit wonders, with a few that are here to stay.

[kmon]

A few more recent ones

New ones listed in SAAMI specs not rolled into their full database yet

12 Gauge 1??
20 Nosler
22 Nosler
24 Nosler
224 Valkyrie
6mm Creedmoor
6.5-284 Norma
6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum
6.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge
300 Precision Rifle Cartridge
300 HAM?R
350 Legend

Source for this info
https://saami.org/technical-information/...-drawings/

[grayfox]

Bigs another 1K nice shooter is the 6mm Creed. Plus you can go small with varmint rounds and grandkid-type loads. With a 90 gr Sierra TGK almost like an air gun.
They have gtg rifles or you could get a Savage or Ruger Predator and spruce it up.
For bolt actions...

The case slightly smaller than a 243 means you get to use more medium-burn powders like Varget and H4350... and load out to a 115 gr target load, nice BCs.

[Arkhangel5]

The 450 Bushmaster needs to be in bold.

And seems to be popular these days, in states with straight wall cartridge hunting restrictions.

And I own one, just because.

SY

[CJW]

Bigs,
Damn man!!!! Shoot the fag-mag....6.5X284.

I have a BAT Model M that Speedy Gonzales smithed for me with 2 fresh pipes..

I will be glad to send it to you if you want to shoot it for a while.

Live Big ,

Chuck

[delt475]

.22 Nosler and .224 Valkyrie also fit your timeline and theme.

Despite just about every AR manufacturer making .224 Valkyrie uppers and barrels it seems to be a flop. Ammo isn't common on any store shelf and performance is well short of the hype (unless you have a very long barrel).
LaRue wasn't even shipping their SUURG in .224 V and seem to have removed it even as an selection due to performance issues.

Federal screwed up the launch of Valkyrie with bullets, reloading info, barrel twist, etc. Early barrel reamers were pretty much junk as well.

Now that it?s been out and people have played with it, it can be a very accurate cartridge. A proper 1:7 twist or a newer 1:6.5 can shoot 80gr to 90gr+ bullets very accurately. H4895 is, by far, the best powder as well.

Not the answer to everything but 80-88grs pushing 2800fps isn?t bad at all. It is 100% a hand-loaders cartridge right now

[CJW]

How did we ever kill an animal with only a 30-30 or a 30-06.

Imagine what the cartridge list looks like from say 1960.

How many of these will fade into obscurity.....

I bet you that every member of this forum is just a little bit different from the normal rank and file or else we wouldn?t be shooting the Grendel....

[kmon]

CJW, I would fit that description with cartridge choice, never owned a 30-06 or 270.

In 6.5s my first one was a 264 Win Mag, followed by a 6.5X54MS then a Grendel followed by a 6.5-284 and another Grendel. I do own a 30-30 but it not quit the usual lever, a Remington 788. I have hunted and killed deer with bullets of .172, .224, .244, .257, .264, .277, .284, .308, .338, .357, .358, .375, .378, .429 and .458 and multiple cartridges chambered for several of those. In reality none of them killed any better than the little Grendel, some made more of a mess than others but all worked, just at this stage in life I am liking the efficiency and gentleness of the Grendel monster.

[LRRPF52]

I grew up listening to my Grandpa talk about the merits of the .257 Roberts.

Sure, he owned a .30-06 as well, but he loved that little Japanese Arisaka that he re-barreled and chambered in .257 Bob, with a sporterized stock that was common for gunsmiths to do in the post-World War II era in the US.

It would be interesting to see the statistics on production numbers for each of the new cartridges that have been introduced over the years.

I can tell you that 6.5 Grendel has a lot better numbers than most of the ones on that list, and is in the top 3 of all those center-fired cartridges, maybe even 1st. Since .300 AAC just barely started having steel case made for it, there's a good chance 6.5 Grendel ammo production from all the major manufacturers has eclipsed .300 Blackout, which has been marketed heavily by Remington/Freedom Group while having some of the worst ballistics of all the new centerfire rifle cartridges available for the AR15, if not the worst when looking at supersonic loads. This shouldn't surprise anyone since the cartridge dimensions were primarily intended for subsonic use, with a supersonic option shooting lighter bullets.

If I was going to pick 3 of those 2000-2020 cartridges that will continue to drive on in popularity, they would be:

6.5 Grendel
6.5 Creedmoor
.300 Blackout

Since the 6.5 Creedmoor is not able to fit in the AR15 frame, I think it's a testament to how well Hornady has marketed and supported the Creedmoor, along with its obvious real-world performance that sells itself in-place of where most people used to get .243 Winchester and .308 Winchester.

[rickOshay]

And now we have the .277 Sig Fury

https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/277-s...mystified/

[Kswhitetails]

Hornady's mass media campaigns certainly helped spread the word, I agree. 6.5 CM became popular almost immediately with the bolt gunners. Fast, high BC bullets that beat the 308s with much less recoil, making it more attractive for the PRS/NRL style shooters. Did it ever find any success in the F-class crowd? I never heard of that, but that was probably the 6.5-247s fault. This trend of smaller bore, faster, higher BC bullet usage really came into it's own as PRS started exploding. And it's not done. It's now being dominated by 6mm variants, among them several which are not on your list which are exclusively propagated in bolt actions to push velocities to near 3200 fps with next to zero recoil. Dasher, PRCs, BR/BRAs, and the new GT from GAP. All are 6mms with extensively tested and proven ability to make repeated confident hits on small targets exceeding 900 yards distant. I'm excited about the wildcatting taking place in this sport specifically, and the industry more broadly. I think there are some very real advancements coming, and if played right, could make someone some real money. The 338 Norma is a perfect, perhaps the perfect example of what I mean. That 280AI is nothing to sneeze at either.

While the AR10 is popular with the Creedmoor guys, but the real market is bolt guns for the longer cases. There just aren't any AR platform rifles that can compete with the bolts when it comes to controlling the variables that make consistent .2xx groups a real thing. At least, nothing the average joe can pursue for themselves.

I read your thread years back about the GAP 6.5 SAUM. I will own one some day. It's make a fun little hunting whip. If I win the lottery, I'd have GAP spin it on a H-palma to 18 inches, put it on an Impact action, Cerakote it all black, and put it in a wood stock - looking like a Weatherby high grade sporting a TBAC U5...

I wish I had the smarts to play with more of the guys in my club. Some of the leaders are graduating from PRS for the ELR world, and getting to play with some big names doing more of this very thing. Advancing the sport through ideas, experimentation, and improvement.

[delt475]

You are nuts if you think 6.5 Grendel is more popular than .300bo. Midway sells 57 different ammo skews for 300 and 17 for Grendel. 91 to 14 on Cheaper Than Dirt. I?d say that?s pretty indicative of popularity. Just type each cartridge into the search button and see the difference in total skews available. Every single AR manufacturer sells a variant with 300bo. There are some 6.5 Grendels but not nearly as many.

300bo is the best AR to Sbr and run suppressors through. As you said, it was designed for that. It was also designed to replicate 7.62x39 ballistics out of an AR platform, which it does. 7.62x39 has known feeding issues through an AR.

I own both variants and use them for what they were designed for but to say 6.5 is more popular than 300bo is flat wrong. When the Boggie Man comes to my house at night, I?m not grabbing an 18in barreled Grendel. 30rds of 10in suppressed Blockout will do the trick.

I agree with you on the top 3 overall, just not in that order. The big bores also have a pretty big following.