BCRider
Member
Ya know.... if this was the dawn of the cartridge era and if semis and revovlers were developing in tandem and if everyone was to sit down and decide to come up with a nice range of steps for cartridges then your list may have some sense to it. But if that was the case we'd likely only see 3 to 5 different graduated sizes and common barrel bores between semi and revolver. Likely something like .20, .30, .40 and .45 would provide a nice range of sizes to handle everything. Junior shooters or folks going after varmints with the .20 size. Smaller concealables with decent hitting power with the .30. More serious stopping power full frame guns with the .40. And finally handgun hunting or other big jobs with the .45 size. In each case the casings would be sized to provide room for the powder to do the job. The .20 would be in the same power range as our present .22LR, the 30 would be a 9mm/.32ACP equivalent, the .40 would be in the .40S&W/10mm range and the .45 would be sized to provide up to the present .44Mag level of power with the oversize casing to suit. All cases would be rimless and revolvers would be set up with a combo of headspacing and snap action spider or some way to use moon clips easily to catch the rim grooves for ejection.
... but then someone would come along with the desire for a big bore hand cannon and want to build and sell a .55 handgun cartridge and mess up all the planning. Then someone else would see the market for a stretched .30 case and there goes all the planning. Then someone else would......
But this isn't the case and we've got a plethora of cartridges and guns that shoot them. So your list is nothing more than your own thoughts based on your own usage. It completely ignores the fact that others have different priorities. Not to mention that there's so many guns in existence and in regular use that are chambered for these obsolete, by your definition, cartridges. There's a surprising amount of folks that ENJOY using .45LC. Why would you ask them to dump their guns in favour of some other cartridge? To them it's a tie in with history to be able to use those.
And let's not forget cost either. If I could buy .357Mag rounds for my revolvers that are the same cost as I'm paying for .38Spl instead of typically twice or more the price I'd be all for that. Assuming I could buy downloaded ammo rather than plink or shoot in matches with full on magnums. But it ain't the case. And for those of us that DO shoot in matches and go through hundreds of rounds a month the cost issue will keep the cheaper "obselete" rounds alive for a long time to come. And rightly so. What makes a good cartridge is not just the stopping power. Lots of us do not shoot for self defense but for fun.
I was pretty sure this was all tongue in cheek from the get go. But you could have picked on some far more obscure rounds as your targets.... .45ACP? SHEESH ! ! ! !
... but then someone would come along with the desire for a big bore hand cannon and want to build and sell a .55 handgun cartridge and mess up all the planning. Then someone else would see the market for a stretched .30 case and there goes all the planning. Then someone else would......
But this isn't the case and we've got a plethora of cartridges and guns that shoot them. So your list is nothing more than your own thoughts based on your own usage. It completely ignores the fact that others have different priorities. Not to mention that there's so many guns in existence and in regular use that are chambered for these obsolete, by your definition, cartridges. There's a surprising amount of folks that ENJOY using .45LC. Why would you ask them to dump their guns in favour of some other cartridge? To them it's a tie in with history to be able to use those.
And let's not forget cost either. If I could buy .357Mag rounds for my revolvers that are the same cost as I'm paying for .38Spl instead of typically twice or more the price I'd be all for that. Assuming I could buy downloaded ammo rather than plink or shoot in matches with full on magnums. But it ain't the case. And for those of us that DO shoot in matches and go through hundreds of rounds a month the cost issue will keep the cheaper "obselete" rounds alive for a long time to come. And rightly so. What makes a good cartridge is not just the stopping power. Lots of us do not shoot for self defense but for fun.
I was pretty sure this was all tongue in cheek from the get go. But you could have picked on some far more obscure rounds as your targets.... .45ACP? SHEESH ! ! ! !