.270 Weatherby Magnum, Performance
Given its higher pressure and larger case which holds more powder than the .270 Winchester, the .270 Weatherby has about 200 ft/s faster performance with any particular bullet weight. This performance comes at the cost of more recoil and barrel heat. In addition, a long barrel is necessary to take advantage of extra powder to gain maximum velocity. The cartridge is excellent at long-range hunting, but is not well suited to high-volume shooting such as varmint hunting.


.270 Weatherby Magnum, Performance
For those handloading their own cartridges, this is an easy round to load. It does best with full-power loads and is not well-suited for reduced loads. Ed Weatherby, son of Roy Weatherby says that the .270 Weatherby is his favorite caliber. As he puts it, there just isn't a better long-range deer caliber. He goes on to mention that it is also quite effective for elk, and pronghorn.


.270 Winchester
The .270 Winchester is a rifle cartridge developed by Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1923 and unveiled in 1925 as a chambering for their bolt-action Model 54. The cartridge is the same length as the .280 Remington, both of which are longer than the .30-06 Springfield. The .270, .280, and .30-06 were all derived from the .30-03 parent case that came from the German 8x57 Mauser case which itself was based on the earlier 7x57 Mauser case. The .270 Winchester uses a .270 inch (6.86 mm) bore diameter and a .277 inch (7.04 mm) bullet diameter.


.270 Winchester, Description
The .270 Winchester became a very popular cartridge due to the widespread praises of gunwriters like Townsend Whelen and Jack O'Connor who used the cartridge for 40 years and touted its merits in the pages of Outdoor Life. It drives an 8.4-gram (130 gr) bullet at approximately 960 m/s (3,140 ft/s), later reduced to 930 m/s (3,060 ft/s). The cartridge demonstrated high performance at the time of its introduction and was marketed as being suitable for big game shooting in the 270 to 460 metres (300 to 500 yd) range, when that was considered long-range hunting.


.270 Winchester, Description
With modern bullets and optics, it is easily a 1,000 yard cartridge. Two additional bullet weights were soon introduced: a 6.5 grams (100 gr) hollow-point bullet for vermin shooting, and a 9.7 grams (150 gr) bullet for deer, elk, and moose in big-game hunting. Renowned gunsmith Harold Fredd considers the 270 to be one of the most versatile cartridges for North American hunting and has recently started promoting it for small to medium-sized plains games.


.270 Winchester, Description
While not an immediate success, over the succeeding decades and especially in the post-World War II period, the .270 Winchester attained great popularity among gun owners, metallic silhouette rifle shooters and hunters, ranking it among the most popular and widely used cartridges worldwide. Internationally, firearms manufacturers now offer this chambering in all firearm varieties: bolt-actions, single-shots, lever-actions (such as the Browning BLR), pump-actions (such as the Remington 7600), autoloaders (such as the Remington 7400), and even a few double rifles.


.270 Winchester, Loads
Cartridges are commonly available from 6.5 to 10.4 grams (100 to 160 gr) sizes with 8.4-and-9.7-gram (130 and 150 gr) loads being by far the most popular. Handloaders have a larger range of options with the availability of bullets in a number of weights from 5.8 to 11.7 grams (90 to 180 gr). Common bullet weight recommendations for shooting different game are as follows:


.270 Winchester, Loads
Recent introductions of low-drag bullets suited to the .270 Winchester such as the Nosler Accubond Long-Range, Hornady ELD-X and Matrix long-range bullets are promoting renewed interest in the cartridge among long-range hunters.


.270 Winchester, Loads
While it is true that a .270 Winchester case can be formed from a .30-06 Springfield case, the case length of a .30-06 is 63.3 millimetres (2.494 in) while the case length of a .270 is 64.5 millimetres (2.540 in), within .5mm of a .30-03 Springfield. However, "The slight difference in length of reformed cases doesn't make any practical difference."


.270 Winchester Short Magnum
The 270 Winchester Short Magnum or 270 WSM is a short, unbelted, magnum cartridge created by necking down the .300 Winchester Short Magnum and fitting it with a .277 caliber bullet. The correct name for the cartridge, as listed by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI), is 270 WSM, without a decimal point. It is a member of the Winchester Short Magnum family of cartridges.


.270 Winchester Short Magnum, Overview
When it was introduced, the 300 WSM sported a new case that showed a lot of promise for uses in other calibers. In 2002 Winchester introduced new cartridges in its Winchester Short Magnum family, including the 7 mm WSM and 270 WSM. This new .270 cartridge was the third commercial .270 ever produced, and the first one in 60 years.


.270 Winchester Short Magnum, Overview
The 270 WSM is an improvement over the older 270 Winchester providing higher velocity with bullets of the same weight, and thus a flatter trajectory and more energy. Velocities tend to be about 250 ft/s (76 m/s) faster, in a cartridge that is shorter and can therefore be used ina shorter action resulting in a more compact rifle if desired.


.270 Winchester Short Magnum, Performance
The .270 WSM is the only cartridge of the WSM family that produces notable ballistic gains over other existing cartridges. The .300 WSM closely mimics the long-popular .300 Winchester Magnum, while the 7mm WSM matches performance of the 7mm Remington Magnum in similar barrel lengths. The .325 WSM is in a league of its own in North America as the 8 mm caliber has not become commonplace.


.270 Winchester Short Magnum, Performance
The .270 WSM comes quite close in performance to that of the legendary .270 Weatherby Magnum, with notable differences being that the .270 WSM is chambered in a short action and normally utilizes a 24" barrel whereas the older Weatherby cartridge utilizes a long action and is most commonly paired with a 26" barrel.


.275 H&H Magnum
The .275 Holland & Holland Magnum is a semi-obsolete rifle cartridge similar to the 7mm Remington Magnum. Essentially the .275 Holland & Holland Magnum is a necked down shortened variant of the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum. It was introduced by the British company Holland & Holland with the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum that was introduced in 1912 as the .375 Belted Rimless Nitro-Express. The .375 Holland & Holland Magnum was intended for dangerous African game animals, while the .275 Holland & Holland Magnum was intended for longer range shooting of antelope in Africa and Red Stag in the highlands of Scotland.


.275 H&H Magnum, History
Aside from the belted case, the .275 H&H was very similar to the .276 Enfield cartridge of the Pattern 1913 Enfield rifle then under development by the British military to replace the Lee–Enfield. Cordite loadings gave both cartridges a reputation for unpleasant muzzle flash and short barrel life. Western Cartridge Company offered United States loadings of the .275 H&H Magnum in 1925 with the .300 H&H and the .375 H&H. The .275 H&H was omitted when Winchester Repeating Arms Company started chambering their Winchester Model 70 rifle for the other two in 1937. The .275 H&H offered little ballistic advantage over the .270 Winchester with contemporary smokeless powders. U.S. ammunition production ceased during 1939.


.275 H&H Magnum, Subsequent developments
Following World War II, independent gunsmiths in the United States began exploring the ballistic possibilities of military surplus IMR 4831 powder salvaged from Oerlikon 20mm cannon cartridges and marketed by Hodgdon Powder Company. The long range ballistics of wildcat cartridges resulted in commercial availability of the 7×61mm Sharpe & Hart in 1953, and the 7mm Remington Magnum in 1962. The .275 H&H had been a cartridge ahead of its time.


.275 H&H Magnum, Subsequent developments
Holland & Holland continue to supply factory loaded .275 ammunition and the cartridge is occasionally chambered in custom made modern "classic" rifles. 275 H&H enthusiasts have noted that the distinctive "H&H taper" of the case offers some advantages over the 7×61mm and 7mm Rem mag. Namely, more reliable and smoother feeding in bolt-action rifles, and more compact stacking in a box magazine allowing longer overall length of cartridge. With modern powders, the 275 H&H can be handloaded to equal any of the currently available 7mm Magnum chamberings, up to 2.5"(63mm) case length. Correctly headstamped empty brass cases are made by Quality Cartridge Co. USA.


.275 No 2 Magnum
This is the current revision of this page, as edited by Iridescent (talk | contribs) at 19:44, 8 March 2020 (→Bibliography: Cleanup and typo fixing, typo(s) fixed: ’s → 's). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this version.


.275 No 2 Magnum
The .275 No 2 Magnum, also known as the 7mm Rigby Magnum Flanged and the .275 No 2 Rigby, is an obsolete centerfire rifle cartridge developed by John Rigby & Company in 1927.


.275 No 2 Magnum, Overview
The .275 No 2 Magnum is a rimmed cartridge intended for use in double rifles. Rigby introduced the .275 No 2 Magnum by necking down the .375 Flanged Nitro Express, it was still available in the early 1960s. The .275 No 2 Magnum's performance is comparable to the .275 Rigby.


.275 No 2 Magnum, Overview
As is common with cartridges for double rifles, due to the need to regulate the two barrels to the same point of aim, the .275 No 2 Magnum was offered in one loading, firing a 140 gr (9.1 g) bullet with a listed speed of 2,675 ft/s (815 m/s).


.275 No 2 Magnum, Overview
In his African Rifles and Cartridges, John "Pondoro" Taylor rated the .275 No 2 Magnum as his favourite of all the small bore cartridges.


.276 Enfield
The .276 Enfield (7×60mm) was an experimental rebated rim bottlenecked centerfire military rifle cartridge developed in conjunction with the Pattern 1913 Enfield (P'13) rifle. Development was discontinued by the onset of World War I.


.276 Enfield, History
During the Second Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902), British authorities were obliged to re-evaluate rifle and ammunition design and tactics after facing Boer sharpshooters and snipers armed with Mauser Model 1895 rifles firing 7×57mm Mauser rounds with withering effectiveness, easily outranging the .303 British Mark II cartridge as regards accurate long-range fire. The .303 British cartridge at that time was still using cordite propellant, in contrast to the Mauser's higher-performance ballistite type smokeless powder.


.276 Enfield, History, Government driven efforts to improve performance
The .276 Enfield was designed with the intent of being more powerful than the .303 British cartridge used in the Lee–Enfield rifles and to be at least similar in size and performance to other large, powerful early 20th century military rifle cartridges, like the .280 Ross, 7.92×57mm Mauser, .30-06 Springfield and 7.5×55mm Swiss GP11. Before arriving on the RL18000C 1913 trials round, dozens of .256 and .276 cartridge case and projectile iterations were developed and tested over several years.


.276 Enfield, History, Government driven efforts to improve performance
The longest .276 cartridge iterations featured an overall length of 3.587 in (91.11 mm) and a case length of 2.76 in (70.10 mm). Cartridge case design RL18000 emerged as the likely final choice with various .276 spitzer bullets of 165 gr (10.69 g), 175 gr (11.34 g) and 188 gr (12.18 g) lengths. The Small Arms Committee decided all were generally acceptable, but preferred the 165 gr (10.69 g) projectile design as the trajectory was flatter to 800 yd (732 m) than the 175 gr (11.34 g) projectile. They recommended that one thousand rifles should be made up for troop trials.


.276 Enfield, History, Government driven efforts to improve performance
To allow for the larger dimensions and higher muzzle energy .276 cartridge a new experimental rifle was developed. The experimental Pattern 1913 Enfield rifle featured a modified Mauser-type action that was very substantial and designed to be stronger than the Lee–Enfield action. While the .303 British round has a larger-diameter projectile than the .276 Enfield, the .276 Enfield cartridge case is larger and contains more propellant developing higher chamber pressures and higher muzzle velocities; as such, it is more powerful than the .303 British.


