In the past few years, we’ve seen the rise of long-range hunting cartridges as well as new straight-wall cartridges. And you know what that means—older cartridges are eventually going to be phased out by the new wonder-loads, unless these newer cartridges themselves don’t pass the test of time.
That’s the way it has always been in Fudd world—manufacturers are always bringing in new rounds in chase of the almighty dollar. Sometimes they have the sticking power to displace older classics, and sometimes they don’t. Here’s a walk-through of three classic Fudd-friendly high-performance cartridges of the past that have lost their hype to more modern rounds—and a few words on their chances of a comeback.
Classic Fudd fare @ TFB:
.257 Roberts
Quarter-bores have long been popular with hunters who want a rifle that hits varmints hard, or maybe a rifle that will take down a deer without hitting the hunter hard with recoil. Developed over the 1920s and 1930s by Ned Roberts (a famous American “hunter, competition target shooter, gun writer & editor, ballistician and firearms experimenter,” says Wikipedia), this started off as a wildcat cartridge that Remington then put into production with some slight changes to the design. The parent case was a 7x57 Mauser, which Roberts necked down to use .25-caliber bullets. Although bullet choices would have been light in that era, Roberts’ cartridge (originally called the .25 Roberts before Remington standardized it) was able to use the same bullets as the .250-3000 cartridge.
Many custom rifles were built around this caliber in the 1930s, and Remington and Winchester built factory bolt-action rifles around the load. It was reckoned a great all-rounder, like all the popular quarter-bores, but after World War II, it lost a lot of steam when Winchester introduced the .243 and started building rifles around it. Demand trailed off; today, I know of no readily available factory rifle from a major manufacturer chambered in this round. You can still find factory-loaded ammo for .257 Roberts, but it’s very rare stuff.
Chance of a comeback: I fully expect high-end hunting rifle manufacturers to occasionally offer .257 Roberts in the future, maybe as a distributor exclusive run, but it’s going to be a very rare thing.
.300 Savage
The .300 Savage round was introduced in 1920, based on the .250-3000 cartridge that Charles Newton had designed for Savage five years earlier. Savage wanted to equal the hitting power of the .30-06 in a short-action cartridge, so they could fit it into their Model 99 lever-action. Previously, they’d offered that rifle in .30-30 Winchester and .303 Savage, which had essentially identical hitting power. Savage wanted more muscle for their lever gun and also for their Model 1920 bolt-action, an all-new lightweight hunting rifle they were introducing.
Their designers achieved their goal. While the .300 Savage lags behind today’s .30-06 loads, it was on par with the factory loads of the 1920s and made the Model 99 a hugely popular deer gun—although not everyone was convinced they needed the power. In Larry Koller’s classic deer hunting how-to titled Shots At Whitetails, he pans the .300 Savage as being too much gun for most hunters, and recommends the .250-3000 instead …
From the 1920s through the 1960s, a lot of rifles were chambered in .300 Savage and it would probably still be very popular today if it hadn’t been a victim of its own success. Impressed with its long-range hitting power and reduced recoil when compared to the .30-06, American ordnance engineers tweaked the cartridge and from it they developed the 7.62x51mm military round, aka .308 Winchester. While the .300 Savage was good enough to hang on to market share, the new .308 was simply a little bit better, and even Savage themselves soon had their Model 99 chambered in the new cartridge. By the time the Model 99 was canceled in the 1990s, the .300 Savage was even more dead than the famous lever gun it was made for.
You can still buy factory ammo for the .300 Savage, which is no surprise. Thousands upon thousands of rifles were made in this chambering over the decades, and many of them are still in existence. What is a surprise is just how expensive .300 Savage ammunition has gotten.
Chance of a comeback: Unless Savage revives the Model 99 (low probability) and wants to chamber it in their classic cartridge (also a low probability), don’t ever expect the .300 Savage to make a comeback. It’s as good as it ever was, but the industry has moved on to .308 instead.
.22 Hornet
The .22 Hornet is a varmint round developed from a wildcat load over the 1920s and 1930s, similar to the .257 Roberts. At that point, the .22 Magnum hadn’t been invented; the .22 Hornet was a step up from the .22LR, but not as powerful as the .22 Hi Power. A lot of woodchucks, coyotes and other assorted pests have fallen to it over the past 90 years.
The .22 Hornet has always been popular with shooters for its low recoil and minimal noise, and it has even been used by big game hunters for deer and other larger animals—not that this is a good idea, unless you’re an expert, and maybe not then either. It’s also popular with reloaders because the low operating pressure means this round is easy on brass. It doesn’t waste a lot of powder, either.
Because it’s an easy-shooting centerfire, there have even been revolvers and single-shot hunting pistols chambered in this round. And today, almost 100 years after its debut, there isn’t much competition for the .22 Hornet on the market.
You can easily buy ammo for the .22 Hornet and you can find new-production rifles from American manufacturers, particularly Savage Arms and Ruger. It’s also popular for scaled-down Sharps-style rifles.
Chance of a comeback: Don’t ever expect the .22 Hornet to make a comeback to its pre-World War II popularity, but at this point, it does something no other round offers: It gives reasonable 150-200 yard performance in a light, easy-to-enjoy centerfire.
