Winchester came out with it’s Model 70 chambered for the .458 Winchester cartridge. Many professionals, including Selby, made the switch. Initially, the .458 had some growing pains, but they were finally sorted out.
This was the sad situation until a young American by the name of Jim Bell came along and started a company called B.E.L.L., standing for Brass Extrusion Laboratories Ltd. His small company literally resurrected the large bore rifles from premature deaths, by providing the means to produce ammunition for them. The .416 Rigby is among those resurrected.
Chapter 14
6mm/.244 Remington and the Name Game
The 6mm/.244 Remington traveled a twisting road on its way to gaining a foothold in the shooting world.
The 6mm Remington cartridge dimensions, and the .244 Remington cartridge dimensions, are exactly the same. However, rifles chambered for the cartridge and factory loaded ammo for each usually differ a bit.
The reason for this anomaly, at least to me it is an anomaly, makes an interesting story. Remington has done it at least once more that I’m aware of, and perhaps more than that. More later on this issue.
In 1955, both Remington and Winchester introduced similar 6mm cartridges to the marketplace. Winchester’s version was the .243 Winchester, and Remington dubbed their version the .244 Remington. The two cartridges were quite similar. Winchester made theirs by necking down .308 cases to 6mm and chambered its Model 70 and Model 88 lever action rifles for the new cartridge.
Many other manufacturers began chambering for the cartridge shortly thereafter. Winchester developed the cartridge as a combination varmint round using lighter weight bullets, and a light deer/antelope rifle using 100 grain bullets. Winchester fitted their rifles with a 1:10 twist barrel, which would stabilize all bullet weights suitable for both purposes.
Remington, on the other hand, saw their .244 cartridge as a varmint/predator cartridge and discounted any demand for it as a deer/antelope rifle. Therefore they fitted their rifles with a 1:12 twist, perfect for the 80–90 grain bullet weights, but wouldn’t always stabilize the 100 grain and heavier bullet weights that hunters wanted to use on deer and antelope. As the old adage goes, the rest is history. Winchester’s .243 became a very popular cartridge and Remington’s .244 almost withered on the vine, even though technically it offered slight advantages over the .243.
Remington finally saw the error of their ways and in 1963, they changed the twist from 1:12 to 1:9, which would stabilize all available 6mm bullet weights available on the market. Since they realized that the damage had already been done to the .244 Remington, they changed its name at that time to the 6mm Remington. With the head start of the .243, the 6mm Remington has never caught up with the popularity of Winchesters offering, but it has, as best I can tell, become a reasonably successful cartridge offering for Remington, as well it should.
The 6mm Remington has become a popular hunting round, effective on varmints up to deer.
As mentioned earlier, it offers a slight ballistic advantage over its Winchester rival. Remington chose the 7×57 Mauser cartridge as the parent case for its 6mm offering, which gives it a slightly greater powder capacity than the .308 based .243. It also provides a slightly longer cartridge neck, which most handloaders prefer, including this one. Practically speaking, however, if that is permitted these days, they are ballistic twins. What one will do, so will the other and equally well.
And now, as the late Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of the story!”
I mentioned earlier that Remington had changed cartridge names at least one other time that I am aware of. In that case, it was with the .280 Remington, the 7mm Remington Express, and back to the .280 Remington again. You’d think they would learn. The cartridge never changed, only the name, and for different reasons than the .244 vs. 6mm Remington debacle.
Winchester introduced the .270 Winchester in 1925. I’ve written about it here in this series as it is one of my designated “greatest cartridges.” Remington did not have a really similar cartridge offering so in 1957, they introduced the .280 Remington (which had been around in a slightly different guise as the 7×64 Brenneke for even a bit longer than the .270 as it was introduced in 1917.)
The .280 is basically the .30–06 case necked down to .284" with a couple slight modifications to prevent a .270 cartridge being chambered in a .280 chamber. The resulting cartridge is a very good one, in some ways a bit better than the .270, but it has never caught up with the .270’s head start.
In an effort to boost sales, from 1979 to 1980, Remington cataloged the round as the 7mm Express Remington, which did nothing for sales and confused the hell out of a lot of folks! Again, they saw the error of their ways and went back to calling it the .280 Remington.
Chapter 15
44 Magnum a Silver Screen Sensation
Through the urging of handloaders and outdoor writers, among them Elmer Keith, the .44 Magnum became a factory load in 1956. Smith & Wesson also released the Model 29, chambered for the round, the same year.
The powerful .44 magnum cartridge, along with a new revolver to chamber it, the Smith & Wesson Model 29, were introduced to the shooting public in 1956. The shooting industry finally legitimized the big .44 after years of handloaders loading up the .44 Special cartridge to handle heavier bullets at increased velocities.
Elmer Keith was a member of the group clamoring for the factories to build on their experiences and to introduce the cartridge and handguns to handle it. Elmer was a well-known and respected outdoor writer and his sermon from that bully pulpit carried a bit more weight with the industry than did the average handloader.
Keith had loaded the .44 Special cartridge substantially heavier than the factory fodder available, for a long time, and proclaimed the improvements in the “improved” round long and loud. Industry finally heeded the message and the first two production S&W Model 29 revolvers went to Julian Hatcher of the American Rifleman and none other than Elmer Keith. Bill Ruger followed suit not long after and introduced a Ruger revolver later in 1956.
As Elmer told the story in his book Keith An Autobiography (Later reworked and republished as Hell I Was There): “I wanted two things from Remington. I wanted them to factory-load my heavy .44 Special load, and I also wanted a 1-1⁄4-ounce Magnum 16-bore load that I’d been hand-loading successfully for years. There was no problem whatever on the 16-bore load. Petersen had called the boys all together, and they agreed on it right off the reel. But they were afraid of the old triple-lock Smith & Wesson .44 with my heavy loads. I told them I’d been shooting it for ten to fifteen years in the old gun I’d got from McGivern with no problems what-ever, fine accuracy, no undue pressure. However, they were skeptical of the old gun holding it. So I told them, ‘Why not make the case one-tenth inch longer and call it a .44 Magnum?’ They agreed that would be a good idea.”
The .44 Magnum utilizes a case 1⁄10 of an inch longer than the .44 Special. Increasing the brass’ length was meant to dissuade shooters from using the more potent round in the .44 Special.
In the end, Remington agreed to make the ammo, and S&W agreed to wrap a handgun around it, and the .44 Magnum was born.
The cartridge and new revolvers were popular enough after their introductions, but in a quirk of fate, the thing that really lit the flame of desire in many otherwise disinterested shooters was the release of the movie Dirty Harry in 1971 starring Clint Eastwood.