The .17 Winchester Super Magnum is a new rimfire cartridge that is roughly equivalent to the .17 Hornet and similar rounds.
I don't know if this'll pass the marketplace's "so, what" test. At least with an orphan centerfire cartridge, somebody who bought the rifle (and who likes it) can get the dies to form their own brass from a parent cartridge. With a rimfire cartridge, if the ammo goes out of production, you're kind of shit outta luck (tried to buy any new .32 rimfire recently?).
Apparently, they had to make the rim of the cartridge pretty thick in order to contain the pressure of the cartridge going off. So as a result, the rim has to be hit at "the Hammer of Thor" levels of force to fire the primer compound. They made the rifle "cock on close" to lessen the effort, but it still takes some decent "oomph" to do that.
And all that assumes that you can find the cartridges, which seem to be made of unobtainium, just like all other rimfire rounds.
These days, if I was going to buy a new rifle, I'd get one chambered in either 7mm Magnum or 7.62 rimmed Russian. 7mm Magnum is available everywhere around here and 7.62x54R is still available in ComBloc spam tins. .270 Winchester is almost as available.
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3 comments:
" .270 Winchester is almost as available"
Plus which, you can make .270 cases by running '06 cases through a .270 sizing die and a case trimmer.
Why not .300 win mag? Basically the same as a 7mm but with a larger selection of bullet weights.
w3ski
w3ski, I'm basing the 7mm Magnum choice solely on the ammo that's available. These days, if you're going to buy a new rifle, you need to be assured of at least being able to buy a hundred rounds or so.
I've seen displays in the LGS that are basically "buy a box of .22 for $400 and we'll toss in this gun".
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