Explanation on "mag"

Win Mag = Winchester Magnum
Rem Mag = Remington Magnum

These are magnum calibers created by either Winchester or Remington.

Win- Winchester
Rem- Remington
Fed- Federal
S&W- Smith and Wesson
Ruger- self explanitory
H&R- Harrington & Richardson

"Mag" stands for magnum. Which is a (more) powerful version of a cartridge. Such as the .44mag vs the .44spcl cartridge. The name comes from using the term "magnum" to describe larger than average champagne bottles. Most cartridges have a manufacturer's name in their full title. Overtime, it tends to get dropped when other companies start to produce it. (This happens with semi-auto calibers too.)

It's the company that helped develop the cartridge. The "Ultra" suffix is used when there us already a cartridge with the other part if the name with the same diameter bullet. It is usually a longer/wider case. For example .300 Win Mag and .300 Win Ultra Mag. The "Ultra" I'd usuallyore powerful than the original. Also, you will sometimes see "Short" indicating the cartridge uses a shorter/wider case than the standard or ultra versions.

That needs to be .300 Ultra Win Mag (instead of Win Ultra Mag) in my example BUT you still get the idea. Hope that helps explain it.

"Magnum" was a name coined in the late 18th century to indicate a moderately large bottle of wine, specifically 1.5 L, which was 2x larger than a standard bottle.

It was borrowed in the 1930 by Smith & Wesson to describe the new cartridge based on an improved .38 Special.

Since then it has been used by many developers of firearms cartidges and shells to indicate extra powerful versions of an existing design (.44 Magnum from the .44 Special for example), or simply to suggest that a cartridge's velocity and/or energy is above whatever common velocities may be for that bore.

So, Win. Mag. and Rem. Mag. are simply cartridges developed by those manufactures which produced much higer velocities than other cartridges of .308 or 7mm bores (among others), respectively.

In the last decade or so there has been a velocity/recoil race between the big manufacturers to provide cartridges that are even more brutal than their predicessors, like Remington's "Ultra Mags," or that provide the velocity of a long magnum cartridge in a shorter, fatter package like Winchesters "SSM" line (Super Short Magnum).

That needs to be .300 Ultra Win Mag (instead of Win Ultra Mag) in my example BUT you still get the idea. Hope that helps explain it.

Click to expand...

Actually, it's Remington Ultra Mag.

Basically, what InKed said covers it. "Magnum" has just become an adjective to describe increased performance. Over what exactly has become much less clear these days, with many cartridges that do no carry the magnum moniker equalling or exceeding the performance of the "magnums" (ex. .25WSSM vs. .25-06 Rem)

Virtually all cartridges have the name of the developer, the original weapon so chambered or the company that first picked them up in the name somewhere, but some are popular enough that there's little confusion when the pronoun is dropped.

"7mm Mag"-there are several, but the Remington mag is by far the most common, and usually assumed to be the cartridge expressed when there is no other name attached.

".300 Mag"-again, there are a number of them, but the .300 Winchester magnum is the one usually assumed with the abbreviated denotation

".357 mag" is technically .357 S&W Magnum, but there's really no need to denote S&W. Same with .41 and .44 Remington Magnum.

The common ones are:

Rem. Mag (Remington)
Win. Mag (Winchester)
S&W Mag (Smith & Wesson)
H&H mag (Holland and Holland)
Wthby Mag (Weatherby)
WSM (Winchester Short Magnum)
WSSM (Winchester Super Short Magnum)
RSAUM or SAUM (Remington Short Action Ultra Mag)
RUM ((Remington Ultra Mag)

There are others, like H&R, with only one or two cartridges:
.32 H&R Magnum (Harrington and Richardson)
.327 Federal Magnum

And sometimes no name:
10mm Magnum

MachIV,

I don't shoot too many long guns and none of the ones I do are magnums. As for handguns, I have the two (I think) most popular (.357 and .44) covered with a couple of Ruger revolvers. Lastly, thank you for the additional less common ones you added to the list.

-InkEd

P.S. While we're talking about abbreviations for cartridges, I'll mention one more that alot of people don't know very well. The "7mm STW" is short for 7mm Shooting Times Western.
It's not a magnum or anything BUT very few people seem to know it's name origin. Just a little trivia for everyone.

Sam1911 said:

It was borrowed in the 1930 by Smith & Wesson to describe the new cartridge based on an improved .38 Special.

Click to expand...

It was used first by Holland & Holland for the .375 H&H Magnum.

Think of it like this.

Special is a souped-up round.
Magnum is a souped up Special.
.38S&W -> .38Special -> .357 Magnum.

It makes something sound more powerful than the cartridge it intends to replace. Whether it does or does not is another story.

While we're talking about abbreviations for cartridges, I'll mention one more that alot of people don't know very well. The "7mm STW" is short for 7mm Shooting Times Western.
It's not a magnum or anything BUT very few people seem to know it's name origin. Just a little trivia for everyone.

Click to expand...

Yes, designed by Layne Simpson, then of Shooting Times magazine. There was also the later 6.5mm STW and the .358 STA (Shooting Times Alaskan), also based on the blown out, full length .375 H&H case (or by renecking the 8mm Rem Mag). The 7mm STW has since been eclipsed by the 7mm RUM, though.

Another entire family of cartridges that don't carry the magnum moniker but exceed pretty much everything alse are the Lazzeroni's. The 7.82mm Warbird is a 5,000 ft/lb .30 cal. The 10.57 Meteor (.416 cal)? 6,700 FPE.

Did some shots out of some .38 special brass once. Now that was a real magnum

It was used first by Holland & Holland for the .375 H&H Magnum.

Click to expand...

Yes, but I thought they first called it the .375 Belted Rimless Nitro-Express. I don't know if the "Magnum" name was used simultaneously or came later. If it was used fromt he start that would make it a predicessor by over twenty years.

.17 HMR Hornady Magnum Round

.17 HMR Hornady Magnum [STRIKE]Round [/STRIKE] Rimfire.

I stand corrected good sir!