Forgotten Cartridges

The .30-30 Winchester is perhaps the most famous lever-action cartridge of all time, but that hasn’t stopped cartridge designers from trying to improve upon its legendary deer-killing performance. Ken Waters was one such designer. A gun writer whose 50-year career included four books and hundreds of...

When I reached out to the MeatEater crew earlier this year to ask about their favorite elk cartridges, I was eager to get a recommendation from certified elk killer Jason Phelps. But his response wasn’t what I expected. “I personally shoot what many would consider a ‘wildcat,’” he told me. “I don’t...

What makes a good varmint cartridge? It should be accurate in most factory rifles. It should be flat-shooting, meaning it doesn’t drop too much at longer rangers. It should also have limited recoil to allow for a full day of prairie dog hunting and use a narrow bullet to preserve the pelt as much as...

A gun store employee surprised me recently when he said he’s noticed an uptick in requests for rifles chambered in .35-caliber cartridges. And he wasn’t just talking about the .357 Magnum or the .350 Legend. Requests for the .35 Whelen and .35 Remington are also on the rise, he said, but he couldn’t...

In August of 1964, Guns & Ammo published a cover story detailing what the magazine’s editors enthusiastically dubbed “the world’s hottest .22!” The wildcat cartridge could launch a 15-grain bullet an astounding 6585 feet-per-second (fps), over twice as fast as a .30-06 Springfield and six times as...

Remember that old children’s story, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears?” Some take the moral as a warning against breaking and entering, but most folks probably remember the story’s lesson about moderation: not too hot, not too cold, not too hard, not too soft—just right. The .257 Roberts is the...