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Thread: Useless Calibers

  1. #81
    Boolit Grand Master popper's Avatar
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    No cal/cartridge is useless (unless it won't go bang) but I have no use for many.
    Whatever!

  2. #82
    Boolit Master Tokarev's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by uscra112 View Post
    I'm reading that Canadians are largely ignoring the turn-in.

    Government 101: Don't pass laws that you cannot enforce.
    There are lawsuits pending, so until they are dealt with by the courts, we are living on borrowed time.
    But knowing Canada well, I expect the court will side with the government, as it does in most instances, or they will simply pass new laws. The monarchy always gets what it wants. The queen still rules Canada.

  3. #83
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tokarev View Post
    Technically, Canada also has RKBA inherited with the British North America act but it's been shoved under the rug by our government that believes that it can do anything it wants.
    The current prime minister hates semi-automatics, so he banned a good half of them. We are counting days to the confiscation.
    Roughly a third of my family lives throughout western Canada. I am in awe with how little control they have over what is decided by the east. Back in the day, they ran stock on both sides of the border and it was not much different than a state or provincial border. It's also amazing how many firearms got lost in boating accidents in the late 70's and how many more were overrun and buried by landslides and earthquakes in '91.

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  4. #84
    Boolit Master Tokarev's Avatar
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    Amen to that. We can only pray now, for an asteroid or pox on someone's family.

  5. #85
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    The only cartridge that might be "useless" would be an obscure wildcat when you don't have, and no one makes, the reloading dies.

  6. #86
    Boolit Master
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    Except there is probably dies that can be made to work. I have, load for and shoot some really obscure cartridges, been there, done that.

    I have lots of "useless" cartridges, several in the same caliber and, mostly German or Austrian. I have derived much knowledge and untold amounts of fun working with each of them. None are actually useless. Redundant, perhaps, except that it is the cartridges that duplicate their 100-130 year old performance and are called "new" that are redundant. As was alluded to about the 7-08 and the 7 X 57, the same can be said of almost any "new" cartridge in any caliber. The advances have really been in propellants and, to a lesser extent, projectiles, not in cartridges and calibers though some would have you believe that.
    "In general, the art of government is to take as much money as possible from one class of citizens and give it to another class of citizens" Voltaire'

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  7. #87
    Boolit Grand Master uscra112's Avatar
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    .25 Stevens rimfire? No factory ammo since the '50s? Won't do anything a modern .22 won't do? Never were any loading dies? Last rifle made for it was in 1938?

    Now, that's a useless cartridge.

    Some of us viewed that as a challenge. Made brass. (Made it reloadable, too!) Made dies. Cast bullets. Loaded ammo. Thereby resurrecting about a half zilllion orphaned 100-year-old boy's rifles. Nostalgia quotient 1000. Not so useless after all.
    Cognitive Dissident

  8. #88
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    I agree with Sharps4590. There are scores of reductant cartridges. They are not "useless" but definitely not needed...many may be loved by people wanting something different.

    Something like the .225 Win is an example. Decent cartridge but "useless". Brass is expensive and hard to form from another case. For some folks that is fun and a challenge...for most..."useless". If I needed more than a .223, I would use the .22-250, but I do not need more than .223. For me, both the 22-250 and .225 are "useless".

    Definition of useless...."having or being of no use". Thus, something can be useful to someone and be useless to another who has different needs.

    The .225 Win is a perfect fit for that. Fun and challenging to some, pretty useless if you have something else that does the job you need doing.
    Don Verna


  9. #89
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    Quote Originally Posted by uscra112 View Post
    .25 Stevens rimfire? No factory ammo since the '50s? Won't do anything a modern .22 won't do? Never were any loading dies? Last rifle made for it was in 1938?

    Now, that's a useless cartridge.

    Some of us viewed that as a challenge. Made brass. (Made it reloadable, too!) Made dies. Cast bullets. Loaded ammo. Thereby resurrecting about a half zilllion orphaned 100-year-old boy's rifles. Nostalgia quotient 1000. Not so useless after all.
    How useless can it be?
    I shot a porcupine with one a couple of years ago! Worked just fine.

