.21 Sharp???????

[CAJUNLAWYER]

American RIfleman has given the coveted "Ammunition Product of the Year" award to something called a .21 sharp, a rimfire cartridge that is not a heeled bullet but fits inside of the (I am assuming) standard .22 LR. cartridge. I suspect it will go the way of the .17 Mach 2 rimfire.
Why did they make it? To sell of course. Problem of using lead free ammo in the rimfire rifle is pretty much solved with the .22 magnum-just make lead free cartridges for it-problem solved. This new cartridge will necessitate buying a whole new rifle as from what I read, the bore of a standard .22 lr. will be slightly oversized resulting in the same accuracy as shooting a .22 lr our of a .22 magnum barrel in the convertible revolvers. Can think of absolutely no reason to own one.

 

[Pisgah]

Well, that makes two of us...

 

[Narragansett]

Will Winchester make a rifle for it?
I think they only make a few guns now in Turkey or Japan.

I don’t think too much of Winchester or Remington any more

 

[THE PILGRIM]

It looks the answer to a question that nobody asked.

 

[gdogs]

They made a huge mistake by not having 10k 10/22 barrels ready to go upon release of the ammo. I would have bought a takedown barrel without question. Better than a 22lr, probably not, but a simple forend swap and I could shoot it... yeah, no brainer.

 

[Dave Lively]

The 21 Sharp might have won by default. If not the 21 Sharp what should have won the "Ammunition product of the year" category?

Not a whole lot going on in terms of ammo recently. I might have nominated brass case 9mm selling for less than $.24/round again but that's not really anything new.

 

[DWalt]

And then there was the 5mm rimfire and the Remington EtronX electric primed rifle and cartridge. Both very successful. Maybe someone will revive the 5.5 Velo-Dog.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

And then there was the 5mm rimfire and the Remington EtronX electric primed rifle and cartridge. Both very successful. Maybe someone will revive the 5.5 Velo-Dog.

Don't forget to add the 45gap...........I predict the 21 shrp and the 30SC will be dead in 3 years and forgotten if 5....Redundency isn't smart.

 

[Oldsalt66]

I don't expect that the small improvement in terminal ballistics over those of.22lr will be sufficient to increase the cartridge's usefulness to the extent it would make it worthwhile for shooters to adopt it.

Its true raison d'être is to move rimfire shooters towards lead free ammunition.

 

[chief38]

Nothing new with this sort of practice. Company's are always looking to sell new and more product and by inventing "in between" calibers they are trying to market something new and exiting. This has happened for many decades - mostly unsuccessfully but they never give up. Remember the 357 maximum, 41 magnum, 45 magnum, 17 H&R, 30 carry, etc. They rarely get any substantial traction and as the late Paul Harrell alwys said, "not enough difference to make a difference"! I guess that's just the American way.

 

[TJm15.38]

Not in the market for this caliber or it's associated rifles. I'm destined to shoot .22lr for the rest of my remaining life.

 

[6string]

The American Rifleman also published a sham of an article touting this nothing-burger cartridge, a month or two before that “Golden Bullseye” award, itself nothing more than a participation trophy given to their preferred advertisers.
The author of the article didn’t just push credibility, he tossed it in the trashcan!
He described how the 22 LR is an obsolete cartridge, totally unreliable because of the “19th century technology” of rimfire ignition, the heeled bullet, etc…
He touted his credentials on the matter of cartridge technology based on a visit he supposedly once took to the CCI rimfire facility.
Of course, he ignored the fact that the 22 LR is perhaps the most studied and refined cartridge in the history of self contained ammunition. He ignored the decades of research invested by companies such as Eley, Lapua, RWS, Anschutz, Hämmerli, and literally countless others, to make the 22 LR the Gold Standard of ammunition in the world of precision shooting. Quite literally, the 22 LR is the ONLY combustible ignition, self-contained cartridge used in every ISSF target shooting event requiring a single projectile.
Conveniently, the author ignores all of this.
Perhaps the National Matches, every smallbore junior rifle program, the Olympics, the World Cup, the Pan Am Games, etc, are all wrong?
Our expert authority on staff at AR is seeming more concerned with what really matters to him: how much “red mist” he could splatter while slaughtering small animals. And, incidentally, by his own admission, there was little to be gained by that questionable metric.

But, the advertiser says “jump”, and the corporate shill says “how high”?

Sorry Winchester, but I hope you eat this dud.

 

[rockquarry]

Some people need and want just about anything that's new. That's where the market is. The product doesn't have to be useful.

 

[chief38]

Every organization is always going to prop up and tout whoever is paying their salaries and supporting their agenda. The American Rifleman IS the NRA. The NRA is no different than any other publication, corporation or entity. So as far as they award going to the new cartridge, it's all smoke and mirrors. If the cartridge was a success, the publication would have gotten more advertising dollars. Quid Pro Quo - nothing more, nothing less. That is just how the world works.

Fortunately I do believe the shooting public sees right through this one and Winchester is more than likely going to have a giant, expensive, flop on their hands. Will they learn from this? Absolutely not! Will they repeat it in the future? Of course!

 

[Dave Lively]

Nothing new with this sort of practice. Company's are always looking to sell new and more product and by inventing "in between" calibers they are trying to market something new and exiting. This has happened for many decades - mostly unsuccessfully but they never give up. Remember the 357 maximum, 41 magnum, 45 magnum, 17 H&R, 30 carry, etc. They rarely get any substantial traction and as the late Paul Harrell alwys said, "not enough difference to make a difference"! I guess that's just the American way.

Given how popular 10mm is these days if the Winchester 45 magnum was a new cartridge instead of an old, dead one it would probably take off. The number of people that want and will buy a gun for bear defense is much higher than the number of people that actually need one. The 45 magnum is much more powerful than 10mm and fires heavier bullets. In my opinion its too powerful for a conventional handgun but all the 10mm fans constantly searching the most powerful 10mm ammo available would probably disagree. It strikes me as the semiauto equivalent of the S&W 500. If it was reintroduced enough people that want the strongest cartridge available in a semiauto handgun would buy it to keep it around.