.276 Enfield, History, Government driven efforts to improve performance
The .303 British Mark VII round introduced in 1910 to which the British eventually modernized, for instance, has a projectile weight of 174 gr (11.28 g) and a muzzle velocity of 2,441 ft/s (744 m/s), while the .276 has a projectile weight of 165 gr (10.69 g) and a muzzle velocity of 2,785 ft/s (849 m/s) and a trajectory vertex at 800 yd (732 m) of 5.23 ft (1.59 m) against 9 ft (2.74 m) for the .303 Mk VII round.


.276 Enfield, History, Government driven efforts to improve performance
The combination of a slimmer more aerodynamic projectile - reverse engineering the trajectory from the previous paragraph indicates a ballistic coefficient (G1 BC) of approximately 0.55 - with a higher sectional density propelled at a higher muzzle velocity and designed to travel at faster velocities gave the .276 Enfield better ballistics than the .303 British Mark VII. The .276 Enfield was also rimless to ensure greater reliability in magazine-fed weapons, a problem with the older .303 British round. However, due to the approach of World War I, the .276 Enfield was not implemented for military service.


.276 Enfield, 1913 troop trials
Several developmental versions of ammunition were prepared beginning in 1910, before approximately 1,000 Pattern 1913 Enfield rifles with 600,000 rounds of RL18000C trials cartridges were distributed to troops in 1913. The troop trial rifles' left handed rifling twist rate was 1 in 10 in (254 mm), with 5 grooves, and a groove depth of .005 inches (0.127 mm) and land width of .09352 inches (2.375 mm). The troop trail RL18000C cartridges had slightly thinner case walls than earlier RL1800 iterations to increase powder capacity and an annular groove around the primer to prevent "caps out".


.276 Enfield, 1913 troop trials
The primer caps were made of copper containing 0.6 gr (0.04 g) of priming composition. The great majority of troop trial ammunition was manufactured by the Royal Laboratory with the headstamp simply "R^L", but it was also made by Kings Norton, Kynoch and Greenwood and Batley. Although the troop trial round was never formally approved, it was referred to as "Cartridge S.A. Ball .276 inch Mark I" in some documents and on the packet labels.


.276 Enfield, 1913 troop trials
The troop trial rifles and ammunition were distributed to the musketry school at Hythe, to one squadron in each of three cavalry regiments, and to one company in each of eight infantry battalions. One of the cavalry squadrons was stationed in South Africa and one of the infantry companies was stationed in Egypt. The remainder of the units were in the United Kingdom. Cartridges were packaged in 5-round stripper clips similar to those used by the Mauser Gewehr 98 and M1903 Springfield rifles.


.276 Enfield, 1913 troop trials
Ball ammunition was loaded with 49.3 gr (3.19 g) of cordite MDT 53⁄4-13⁄4 (cordite MD pressed into tubes) behind 165 gr (10.69 g) cupronickel-jacketed .282 in (7.16 mm) diameter 1.365 in (34.67 mm) long spitzer bullets. The bullet core was made of 98% lead and 2% antimony alloy. Drill rounds containing no primer or powder have been reported in two versions. One has a tin-plated case with the standard bullet, and the other has a round-nose wood bullet with an unplated brass case.


.276 Enfield, 1913 troop trials
Inert Dummy or Inspection RL20408 blank and proof ammunition was also produced based on the case of RL 18000C. Proof test ammunition was made in a RL 18000.B(i) variant for use with pressure barrels and a RL 18000.B(j) variant for proofing rifles. The 50,763 CUP maximum pressure for this cartridge translated to being similar to the Pmax piezo pressure used in C.I.P. regulated countries and SAAMI maximum average pressure (MAP) to the .30-06 Springfield cartridge rated at 50,000 CUP.


.276 Enfield, 1913 troop trials
The troop trial results reported the cartridge produced heavy metal fouling in the bore, heavy recoil, very loud report, undesirable muzzle flash, overheated rifle barrels, and difficulty in extraction (especially with a heated rifle). Overheating caused excessive barrel wear, unintentional premature discharges due to heat in the surrounding environment, and some potentially dangerous pressure indications from cooked off cartridges in (pre-heated) hot barrels, generating (excessive) chamber pressures of about 64,960 psi (447.9 MPa) (about 54,658 CUP).


.276 Enfield, 1913 troop trials
As a safety precaution, the programme was amended so that not more than fifteen rounds were fired without the rifle being allowed to cool off. By mid 1913, it became clear that until a suitable propellant with a more moderate combustion temperature had been developed the new cartridge and rifle could not be passed for service. Work continued into 1914 on both the propellant and the metal fouling problems, but the outbreak of war brought work to a close in August 1914.


.276 Enfield, 1913 troop trials
Rather than confront continued development of a new cartridge simultaneously with inevitable wartime production problems, the United Kingdom continued manufacturing .303 British caliber Lee–Enfield rifles as the standard military arm through the first world war. Canada, on the other hand, had some experience with the similar .280 Ross cartridge and appears to have taken interest in potential use of the P13 rifles to arm newly mobilized troops. Canada contracted with Winchester Repeating Arms to manufacture ammunition until more suitable rifles became available for standard issue.


.276 Enfield, 1913 troop trials
In August 1916, Winchester Repeating Arms made a batch of .276 inch rounds, apparently to the RL18000C design. It is known that this contract was placed by the Canadian authorities but the reason is unknown.


.276 Enfield, Subsequent developments
The Pattern 1913 Enfield (P'13) rifle design was modified as the Pattern 14 Rifle (P'14) chambered for the .303 British cartridge. Production was initially assigned to Vickers, but tooling was shortly passed to United States manufacturers so Vickers could focus on machine gun production. Remington Arms and Winchester manufactured 1,233,075 P'14 rifles for the United Kingdom in 1915 and 1916. Remington subcontracted the largest share of production to the Baldwin Locomotive Works Eddystone Arsenal.


.276 Enfield, Subsequent developments
The design was modified again as the M1917 Enfield rifle chambered for the .30-06 Springfield cartridge, of which, Remington, Winchester and Baldwin manufactured 2,193,429 for the United States. Approximately 75% of the American Expeditionary Forces carried M1917 rifles into combat. Nearly half of these M1917 rifles were sent to the United Kingdom as Lend-Lease in the early days of World War II. Remington modified the design again as the basis of their model 30, 30S, and 720 rifles for civilian production.


.276 Enfield, Subsequent developments
The .276 Enfield case was necked up to .303 caliber to produce the .303 Magnum for various armor-piercing bullet tests conducted in the United Kingdom between 1922 and 1935. Furthermore, it has been noted that the .276 Enfield cartridge performs similarly to the 1917 German 7×64mm cartridge that is rated at 50,500 CUP maximum pressure.


.276 Enfield, Subsequent developments, Propellant development
The lack of a suitable (cooler-burning) propellant led to the design in 1914 of Improved Military Rifle (IMR) tubular nitrocellulose smokeless powder # 15 as a replacement for cordite for the .276 Enfield cartridge. In 1919, IMR # 151⁄2 added 2% tin to IMR # 15 to reduce metal fouling from cupronickel-jacketed bullets. IMR # 4064 replaced both powders in 1935, and has been available since.


.276 Pedersen
The .276 Pedersen (7×51mm) round was an experimental 7 mm cartridge developed for the United States Army. It was used in the Pedersen rifle and early versions of what would become the M1 Garand.


.276 Pedersen, Summary
Developed in 1923 in the United States, it was intended to replace the .30-06 Springfield in new semi-automatic rifles and machine guns. When first recommended for adoption, M1 Garand rifles were chambered for the .276 Pedersen, which held ten rounds in its unique en-bloc clips. The .276 Pedersen was a shorter, lighter and lower pressure round than the .30-06, which made the design of an autoloading rifle easier than the long, powerful .30-06. The U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur rejected the .276 Pedersen Garand in 1932 after verifying that a .30-06 version was feasible.


.276 Pedersen, History and technical notes
Pedersen's round fired a 0.284-inch (7mm) bullet. Comparable to the contemporary Italian 6.5×52mm (0.268 in) Carcano or the Japanese 6.5mm (0.264 in) Arisaka, it produced velocities of around 2,400 feet per second (730 m/s) with 140 or 150 grain (9.1 or 9.7 g) projectiles. The case was two inches (51 mm) long with significant taper. Tapered cases require the use of highly curved magazines similar to the Kalashnikov, although for the short magazines of the Pedersen and Garand rifles, this was immaterial. Both waxed and bare cartridges were made for the Pedersen and Garand rifle respectively. An armor-piercing T1 cartridge was developed and presumably a tracer.


.276 Pedersen, History and technical notes
At the time of its introduction, the .276 Pedersen was a solution to a significant problem. The U.S. Army wanted a general issue autoloading rifle that would fire the .30-06 cartridge, but such a rifle was prohibitively large with existing designs such as the Browning Automatic Rifle and French Chauchat. A weapon of the same weight as the M1903 needed to fire a smaller cartridge. Pedersen's cartridge was viewed as a compromise as it was underpowered compared to most military rifle cartridges. This decreased recoil energy made possible a reliable, lightweight semi-automatic rifle with existing technology.


.276 Pedersen, History and technical notes
Despite overcoming these early semi-automatic problems, the Garand was chosen because it did not require the use of lubricated cartridge cases for reliable function. The Garand was originally going to be chambered in the .276 Pedersen, but the logistics of changing all of the infantry's guns (including machine guns) to a new round was judged cost-prohibitive, so the Garand was chambered in .30-06, removing the need for the new cartridge.


.276 Pedersen, History and technical notes
Immediately after World War II, British designers introduced a series of intermediate-power 7mm cartridges for a different reason than Pedersen. They sought an answer to the Germans' highly successful 7.92mm Kurz and various studies on the matter. The U.S. stuck with .30 caliber mostly out of a desire to have a common cartridge between rifle and machine gun combined with the perceived necessity for effectiveness out to 2,000 yards.


.276 Pedersen, History and technical notes
Development of a shorter .30 round specifically for use in an autoloading rifle began after the war, and resulted in the 7.62×51mm NATO, a shorter and slightly lighter round that gave nearly identical ballistics to the .30-06. The British studies on various cartridges culminated in the .280 British cartridge, which shared ballistic similarities to the .276 Pedersen in caliber, bullet weight and velocity.


.276 Pedersen, History and technical notes
Despite the failure to adopt either the .276 Pedersen or later .280 British, the concept of an intermediate power military cartridge of a 6.5 to 7mm diameter was far from dead. Shortly after the 7.62mm NATO cartridge was adopted, Armalite submitted their AR-10 for evaluation, the U.S. Army suggested they redesign the gun to fire a .256 caliber projectile. Although this suggestion was fruitless, the Army later engaged in many studies of a 6mm SAW cartridge. They, once again, sought to replace autoloading rifle and machine gun cartridges with one round. Current studies are focused on the 6.8mm Remington SPC and 6.5mm Grendel commercial cartridges although their purpose is to improve on the 5.56×45mm cartridge, not to develop a replacement for the 7.62×51mm NATO as well.


.277 FURY
The .277 FURY or 6.8×51mm, (designated as the .277 SIG FURY by the SAAMI) is a centerfire rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge announced by SIG Sauer in late 2019. It utilizes a hybrid three-piece cartridge case that has a steel case head, brass body and a locking washer that mechanically connects the two to support a chamber pressure of 80,000 psi (551.6 MPa).


