How Exactly is "Magnum" Defined?

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jamesinalaska

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It has been my understanding that a "magnum" cartridge gets its name when it is developed from a smaller cartridge. For example, 38's of various names were well known and used until a new creature with the same diameter bullet but crimped into a longer case than all those others was developed. This new cartridge was given the "magnum" label and no other .357 diameter cartridge since then could claim that grand title. The story with the .44 caliber cartridges is the same; there were several, all very similar, until a newer, larger case emerged, and eclipsed all others. Those particular cartridges get to be called magnums, get to outsell all others, have songs written and movies made about them, while all the rest are forgotten. Obviously it's quite an honor to be called a Magnum -as it changes your future so much- so you'd think there'd be some rules or something concerning what gets to be a magnum and what doesn't. Let's think about this.

If (and bear with me here) the 308 Winchester cartridge was developed by stretching out the 300 Savage case a bit (which it was) why isn't the 308 Winchester then properly called the 300 Savage Magnum? Wouldn't that be more proper? Why did the Winchester family get to make so much money on that cartridge instead of the Savage family?

Likewise, the 338 and 300 Wichester Magnums, these were developed by SHORTENING,respectively, the 458 Winchester Magnum and 300 H&H catridges. Why then are these cartridges granted the "magnum" moniker if they are SHORTENED versions of another case? I would think that they shouldn't be, that they should be known more accurately as the 338 and 300 Winchester. Is there any definition as to what makes a magnum cartridge and what doesn't? Or have we all been trapped into a clever web of corporate marketing?

Please help. These thoughts are keeping me awake at night.
 
It generally carries some connotation of being "extra powerful", but what it boils down to is that if you come up with a new cartridge, you get to name it and if you want to include 'magnum' in the name there's absolutely nothing stopping you. You can feel very safe including that designation in the name without fear of running afoul of any official definitions or industry standards.

In exactly the same way, you can make an improved/upgraded/more powerful version of an existing cartridge and NOT include 'magnum' in the name without worrying that you've broken any rules, official or unwritten.
 
There is no set definition. A manufacturer can call anything a magnum if they choose to do so.

The 357 mag wasn't made longer to hold more powder. Manufacturers were already loading 38 Special to velocity levels that we now see in 357 magnum. But those cartridges were only supposed to be fired in the large frame 38 Special revolvers built on the 44 Special and 45 Colt frame. In fact they named the cartridge 38/44. But cartridges stamped 38/44 would fit in the chambers and fire in smaller framed 38's. They were having issues with these smaller guns being damaged by the more powerful 38 ammo. The case was stretched 1/10" and special large frame guns built to prevent the ammo from being used in the wrong guns. Same story with 44 special and 44 magnum.

Both the 300 Savage and 308 were essentially shortened 30-06 cases designed to develop the same speeds as 30-06 from shorter cases. Which at the time they did. 300 Savage would match 30-06 speeds from WW-1 era loads. But by the time WW-2 started 30-06 loads were even faster. The 300 Savage didn't have the case capacity to match the newer 30-06 loads, but the 308 did, but modern 30-06 will beat both considerably. Why call them magnums when the 30-06 is not.

While the 300 WM is a shorter version of the 300 H&H it is also fatter, holds more powder, and shoots the same bullet weights faster. If the 300 H&H is a magnum, so is the 300 WM. Same with the 300 WSM. It is shorter still, but holds the same amount of powder as 300 H&H and matches it for speed. Weatherby however took the 300 H&H case and moved the shoulder forward to use more powder creating the 300 Weatherby magnum. You can even shoot 300 H&H in a 300 WBY chamber to form cases. Why isn't it called 300 super magnum. And there are several others 300 magnums even faster.

While there is no set standard anytime new cartridges have been developed that were faster than conventional loads they are often called magnums. With rifles if you can beat old standard cartridges such as 6.5X55,270, 7X57, or 30-06 speeds with the same caliber then it is generally considered a magnum. But not all choose to use the word magnum. The new 26 and 28 Nolser cartridges certainly faster, but they chose not to use the Magnum name.
 
