The Case For Having An Uncommon/Unpopular Caliber Firearm

I think it makes sense in times like these to have a hedge against panic in the form of an old-school (but hopefully reasonably common) chambering. Usually, such firearms aren't too costly. Yes, you can point out reloading as an option, but for various reasons that's not for everybody

Any of y'all gone to the stores and seen a run on .30/30s? 16 gauge shells? Granted, not every place stocks .250 Savage, but I bet not many people are in a frenzy to buy it, right now.

That said, if you were going to pick a chambering that is reasonably common and unlikely to be affeted by panic buying, what would it be?

5.45x39

.300 Savage, 7mm-08 Rem.(seeing a popularity spike), 7.92x57mmJS Mauser, 7.62x54r, .303 Enfield.

I do however have dies and components for all of them.

Seems to me that if nobody wants a particular unpopular round, then the stores won't carry it, except for maybe Bubba's hardware and BBQ in West Leroy and they have that one box of 250 Savage they've had since 1967. And yes, maybe the panic buying will bypass Bubba's. Just sayin...

when the last ammo panic happened 2008 it seemed like it was next to impossible to find any pistol ammunition...except for 357 sig...i remembered going into Cabela's in Fort Worth back then and i could find pretty much all the 357 sig ammo i wanted....i even had a guy come up to me while waiting in line to get checked out asking where i found 357 ammuntion..he was told they didn't have any so i explained what 357 sig ammo was and he thats when he realized there is more than one kind of 357 ..saw the same thing happen a few weeks later at a Gander Mountain...some dude picked up several boxes of 45 GAP because thats all the pistol ammo they had...i asked him what did he shoot that caliber with and he answered a Colt...i laughed and told him that GAP ammo is not 45acp...the guy got ticked and was cursing on his way out the store ..

260 rem

As hard as it is to find 300wsm in Wichita Falls, I guess I am covered.

35 Remington, 358 winchester,

I have never had a problem finding 7mm International Rimmed.

Rusty

7.5x55 Swiss for me. CTD doesnt carry it. Sometimes Cabela's has it, sometimes they dont. I have a reloading set up for it. however, military ammo, even though it is brass, is berdan primed. On the plus side, it takes standard .308 bullets and brass is available online from midway.

For the life of me I can not understand why the .260 Remington is not a lot more popular...

comparing ballistics
270 muz vel. 2925
energy ft.lbs 2659
@ 300yrd 2193 vel
1495 engy
.260 muz vel.2750
energy 2351
@ 300yds 2185
1484
I think I would choose the .270

I'm with GriffGruff. The 260 is a great caliber. I have that and a 270 and I take the 260 to the woods most often. As for ballistics, figure the 270 for a 130 grainer at 3000 and you can get the 260 to 2900 with a 120 grain bullet. There is a difference, but it isn't a big difference. I think the real comparison should be the 260 versus the 25-06. Not much difference there.

That said, finding 260 ammo isn't that easy. I reload, so it isn't a problem for me.

I've got a an old .30/30. I'll probably buy a few boxes and dust it off. Is it an AR? no Nor is it a long range nail driver but if the fecal material hits the preverbial wind machine it will get the job done.

Boolitz on Hand to Roll My Own With...

350-400 pcs of 9.3 for my 9.3x62 mostly in 285 gr'ers...can reform brass from 30'06 or is better from 35 Whelen. Possibly a lifetime supply of boolitz unless I take up PDog Shoots with the Ol Mauser.

900/K of 270's in 130, 140 & 150 gr'ers. 250-300 pcs of used 270 brass. Could use some more 270 brass prolly.

450+ 264's in 120's, 129-130's & 140's & 200 rnds of new 260 brass...can reform brass from 243 & 7-08

3-400 pcs of 308 dia in mostly 165's & 180's & 250/300 pcs of 300WSM brass. Could prolly use some more 30 cal boolitz though.
Cheers Ya'll
Ron

It is extremely popular with tactical match shooters, it and the 6.5 Creedmore. Those are the top two, but I forsee the Creedmore outrunning the 260 since Hornady is doing a very good job at producing factory ammo.

.260 is my all time favorite cartridge and I'm married to if for life!