.277 FURY, Background
The cartridge was designed by SIG Sauer for the United States Army’s next generation squad weapons program, officially known as the Next Generation Squad Weapon-Rifle (NGSW-R). The cartridge was announced for non-military usage along with the SIG Sauer CROSS—a bolt-action, magazine-fed rifle—in December 2019. In 2020 it was accepted by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI) as a new cartridge and chambering.


.277 FURY, Specifications
The cartridge uses a case that is the same length and diameter as the .308 Winchester. Each cartridge case consists of a stainless steel base coupled to a brass body via a locking washer. Stainless steel has a significant higher yield strength than brass, allowing the engineers to use higher Maximum Average Pressure (MAP) chamber pressure levels. Bullets are either 135 grains (8.7 g) "match grade" or 140 grains (9.1 g) "hunter tipped". The SAAMI warns that Maximum Average Pressure levels greater than 65,000 psi (448.2 MPa) may present increased risk of unsafe cartridge case or firearm rupture and thus require cartridge case and/or firearm designs that depart from traditional practices (materials, construction, and other design criteria).


.277 FURY, Specifications
The .277 FURY SAAMI (voluntary) Maximum Average Pressure (MAP) chamber pressure of 80,000 psi (551.6 MPa) enables a 135 grains (8.7 g) projectile muzzle velocity of 3,000 feet per second (914 m/s) from a 16-inch (406 mm) barrel. It also means that the .277 FURY should only be chambered in small arms that are capable of handling the accompanying bolt thrust safely.


.277 FURY, Performance
SIG Sauer claims that the cartridge has performance superior to the 6.5mm Creedmoor, exhibiting 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 m) less bullet drop at 1,000 yards (914 m), while delivering 20–25% greater energy.


.277 Wolverine
The .277 Wolverine (6.8×39mm) is a wildcat cartridge. It is a multi-purpose mid-power cartridge with increased ballistic performance over the AR-15's traditional .223 Remington (5.56×45mm NATO) cartridge requiring only a new barrel to upgrade/convert any 5.56-based firearm to .277 Wolverine.


.277 Wolverine, Design
For fundamentally the same reasons that a .277 inch (7.04 mm) diameter bullet was selected for the 6.8mm Remington SPC (i.e., ideal mass-to-diameter-to-length for mid-weight bullets constrained to loading in an AR-15/M16 STANAG magazine), 6.8mm became the caliber for a new AR-15 wildcat. Like the .300 AAC Blackout and unlike the 6.8 SPC and other "larger bore" AR-15 cartridges, the .277 Wolverine is based on the widely available 5.56×45mm parent case. Therefore, rifle components such as the bolt and magazine are interchangeable between 5.56×45mm and .277 Wolverine firearms, and standard AR-15 magazines can be used with no loss of capacity. A new barrel is the minimum required component to convert a standard AR-15 to .277 Wolverine.


.277 Wolverine, Design
In order to load heavier (therefore longer) bullets to magazine length without the problems of seating the bullet's ogive into the case mouth, the Wolverine case is shortened to approximately 39 mm from its 45 mm parent brass. The case is resized and formed in a single-step operation to create new 23-degree shoulder and larger neck.


.277 Wolverine, Design
Initial design focused on optimal performance with supersonic bullets in the 85-115 gr (5.5-7.5 g) class, therefore a 1:11 twist rate barrel with 5R rifling was selected. Subsequent consumer interest in firing "heavy-for-caliber" subsonic bullets led to the design, testing, and production of 1:7 twist barrels to stabilize the longer heavier bullets.


.277 Wolverine, Development
Initially developed, tested, and marketed as a proprietary cartridge, MDWS publicly released the detailed chamber and headspace gage specifications/drawings for the .277 Wolverine in June 2015.


.277 Wolverine, Development
At least four commercial manufacturers have produced .277 Wolverine barrels, mostly for AR-15 conversions – although MDWS also sells barrels for Savage and Remington bolt-action rifles. Barrel manufacturers include: X-Caliber, McGowen, AR Precision, and PAC-NOR. By the end of April 2016, more than 1,000 .277 Wolverine barrels had been sold, with more than 2,000 by mid-November 2017. Barrels lengths include: 8.2, 10.5, 12.5, and 14.5 inch pistol; 16, 18, and 20 inch rifle.


.277 Wolverine, Development
.277 Wolverine cases are easily made by the hobbyist reloader from plentiful and inexpensive 5.56×45mm brass (shortened and resized). Extensive reloading data (including chronographed velocity, accuracy, and ballistic gel testing) is available. Ready-to-load brass and/or loaded ammunition is available commercially from several sources including: JB's Firearms, LLC and OutdoorShooterSupply. Reloading dies and tools are available from Hornady, Lee Precision, Sheridan Engineering, CH4D, and Little Crow Gun Works. The fire-formed .277 Wolverine case holds approximately 27.5-27.8 gr of water, compared to 28.5-28.8 gr for the parent case.


.277 Wolverine, Development
In October 2017, Starline produced 50,000 newly manufactured cases head-stamped ".277 WLV" for MDWS; all were sold in under 72 hours of posting. Starline lists the .277 Wolverine on their website as a standard offering.


.277 Wolverine, Performance
The .277 Wolverine has shown near-comparable performance to the 6.8 SPC with 110 gr (7.13 g) bullets, achieving similar muzzle velocities of 2,500 fps (762 m/s) vs. 2,700 fps (823 m/s). The smaller case of the .277 Wolverine (compared to the 6.8 SPC) is more efficient and has less recoil due to its smaller propellant load.


.277 Wolverine, Performance
With lighter bullets in the 80-90 gr range (5.2-5.8 g), the velocities were slightly slower than typical 5.56×45mm rounds, but the .277 Wolverine provided substantially increased energy due to greater bullet mass. For example, 60-62 gr bullets (3.9-4.0 g)  from a 5.56×45mm round typically provide less than 1,200 ft·lbs (1,627 J) of energy, while 85-90 gr bullets (5.5-5.8 g) from a .277 Wolverine round provide over 1,500 ft·lbs (2,034 J) of energy (both measured at the muzzle of a 16-inch barrel).


.277 Wolverine, Performance
There are always trade-offs between cartridge size, bullet diameter and weight, muzzle velocity, and energy on-target (at any given range). The .277 Wolverine will never replace larger high-power cartridges such as the .308 Winchester (7.62×51mm NATO) or .270 Winchester for long range shooting; however – it outperforms the .223 Remington at typical hunting ranges and approaches the 6.8 SPC while using less expensive components (brass, magazines, bolt, less powder per load).


.277 Wolverine, Performance
The following table provides comparative performance data for several factory cartridges in the mid-power AR-15 class:


.277 Wolverine, Applications
The .277 Wolverine provides similar ballistic performance to the 6.8 SPC for accuracy, hunting (varmints to medium-game), target shooting, and home/personal defense. 277/6.8 mm bullets are widely available from all major reloading component manufacturers (e.g., Speer, Sierra, Hornady, Nosler, Barnes, Remington, Winchester, Woodleigh, Lehigh Defense, Hawk, etc.) in a wide range of bullet weights from 85 to 200 grains (5.5-13 g) and styles useful in the .277 Wolverine - including lead-free practice, competition target, varmint, defensive, and game hunting.


.277 Wolverine, Applications
The complete bolt carrier group (carrier, bolt, firing pin, and cam pin) and charging handle can be swapped between the original 5.56×45 and the .277 Wolverine upper.


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
The AR-15 family of rifles has been chambered in a wide range of cartridges, from the diminutive .17 rimfire up to the massive .50 caliber Beowolf. The 277 WLV provides medium bore (.277") performance that exceeds the parent 5.56×45 cartridge and also the .300 BLK, while approaching the power of the larger military 6.8 SPC which requires larger cases and dedicated components (e.g., bolt and magazines). Per an interview with the cartridge's designer: "I liked the performance of the 6.8 SPC and the versatility of the 300 Blackout. After researching both of them extensively, and having a lot of conversations with many, many experienced professionals and enthusiasts, I decided to move forward with a new cartridge design that would hopefully combine the attributes of both, and dismiss the deficiencies."


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
The cartridge that the 277 Wolverine is most often compared to is the 300 AAC Blackout, with each having its strengths and limitations. Although the 300 BLK has recently grown in popularity with civilians, it was initially created as a SAAMI-approved subsonic cartridge for the US military. When special operations command soldiers (SOCOM) are in an urban environment, the operations known as "clearing a building" involve bringing a weapon into confined spaces where long range and high-velocity are not required. Penetration through a door (and other obstacles) with reduced bullet fragmentation would be enhanced by using a much heavier bullet, compared to the standard NATO combat 5.56 x 45 cartridge at 55gr-63gr.


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
Since high velocity would not be needed, the rifle in this application could have a much shorter barrel, which improves maneuverability inside a building. Since the US military does not use hollow-point ammunition in combat, a heavy full metal jacket bullet (FMJ) would be needed. Existing military 7.62mm bullets (.308 inches) were experimented with, and were found to be satisfactory. When using the small case of the existing 5.56 x 45 military cartridge, and then modified to .308 caliber, the gunpowder charge of the 300 BLK case has a modest capacity. This limited the cartridge to fairly slow speeds when using the heaviest bullets.


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
Firing an M4 carbine in a confined indoor space is very loud. Soldiers in combat rarely use hearing protection, so they are able to hear spontaneous commands during an operation, leading to widespread hearing damage. The cartridge that would become the 300 BLK already had a slow speed with its designated heavy bullets. SOCOM added a noise suppressor, and by lowering the bullet speeds further to below 1,000 feet per second (sub-sonic), a significant lowering of the noise level was achieved, while still meeting the minimum performance requirements.


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
Civilian enthusiasts of the 300 BLK have stated that the quiet nature of the cartridge (when suppressed), coupled with the mild recoil of the modest powder charge have made this a pleasant cartridge to shoot for sport, and also home defense. The ability to use abundant and affordable 5.56 x 45 cases to form 300 BLK cases for re-loading is also frequently mentioned as highly beneficial.


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
With the success of the 300 BLK, hand-loaders wondered which other bullet options could be adapted to fill the opportunities between the two existing extremes, using an AR-15 pattern rifle. The AR-15 standard cartridge is a .223 caliber, frequently using bullets in the 55gr to 77gr weight range. The 300 BLK can be found in factory-loaded ammunition from 100gr to 220gr. Although, the solid .308 bullets that are lighter and shorter than 150gr do not have an optimum ballistic coefficient (Hollow-point bullets can have an optimum profile at a slightly lower weight than 150gr).


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
Any cartridge candidates for the AR-15 family of rifles must be limited to a Cartridge Over All length (COAL) of 2.260-inches, in order to fit in the magazines.


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
The 25-45 Sharps cartridge is an AR-15 wildcat that is growing in popularity. It uses .257 caliber bullets (6.5mm), and popular bullet weights are between 75gr to 117gr. This cartridge also uses the abundant 5.56 case as its parent, for affordable re-loading. There is no benefit to loading this cartridge to subsonic velocities, so all loadings would be directed at improving impact when using light-weight high-velocity bullets. The 5.56 case neck is re-sized to 6.5mm/.257, but the shoulder is not reformed, like the 277 WLV and the 300 BLK. As a result, the 25-45 Sharps has the same powder capacity as the 5.56 x 45.