Those particular cartridges get to be called magnums, get to outsell all others, have songs written and movies made about them, while all the rest are forgotten.

Not entirely... The .38 Special isn't a magnum, but was immortalized by a band with the same name, while Magnum was a freeloading, self-proclaimed "private investigator" who mooched off his friends. ;)

As a Mopar fan growing up, I was amused by how Dodge assigned the "Magnum" designation to higher-performance versions of some engines. Same concept, except you could easily achieve Magnum performance from a base engine with a few modifications.
 
Not entirely... The .38 Special isn't a magnum, but was immortalized by a band with the same name, while Magnum was a freeloading, self-proclaimed "private investigator" who mooched off his friends. ;)

As a Mopar fan growing up, I was amused by how Dodge assigned the "Magnum" designation to higher-performance versions of some engines. Same concept, except you could easily achieve Magnum performance from a base engine with a few modifications.

Then of course there is a Magnum or Champagne age or Magnum PI:)
Mucho Grande!
 
I've always heard 3 inch shotgun shells referred to as magnums while the 2.75 inch are standard.
 
45 Colt, 454 Casull, S&W 460 magnum.

Ummm, ok.

44 Special, 44 Remington Magnum, 445 Super magnum.

Why? New cartridges are named by the developer or or the company that brings them to market. Uniformity in naming would be nice but it’d just too late.
 
Kind of like “new and improved”, “super”, “better”, “more” or “greater”, they are all just qualitative words that are not definitive on a quantitative value, kind of like +p+, except there is a minimum threshold in that case, as it needs to as least be over +p pressures.
 
As a Mopar fan growing up, I was amused by how Dodge assigned the "Magnum" designation to higher-performance versions of some engines.

and now their highest performance model is a Demon with a little devil on the blower but you can still get the same performance for a lot less money with a balancer/pully change and tune from less expensive models.
 
IIRC 65,000 PSI is the “practical limit” for brass cases and the non magnum 22-250, has that as its limit over a number of other “magnum” rounds.

Does make me want to invent the .22 Pip Squeak, that would have to operate at 65,001 psi, for the sole reason to be at the top of the chart without a “cool” name.
 
All I can find is:

mag·num
/ˈmaɡnəm/

noun
noun: magnum; plural noun: magnums
  1. 1.
    a wine bottle of twice the standard size, normally 1 1/2 liters.
  2. 2.
    trademark in US
    a gun designed to fire cartridges that are more powerful than its caliber would suggest.
    "his .357 Magnum pistol"
Origin

late 18th century: from Latin, neuter (used as a noun) of magnus ‘great’.
 
Marketing using a less, already known quantity as a base.

The 2 syllable word; *magnum* is easier than; *New & Improved - Now Even More Powerful Than Before!"

Mustaches sometimes excepted.

Todd
220px-Magnumtomselleck.jpg OIP.NX9WS53Oywf0WQrM1T9zkAHaHa.jpeg OIP.q9hWUwiDpIRCcDBmbo0krwHaHa.jpeg
 
How about the .41 Remington Magnum? There was no .41 before it.

Or the 10 mm and the .40 Short and Weak, of course there is a 10 mm Magnum.

It's nothing but marketing that implies that the cartridge is powerful.
 
It has been my understanding that a "magnum" cartridge gets its name when it is developed from a smaller cartridge. For example, 38's of various names were well known and used until a new creature with the same diameter bullet but crimped into a longer case than all those others was developed. This new cartridge was given the "magnum" label and no other .357 diameter cartridge since then could claim that grand title. The story with the .44 caliber cartridges is the same; there were several, all very similar, until a newer, larger case emerged, and eclipsed all others. Those particular cartridges get to be called magnums, get to outsell all others, have songs written and movies made about them, while all the rest are forgotten. Obviously it's quite an honor to be called a Magnum -as it changes your future so much- so you'd think there'd be some rules or something concerning what gets to be a magnum and what doesn't. Let's think about this.