If ur talking handgun ammo....357 Sig and 9mm Makarov were easy to find last time there was a run on ammo. For rifle ammo, anything besides 223, 308, and 7.62x39 should be easy to find.

Didnt see anyone having problems finding deer rifle ammo except for guys that were looking for .308 for their favorite bolt action....man were they ever S>*& OUT OF LUCK!

I know a 70yo man who drove 100mi so he could buy 1 box(all they had) of .308 to take his grandson hunting.....the store owner said it would be put aside for him.

HE GOT THERE AND ONE OF EMPLOYEES HAD SOLD IT! lololol

He had never reloaded and we sat down and I showed him how to load and he used my press & components; couple of hours later we had the test loads fired and he loaded 30rnds for his grandson.

He said "Thats all there is to loading!"....He bought a LEE LOADER and sat down the next week and loaded 300rnds one at a time like he was cracking pecans!

30-378

I shot .280Rem for years through a Rem700 Mountain Rifle. Kicked like a mule.... Got recoil shy and decided to find something smoother to shoot. Read an article about the Ruger77 compact in .260 - liked what I read, bought one and fell in love. As previously mentioned, the .260 gives up very little ballisticly to the .270 but the muzzle blast and recoil seems much less to me. Love it. I've shot 4 deer with this rig using the 140 gr Rem Core-lokt bullet with perfect results. (The 140 gr bullet seems odd to me - must be something about the length vs. wt or something.... Why not a 120 gr.? But, that's all Remington offers other than the p/o/s ballistic tips that I wouldn't trust at all. Accurate, but... shot osme plywood. Bullet blows up.

Seems like 9mm 44mag 45acp and 223 fly off the shelf the quickest....i faced the same problem, bought two presses and alot of primers powder and lead!

Some are too obsolete to find ammo any more like my 6.5X54 Mannlicher, but that is ok I have dies and 100 pieces of brass. For the oddball calibers I own I have at least 100 pieces of new or once fired brass and components to last a while. 350 Remington, 7X57, 22 Hornet, 22-243, 6.5 Grendel, 38-55, 375 Winchester, 45-70, surely I cam find a little ammo for some of them as well.

Cabela's in Allen ran out of 30-30 ammo tonight, at least on the shelf.

hardest one for me to find ammo is that 7mm Mauser.

I would take a .25-06.

This. ^^

I've got a .250 Savage....don't know that I'd want to shoot 45 almost 46 year old ammo.

I agree.. I LOVE my 260. It shoots 120gr bullets very well, and at almost 3000fps - with little recoil. It's all I need..

I wouldn't be overly concerned. There's still some WW II and Korean War-vintage ammo people are shooting with generally no problems.

That said, it gets a little tricky with some ammo made for automatic weapons. The best-known is some old 9MM Parabellum and 7.62X25 Tokarev intended for open-bolt SMGs. That stuff is pretty potent. There was also some 7.62X54R, as well.

You ever walk around an urban battlefield and picked up 250 savage?

I guess it depends on what you are using the caliber for.

Because the 243 kills deer just fine and most hunters either don't know or care enough to appreciate the excellent long range potential of a bullet only 0.5mm bigger in diameter.

Hi guys,

My thought on these uncommon/unpopular calibers/cartridges is that my shooting buddies don't try to pocket or walk off with my reloads. My .22 Remington Jet, .22 K-Hornet, .264 Winchester Magnum and 10 gauge shot shells are generally safe from pilfering!

Merry Christmas,

30-30 is a great round that comes to find u can find it anywhere and many people forget its killed everything in north America. No ones is going to do a run on the ol' 30-30

260 is really a perfectly balanced round for long range work and terminal ballistics. I have one and can vouch for its capabilities. Very similar to te 6.5x55 swede. That round has take all the big game, moose and bear included in Europe for quite some time.

Its been my experience that uncommon calibers are more expensive to stock up on with fewer boxes to buy when you do find a store that has them at a decent price. For me its .257 Roberts and .45-70.

6.5-284, 25-06, 45-70. But I roll my own so I like odd calibers. 308 Norma Mag anyone?