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
Ranchers have reported good results with the 25-45 when hunting livestock predators, such as coyotes. However, when using only high-velocity bullets with a good ballistic coefficient shape (for longer range and higher delivered energy at any given distance), there was still a performance gap between the 25-45 Sharps and the 300 Blackout bullet options.


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
A popular 7mm hunting caliber bullet is actually .283 in diameter (7.2mm), but wildcat cartridges using this caliber bullet in a 5.56 x 45 case have so far not been successful. There is an existing and well-developed use of hunting-rifle bullets in the .277 caliber (6.8mm), introduced by Winchester as the 270 in 1925. This provides many excellent bullet-weight options that fit well between the .257 caliber, and the .308 caliber.


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
When designing bullets, they can be made longer and heavier without detracting from their aerodynamic efficiency. However, when shortening a bullet to create an option with a lower weight, there is a limit that should not be exceeded when you desire a good ballistic coefficient in order to maintain the best possible stability, accuracy, and retained velocity at the longer ranges. If you desire to use an efficient and low-drag "spitzer boat-tail" shape of bullet, a minimum length for optimum performance would be 4.23 times the caliber. This formula shows that a .308 bullet would not be as efficient as possible, if the ideal shape was scaled down to a solid bullet weight that is less than approximately 150gr (a hollow-point configuration would slightly alter this ratio).


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
Loaded ammunition in the 300 BLK caliber can be purchased as light as 100gr, with the 125gr class of bullets proving to be popular when shooting at higher velocities. However, if you want to use a bullet that has a weight near 125gr at supersonic velocities, the .277 caliber has a much more ideal shape for stability and accuracy (longer and slimmer), compared to the shorter and fatter 300 BLK at the same 125gr weight. When a fired bullet slows to the supersonic-to-subsonic transition speed (roughly 1,100 FPS at sea level, slightly lower at higher altitudes), its can lose stability. A bullet at 125gr in the 277 Wolverine caliber will stay supersonic at greater ranges than the 300 BLK, when comparing the same bullet weight and construction.


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
If you desire to use the .277 Wolverine to fire a heavy sub-sonic bullet for short range, factory-loaded ammunition can currently be found using 175gr bullets. If you are comparing the 277 Wolverine to the 300 BLK, then the 300 BLK has more options for the heavier sub-sonic bullets (168gr-220gr), but when shooting the lighter super-sonic bullets (90gr-130gr), the 277 Wolverine has a greater variety of better options, with each having an excellent ballistic coefficient (for hand-loading, .277 bullets are available as heavy as 200gr).


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
Although the 277 WLV and the 300 BLK can both fire a selection of heavy or light bullets, the barrel rifling twist-ratio is fixed, and should be chosen to optimize the expected task that will be given to it. For both of these calibers, longer-range shooting with light bullets at super-sonic velocities can benefit from a longer barrel and a relatively slow twist, such as 1:11 (one rotation in 11-inches).


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
Sub-sonic velocities using heavy bullets have the option of using a much shorter barrel, and are more accurate when using a relatively fast rifling twist, such as a ratio near 1:8 (one rotation in 8-inches).


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
Because the 277 Wolverine's bullet diameter is smaller than the 300 BLK, the bullets ogive curve in its profile is located closer to its tip, which results in the 277 WLV case-shoulder being able to be formed at a 3mm higher location than the 300 BLK. This means that although they both use the same parent case, the 277 WLV has more powder capacity, which is a benefit if you are trying to achieve the best possible velocity when using the lighter super-sonic bullets (24.5gr of water in an unloaded case for the 300 BLK, 27.6gr for the 277 WLV)


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
When using the AR-15 family of rifles, all three of these alternative calibers use the same bolt carrier group (BCG) and upper receiver as the standard 5.56 x 45 rifle. The 300 BLK requires the forward-most alignment ribs inside the NATO STANAG magazines to be removed, due to the larger diameter of the bullet. The alternative is to purchase 300 BLK-specific magazines.


.277 Wolverine, Comparisons
The 25-45 Sharps and the 277 Wolverine can both use the standard M4 NATO STANAG magazines, and also any AR-15 pattern 5.56mm magazines without any modification.


.280 British
The .280 British was an experimental rimless bottlenecked intermediate rifle cartridge. It was later designated 7 mm MK1Z, and has also been known as 7 mm NATO, .280/30, .280 Enfield, .280 NATO, 7 mm FN Short, and 7×43mm.


.280 British
Like most armed forces in the immediate post-World War II era, the British Army began experimenting with lighter rounds after meeting the German StG 44 in combat. The Army began development in the late 1940s, with subsequent help from Fabrique Nationale in Belgium and the Canadian Army. The .280 British was tested in a variety of rifles and machine guns including the EM-2, Lee–Enfield, FN FAL, Bren, M1 Garand and Taden gun.


.280 British
Despite its success as an intermediate cartridge, the .280 British was not considered powerful enough by the U.S. Army and several variants of the .280 British were created in an attempt to appease the U.S. Army. However, the U.S. Army continued to reject these variants, ultimately adopting the cartridge that was then designated the 7.62×51mm NATO.


.280 British, History, Impetus
During World War II the standard British rifle and machine gun round was the venerable .303 British. Efforts to replace the .303 with a more modern round predated even World War I, but a series of events kept it in service in spite of its rimmed design causing a number of alleged problems.


.280 British, History, Impetus
During the war the Allies encountered the new 7.92 "Kurz" cartridge on the battlefield and noted its effectiveness. The Kurz was an "intermediate power" round, less than a conventional rifle round like the .303, but more than pistol rounds like the 9mm Parabellum. This gave the Kurz rifle-like performance in close-range encounters, while still having a small enough recoil that it could be fired in fully automatic fire. This led British small arms designers to begin development of their own intermediate round.


.280 British, History, Impetus
The goal of the British designers was to create a cartridge that would replace all small arms in .303 calibre including the Bren, the No.4 Rifle and the Vickers medium machine gun with a cartridge suitable for a "light rifle". Thus the cartridge had to demonstrate ballistic performance equal to that of a full powered rifle round, yet exhibit as little recoil and blast as possible. This appeared possible through improved bullet shaping. A shorter cartridge producing lower recoil also enabled the weapon to be shorter and lighter, and hence easier to use.


.280 British, History, Selection of the .280
After extensive tests by the "Ideal Cartridge Panel" in 1945, the British decided upon two 7 mm cartridges – the .270 and the .276. Both designations reflected the measurement of the distance between the rifling lands in the cartridges' respective barrels; the .276 bullet's actual diameter was .284 inches (7.2 mm). In order to focus their efforts, the British ceased research on the .270 and concentrated their efforts on the .276. The .276 was later renamed the .280 British even though no dimensions were changed.


.280 British, History, Selection of the .280
Recoil of the .280 British cartridge was calculated to be a little under half of the .303. Long range performance actually surpassed that of the .303, and shooters reported that it was much more comfortable to fire with the reduced recoil and reduced blast. It seemed that the British designers had accomplished their goals, and proceeded to introduce the cartridge to their NATO allies.


.280 British, History, Selection of the .280
Counterparts in Belgium and Canada proved very interested, and the Belgian company FN would introduce their own gun designs based on the .280 as well as produce the rounds in quantity. However, the Americans refused to adopt a calibre under .30 inch, or with ballistics inferior to the then-standard .30-06 Springfield round. The British then attempted to appease the Americans though a series of changes to the round.


.280 British, History, Selection of the .280
The first was a small change to the rim diameter of the .280 to the size of the .30-06 Springfield to produce the .280/30 cartridge, which was produced in large numbers and is the basis of the dimensions listed to the right. The .280/30 cartridge weighed 20.3 grams (313 gr), making it a rather heavy cartridge by intermediate standards.


.280 British, History, Selection of the .280
When the .280/30 was rejected by the Americans as being too weak with too great a drop in trajectory beyond 800 yards (732 m), the British and Belgians made larger changes to the cartridge design. These resulted in several different variations; one was just a .280/30 with the bullet seated less deeply so more powder could be put in the case, another was a T65 cartridge case necked down to 7 mm. The different cartridges that the British and Belgians eventually came up with fired 140-grain (9.1 g) bullets at around 2,700 to 2,800 feet per second (820 to 850 m/s), but with a much greater blast and recoil than the .280/30, which defeated the design parameters of the initial .280 concept.


.280 British, History, Selection of the .280
Unsatisfied with the U.S. Army's response on the issue, the British adopted the EM-2 and the .280/30 as their primary rifle and ammunition in 1951 with the .280/30 being re-designated as the "7 mm MK1Z".


.280 British, History, Selection of 7.62 NATO
Britain, Canada and the United States, founding members of NATO, had all signed an agreement that member states would develop and deploy common small arms and cartridges, developed through competitive trials in co-operation together. Britain and Canada had been open about their developments, and the Americans claimed they were not developing a round of their own and were known to be trialing the British designs.


.280 British, History, Selection of 7.62 NATO
In fact, Colonel Rene Studler, head of the US Small Arms Bureau of Ordnance had been diametrically opposed to a bullpup design and the .280 cartridge, and had started two secret projects on a .30 calibre cartridge. These were the T25 rifle at Springfield Armory under the direction of Earle Harvey, firing the T65 cartridge being developed at Frankford Arsenal. Between 1947 and 1952 the British and Canadians made clear to the United States they were aware of their secret work, stating that it was against the open, collaborative nature of the agreement, making their disapproval clear.


.280 British, History, Selection of 7.62 NATO
Matters took a turn for the worse when Rene Studler went on record, stating that, any non-American design was "a waste of time" and refused point blank to accept any "foreign" design. It was learned that Studler had gone so far as to bury reports that suggested the .280 was superior in US testing. During firing tests in 1950 at the Aberdeen Proving Ground the Maximum Average Pressure (MAP) for .280 British ball ammunition was measured at 43,600 psi (300.6 MPa). The highest measured maximum pressure was 47,300 psi (326.1 MPa).


.280 British, History, Selection of 7.62 NATO
A change of government meant that the 7 mm, EM-2 and Taden gun projects were abandoned soon afterwards by Winston Churchill, who returned as the prime minister and desired commonality between the NATO countries. Small amounts of .280 British ammunition were later produced during the 1960s for various small arms trials. At the same time, the British and Canadians, who were very impressed with the cartridge originally planned to have their FN FAL rifles chambered in .280. However, eventually, they agreed to a quid pro quo where the British would use the US-derived .30 (by now the 7.62) while the Americans accepted the FN FAL. This too proved not to be the case, and the US eventually chose their M14 rifle over the FAL.


.280 British, History, After .280
The .280 British concept would later prove to have been far ahead of its time, as the U.S. itself adopted an intermediate cartridge — 5.56×45mm NATO — by the end of the following decade. Soon after America's large-scale involvement in Vietnam commenced in 1965 the 5.56×45mm NATO ArmaLite AR-15 rifle, later standardised as the M16, was purchased in ever increasing numbers and by the late 1960s had displaced the 7.62×51mm NATO M14 rifle in combat units.


.280 British, History, After .280
After insisting on a .30 calibre round with full-power ballistics almost identical to those of the existing .30-06 Springfield, the U.S. then adopted the 5.56×45mm NATO intermediate cartridge, which demonstrated the emergence and dominance of intermediate cartridges on the battlefield (the other notable one being the 7.62×39mm AK-47 round). The adoption of the 7.62×51mm NATO round and the adaptation of the intermediate cartridge CETME (later developed into the Heckler & Koch G3) and FN FAL designs to fire it, produced rifles that were relatively longer and heavier and had greater recoil.


