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Cartridge Types with Declining Popularity

Probably the odd man out but I have three rifles chambered in 06. A post 64 Winchester & 03 Springfield handle my cast bullets. For everything else the Remington 700 shines. Shoot the cartridge a bunch. Don't need it for deer but its taken its share. Then there's the heavy bullets for paper & the FMJ stuff for plinking rocks.
 
which cartridge has lost its luster the most in the last 25 years
to me the 30-06 Back in the day in my part the woods it was king of the hill, now I’m not sure I even know anybody that shoot/owns one. I know I don’t
Based on my personal tradition in deer camp in Michigan your experience mirrors mine with the 06. Everyone in camp had an 06. Mostly the Remington 742. If you didn't have one, you were the odd guy out. Couple had bolt guns but autoloaders were very common in the 70/80s.
 
25 calibers became stepchildren because bullet makers didn't make many different bullet weights and almost no accuracy bullets. The good 250 Savage was hamstrung from it's birth by the factory loading it for varmints instead of using heavier bullets and faster twists recommended by it's inventor Chas. Newton. 7MM's and all metric stuff suffered because of the metric designation. The .243 is still used a lot for long range work and unlike the good 6BR you can find ammo just about anywhere you land that sells it.
Truth is we choose pretty much what is produced for consumer sales by choosing what to spend our money on. Our government and NATO solidified the .308 and .223 with their choices in munitions.
I don't consider anything particularly obsolete, just sorta dormant waiting for another generation to discover it.
 
The short mags kind of went extinct. Many of the cartridge of the month club offerings are here and gone very quickly. 22 nosler comes to mind as one but there are more.
 
Unfortunately unless the 270 has a name change to 6.8 Extra-most-bestest, it’s getting hit hard from the 6.5 prc out west. Will the 7 prc overtake the Rem mag? It‘s the PRC/ARC vs Everyone Wars. Maybe like all of Taylor Swift‘s songs being re-recorded, Hornady will turn out new versions of every cartridge? Shiloh will chamber the 45-70 prc. Elephants will get faced down with a 458 prc. The real game changer will be a 22 Hornady rimfire to replace the lr. :-)
 
Lapua makes boxed 6BR Norma, but it’s mostly not in stock. If you count EuroOptic as a local gun shop then yes you can find it. I shot a box of it once when I got my first 6BRA and it shot quite well.

It is rash of me to claim the 6BR is obsoleting the 243 Win. For handloaders, maybe. For store bought options, I’d argue it’s Creedmoor doing far more rapid damage.
I see a lot of 6.5 Creedmoor's at the range, especially Savages. I am amazed at some of the groups I see being shot with factory ammo.

All I was saying was that for the hunter looking for an all-around deer / varmint cartridge (the one-gun hunter) who doesn't reload, the 243 Win still might have some usefulness remaining. I know it worked really well for me under those circumstances back in the mid to late 60's.
 
In my view, to be considered obsolete a cartridge had to be widely offered in commercially produced firearms. I think there were a lot of cartridges that never gained traction in the first place, and the 257 Roberts is probably one of them, but a very good cartridge. The 6mm Remington is probably another one, but I own one and wouldn't give it up. I've never known anyone who every owned a 280 Remington. The 30-06 I feel is far from obsolete, and I suspect there are millions of rifles for this cartridge still in use and I own one. The '06 may not be "in the news", but it is far from obsolete.
 
In my view, to be considered obsolete a cartridge had to be widely offered in commercially produced firearms. I think there were a lot of cartridges that never gained traction in the first place, and the 257 Roberts is probably one of them, but a very good cartridge. The 6mm Remington is probably another one, but I own one and wouldn't give it up. I've never known anyone who every owned a 280 Remington. The 30-06 I feel is far from obsolete, and I suspect there are millions of rifles for this cartridge still in use and I own one. The '06 may not be "in the news", but it is far from obsolete.
Your right on obsolete and that’s why I said just kinda lost their luster. Meaning you don’t see or heard about them like you did “back in the day”
 
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270 Win anybody???

Anybody???

And there ya have it...;)
:D

We have a pretty good sized deer camp every year for opening weekend there are usually around 11 or 12 hunters, 3 use .30-30s one or sometimes two .308s and the rest use .270s. After the first 2 or 3 days of season the serious hunters all use the .270. I'm a gun nut and sometimes use something else but the .270 is my go to. At the shop our biggest selling ammo is probably still the .30-30 followed by the 6.5 man bun then the .243, .30/06 is way down the list.
 
My current lineup...
.223
.243
.257 Roberts
.25-06 Rem
7x57mm Mauser
7mm Rem Mag
.300 Savage
.45-70

Mainstream is boring!
223 Rem
250 Savage
257 Roberts
257 Roberts AI
25 WSSM
25-06
257 WBY Mag
7mm-08 AI (IMP 40°)
7X57 (daughter's)
280 Rem
7mm Rem Mag
7mm WBY Mag
30 Carbine
30-30 (Savage 110 bolt action)

I have 2 Savage Axis II actions for builds.
Thinking 25 Souper, and 7mm-350 Rem Mag.
 

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