Why the Myriad of "Stuff"

[scattershot]

If you handload, the list gets even shorter. ..LR, .223, and 30/06.

For handguns, .22 LR, .38/.357, .44 magnum.

But, as pointed out above, variety is the spice of life.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Slightly embarrassed to tell you back when I was working the Shows,
Long Gun wise - I kind of specialized in LH Rifles.
And at different times I had 2 LH Mauser 3000s in 375 H+H.
Didn’t shoot either one!
And didn’t even keep any Rounds!
What was I thinking?

 

[Sixgun100]

I could almost buy into what the OP is saying, almost. I have .327 Federal Magnum and .41 Magnum more about the platforms than the caliber……..

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Well...............................

Marketing is one thing, and I agree with that.

Variety is another thing, and I agree with that, too.

Another thing is military requirements. Armies often get dissatisfied with their older weapons and want to update them so they either determine some other caliber is better/more to their liking/etc., or some weapon "system" is better/more to their liking/etc., and the ordinance people find weapons and cartridges to satisfy the new requirements or they develop new weapons and cartridges. Then, whether it is here in America or somewhere else, the population adopts the new military preference and VOILA!!!....you have added to the list.

Further, some calibers are minimum required for hunting in this or that state/country/county/etc., so guns and cartridges are designed to fit those requirements.

And I am not so certain that the several calibers mentioned by the OP are all that we ever need, anyway. YMMV

 

[DWalt]

If there were no rifle calibers other than .22 LR and .30-‘06, not many would suffer. If there were no handgun calibers other than .22 LR and .38 Special, same thing.

 

[Dave Lively]

Dang you just sparked a memory, I had forgotten all about. 55gr 30-06 with sabots geeezzz what was that late 80's early 90's? Seems I bought a box of em Remington IIRC? I forget the stated velocity? 3,500 FPS or something in there?

Long time ago. Again if memory serves I couldn't hit the side of a barn with them standing in it.

Remington accelerators. They advertised 4080 fps in a 30-06. A friend bought some in the early 80s and we tried them out on a couple of cans of Coke and some water jugs. Didn't have a chronograph but they hit a lot harder than a 223 or even a 22-250. As I recall the bottom of the Coke cans were still on the ground but the rest of the can was shredded into small pieces. Maybe they really were over 4000 fps.

Accuracy was better than your results. It was a long time ago but I think we got about a 3 or 4 inch group at 100 yards which was about twice the size of groups with 180 grain ammo. Fine for blasting cans and water jugs at 20 yards but not exactly a varmint round. Turning your deer rifle into a varmint rifle is what they were supposed to do so the lack of accuracy was a serious drawback. There were also some politicians worried the sabot would make it impossible to link a fired bullet to specific rifle and actually tried to ban them on that basis. If they knew anything about guns they would have been worrying about the bullet completely disintegrating at that velocity.

To the OP's question, while isn't really any need for that ammo it was fun to experiment with.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

Barnes COTW was intended largely as a reference manual, for which use it is excellent. Today there are probably several on-line resources for comparable information, but 40 and 50 years ago COTW was THE resource. Practically a complete reference library on the evolution of cartridge ammunition over the years.

Why all the variants? Some folks (like me) dreamed, schemed, and pondered over the bestest-super-duper-ultimate-whizbang-whatever, and some came up with what we thought would be THE SOLUTION. Couple of my brainstorms were:

-.223/5.56 case necked up to 6mm, shooting 90-100 grain bullets at ~2500-2600FPS. The rifle was the Interarms Mini-Mark X mauser action, light sporter profile barrel, Weaver lightweight scope mount, 3X scope. Just under 7 lbs., easy to carry all day and good performance on medium game (deer, antelope) out to about 250 yards. I called it the 6X45mm.

-.308/7.62NATO case necked up to .338 shooting a 225-grain RM-FP cast lead gas check bullet at ~2100FPS. Rifle was a Remington 700 short action, light sporter profile barrel, lightweight Weaver scope mount, 4X scope. Just over 7 lbs., easy to carry in the mountains chasing elk in the 450-700 lbs. range. I called it the 8.5X51mm.

The 6mm idea is very similar to a half-dozen others that came along after my experiments of the 1980s. The 8.5X51 was eventually standardized as the .338 Federal (although they forgot to mention my earlier efforts).

I also played around with the wildcat .38/45, a 1911-style pistol using a .38 Super barrel rechambered to take the .45ACP case necked down to 9mm/.357 bullets. Moderately popular in the 1970s.

 

[Frank46]

I'm old fashioned. 30-30, 308, 30-06 7.62x54r. Ask me in about ten years if all the so called wonder cartridges are still around as well as me. Frank

 

[Fishinfool]

I load for 16 different cartridges. I don't need 16 different cartridges for my particular needs.

But, I often buy guns based on my like of that particular gun / design. It could be the blueing on that particular weapon, or the fancy walnut stock. Caliber is often a secondary consideration, hence the 16 different caliber die sets.

Once had a Winchester model 70 African in .458 mag. I had no need for an elephant rifle, but it was a beautiful rifle, and at a really good price. Turns out it was an excellent and pleasant shooter with 400 grain cast RN's at about 1800 fps. Who would of thunk it...

Larry