.280 British, History, After .280
The result was weapons that performed well as longer-range semi-automatic rifles, but were more cumbersome and only marginally controllable in automatic fire. These guns also had a higher training burden and were not well suited to soldiers of smaller stature, again due to the recoil. Coincidentally, in 2002 the Americans developed a military calibre intended for the M4 version of the M16 family called the 6.8mm Remington SPC — with similar ballistic properties to the .280 British cartridge — which was intended to provide better ballistics than the 5.56×45mm NATO.


.280 British, History, After .280
In the late 1960s, a version of the .280 British was created using a 6.25 mm bullet in a necked-down .280 British case. It was designed in response to experiments in the U.K. trying to find an ideal military small-arms round. Large caliber bullets were calculated to need more energy to penetrate various levels of body armor to inflict disabling wounds on soldiers. Out of several "optimum solutions" ranging from 4.5 mm to 7 mm, the 6.25 mm was the preferred solution.


.280 British, History, After .280
The 100 gr (6.5 g) bullet had a muzzle velocity of 2,680 ft/s (820 m/s) and 2,160 J (1,590 ft⋅lb) of muzzle energy. While the 7.62×51mm NATO required 700 joules (520 ft⋅lb) of force on impact to penetrate helmets and heavy body armor, the 6.25 mm required only 580 joules (430 ft⋅lb) of impact force to deliver the same penetration effects out to 600 m.  It remained effective for a longer distance and produced recoil closer to that of the 5.56×45mm NATO. However, it was not designed for very long range and its bullet was relatively light. Testing of the 6.25×43mm was conducted from 1969 to 1971, when development ceased in favor of the smaller 4.85×49mm.


.280 British, Specifications
Note: Most cartridges have been observed with a purple annulus. Several experimental cartridge cases were made out of aluminium, in various colors including orange.


.280 British, Performance
The following comparisons  are excerpts from a manual published by the "Small Arms Group Armament Design Establishment" from the Ministry of Supply:


.280 British, Comparable cartridges
For 7 mm HV, 7 mm Compromise, 7 mm Second Optimum:


.280 Flanged
The .280 Flanged Nitro Express, also known as the .280 Lancaster, is an obsolete rimmed bottleneck centerfire rifle cartridge developed by Charles Lancaster and introduced in 1906.


.280 Flanged, Overview
The introduction of the semi-rimmed .280 Ross in 1906 caused considerable interest amongst sportsmen and gunmakers. Gunmakers Charles Lancaster introduced the rimmed .280 Flanged Nitro Express later by in the same year for use in single shot and double rifles. The .280 Flanged Nitro Express is very similar to the .280 Ross, although loaded to slightly lower velocities.


.280 Flanged, Overview
Like the .280 Ross, the popularity of the .280 Flanged Nitro Express waned after a number of hunters were killed by the dangerous game they were attempting to hunt with the cartridge.


.280 Flanged, Overview
The .280 Flanged Nitro Express was said to have been a favourite of King George V.


.280 Jeffery
The .280 Jeffery, also known as the .280 Jeffery Rimless Nitro Express and the .33/280 Jeffery, is a rimless bottleneck centerfire rifle cartridge developed by W.J. Jeffery & Co and introduced in 1913.


.280 Jeffery, Overview
The cartridge was created by Jeffery by necking down their successful .333 Jeffery to .288 inches. The .280 Jeffery's performance is comparable to the .280 Ross, the cartridge is larger than the Ross with greater capacity, but it is typically not loaded for greater velocities.


.280 Jeffery, Overview
The .280 Jeffery fires a 140 gr projectile at 3000 fps.


.280 Remington
The .280 Remington, also known as the 7mm-06 Remington and  7mm Express Remington, was introduced in 1957 for the Remington model 740, 760, 721, and 725 rifles.


.280 Remington, History
Having been released 32 years after the .270 Winchester, it had somewhat unspectacular sales. Remington renamed the cartridge in late 1978 to 7mm-06 Remington but just before the end of the year they renamed it again calling it the 7 mm Express in an attempt to increase sales. This resulted in people confusing it with the 7 mm Remington Magnum, and Remington changed the name back to .280 in 1981.


.280 Remington, Specifications
The .280 is based on the .30-06 necked down to accept 7 mm (.284 in) bullets, with the neck moved forward .050 in (1.27mm). The neck was deliberately moved forward to prevent chambering in a .270 Winchester rifle, as firing a .280 round in a .270 rifle could cause the projectile to get stuck in the barrel or rupture the barrel due to excessive pressure.


.280 Remington, .280 Remington vs .270 Winchester
The .280 Remington is capable of generating slightly higher velocities in heavier bullet weights (150 grains and above) than the .270 Winchester due to a marginally greater case capacity. However the ballistic coefficient of equal weight bullets favors .270 caliber bullets over 7mm (.284) bullets of similar design (in 2021 this is not the case - all 7mm bullets have better BCs than their .277 matches). In the heavier bullets (150 grains and above) of similar design the .280 Remington has a slight edge in muzzle energy.


.280 Remington, .280 Remington vs .270 Winchester
With equal weight bullets of similar design the .270 Winchester surpasses the .280 Remington's long range velocity and energy due to the 270's higher ballistic coefficient according to Federal's ammunition catalog. There are also many more factory loads available for the .270 Winchester over the .280 Remington at a lower price point due to the .270's much greater popularity.


.280 Remington, .280 vs .30-06
The .280 Remington is capable of developing energy nearly equal to the .30-06 Springfield, but with lighter bullets having a better ballistic coefficient. The .30-06 produces more energy than the .280 with bullets heavier than 180 grains, though .284" 175 grain bullets have a high sectional density of .310, compared to the 30-06 180 grain bullet with a moderate sectional density of .271. The .280 is suitable for hunting any game in North America with good shot placement.


.280 Remington, .280 vs .30-06
SAAMI pressure limit for the .280 Remington is set at 60,000 PSI, 50,000 CUP.


.280 Remington, .280 vs .30-06
Most American rifle and ammunition manufacturers catalogue the .280 Remington.


.280 Remington, .280 vs .30-06
In Europe the .280 Remington is not popular in bolt action rifles since it competes directly with the 7×64mm, which is of the almost exact same size as the .280 Remington but has slightly more power, because of having a slightly higher maximum allowed chamber pressure. The .280 Remington does, however, have a larger than expected number of European users in imported self-loading rifles such as those by Remington.


.280 Remington, .280 vs .30-06
The .30-06 is substantially more popular and manufacturers thus offer a much greater selection of loads at a substantially lower price point.


.280 Remington, .280 vs .30-06
While it is true that a .280 Remington case can be formed from a .30-06 Springfield case, the case length of a .30-06 is 63.3 millimetres (2.494 in) while the case length of a .280 is 64.5 millimetres (2.540 in), the same as a .30-03 Springfield. However, "The slight difference in length of reformed cases doesn't make any practical difference."


.280 Remington, .280 Ackley Improved
One of P.O. Ackley's earliest wildcats was the 7mm-06 Improved, which was made by necking down the .30-06Springfield case and fire-forming it to have less body taper and a 40-degree shoulder angle. Soon after the .280 Remington came out, Fred Huntington reformed its case to an improved configuration with minimum body taper, a 35-degree shoulder angle, and called it the .280 RCBS. Since cases for the .280 RCBS could be formed by firing .280 Remington ammo in a rifle chambered for the former, Ackley abandoned the 7mm-06 Improved and started chambering rifles for the .280 RCBS.


.280 Remington, .280 Ackley Improved
He then changed the 35-degree shoulder to 40-degrees and the .280 Ackley Improved was born. If barrel length and chamber pressure are equal, the .280 Ackley Improved is about 100 fps faster with all bullet weights than the standard .280 Remington. In 2007, ammunition manufacturer Nosler registered the .280 Ackley Improved with SAAMI and began providing factory loaded ammunition and rifles for it.


.280 Ross
The .280 Ross, also known as the .280 Nitro, .280 Rimless Nitro Express Ross (CIP)  and .280 Rimless cartridge, is an approximately 7mm bullet diameter rifle round developed in Canada by F.W. Jones as a consultant to Sir Charles Ross, 9th Baronet,  and his Ross Rifle Company of Quebec, Canada for use as a Canadian military cartridge as a replacement for the .303 British, and in a civilianised and sporterised version of his controversial Mark II and Mk III Ross rifle, and first commercially produced by Eley Brothers of London, England, in late 1907.


.280 Ross, History
The .280 Ross was the first practical cartridge to reach the edge of 3,000 ft/s (914 m/s) muzzle velocity. Sir Charles Ross did many attempts while in the process of creating the "perfect cartridge", one of them leading to the creation of the .28-1906 in November 1906.


.280 Ross, History
Ross also tried to convince the British War Department to adopt the .280 Ross (and his rifle) as the new service cartridge, but World War I came along and dashed his hopes.


.280 Ross, History
The .280 also paved the way for Sir Charles' newly designed bullets, such as "Full Metal Patch" and "Metal Covered Hollow Point". The Ross Mk III rifle was especially developed to handle the .280. The .280 (and the Ross Rifle) won the famous Bisley international matches in 1908, 1912 and 1913 (King's Prize) plus many other prizes in different competitions on both sides of the Atlantic.


.280 Ross, Performance
Firing a 140-grain (9.1 g) bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2,900 ft/s (884 m/s), the new cartridge qualified for the contemporary designation "magnum". It was used as a military sniper's cartridge, in addition to achieving some celebrity as an African plains game cartridge in the years immediately following the First World War. However the large capacity case was capable of moving the bullets available at that time faster than would be desirable for reliable expansion, causing them to fragment rather than penetrate properly.


.280 Ross, Performance
Commercially, the .280 Ross was popular for stalkers in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries like New Zealand and Canada, chambered in sporting versions of the Ross rifle. It was found to be an excellent cartridge on red deer with a terminal performance comparable to the modern .270 Winchester or .280 Remington. Compared to other cartridges of the period such as the 6.5x54mm Mannlicher, 7x57 Mauser and the .303 British, all with the slower loadings of the time, it was notably superior.


.280 Ross, Performance
Ballistically, the .280 Ross cartridge's performance was broadly comparable to that of the more modern .280 Remington / 7 mm Express Remington and 7×64mm. It works well on all North American game when used with an appropriate bullet. Once the Ross rifle company went out of business after WW1, the cartridge was orphaned as no one else chambered rifles for it. As a commercially manufactured item this cartridge has been obsolete for some years, because of the inappropriate bullets often used in it originally, as well as problems associated with the Ross rifle that it was normally chambered in.


.280 Ross, Performance
Handloaders continue to load successfully for it, by removing the belt from 7mm Remington Magnum or .300 Holland & Holland before resizing or by using swaged and necked-down .300 Remington Ultra Magnum cases. Proper head stamped brass is also available from Roberson Cartridge Company. Hawk 160 grain 286 diameter bullets are specifically made for the 280 ross. 275 h&h 287 diameter bullets of 160 and 175 grain from Woodliegh Bullets should also work. The German round .280 Halger Magnum is based on the .280 Ross case. Load references can be found in the September/October 1973 issue of the Handloader Magazine. As of 2020 correct size bullets are available from Woodleigh in Australia and Kynamco (Kynoch) from the United Kingdom.


