Anybody out there with a few grey hairs, then you'll probably be familiar with this story:
.30-40 Krag: Entered the Military scene in 1892.
.30-06 Springfield: Invented in 1903 and fine-tuned in 1906(this is where the term 06 comes from). This round provided knowledge for other finer cartridges.
.300 H & H Magnum: This round has won many matches in England (Wimbledon)for precision(1000 yard match) in 1935. This round started off in 1925.
.308 Norma Mag.: A hunting cartridge which got born by wildcat development in the 40's -50's. This round gives more consistant velocities with heavier projectiles: 150 gr. & up.Many many rifle mfgr. used to chamber this popular round.
.300 Win. Mag.: Winchester gave birth to this round in 1963, although the .300 Win. was on par with the Norma counterpart Winchester won the battle by offering rifles, ammo which did'nt cost an arm & a leg, and fully available at most sporting good store(better local distr. channel). Here too the 1000 yard match as been won many times.
Now the beltless Magnum craze: more high erformance cartridge mfgrs. have got out their own private cartridge in the last 15 years than the last century, who'll be the next winner in this never ending search for the perfect .30.
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.30 Russian long rimmed: (7,62 X 54R)This was oriented towards military application and started in 1891. This caliber was replaced by the 7,62 X 39 Russian(less powerful round but soldier was capable carying more ammo). This was also a military cartridge that found the sporting market which we know today. But with a limited shooting range(distance-wise), it's surprising that this round stays alive in the high performance arena. It's health commercialy is mostly due to dirt cheap surplus ammo and military semi-auto rifles which are also low cost.
Due to the Communist block countries dwindling economy it'll be mighty surprising if anything new comes out of these countries.
