Friday, December 10, 2010

Available .30 Calibers

Cost Effective Rifle Cartridges Part 17: Available .30 Caliber Cartridge Chamberings


 The .30 caliber category, traditionally the most popular of all categories, is seeing some significant changes. While it remains overall very popular as a whole, it seems to see some erosion of popularity at the expense of the medium game rifle category, possibly because of recoil becoming of more significant aspect of firearms purchases.

Among the category, the 308 and the 30-06 remain the clear leaders, although they are now rivaled in overall popularity by other chamberings from different categories, such as the 243 and the 270, and, of course, by the perennial 223 and 22LR. Surprisingly following them is the punchy 300 Winchester Magnum, with a true spike in new chamberings, showing astounding growth.

Shockingly, the 30-30 and the 7.62x39 Soviet appear to face a quasi-total collapse of new chamberings, down to respectively 14 and 8, a level so low that they cannot make it among our recommendations, despite their past popularity.

Among the other chamberings in the category, the 300 WSM sees surprising life with increased popularity, as does, at a lower level, the 300 Weatherby Magnum, the most powerful of all 300s (with the exception of the 30-378). Neither of them show enough availability to make it into our recommendations. The 30 carbine, 300 H&H Magnum, and 300 Remington Ultra Mag are practically extinct.

  • Most available .30 caliber chamberings: 308 Winchester, 30-06 Springfield, 300 Win Mag

Next we analyze chambering availability for medium bore rifles... So come back soon!

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