If (and bear with me here) the 308 Winchester cartridge was developed by stretching out the 300 Savage case a bit (which it was) why isn't the 308 Winchester then properly called the 300 Savage Magnum? Wouldn't that be more proper? Why did the Winchester family get to make so much money on that cartridge instead of the Savage family?

Likewise, the 338 and 300 Wichester Magnums, these were developed by SHORTENING,respectively, the 458 Winchester Magnum and 300 H&H catridges. Why then are these cartridges granted the "magnum" moniker if they are SHORTENED versions of another case? I would think that they shouldn't be, that they should be known more accurately as the 338 and 300 Winchester. Is there any definition as to what makes a magnum cartridge and what doesn't? Or have we all been trapped into a clever web of corporate marketing?

Please help. These thoughts are keeping me awake at night.

LOL, If that's all you have to worry about, try some Nyqiil at bedtime.
 
Let me get this straight, magnum is keeping you up at night? I'm not sure we can help you. You need to see a doctor (just kidding of course).
 
There is almost co consistent rhyme or reason to American cartridge naming. It used to be they were named for the bullet diameter and charge weight (and sometimes bullet weight), along with whichever company or entity brought it out (.30-30 Winchester, .25-25 Stevens, .40-50 Sharps, .40-60 Marlin, etc.). Some manufacturers didn't want a rivals name on their gun, so it changed. (Marlin used .38-40 rather than .38 WCF (Winchester Center Fire) on their guns, even now on a GLOCK you'll see ".40" on the slide rather than .40 S&W, etc.). .45-70-405 Government was brought out by the US Government as a .45 caliber, 70 grain charge, 405 grain bullet...as was the .30-'06 Springfield: a .308 bullet diameter, standardized/accepted in 1906, developed by Springfield Armory, etc.

Sometimes it's named after whoever first put it out there (.257 Roberts, based on the European 7x57mm Mauser case) or after another person (.35 Whelen, based on the .30-'06 case), sometimes it's named after the bore diameter (.284 Winchester) or to the the closest millimeter (7 MM Rem Mag...which didn’t improve on but instead practically duplicated the older 7 MM Weatherby Mag). The 7MM Remington round became far more popular because of marketing and a larger variety of less-expensive ammo and firearms then Weatherby's premium stuff.

You have calibers made from using older cartridges that honor their lineage in the name (.338-'06 A-Square or .22-250 Remington) and some that don't (.260 Remington and .338 Federal, both were made from the same case as the original .308 Win...which also spawned the .243 Win, .358 Win, 7mm-08 Rem, etc.) The .280 Remington Ackley Improved is spawned from the .280 Remington. It was redesigned for larger case capacity by prolific tinkerer and gun guy P.O. Ackley, who straighted out the body taper and blew the shoulders out to 40 degrees. You can fire either .280 Rem or .280 AI headstamped cartridge in the .280 AI-chambered rifle, and the resulting fired cartridge cases will all be the .280 AI shape.

Now, for info to the OP about the .308 Winchester, if I remember correctly it was worked on by the Government at Frankfort Arsenal as the T-65 for the .30 light rifle project. The project was based around the .300 Savage. Initial loadings were with .300 Savage cases, but FA changed that and their experimental round had similar dimensions, less body taper and were made from .30-06 cases (so capacity was different.) Winchester engineers who were also working on the project (as was Remington at some point in time) saw the potential that the experimental round had, convinced Winchester admin to commercially introduce it as a new sporting round. It was called the .308 Winchester (Bullet diameter) and came out in 1952. This was two years before the military first adopted it as the 7.62x51 NATO T65 round in 1954.

Don't even start trying to understand "magnums." As was noted earlier, it was 95% marketing.

Your head will explode if you try to make sense of it all. For sanity's sake don't, just enjoy the history each round has to offer. :thumbup:

Stay safe.

Stay safe.
 
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Sometimes "magnum" is not stated. ;)
9mm = 380 magnum
357 Sig / 38 Super = 9mm magnum
10mm = 40 S&W magnum
:D
 
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