Tom Turpin
Greatest Cartridges of All Time
Introduction
A Debate with Plenty of Ammo
Figuring out the greatest cartridges of all time has the benefit of having to test a ton of ammo.
I’ll ask the question for you esteemed reader, what divine proclamation anointed your humble scribe the guru of all the cartridges that exists? The answer is simple, there is no such anointment. Well, perhaps my publisher indicated such, but that certainly isn’t divine providence.
I have, however, had a long and varied shooting and hunting career. I received my first firearm, a Winchester youth rifle (a Model 68 I believe it was), single-shot .22 RF, at the ripe old age of six years. If I make it to Mid-August this year, I’ll turn seventy-six. Math has never been my strong suite, but I think that gives me seventy years of shooting experience.
In addition, for more than four decades, I have earned at least a part of my living writing about shooting, hunting, and firearms. I also spent twenty-six years wearing a US Army uniform as a professional soldier.
In that time, I’ve shot just about every commercially available cartridge at least a few times. Those that I’ve not personally fired, I’ve generally witnessed them in action, either on the range or in the field.
The smallest I’ve shot is the.17 rimfire, and the largest, a .600 Nitro Express. I have never known anyone that owned a.700 NE, and the last time I had any information on the subject a single round of.700 ammo was $100.00 or more. I’ll leave that one to one of the youngsters in the business.
I have learned a few things in my seven-decade shooting career so far. One is that shooters are a finicky lot with a strong tendency to pick a lot of nits.
The truth be told, practically speaking that is, we have at least ten or fifteen times the number of cartridges available that any reasonably sane person could possibly justify needing. However, since when does NEED enter into the decision making process. The fact that one wants some off-the-wall, ten-times duplicated cartridge is enough justification. If need was the determining factor, most of the rifle and ammunition manufacturers would have gone out of business eons ago.
Truly we live in the golden age of ammo. There are more calibers and cartridges available now then at any other time in the history of firearms.
The average North American hunter, for example, could make it very nicely with only three or four rifles. Add a couple handguns and a couple shotguns, and he could handle anything in North America very handily. For the International hunter, add one more rifle and he’d be set for anything from a titmouse to a T-Rex.
One of the most experienced hunters that I knew, the late C. J. McElroy, took just about every animal on our earth with one rifle, a .300 Weatherby Mark V. He did, later in life, switch to a 7mm Weatherby Mark V with its softer recoil. He told me he couldn’t tell any difference in killing power between the two. Another, the late Grancel Fitz, took all twenty-five legal species of North American game, using but one rifle, a Griffin & Howe .30–06. Those two examples should answer the NEED debate quite nicely.
I will add one thing, however, neither Mr. McElroy nor Mr. Fitz were gun nuts. Both were pragmatic men that viewed their rifle as a tool, and nothing more.
Mr. McElroy’s rifle was a stock factory Weatherby Mark V .300, and when he retired it in favor of another, but chambered for the 7mm Weatherby, the .300 was the most dilapidated rifle I think I’ve ever seen. It looked as though Mac had used it for a boat anchor for at least a decade or two. At least, Mr. Fitz had Griffin & Howe make his rifle for him. He treated it a bit better than Mac did his, but nevertheless it was still a tool to him.
However, when rifle, handgun, or shotgun nuttiness enters the equation, all sanity and reason goes out the window.
Pragmatism gives way to silliness. The nits get smaller and smaller, but picking them gets more and more frequent. I can’t condemn anyone for this malady, as I am one of the better examples of the genre. Even so, if forced to do so, I could eliminate most of my vault contents and pretty much be unaffected in a practical sense in the field, or on the range, or defending my Arizona pea patch.
What follows then is a listing of cartridges that I have found to be as good or better than most in their category, and why I’ve found them to be so.
Chapter 1
The Eminently Useful .22 Rimfire
Outside the recent ammo shortage, the .22 Rimfire might be one of the most ubiquitous rounds in the shooting world. A great majority of shooters sent a .22 bullet down range the first time they pulled the trigger.
The little rimfire round is one of the most useful cartridges ever developed. I have not been without at least one firearm so chambered in more than 69 years.
I presently have three rifles and one handgun, including a rifle that I’ve owned for about 65 years. It was my second rifle ever. My dad traded the first, a single shot Winchester Model 68, in on a Marlin Model 81-DL repeater when I felt that I had outgrown the single shot. My ammo bill went up appreciably with that acquisition.
I bought my ammo at Bill Williams’s general store for the hefty price of one penny per round. A ten round purchase was about the most I could ever afford at one time.
My new Marlin was deadly accurate and I kept the local population of starlings, squirrels, cottontail rabbits, possums and ground hogs pretty much in check, so long as I could come up with a nickel or two for ammo. I usually reserved my meager supply of ammo for serious purposes, and used my Daisy BB gun for the more mundane shooting.
Ten cents doesn’t sound like much today, but back then it was a lot of money and squandering it on less than necessary usage was deeply frowned by my dad. A product of the great depression, he wasted nothing. I had to account for each round of the precious rimfire ammo.
Over the years, I’ve owned a number of handguns chambered for the little rimfire. Alas I recently sold my next-to-last remaining handgun so chambered. It was a Smith & Wesson Model 18 Combat Masterpiece with target trigger and hammer. I’ve also owned and used several Colt Woodsman semi-autos, as well as a Colt Ace or three. I’ve had Ruger Single-Sixes, High Standard semi-autos, and both Harrington & Richardson and Iver Johnson revolvers.
I once had a S&W Model 34 Kit Gun chambered for the rimfire. I usually carried it with me when deer and antelope hunting, to administer the coup de gras if necessary, and whatever else I might need it for. I’ve long since lost track of all that have come and gone through my hands, but all have been handy and useful, as well as a lot of fun.
Many use the .22 Rimfire as a plinking load, but it also has many practical applications. For small varmints, there might not be a better or more economical round.
Perhaps the best use for the cartridge is as a training and practice round. Just about every kid learns to shoot with .22 RF chambered firearm. However, it does have some serious applications.
For example, during my college days, I was a ROTC cadet for all four years, and shot competitively on the collegiate rifle team. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when they issued me a new Winchester Model 52D rifle, all the ammunition I could shoot, and keys to the indoor rifle range. I shot that same Model 52 all four years on the team and really hated to have to turn it in upon graduation. I don’t have any idea how many rounds I used during those collegiate years, but it was a bunch — many thousands to be sure.
In the hands of a good marksman who is careful with his shots, it is very effective on small game and varmints. One of our best squirrel hunters in my part of Appalachia was Lonnie Murphy. While most local squirrel hunters used shotguns, Lonnie used nothing but his trusty Winchester Model 61 pump. He also wasted no meat as he shot all his squirrels in the head! I had the pleasure of hunting with him a few times and he taught me a lot about hunting the delicious little rodents.