I have a few odd balls that are available but sometimes can be tricky to find what I am looking for
.220 Swift
6.5 Grendel

I would like to add a .257 Roberts to the collection but only in the right action

I have several guns in fairly uncommon calibers - .303 British, 8mm Mauser, .30/40 Krag, 9mm Makarov, 7.62x25, and 16 gauge. You can't find them at Wal-Mart, but when all the common ammo is diappearing at Cabela's or Bass Pro, I can always seem to find mine. Heck, I even found some 16 gauge steel shot at Carter's Country last year when my son & I went duck hunting carrying our 100 year old double barrel shotguns in 12 and 16 gauge.

The 7mm-08 killed it, just like the 7mm Remington killed the .264 win

One of the few instances where a Remmy beat a winny cartridge in calibers over 6mm

Winchester tried to get in on the 7mm bandwagon with the .284 Winchester but it failed to find a good foothold

The 7mm-08 was introduced in 1980 the 260 in 1997 so do not really see how the 7mm-08 killed it.

It killed it because the 7mm-08 already had a strong following, especially in the model 7 Remington line It was stupid to come out with a more or less ballistics lily similar round to compete against what was already out there

I have a 303 British that I recently got cheap. Are these very accurate?

Everywhere I go I see 30-06.

TCM 22 is exotic but at 45 cents is tolerable.
38 Super and 9x23 are other pistol calibers available.

That's what I like about my Carcano. The vast majority of people have never even heard the word let alone know what it is. For some reason, ammo is readily available.

I'm debating building an AR-10in .243, every wal-mart I've been to has tons of .243 on the shelf

Good enough for Lee Harvey Oswald, good enough for you,eh P.H.?....

Don't ever want near one of those again, especially with a brake on it, really either way.

No way to tell until you shoot it. Those rifles have had lots of rounds through them and some with indifferent care.

6.5x55, 45-70

I know at least twelve stores that have a dusty box of 375 win sitting on the shelf for my rifle so no reason to stock up.

I've bought 30.06, 22LR, 7mm-08, 308mx, and 243 almost every day, all regular prices. I'm convinced the 30-30 must be America's most common caliber because of the lack of ammo.

A 243 win, like the 30.06, is still king.

Nothing they make in 7.08 comes close to the "actual" killing power of the 243 using 95gr Winchester XP3. Bullet weight is losing its edge these days. Some of the modern 150gr 30.06 projectiles have negated any reasoning, to use any other bullet in that caliber for any game on the planet.

I still believe common calibers have the availability edge and more so if this crap keeps up. People like me is why there "seems" to be a shortage. I walked through the line at Academy eight times the other day with my limit each time. Those $8 per hour, snot nosed youngsters, don't care.

I have all the same with the addition of: .284 Win, 6.5x55 Mauser, and 7.65x53 Mauser.

Never had a issue finding 308 marlin express ammo

I have a couple of .41 magnums and a .307 Winchester. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I always keep a good supply of ammo on hand.

I think 30-06 is the safest choice going. Seem like all the local shops (Academy, Dicks, Cabelas) have it on the shelf.

Haven’t had any problem getting 30/30, 300 Savage, 45/70 or 308 Marlin Express either.

I'm sort of embarrassed that I didn't even know what kind of rifle he used till after I had bought this one. And I lived in Irving when Kennedy was killed. But mine is a Calvary Carbine made in 1917. His was a more normal looking rifle. People look at mine and say WTH is that? It almost looks like a toy.

Just looking at those numbers loosened one of the fillings in my teeth.

Instead of trying to find a caliber that won't be as affected during a run on ammo, why not pick a good caliber that you like, and when things call down in a few months, stock up. That way when nobody can find ammo, you won't have a problem. I didn't even know there was an ammo shortage in 2008 because I was stocked and did not even try to buy ammo that year. This time, I got caught with my pants down.

I have all the calibers and ammo I need. For the most part, I won't buy a gun in a caliber that I don't already have ammo for. Like 9mm. I'd like to have one but I'm paying stupid prices for the ammo. With MILSURPs, it's a whole nother matter. I buy whatever compliments my collection. That's easier to do because most of that ammo is easy to get at normal prices.