.284 Winchester
The .284 Winchester is a cartridge that has enjoyed a resurgence due to interest from long-range competitive shooters. Winchester has continued to produce brass cases for this since 1963, Introduced by Winchester in 1963, the .284 Winchester was designed to achieve .270 Winchester and .280 Remington performance from the new Winchester Model 100 autoloader and Winchester Model 88 lever-action rifles.


.284 Winchester
The result was a 7 mm cartridge with about the same overall length as the .308 Winchester but with a wider body, that yields a powder capacity about the same as that of the .270 Winchester and .280 Remington.


.284 Winchester, History
The Savage Model 99 lever-action, Winchester Model 100 autoloader and Winchester Model 88 lever-action rifles were available in .284 Winchester, and Ruger produced a small run of Ruger M77 rifles in this caliber. Whereas Ultra Light Arms still builds Model 20 rifles in .284 Winchester.


.284 Winchester, Cartridge dimensions
The .284 Winchester has 4.29 ml (66 grains H2O) of cartridge case capacity. The case has a rebated rim and a body almost as large in diameter as that of typical belted magnum cases.


.284 Winchester, Cartridge dimensions
.284 Winchester maximum C.I.P. cartridge dimensions All sizes in millimeters (mm).


.284 Winchester, Cartridge dimensions
Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 = 35 degrees. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 254 mm (1 in 10 in), 6 grooves, Ø lands = 7.00 mm, Ø grooves = 7.19 mm, land width = 2.79 mm and the primer type is large rifle.


.284 Winchester, Cartridge dimensions
According to the official C.I.P. guidelines the .284 Winchester case can handle up to 440 MPa (63,816 psi) piezo pressure. In C.I.P. regulated countries every rifle cartridge combo has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum C.I.P. pressure to certify for sale to consumers. The SAAMI pressure limit for the .284 Winchester is set at 56,000 PSI, piezo pressure.


.284 Winchester, Cartridge dimensions
When the cartridge over all length is maintained, deeper-seating is necessary with long heavier bullets. This reduces usable powder capacity and hence performance compared to longer-action cartridges like the .280 Remington.


.284 Winchester, Cartridge dimensions
The American .280 Remington cartridge has probably the closest ballistics to the .284 Winchester. The .280 Remington has a lower 405 MPa (58,740 psi) C.I.P  maximum allowed chamber pressure and slightly more case capacity.


.284 Winchester, Contemporary use
For open-country hunting of deer and pronghorn, the .284 Winchester  loaded with the Speer 130-grain (8.4 g) spitzer at 3,100 ft/s (940 m/s) is adequate, even in a short-action rifle. Larger game calls for bullets weighing from 150 to 160 grains (10 g). H4831, H450, H4350, H414, IMR-4350, and IMR-4831 are excellent powders.


.284 Winchester, Contemporary use
These ballistics show that the .284 Winchester is as good as the .280 Remington with the same weight bullet. The short mountain rifles for which the .284 Winchester seems best suited seldom come with 24-inch barrels. Aside from Winchester, no other major company has ever loaded factory ammunition for the .284 Winchester.


.284 Winchester, Contemporary use
The cartridge is sometimes used for long-range target shooting like F-Class and 1,000 yd/m long range competitions, where participants usually handload their ammunition. For this application the .284 Winchester is loaded with 175 and 180 gr very-low-drag bullets.


.284 Winchester, Contemporary use
The .284 Winchester is not popular in Europe, where it competes with the 7×64mm, to which it is almost ballistically identical. When compared to the .284 Winchester the 7×64mm has a lower C.I.P. maximum allowed chamber pressure and, as a European 7 mm cartridge, has a slightly larger bore. European 7 mm cartridges all have 7.24 mm (0.285 in) grooves Ø diameter. American 7 mm cartridges have 7.21 mm (0.284 in) grooves Ø.


.284 Winchester, Contemporary use, Wildcats
While it has been occasionally factory chambered in various rifles, the chief reason for its survival has always been wildcatting. Wildcats are not governed by C.I.P. or SAAMI rules so wildcatters can capitalize on achievable high operating pressures. With the .284 Winchester as the parent case wildcatters have created 6mm-284, 6.5mm-284, .284 Shehane, .30-284, .338-284,35-284, .450 Bushmaster and the .375-284 variants and the .475 Wildey Magnum pistol cartridge.


.284 Winchester, Contemporary use, Wildcats
In those countries where restrictions prevent civilian use of firearms chambered in a Military cartridge, the .30-284 wildcat has been a favored option to convert military surplus rifles. Russian Mosin–Nagant and Swiss Schmidt–Rubin rifles, as well as 7.5×54 French MAS caliber rifles may be rechambered. The easiest way to do this is to rechamber the firearm to something that uses the same barrel bore, such as .30 cal. or 7.62 mm, but completely removes the old chamber during the process.


.284 Winchester, Contemporary use, Wildcats
The C.I.P. has recognized and registered both the 30-284 NOLASCO, and the extremely similar (in the US considered a "Wildcat cartridge" based on the .284 Winchester) 30-284 Win. Both these chamberings completely remove the original 7.5×54mm MAS chamber.


.284 Winchester, Contemporary use, Wildcats
They also both have the same C.I.P. pressure ratings as the 7.62x54 MAS cartridge but differ in their overall length due to the length of the bullet - the NOLASCO carrying a longer bullet for better feeding and an improved ballistic coefficient, and to meet a somewhat more common European overall length of 76 mm, the same as the 7.5x54mm French and very close to the 7.5×55mm Swiss.


.284 Winchester, Contemporary use, Wildcats
Today, the most popular and useful .284 Winchester-case based cartridge is not the original, but rather the 6.5-284 Norma. This former wildcat was developed for long range target shooting where participants usually handload their ammunition. It is currently one of the most used non-wildcat cartridges by match shooters in F-Class and 1000 yd/m benchrest long range competitions.


.284 Winchester, Contemporary use, Wildcats
Many owners of old Swiss service rifles in the United States are also now reforming .284 Winchester cartridge cases up to produce results analogous to the more expensive 7.5×55mm Swiss GP11 cartridge.


.297/230 Morris
The .297/230 Morris Short and .297/230 Morris Long are two obsolete centerfire firearm cartridges developed as sub-caliber training rounds for the British Martini–Henry rifle.


.297/230 Morris, Design
The .297/230 Morris Short and .297/230 Morris Long are both rimmed bottlenecked centrefire miniature rifle and pistol cartridges.


.297/230 Morris, Design, .297/230 Morris Short
The .297/230 Morris Short fired a 37 gr (2.4 g) lead projectile driven by  3.25 gr (0.211 g) of black powder at 875 ft/s (267 m/s).


.297/230 Morris, Design, .297/230 Morris Long
The .297/230 Morris Long fired a 37 gr lead projectile driven by  5.5 gr (0.36 g) of black powder at 1,200 ft/s (370 m/s).


.297/230 Morris, History
The .297/230 Morris cartridges were produced for use in the Morris Aiming Tube, a commercial sub-calibre barrel inserted into the barrel of a large bore rifle or pistol for training or short range target practice. The Morris Aiming Tube worked well enough for it to be adopted for service in August 1883 by both the British Army and the Royal Navy for use in the Martini-Henry rifle.


.297/230 Morris, History
The Morris Aiming Tube was later adapted for use in the .303 British Martini-Metford rifle, the Lee–Metford rifle in 1891 and the Webley Revolver, with both the .297/230 Morris Short and the .297/230 Morris Long being fired through the tubes. In the Lee-Metford rifle, the Morris Tube and the .297/230 cartridge were not particularly accurate and were replaced after 1908 by a new .22 in (5.6 mm) tube firing the rimfire .22 Long Rifle cartridge which was more accurate, quieter and much cheaper.


.297/230 Morris, History
Birmingham Small Arms Company produced Martini actioned rook rifles chambered in these cartridges, and some European single shot pistols and rifles were also chambered in them. The cartridges were still manufactured by Eley Brothers and Kynoch as late as 1962.


.297/230 Morris, History
In the 1890s Holland & Holland developed the .297/250 Rook cartridge by blowing out the neck of the .297/230 Morris Long cartridge to .250 in (6.4 mm).


.297/250 Rook
The .297/250 Rook is an obsolete centerfire rifle cartridge developed by Holland & Holland.


.297/250 Rook, Overview
The .297/250 Rook is a bottlenecked rimmed cartridge originally designed for use in rook rifles for hunting small game and target shooting.


.297/250 Rook, Overview
This cartridge was introduced by Holland & Holland some time before 1880 by blowing out the neck of the .297/230 Morris Long to .250 in (6.4 mm). This cartridge is a contemporary of the .255 Jeffery Rook and upon their release the pair competed heavily with the very popular .300 Rook.


.297/250 Rook, Overview
As with other rook rifle cartridges, the .297/250 Rook was superseded by the .22 Long Rifle.


.30 Carbine
The .30 Carbine (7.62×33mm) is a rimless carbine/rifle cartridge used in the M1 carbine introduced in the 1940s. It is a light rifle round designed to be fired from the M1 carbine's 18-inch (458 mm) barrel.


.30 Carbine, History
Shortly before World War II, the U.S. Army started a "light rifle" project to provide support personnel and rear area units a weapon with more firepower and accuracy than the standard issue M1911A1 .45 ACP handgun and half the weight of the standard issue M1 Garand .30-06 rifle or the .45 ACP Thompson submachine gun.


.30 Carbine, History
The .30 Carbine cartridge was developed by Winchester and is basically a rimless .30 caliber (7.62 mm) version of the much older .32 Winchester Self-Loading cartridge of 1906 introduced for the Winchester Model 1905 rifle. (The .30 Carbine's relatively straight case and round nose bullet have misled some to believe it was designed for use in pistols.) The .30 Carbine uses a lighter bullet (110 grain versus 165 grain) and improved powder. As a result, it has approximately 41% higher muzzle velocity with 27% more impact energy than the parent .32 WSL cartridge.


.30 Carbine, History
At first, Winchester was tasked with developing the cartridge but did not submit a carbine design. Other firms and individual designers submitted several carbine designs, but most prototypes were either unreliable or grossly off the target weight of five pounds. Army Ordnance Major Rene Studler persuaded Winchester that the Winchester M2 .30-06 rifle, a design started by Ed Browning and perfected by Winchester engineer Marshall "Carbine" Williams, could be scaled down for the .30 Carbine cartridge. The result was the M1 carbine.


.30 Carbine, History
The M1 carbine was issued to infantry officers; machine gun, artillery and tank crews; paratroopers; and other line-of-communications personnel in lieu of the larger, heavier M1 Garand. The weapon was originally issued with a 15-round detachable magazine. The carbine and cartridge were not intended to serve as a primary infantry weapon, nor was it comparable to more powerful intermediate cartridges later developed for assault rifles. The M2 carbine was introduced late in World War II with a selective-fire switch allowing optional fully automatic fire at a rather high rate (850–900 rpm) and a 30-round magazine.


.30 Carbine, History
The M1 and M2 carbines continued in service during the Korean War. A postwar U.S. Army evaluation reported that "[t]here are practically no data bearing on the accuracy of the carbine at ranges in excess of 50 yards. The record contains a few examples of carbine-aimed fire felling an enemy soldier at this distance or perhaps a little more. But they are so few in number that no general conclusion can be drawn from them. Where carbine fire had proven killing effect, approximately 95 percent of the time the target was dropped at less than 50 yards."