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  10. #90
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    Quote Originally Posted by dverna View Post
    I agree with Sharps4590. There are scores of reductant cartridges. They are not "useless" but definitely not needed...many may be loved by people wanting something different.

    Something like the .225 Win is an example. Decent cartridge but "useless". Brass is expensive and hard to form from another case. For some folks that is fun and a challenge...for most..."useless". If I needed more than a .223, I would use the .22-250, but I do not need more than .223. For me, both the 22-250 and .225 are "useless".

    Definition of useless...."having or being of no use". Thus, something can be useful to someone and be useless to another who has different needs.

    The .225 Win is a perfect fit for that. Fun and challenging to some, pretty useless if you have something else that does the job you need doing.
    You're not wrong, but my grandfather had a model 70 in 225 that he received as an award in the mid 60's. Spent a lot of time with him shooting gophers with a 22 and that rifle to reach out a ways. To me, that particular rifle / caliber is a time travel device.
    I'm trying to buy some brass for it right now. I didn't realize that it must be gold gilded!

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  11. #91
    Boolit Master
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    Heck, there are a ton of guns and cartridges that are 'useless' to me. If I don't shoot it, I sell it.

  12. #92
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    There are a lot of cartridges for which I've no use, but other than the 22 jet and the .256 Winchester in revolvers, I can't fault anyone who jumps up and defends any odd-ball, antique or off-the wall based on their own experience.
    _________________________________________________It's not that I can't spell: it is that I can't type.

  13. #93
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    Quote Originally Posted by Finster101 View Post
    We also used to use .22 shorts when we had a hog killin's. It is quite effective.

    I do believe some of the old, oddball calibers would be fun and effective if one had the supplies to reload for it. Newer cars are way more efficient but some of us still love the old steel of vintage cars, trucks and motorcycles. It's no different in my opinion.
    I could never seem to find shorts when I was time slaughter a hog. Just used a 22 lr. Some people have this misconception that killing a hog is like killing a dinosaur or something. I would venture a guess that more hogs and then killed with 22s than any other caliber.
    Long, Wide, Deep, and Without Hesitation!

  14. #94
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    Quote Originally Posted by pworley1 View Post
    Some calibers are more useful than others, but none are useless. By the way we use 22 shorts to dispatch our hogs. It renders them "DRT" and reduces the damage to the brains.
    I'm almost 74 and from my earliest recollection all we have ever used on hogs for butchering was the 22 short. 4 generations , same rifle with 22 shorts because it works well.

    We did use the 22 Long Rifle on the beef we butchered.

  15. #95
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    Every farmer I knew in SW Michigan used an old bolt action with shorts.
    "Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28
    Male Guanaco out in dry lakebed at 10,800 feet south of Arequipa.

  16. #96
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    Quote Originally Posted by missionary5155 View Post
    Every farmer I knew in SW Michigan used an old bolt action with shorts.
    every farmer I knew in sw PA had an old single shot bolt action with shorts. i think that is law or something, it goes with the old barn.

  17. #97
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    "...It goes with the old barn."

    Yep, .22shorts make good rat/squirrel killers Better range than older air rifles.

  18. #98
    Boolit Bub bcp's Avatar
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    No cartridge is useless if there is a gun that uses it. But sometimes it is hard to get the gun and the cartridges into the same hands.

    Bruce

  19. #99
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    I dont think of any calibers as useless, I look at them as unique. quite a few years ago I was on a mission to acquire rifles in calibers that others thought to be out of date or useless from the local gun shops I would frequent. This got me on a mission to find or make brass to fit and get dies and bullets or molds to reload, and, well now here we are many years later and some of those old ugly guns in not so common calibers are some of my favorites. this is exactly how I got to be reloading more than 50 different calibers. this is exactly why its called a hobby.

  20. #100
    Boolit Master
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    farmbif, we're paddling the same canoe....and about the same number of cartridges. I've worked with a little over 100 different cartridges in a career that started in 1963. I don't believe any are truly useless but, probably 80% of them are redundant.
    "In general, the art of government is to take as much money as possible from one class of citizens and give it to another class of citizens" Voltaire'

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check