My thought's too. I have an 1891 Argentine I'd should get rid of for the fact that it doesn't match with the other rifles' ammo I have. I just can't make myself sell it though. Its just too beautiful.

I can never find 308 Norma Mag. And when I do, it's crazy expensive. Can't spend $100 a box.

I've had a 303 British for 50 years and have hit deer at 200 yards. Accurate...yes.

i generally wish my prized possession model 99 was in something other than .250 savage. i love this gun like a kid. it was my great grandfathers, and i absolutely love it. but ammo is impossible to find. 10 years ago, walmart even carried it. now, its gun shows and the rare shop.

I have some oddball calibers, and standard ones too. I have dies and components for all of them. Enough so that I really don't have to worry much at all about availability.

IMO, the discussion at this point about ammo availability is academic. If you don't already have an ample supply of any type of ammo you need by the time the next shortage rolls around, you'll either be out of luck or will be paying what some term as "perfectly ok with me, capitalism dictates this how it should be" crack smokingly HIGH pricing on ANY ammunition. If you buy at that time at the elevated pricing, you are the problem. Period. If it doesn't sell for what they are asking, they'll either lower their price or won't sell. Simple.

Buy ahead of time at whatever rate you can when it's available. Be prepared ahead of time or deal with the masses and the stupidity that comes with it.

And that doesn't just apply to ammo, either.

I still can't get my head around the shortage of .22 ammo.

I'm thinking about buying a .17 hmr

kmon1 I just bought the nicest little Mannlicher 1903 carbine I have ever seen. Near mint with an articulated Lyman peep. Buffalo arms loads and sells 160 grain ammo for it. Can't wait to shoot it.

Cabella's carries 250 and 300 Savage. I have both plus you can always re-load.

Of my center fire rifles, I am having the easiest time finding 7mm08 ammo, .243 and .30-30 are the hardest consistent find.

Whete are y'all finding 30-30 ammo? it has been very hard to find for 4-5 months at the places I go.

I don't understand the logic of the original post. You want to own a rifle that shoots a cartridge that will be left on the shelf in the next panic? Why not buy the ammo you think you'll need to get through the next panic before the panic?

That said, I have a .257 Roberts. I love it, but I have to mail order it or get it from my local full service gun store. It's the only place within 50 miles I've seen stock it. I also have a .270 Weatherby Magnum and Mail Order or reloading is pretty much the only option.

I have a small cache of .30-06 ammo, a lot of it was given to me for free from people that don't hunt anymore and I keep a year's supply of duck and dove ammo on hand that was bought on sale.

6.5 Creedmoor

Mine too. So obnoxious, yet so friggin awesome! Lol

THAT's why I'm building a heavy barrel 257 weatherby magnum. I can NOT wait to get this thing in my hands! It's expensive enough to last 200 years before the barrel goes. Though I fully intend on hand loading whether it be me or a buddy, I'm not buying factory every time.

The logic is sometimes folks don't have the money to cache the amount of ammo they'd like to. Or they get a screaming deal on an old firearm. Or just hedging against adverse circumstances.

BTW, I saw .257 Roberts in the Buda Cabela's during the height of the ammo run-even +P. Might've been jacked-up in price, but there it was. Granted, someone might've cleaned it out an hour later, but I've always seen it while looking for .25/06 ammo.

Yeah, I know Cabela's has it. I guessed that I live about 50 miles from there, I'm actually closer to 40 but it takes almost an hour to drive it. McBride's is the only other place in the Austin area I've seen stock it.

In todays world, unpopular calibers are what's left on the shelf, iironically that's 30-06

Haha. I wasn't gonna say anything but I do see a LOT of 30-06's for sale. I don't think it's the most popular anymore. But that's just me. It seems like there's a TON of other calibers I see at the range. Then again, it's just at the range so I don't know.

Love my 260. Terminal performance is much better on white tails than my 270.

Used the Berger VLD this year, very accurate and puts a helluva hole

How about a flintlock black powder rifle? You can make your own roundballs, make your own black powder from hardware store items, and flints are easy to come by.

Dang I've never hit a deer with my 270 that didn't end up dead'r a doornail!