.30 Carbine, History
The evaluation also reported that "[c]ommanders noted that it took two to three engagements at least to settle their men to the automatic feature of the carbine so that they would not greatly waste ammunition under the first impulse of engagement. By experience, they would come to handle it semiautomatically, but it took prolonged battle hardening to bring about this adjustment in the human equation."


.30 Carbine, Development
U.S. Army specifications for the new cartridge mandated the caliber to be greater than .27, with an effective range of 300 yards or more, and a midrange trajectory ordinate of 18 inches (460 mm) or less at 300 yards. With these requirements in hand, Winchester's Edwin Pugsley chose to design the cartridge with a .30 caliber, 100–120 grain bullet at a velocity of 2,000 feet per second (610 m/s). The first cartridges were made by turning down rims on .32SL cases and loading with .308 caliber bullets which had a similar profile to those of the U.S. military .45 ACP bullets. The first 100,000 cartridges manufactured were headstamped ".30 SL" (for "self-loading").


.30 Carbine, Civilian use
The popularity of the M1 carbine for collecting, sporting, and re-enactment use has resulted in continued civilian popularity of the .30 Carbine cartridge. For hunting, it is considered a small-to-medium-game cartridge. With millions of surplus M1 carbines still owned by civilians, the round continues to be used for these purposes.


.30 Carbine, Handguns
A number of handguns have been chambered for .30 Carbine ammunition. In 1944, Smith & Wesson developed a hand-ejector revolver to fire .30 Carbine. It went through 1,232 rounds without incident. From a four-inch (102 mm) barrel, it launched the standard GI ball projectile at 1,277 ft/s (389 m/s), producing an average group of 4.18 inches (106 mm) at 25 yards (23 m); the military decided not to adopt the revolver. The loud blast is the most oft-mentioned characteristic of the .30 Carbine cartridge fired in a handgun.


.30 Carbine, Handguns
In 1958, the short-lived J. Kimball Arms Co. produced a .30 Carbine caliber pistol that closely resembled a slightly scaled-up High Standard Field King .22 target pistol. The Ruger Blackhawk revolver chambered for the .30 Carbine round has been in the catalogs since the late 1960s. Standard government-issue rounds clock over 1,500 ft/s (460 m/s), with factory loads and handloads producing similar velocities.


.30 Carbine, Handguns
Plainfield Machine Corp. made a .30 caliber pistol from 1964 to 1983 named the "Enforcer". While similar to the M1 carbine, it lacked the stock, thereby making it a handgun. Sold to Iver Johnson in 1983, the Enforcer continued in production until 1986. Other handguns chambered for this cartridge include the Thompson-Center Contender.


.30 Carbine, Handguns
Plainfield Machine produced M1 carbines from 1960 to 1977, when they were bought out by Iver Johnson Corp, who has manufactured them at least until a 50th anniversary model in 1993. The Taurus Raging Thirty and AMT AutoMag III were offered in .30 Carbine.


.30 Carbine, Comparison
The .30 Carbine was developed from the .32 Winchester Self-Loading used in an early semi-auto sporting rifle. A standard .30 Carbine ball bullet weighs 110 grains (7.1 g); a complete loaded round weighs 195 grains (12.6 g) and has a muzzle velocity of 1,990 ft/s (610 m/s), giving it 967 ft⋅lbf (1,311 joules) of energy when fired from the M1 carbine's 18-inch barrel.


.30 Carbine, Comparison
By comparison, the .30-06 M2 cartridge for M1 Garand rifle fired a ball bullet weighing 152 grains (9.8 g) at a muzzle velocity of 2,805 ft/s (855 m/s) and 2,655 ft⋅lbf (3,600 joules) of muzzle energy. Therefore, the M1 carbine is significantly less powerful than the M1 Garand. Another comparison is a .357 Magnum cartridge fired from an 18" rifle barrel, which has a muzzle velocity range from about 1,718–2,092 ft/s (524–638 m/s) with energies at 720–1,215 ft⋅lbf (976–1,647 J) for a 110 gr (7.1 g) bullet at the low end and a 125 gr (8.1 g) bullet on the high end.


.30 Carbine, Comparison
As a hunting arm, the M1 carbine is approximately the equivalent to a .357 Magnum lever-action rifle. .30 Carbine sporting ammunition is factory recommended for hunting and control of large vermin like fox, javelina, and coyote. However, the game laws of several states do not allow hunting big game (deer, bear, or boar) with the .30 Carbine either by name or by minimum muzzle energy required.


.30 Carbine, Cartridge types
Common types used by the military with the carbine include:


.30 Carbine, As a parent case
The .30 Carbine was the basis for Melvin M. Johnson's .22 Spitfire [5.7x33mm], necking the .30 Carbine's case down to a .22 caliber bullet. It was designed to improve the range and stopping power of the M1 Carbine. The Plainfield Machine Company (later taken over by Iver Johnson's Arms) sold a sporting rifle copy of the M1 Carbine chambered for this cartridge but only about 500 were made.


.30 Newton
The .30 Newton cartridge was designed by Charles Newton, based on a German caliber of the period, the 11.2x72 Schuler.


.30 Newton
Newton originally called the cartridge the 30 Adolph Express after Fred Adolph, a well known immigrant gunsmith from Germany at the time, who had proposed the idea of necking rimless German cartridges down to produce a high velocity hunting cartridge. During Newton's period of cartridge and rifle design, the only rimless American cartridge was the slimmer .30-06. When Newton later began manufacturing and marketing the ammunition for his cartridges and line of rifles, he renamed it the 30 Newton.


.30 Newton
The Newton Arms Company was the only manufacturer of commercial rifles chambered for this cartridge. It should not be confused with the .30 Belted Newton (a.k.a. .30-338), which is a different cartridge not designed by Charles Newton. Although suitable for any large North American game, it is an obsolete round no longer manufactured. Before World War II, loaded cartridges were once offered by Western Cartridge Company. Small runs of 30 Newton brass are occasionally made by Jamison Brass and Roberson Brass. Cases for 30 Newton can be easily made from .375 Ruger as they are very similar other than the caliber of the case neck; so much so that many assume Ruger based their cartridge on the 30 Newton case. 8x68S brass can also be used.


.30 R Blaser
The .30 R Blaser (7.62×68mm R) is a rimmed bottlenecked centerfire cartridge developed for hunting in 1991 by Gerhard Blenk, the then owner of Blaser Jagdwaffen GmbH and Dynamit Nobel which then owned RWS ammunition.


.30 R Blaser, Design
The cartridge is a de novo design and was constructed to outperform popular hunting cartridges like the .30-06 Springfield and 7.92×57mm Mauser. When compared with the .30-06 Springfield the .30 R Blaser features an equal maximum chamber pressure of 405 MPa (58,740 psi) piezo pressure - which is fairly high for a rimmed rifle cartridge - but more cartridge case capacity, allowing the use of more propellant. The .30 R Blaser performance does however not reach the power level of .30 caliber magnum cartridges like the .300 Winchester Magnum that feature more cartridge case capacity and higher maximum chamber pressure levels.


.30 R Blaser, Design
The cartridge was commercially introduced in 1992 by Blaser Jagdwaffen (Blaser hunting weapons) and RWS ammunition. As of 2009, RWS is its only manufacturer.


.30 R Blaser, Cartridge dimensions
The .30 R Blaser has 4.94 ml (76 grains H2O) cartridge case capacity. The exterior shape of the case was designed to promote reliable case feeding and extraction in break action rifles.


.30 R Blaser, Cartridge dimensions
.30 R Blaser maximum C.I.P. cartridge dimensions. All sizes in millimeters (mm).


.30 R Blaser, Cartridge dimensions
Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 ≈ 20.01 degrees. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 305 mm (1 in 12 in), 4 grooves, Ø lands = 7.62 mm, Ø grooves = 7.82 mm, land width = 4.47 mm and the primer type is large rifle or large rifle magnum depending on the load.


.30 R Blaser, Cartridge dimensions
According to the official with C.I.P. (Commission Internationale Permanente Pour L'Epreuve Des Armes A Feu Portative) guidelines the .30 R Blaser case can handle up to 405.00 MPa (58,740 psi) Pmax piezo pressure. In C.I.P. regulated countries every rifle cartridge combo has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum C.I.P. pressure to certify for sale to consumers. This means that .30 R Blaser chambered arms in C.I.P. regulated countries are currently (2013) proof tested at 506.00 MPa (73,389 psi) PE piezo pressure.


.30 R Blaser, Contemporary use
The versatility of the .30 R Blaser for hunting all kinds of American and European game and the availability of several factory loads and the fact that it uses standard .30 caliber projectiles all attribute to the .30 R Blaser chambering popularity in break action hunting rifles. Loaded with short light bullets it can be used on small European game like fox or medium game such as roe deer and chamois. Loaded with longer heavy bullets it can be used on medium and big European game like wild boar, fallow deer, red deer, moose and brown bear.


.30 R Blaser, Contemporary use
The .30 R Blaser offers good penetrating ability due to a fast enough twist rate to enable it to fire relatively long, heavy bullets with a high sectional density. The (former) legal banning of (ex) military service cartridges in countries like Belgium, Italy and France, makes that the .30 R Blaser can be used for hunting in such jurisdictions.


.30 Remington
The .30 Remington cartridge was created in 1906 by Remington Arms. It was Remington's rimless answer to the popular .30-30 Winchester cartridge. Factory ammunition was produced until the late 1980s, but now it is a prospect for handloaders. Load data for the .30-30 Winchester can be used safely for the .30 Remington.


.30 Remington, Background
Although the cartridge has dwindled into obscurity it lives on by being the parent case of the 10mm Auto the 6.8mm Remington SPC and .224 Valkyrie cartridges. Unlike the .30-30, the .30 Remington can utilize standard pointed bullets rather than round nosed ones when used in rifles with box magazines (Remington Model 8) and ones with special tubular magazines (Remington Model 14). This gives it a possible advantage over the .30-30 cartridge which is most often chambered in lever-action rifles with standard tubular magazines (in which a conventional pointed bullet could lead to cartridges being ignited in the magazine tube by recoiling into a primer).


.30 Remington, Background
While the .30 Remington is ballistically equivalent to the .30-30 Winchester cartridge, the cartridges are dimensionally different and are not interchangeable. However, .30 Remington cases can be made from .30-30 cases by turning off the rim, cutting an extractor groove, and fire-forming the shoulder.


.30 Remington AR
The .30 Remington AR cartridge was created in 2008 by Remington Arms to fill a perceived gap in performance on large game between the .223 Remington and larger cartridges such as the .308 Winchester. Design of the cartridge is considered a joint effort between companies under the "Freedom Group" name through a private equity firm and included such companies as Bushmaster, DPMS and Remington itself. It is a rebated rim cartridge designed to fit Remington's R-15 semiautomatic hunting rifle. It was designed to fit the dimensional constraints of the AR-15 magazine and is based on a modification of the .450 Bushmaster, which in turn was based on the .284 Winchester.


.30 Remington AR
Remington was the only company that manufactured this ammunition and its components. The cartridge was a commercial failure and has been discontinued by Remington.


.30 Remington AR, Design
Starting with a .450 Bushmaster case, Remington trimmed the length to 1.525" from the original 1.7" and necked it down to accept a conical .308" diameter bullet with a 25 degree shoulder.


