What do you think is the most underrated handgun/rifle cartridges?

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1942bull said:
I agree. Considering "underrated " I cannot think of a better example. The round got a bad rap I joined the Corps in 1959. We were issued M1s. If I recall correctly I did not get an M14 until 1962. Before we received then the M1 was our battle rifle, and the M1 & M2 Carbines were still in limited use. Grunts would compare the rounds of the M1 and the carbine and seeing the extreme difference in size assume the 30. cal was too puny to be a good battle round. But that was a misjudgment. Use as it was originally intended it was an excellent round. It the Carbine was developed to give pistol issued personnel like office and weapons crews a more powerful effective than he 45 M1911.

In Nam grunts started wit the M14. M1 Carbines were.
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Being that it’s straight walled I imagine it’s decently easy to reload too
 
orionengnr said:
--.45LC...may be more "under-appreciated" than "under-rated".
--Similarly, 10mm, although in the about ten years since I bought one, that appears to be changing for the better.
--.41 Mag, a personal favorite. Again, under-appreciated is probably more accurate.
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I agree with you that the 41 mag should have a much larger following!
 
Handgun = .41 magnum . . . . Rifle = .35 Whelen
Both of these cartridges exhibit ballistics far beyond their popularity, and in a very similar way. The .41 mag will do absolutely anything that the vastly more popular .44 mag will do, and with considerably less recoil. The same with the .35 Whelen as compared with the "standard" medium bore, the .375 H&H magnum. Killing power and trajectory are practically indistinguishable, and the Whelen does it with 30% less powder and 40% less recoil.
 
Pistol round = 9mm makarov

Rifle round = 30 cal carbine.
Personal experience. In the Nam I was a medic the 1911 was great, but if I needed more I had a M2 Carbine I got from the Arvn. Great for hard hitting suppressive fire, and one shot stops. Couple of NVA learned that the hard way.
The MAk was a Pick up and easy to carry. While not a 45 it was effective. Still have one today.
Just my ..02 YMMV
 
7mm08. This round is about perfect for 99% of game, and target, fun, and teaching out there. But its not a common rifle to find, especially in lightweight AR-10 barrels, the reason I don't have one. The 6.5 Sweedmoor will probably be its death. Pistol, 25ACP. For the most part, the psychology of being shot is about equal in all cases. Most pistols have no real stopping force anyway. Sure there are pistols almost as small as a baby browning, but key word is almost. They also kick 20 times harder, and are much louder. They're almost all plastic as well. Its a reasonably accurate round, and in something like a Ruger MK or other fullsize it would allow for a great, handloadable pistol target round. Just my thought.
 
32 pistol calibers - H&R and Federal Magnum.

38 Special

44 Special.

22 Hornet

30 Carbine

All of these especially if you handload.
 
Agree with 9 Mak in handgun.

35 Rem in rifle. Within 150 yards it has excellent knockdown power, very good accuracy, and modest recoil.
 
5.7 is very effective for pest control. FN's firearms are a little pricey, but I'm willing to bet it's going to get popular, with ranchers, now that Ruger has an affordable pistol.
 
Most underrated handgun cartridge - 10mm

Most underrated rifle cartridge - .264 Winchester Magnum

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
 
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For handgun cartridges, the world has settled on some fairly reasonable ones. The only one I would consider underrated is the 10mm, and in the last decade or so people have caught on so it may be "formerly underrated, now reasonably rated".

For rifle, I can think of several:
  • 7mm WSM - if this didn't exist, we'd have to invent it. The 7mm is the single best bore diameter for general western ad plains game hunting. The short magnum cases are wonderful - accurate, easy to reload, and they fit in small handy guns. My little KImber 8400 weighs almost nothing and is super handy, but throws a bonded 175gr (with a SD of > .3 and a pretty good BC) at 2900 ft/s.
  • 325 WSM - very limited popularity, but kept alive by the simple fact that it's the best "crossover" long range/bear stopper magnum we've got, which is a handy thing to have in much of the western US and Alaska. A good bit faster than the .338WM with bullets of similar sectional density. The virtues of the short magnum cases apply here as well and in rough country not having to tote around a 26" long action is really nice.
  • 6mm Ackley (aka .244 Remington Ackley Improved) - the best coyote and general long range varmint cartridge ever created (possibly tied with the extremely similar 6mm-06 AI wildcat)
  • .50 Alaskan/.50-110/.50-100-405 - African stopping rifle level performance (500+gr at 2000+ft/s for both softs and solids) in a lever action. Basically as fast as a double for the first two shots, radically faster after that. Faster than a bolt action from shot two on. And available in guns that don't break the bank like decent doubles do. If they'd had the powders we do now when these came out, the landscape of African rifles would be totally different.
  • 6.5 WSM/Leopard/RSAUM/PRC - largely the same virtues as the 7mm short mags, but with the option of shooting the excellent 160gr Woodleigh protected point.
  • 26, 27, 28 30 and 33 Nosler: The best designed magnums for a long action, hands down. About as much case capacity as can reasonably be put to use - ditch the useless (in fact counterproductive) belt and get some extra umph! Fast twisting the 27 Nosler (along with Sig doing the same) is the start of a new era where the .277 bore isn't the retarded cousin of the 7mms any more.
 
460Shooter said:
38 Super. I really wish there were more mainstream carry guns chambered for it.
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I'll go for this one too - especially if a rimless version were truly standardized. With the right bullets the 9mm bore diameter benefits quite a bit from added velocity.
 
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