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If you could design a cartridge from scratch

A 308 Norma without the belt and with a 35 deg. shoulder angle.
What's not to like about a belt;):eek:! It'll keep your pants up. I don't have a problem with belted cases, but nice on not having them rub against other cases.
 
Sumptin like giving the 270 WSM the proper twist rate rather than shortening the case ~0.080" thus giving up case capacity....and then giving it a new name.

Makes me wonder if a rifle chambered in 6.8 Western could be reamed out to a proper 270 WSM?

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Is the body shorter or just the neck? If it's the neck, then trimming is already done.
 
5/35 SMC 2004 Elliptical shoulder on a 20 cal bullet on a 6BR case with a 1.5" case.
Bullet diameter in relation to Cartidge base diameter approaches 2.5 to 1.
So based on that a 1.75" case with a .585 diameter head shooting a 6mm bullet would be the next step up.
Needs a case full of slower burn rate powder.
By Smalley sent me a 6mm elliptical shoulder reamer using 6XC case with a .284 case diameter held short.
Didn't see enough velocity increase to warrant any further experimentation.
SMC= Bryan Smalley & Chuck Mcpherson

There was a gunshop that had a savage target action in 5/35 that was supposedly a small run they did. It had 2 boxes of empties a set of unused dies and a partial box of loaded ammo. It survived both of 44s gun rushs and only sold I'm told in and around 21'. Price never changed but inflation finally made it viable as a donor action....

Seemed like a neat idea but launched poorly or out of time, always thought it was a near little round.
 
My thoughts are more along the lines that existing cartridges can be "improved" with different rifle configurations; faster twist, throat, longer barrels in addition to higher energy powders with technological advances in bullets. Plenty of good examples such as .270Win fast twist in long magazine actions to take advantage of its long neck to seat bullets out for more case capacity with newer powders like RL26. The venerable 30-06 is identical in opportunity for same exact reasons. The .280, .280AI, 25-06 all fall in same category. The key IMO is to use LA's with long COAL capability like 3.67 or longer to take advantage of the potential case capacity.

The HUGE benefit to these concepts is the brass is standard and readily available plus LR primers. I built my now absolutely favorite out of safe .270Win on 700LA, 27" Light Palma, 1:8, 0.290 freebore, 5R that delivered exceptional performance with 156HH at 3200 (topped out ~3300), 170EOL at 3100, 175TGK at 2925, even 160Part at 2900. I also saw great performance in 30-06 with RL26 with bullets seated out to max magazine capacity for jump. The potential is there for a lot of standard cartridges, all we have to do is build to take advantage of these cartridge's hidden potential.

Just my 2¢ on one cup of coffee.
 
Muddyboots: I think you're on the right track there. I've wondered for a long time if a .30-06 would be better with a fatter powder column, but even the way it is (or the .270 Win), we can do more with newer. bullets and powder.
 
Muddyboots: I think you're on the right track there. I've wondered for a long time if a .30-06 would be better with a fatter powder column, but even the way it is (or the .270 Win), we can do more with newer. bullets and powder.
Yeah but they do not have whiz bang factor. No CM in cartridge description. Boring names. Yawn. Until you exercise their potential designs to fullest.
 
I've wondered for a long time if a .30-06 would be better with a fatter powder column, but even the way it is (or the .270 Win), we can do more with newer. bullets and powder.
I went the .30 Gibbs route.

.30-06 IMPROVED INSIDE VOLUME.JPG

.30 Gibbs 75.80 H20 after fireforming off the chamber..jpg

.30 Gibbs loaded with Berger 190 VLDs.jpg
 
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I built a "True" Long Range Cartridge! Long Range Squirrel rifle cartridge that is. Lol
13gr of powder pushing a 40gr Vmax. My goal was to have a low powder, very low recoil, cheap to shoot but accurate round that could do a head shot on a squirrel at 150yds. It has worked out well and then some. I don't know that I can make the shot in the field but the cartridge and rifle definitely can. Plus side is it can also work on coyotes/fox/etc at decent distance. Runs around 3050fps with this load.
Middle pic is a 3 round group at 400yds.

20230619_111953.jpg




20230426_203723.jpg
 
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