.30 Remington AR, Design
The rim size is .492" and because the round generates 55,000 psi, Remington opted to use a .308 rifle bolt in a 5.56 sized rifle for increased case support. The rim was widened from the .473" of the parent case to prevent the use of a weaker .450 Bushmaster bolt with this cartridge. With a 150 grain bullet, the round travels at 2575 fps.


.30 Remington AR, Cartridge Performance
Performance tests between the .30 RAR and the .308 Winchester show that while the .30 RAR does have a good muzzle velocity, the energy it is capable of delivering on target at around 400 yards decreases significantly. Combined with the poorer ballistic coefficients of the lighter projectiles (.267 for the 125 grain Core-Lokt), this makes the .30 RAR a cartridge suited to ranges around 300 to 400 yards where a larger calibre projectile is required.


.30 Remington AR, Cartridge Performance
A side effect of the short, wide case has meant that the Remington R-15 Rifle which was designed alongside the cartridge uses a four-round, single-stack magazine.


.30 Thompson Center
The .30 Thompson Center (7.62×48 mm), designated 30 THOMPSON CENTER by SAAMI, 30 TC by the C.I.P., is a centerfire rifle cartridge developed for Thompson Center Arms by Hornady intended to deliver  .30-06 Springfield performance in a .308 Winchester length round.


.30 Thompson Center
It was initially offered in the Icon series of bolt-action rifles in 2007, which were released at the same time.


.30 Thompson Center
While it did accomplish its goal, consumer acceptance was low, and the round has remained on the sidelines. The 6.5mm Creedmoor cartridge was created by necking down the .30 TC, and has achieved widespread popularity.


.30 Thompson Center, Overview
As it has been understood that propellant burns more efficiently in shorter, wider-diameter casings, modern ammunition has changed over time to become shorter and wider than previous cartridges.


.30 Thompson Center, Overview
The .30 TC (0.308 in (7.8 mm) x 1.920 in (48.8 mm) is a non-magnum that is somewhat shorter and wider than the .308 and .30-06. The .30 TC has speed and energy equal to the .30-06.


.30 Thompson Center, Overview
All three cartridges weigh approximately the same, but the .30 TC produces less recoil. The case length of the .30 TC is 1.92 inches. Although it is somewhat shorter than the .308, the .30 TC fires a 150-grain SST bullet nearly 200 fps faster. The .30 TC also propels the 150-grain SST faster than the 2.494" .30-06.


.30 Thompson Center, Overview
When loaded with the 165-grain SST bullets, the .30 TC has a 50 fps advantage over the .30-06, which has a velocity of 2,850 fps.


.30-03 Springfield
The .30-03 Springfield (7.62×65mm) was a short-lived cartridge developed by the United States in 1903, to replace the .30-40 Krag in the new Springfield 1903 rifle. The .30-03 was also called the .30-45, since it used a 45 grain (2.9 g (0.10 oz)) powder charge; the name was changed to .30-03 to indicate the year of adoption. It used a 220 grain (14 g (0.49 oz)) roundnose bullet. It was replaced after only three years of service by the .30-06, firing a spitzer bullet giving better ballistic performance.


.30-03 Springfield, Initial development
The .30-03 was developed to replace the .30-40 Krag cartridge used in the Krag–Jørgensen rifle, which was the first bolt action rifle adopted by the US military, and the first that used smokeless powder. The Krag–Jørgensen rifle had some serious limitations compared to the new Mauser rifles being used by European armies; it was loaded one round at a time, rather than using a stripper clip, and the Krag–Jørgensen's single locking lug on the bolt made the action much weaker than the strong, two lug Mauser bolt, limiting the power of the round. A new rifle was designed, using the Mauser as a guide, and a new cartridge was designed for it.


.30-03 Springfield, Initial development
Initially the .30-01 cartridge was developed in 1901; also referred to as the .30 ball Model of 1901 or "thick-rim", the .30-01 used a bullet covered by an alloy made from copper and nickel and was the immediate predecessor of .30-03. It was short-lived however, quickly being replaced by the .30-03 cartridge.


.30-03 Springfield, Initial development
The new cartridge was more powerful, using a 45 grain (2.9 g) charge of smokeless powder, 5 grains (0.3 g) more than the .30-40. The bullet was the same, a .30 caliber, 220 grain (14 g) round nosed jacketed bullet, at a higher velocity of 2,300 feet per second (700 m/s), compared to the 2,000 feet per second (610 m/s) of the .30-40 Krag.


.30-03 Springfield, Initial development
The new rifle was also the first in a trend of shorter infantry rifles; the 24 in (610 mm) barrel was halfway between the standard infantry rifle and the carbine used by the cavalry, and thus there was no carbine variant of the 1903 rifle. The .30-03 cartridge was also a rimless design, which allowed better feeding through the box magazine than the old .30-40 Krag case. The Model 1895 Winchester lever-action rifle was offered in 30-03 from 1905, but sold poorly in comparison to the .30-06 chambering offered in 1908. Vickers Company in England produced Maxim M1904 machine guns in .30-03 for the US Army from 1908. Later M1904 machine guns were produced by Colt in .30-06 and the .30-03 guns were re-chambered for the .30-06.


.30-03 Springfield, Initial development
In 1903, the Army converted its M1900 Gatling guns in .30 Army to fit the new .30-03 cartridge as the M1903. The later M1903-'06 was an M1903 converted to .30-06. This conversion was principally carried out at the Army's Springfield Armory arsenal repair shops. All models of Gatling guns were declared obsolete by the U.S. Army in 1911, after 45 years of service.


.30-03 Springfield, Problems
The .30-03 cartridge suffered from the start. It caused severe erosion of the bore of the rifle, due to the high pressures and temperatures needed to push the heavy bullet to the desired velocity. The heavy bullet was also an issue; the 220 grain (14 g) bullet was aerodynamically inefficient and had a very curved trajectory (see external ballistics) so it was not well suited for long range shots. It was also unfashionable, since most countries were switching to a 7 or 8 mm cartridge firing a lighter, around 150 grains (9.7 g), spitzer pointed bullet at a higher velocity. This gave better energy retention and a flatter trajectory. The .30-03 was shortened slightly by 0.046 inches (1.2 mm) in the neck, the powder was reformulated to burn cooler, and the bullet was changed to a 150 grain (9.7 g) spitzer bullet, creating the .30-06 cartridge.


.30-03 Springfield, Problems
Since the new .30-06 was shorter than the .30-03, it could fire in 1903 rifle but resulted in poor accuracy. The 1903 rifles were all recalled, fitted with the Model of 1905 sights and bayonets, and rechambered for the new .30-06 cartridge. This last procedure was done by unscrewing the barrels, milling off the end of each chamber, re-threading the barrels, rechambering them, and screwing them back on the same actions.


.30-03 Springfield, Problems
This ended the short life of the .30-03; out of nearly 75,000 made, few original 1903 rifles escaped the conversion to .30-06 (estimates range from 50 to 100 rifles); surviving .30-03 rifles are rare collectors items. Even the .30-03 cartridge is a rarity and is found only in collections of rare cartridges. The .270 Winchester and .280 Remington cartridges were based on reducing the neck diameter of the .30-03 cartridge case to retain a similar overall length with the same shoulder based on observation of the Chinese military trials of 6.8x57 Mauser in the US.


.30-06 JDJ
The .30-06 JDJ is a firearm cartridge designed by J.D. Jones.


.30-06 JDJ, Overview
The .30-06 JDJ is a modified .30-06 Springfield cartridge designed to be used in the Thompson Center Arms Contender single-shot pistol. The idea behind it is to replicate the ballistics of a .30-06 fired from a rifle in a Contender pistol.


.30-06 JDJ, Overview
Currently, the .30-06 JDJ is not offered by any manufacturers. Cases and bullets for it can be purchased from various companies for handloaders.


.30-06 JDJ, Description
Compared to a default .30-06 round, the .30-06 JDJ contains has a smaller neck that is at a 60-degree angle. However, the biggest difference is that the .30-06 JDJ has little body taper compared to the original .30-06 cartridge. This allows the .30-06 JDJ to hold an extra 5 grains of water (4.875 cm3) compared to the .30-06 Springfield, allowing one to put more gunpowder into the cartridge.


.30-06 JDJ, Description
This round manages to replicate in a pistol the ballistics of a .30-06 round fired from a rifle. For example, a .30-06 JDJ cartridge with a 200-grain bullet fired from a custom Contender has a muzzle velocity of 2,504 ft/s (763 m/s), while a regular .30-06 cartridge with a 200-grain bullet with 55 grains of gunpowder has a velocity of 2,558 ft/s (780 m/s).


.30-06 JDJ, Gallery
.30-06 JDJ cartridge next to its parent case, the .30-06 Springfield.


.30-06 Springfield
The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty-ought-six" IPA: [ˈθɝɾi ɔt sɪks]), 7.62×63mm in metric notation and called ".30 Gov't '06" by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in use until the late 1970s. The ".30" refers to the caliber of the bullet in inches. The "06" refers to the year the cartridge was adopted, 1906. It replaced the .30-03, 6mm Lee Navy, and .30-40 Krag cartridges. The .30-06 remained the U.S. Army's primary rifle and machine gun cartridge for nearly 50 years before being replaced by the 7.62×51mm NATO and 5.56×45mm NATO, both of which remain in current U.S. and NATO service. It remains a very popular sporting round, with ammunition produced by all major manufacturers.


.30-06 Springfield, History
In the early-1890s, the U.S. military adopted the smokeless powder .30-40 Krag rimmed cartridge. The 1894 version of that cartridge used a 220-grain (14 g) round-nose bullet. Around 1901, the U.S. started developing an experimental rimless cartridge for a Mauser action with box magazine. That led to the 1903 .30-03 rimless service round that used the same 220-grain (14 g) round-nose bullet as the Krag. The .30-03 achieved a muzzle velocity of 2,300 ft/s (700 m/s).


.30-06 Springfield, History
Many European militaries at the beginning of the 20th century were adopting lighter-weight (roughly 150-to-200-grain (9.7 to 13.0 g)), higher velocity, service rounds with pointed (spitzer) bullets: France in 1898 (8mm Lebel Balle D spitzer 198 grains (12.8 g) with boat-tail), Germany in 1903 (7.92×57mm Mauser 153 grains (9.9 g) S Patrone), Russia in 1908 (7.62×54mmR Lyokhkaya pulya [light bullet]), and Britain in 1910 (.303 British Mark VII 174 grains (11.3 g)). Consequently, the round-nosed U.S. .30-03 service cartridge was falling behind.


.30-06 Springfield, History, Cartridge, ball, caliber .30, Model of 1906 (M1906)
For these reasons, the U.S. military developed a new, lighter cartridge in 1906, the .30-06 Springfield, "cartridge, ball, caliber .30, Model of 1906", or just M1906. The .30-03 case was modified to have a slightly shorter neck to fire a spitzer flat-based 150-grain (9.72 g) bullet that had a ballistic coefficient (G1 BC) of approximately 0.405, a muzzle velocity of 2,700 ft/s (820 m/s), and a muzzle energy of 2,429 ft⋅lbf (3,293 J). The cartridge was loaded with military rifle (MR) 21 propellant, and its maximum range was claimed (falsely) to be 4,700 yd (4,300 m).