“new cartridge”

Weatherby will deliver its first new cartridge in nearly 20 years in 2016, with the introduction of the new 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum. The impending release is already being hailed as the fastest 6.5mm production cartridge in the world.

What is it about the Cartridge, Caliber .30, Ball, M2 of the Second World War that translates so well into a hunting cartridge? Contributor Philip Massaro explains.

In this, its 150th year in business, the history of Winchester firearms is well known. After all, “The gun that won the west” was a Winchester, the Model 1873. The Winchester Model 70 is known as the “Rifleman’s Rifle” and the Model 1894 is perhaps the most successful sporting rifle in history. The company also shook up the scattergun market with classic shotguns like the Model 1897, Model 21 and Model 12. The raw truth, however, is that none of these guns could have made their mark in history without ammo to shoot out of them. It’s kind of the red-headed stepchild in terms of glory and glamor, but Winchester has been in the ammo business as long as they have been in the gun business.

Many a Weatherby caliber has been celebrated, maligned and at times surpassed. But none can be called insufficient for the job. Today, 71 years after the company’s founding, with the introduction of the 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum, the company again claims the high ground.

It was 150 years ago that the name “Winchester” was first stamped on a rifle. But Winchester’s narrative began well before that, and it is a tale tied to the American West, to the wars of the 20th century, to big personalities such as John Browning and John Olin, and to the manufacture of billions of cartridges and millions of rifles and shotguns beloved by generations of Americans.

The Sharps Rifle Company (SRC) developed the .25-45 Sharps cartridge and introduced it in 2012. Not to be confused with Shiloh Sharps—a company that makes historically correct blackpowder cartridge rifles—SRC is for all practical purposes built around this one cartridge, which is designed to replicate .250 Savage ballistics in an AR-15. Four years after its introduction, most hunters have never heard of the .25-45 Sharps. That’s about to change.

New hunting rounds come and go, but some manage to stand the test of time. Here’s a look at five cartridges that are simply too good to go away.

Considering that the .45 Colt has been with us for 143 years, it remains a completely relevant, powerful, and well-balanced handgun cartridge, that is equally at home at a Cowboy Action Shoot as it is in the hunting fields.

Nosler has been on a tear in recent years, releasing a new proprietary cartridge each year for the last four. This year there are two, the .33 Nosler and the .22 Nosler.