Most widespread CF rifle ammo?

[USSR]

Well, it certainly would be more "widespread". Shows you the importance of semantics.

Don

 

[baz]

See post #38 above.

No source cited. I've seen the list before, and no source was cited. Does anybody have a source?

Update: I think I found it here.

But there is no date, the methodology described is ad hoc, and the conclusion is said to be "approximate."

 

[Cee Zee]

I think 7.62 x 39 has made a big dent in the 30-30 base. At one time the 30-30 would have been more popular than the 30.06 but now people looking for a centerfire rifle with about the same ballistics will split between the 7.62 x 39 and the 30-30. So that leaves the 30.06 as the clear leader.

I know that .223 has made huge jumps in popularity in the past two decades but before that pretty much the only people who owned one were gun collectors and military collectors. You'd see an occasional TEOTWAWKI owners but there just wasn't that many of them. The 30.06 has been accumulating owners since WWI and the huge surplus of Springfield 1903's. The cartridge became a huge hit about that time and it's never stopped growing. All those rifles people have been buying for almost 100 years (yes some bought before that but the real jump in sales occured in the 1920's) are mostly still around somewhere. Many have rusted away I guess but new ones are still being sold. It is an American classic caliber and it will take a long time to surpass the number of rifles out there in the established base. People still buy them to hunt deer too. You don't see a lot of people using .223 for deer hunting. There are some but most people (and some states) consider it underpowered for whitetail. There's ammo to go with a lot of those rifles too.

So 30.06 it is (IMO).

BTW that list in #38 must be skewed by US manufacturers only. I am not going to believe that more .338WM is being sold than 7.62 x 39. A heck of a lot of people own AK's and SKS's. I don't think I know a single person that owns a .338WM. I probably know some but I don't know they own that caliber of a rifle. I know literally dozens of 7.62 x 39 shooters.