Originally Posted by WillBrink
Need is a funny word. I think answer is Cuz 'Murica, that's whyI can easily see the reason for one AR15-sized thumper cartridge. But each time a company introduces a new cartridge that is almost identical to some existing cartridge, but not compatible, they make the overall market worse, not better. This will take
(a few) sales away from the pre-existing options like .458 SOCOM(-wannabe), .450 Bushhamster, .51 Beowulf, etc., so their adopters have less options instead of more, but without really offering much.
We see this all the time in the sporting firearms industry, and have for decades. Other recent examples include 6.5 Creedmoor vs. .260 Remington, and 6.0 Creedmoor vs. .243 Winchester. The Creedmoor cartridges may be ever so slightly better, but not enough to really justify their existence. Fortunately, all four of those see enough competition and hunting use that it has relatively little impact on ammo costs, although anyone invested in .260 Rem is probably not thrilled these days. Even in a higher volume market like that it can still affect things like availability of premium brass (Lapua for example). In a much lower volume market like thumpers, or magnum revolvers, adding me-too options (.475 Ruger, anyone?) could affect availability and price of ammo.
I'm not proposing any sort of government restriction, just more self-restraint on the part of the manufacturers. I realize that for some companies this is just a marketing schtick; one could argue that Weatherby exists largely because of this. But c'mon, let's make fundamentally better products instead of doing the gun equivalent of changing paint colors and adding chrome trim and saying "The ALL-NEW 1958 Edseljunk makes last year's '57 Edseljunk worthless!"
We could argue at length (preferably not on M4c) about which cartridges are meaningful improvements and which ones aren't, but seriously, I don't see any point to this one and it looks like it will further fracture a thumper field that already lacks a dominant player or standardization.
Note: I don't own, or plan to buy, any thumper-type cartridges, so this isn't any sour grapes over my own investment in something.
BTW, this is from the FAQ on their website (ammo pages):
Hasn't the industry learned enough from the 300BLK kabooms? I mean, it was supposed to be incompatible with .223/556 chambers due to the recommended bullet sizes and shapes, and look where we are. It's not hard to imagine ammo mismatch going both ways with this thumper. 0.040" isn't that much and it might have been better just to use the exact same case dimensions and rely on people reading the labels, assuming that an overpressure load in a properly dimensioned chamber is less likely to blow up the gun than excessive headspace or bullet setback. And what cartridge is more likely to experience setback than one that has (1) a really heavy bullet, (2) a primary purpose and foreseeable use of hunting, where you load going into the field (or at your blind/stand) and unload coming out, possibly several times a day for any number of days, (3) a multi-dollar cost per factory cartridge so most people will keep reloading the same cartridge in the chamber even if the box or manual tells them not to do so, (4) used in a platform that is normally loaded by releasing the bolt to ride home the recoil spring, and (5) likely to be reloaded by many owners, so bullet crimp, seating depth, and case mouth dimensions may well be wrong (obviously this is a reloader's error, not the factory's, but it's foreseeable).FAQ
Will a .458 HAM'R chamber and fire in a .458 SOCOM chamber? Not during normal chambering since the HAM'R case is .040" too long, If you tried to chamber the same HAM'R cartridge repeatedly in a .458 SOCOM, the case shoulder could potentially set back the .040" that would allow chambering, thereby creating an overpressure situation that would most likely damage your .458 SOCOM rifle and potentially cause injury.
Can you fire a .458 SOCOM in a .458 HAM'R chamber? What would happen? Yes, the HAM'R extractor can hold the .458 SOCOM case close enough to the breech face for the gun to fire, although in an extreme excessive headspace state. This is not recommended and may cause damage to the ammunition and bolt assembly.
I know I'm coming across as a horrible curmudgeon on this. I don't care. This strikes me as if someone came up with a way to get 10mm auto ballistics in a .40 S&W case, then made the loaded round longer by an amount less than foreseeable bullet setback. Then says don't use it in a .40 S&W barrel or platform, even though it might fit. Tell me how I'm wrong.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks