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It's nice yours is bigger than mine but you just glossed over my belted case. Since it is a real Magnum case it will withstand higher Copper units of pressure. With a faster powder I can do more with less. Just being the biggest doesn't make you the baddest.By the way, I've been shooting a 35-284 XP pistol for 30 years. Everything old is new again. Enjoy your wildcat , I enjoy mine. Nowadays however I'm amazed by the smaller calibers like the .204 Ruger.
 
I haven't seen anything do better than the tried and true 5.56 or 7.62 NATO for the intended purposes of my rifles. I don't game with PR matches and up to 500 yards there is virtually no difference in drop using the same hold between any 6.5 and the 30 US service cartridges. Since the Graced-by-god-Grendel and the Jesusmoore appeared, people act as if suddenly and I stantly overnight...5.56 and .308, or any other caliber couldn't kill or make tiny shot group holes anymore.


I have shot both wonder 6.5's. There was nothing magical at all and I left disgusted by the false claims of it's fan base. They both recoil. They both have a drop that needs to have dope for the hold. There's more recoil with the Godendel and slower follow ups than a .223/5.56 when time matters because shot timers don't lie, and the Jesusmoore recoil was maybe a five percent reduction than a .308 and it made no difference with the wind using the same hold as a .308 at 500.


Not slamming them, just putting it out there about the reality of it.


And I don't do PCC's as a serious rifle caliber. Handgun cartridges stink at killing things, something that an expert like Dr. Martin Fackler has proven through actual documentation stats while serving our country during war. And there's a good reason why the SMG was replaced by the rifle carbine. Overpen is a legitimate concern with a handgun cartridge and lacks sufficient range which was learned the hard way by our best of the best high speed LE and SF units who's bread and butter is in direct action for the most.


Anyway, I digress. For SHTF, my do all is any of my AR15's. And if I need a longer range, I still have 308. I don't plan on needing to engage past 500 in a true SHTF fight, because if I can't identify friend from foe past 500 which is normal for most everyone even using good glass, then a gamer cartridge is worthless really.


Just my humbled and yet very experienced opinion, speaking for myself only.
 
I like the .223, cheap to reload, accurate, easy on the body. I like the 25-06, make brass out of 30-06, 75 gr. Hornady at around 4000 fps. if needed, good all around deer and antelope round. 45/70 Ruger #1 300 gr. Barnes original @ 2700 fps. excellent Elk round, two one shot kills (Dropped where they stood.)
 
. . . you just glossed-over my belted case. Because it is a real Magnum case it will withstand higher copper units of pressure.
The belt on a magnum case is both useless and worthless. It's there because Roy Weatherby (ever the salesman) convinced post-war Americans that his rifles were so powerful, the ammo needed belts to contain all the pressure. If a belt is so exponentially required on a magnum case, why are belts so abysmally lacking on the 300RUM and the 375 Ruger? The 300WSM, 270WSM, 7mmWSM and the 325WSM do not have belts. Maybe these Winchester cartridges are not really magnums? The 300RCM has no belt. The 300 RSAUM has no belt. The 7mm Ultramag has no belt. The 30 Nosler has no belt. The 338 RUM has no belt. The 338 Lapua Magnum has no belt. Is the 338 Lapua Magnum not really a "magnum" because it has no belt? What all of those rounds have, save for the Lapua, is a head of 0.532 inches in diameter. It's the head diameter that defines a shell as a magnum, not the presence of a belt. The 270 Winchester (no belt) generates 64,000 psi when loaded with a 150-grain jacketed bullet propelled by 55.7 grains of H4831. The belted 350 Remington Magnum generates 50,000 psi when loaded with a 200-grain jacketed bullet propelled by 58.0 grains of H335. Of these two, which one is "more the Magnum?" In terms of pressure, it's the 270 Winchester. In terms of head diameter, it's the Remington.

The belt is just marketing hype-- nothing more. In the early 1960s, everybody wanted to be shooting the biggest, baddest shell to be had. The manufacturers spun the tale that belts were necessary to contain just slightly more energy than was released when the atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It was all advertising bullschumer, pure and simple. The ammo is still available today because so many rifles have been made over the last fifty-some years.

My Sierra Stomper is the result of me wanting to see what my .300 Nevada Desert Magnum would look like as a .358-caliber thing. The .300 is the result of me wanting to save a $2300 stock when it was sadly discovered that 300WSM cartridges do not feed very well in a long-action receiver. I needed a long-action shell that was of a magnum face, but the belt and short neck on a .300 Win Mag did not appeal to me. The 300RUM burns too much powder, so that was out. The solution was to design my own shell, which I did. The .300 Nevada Desert Magnum has a case capacity almost exactly between the volumes of the .30-06 and the 300 Win Mag. It's about 16% greater than an '06, and about 9% less than a 300 Win Mag. The 300NDM is what the .30-06 Springfield would be if the '06 was built on a magnum case. You could go so far as to call it a .30-06 Springfield Magnum. It has proven itself to be a very accurate cartridge (in my rifle) and even has fooled one person who thought it was a 300 Win Mag. When I asked him where's the belt, he was flummoxed.

Pressures are no longer measured in CUP; not very accurate. It's done with piezo-electronic equipment that measures psi down to single-digit values. I'll hazard the guess the CUP method went the way of the do-do bird in the later 1980s.
 
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The 204 makes far too much noise to be out on the desert in close proximity to another shooter who has one. I speak from personal experience...
Use a can then. Then wear hearing protection. Or just properly sealed ear pros. Problem solved.


And it's not particularly smart let alone safe to be in close proximity of any rifle that shoots something that breaks the sound barrier.


I have a few cans. I always wear electronic ear protection because anything going mach is really not good for the ears even when going through a can.
 
Use a can, then. Then wear hearing protection. Or just properly sealed ear pros. Problem solved.
He who owns the very loud 204 Ruger in question would never put a suppressor on any of his rifles. "He" is not me but rather my best shootin' buddy, JR. JR is old school; he looks at AR-type rifles as for nothing other than killing people. He and I have been friends for almost fourteen years. I have asked him many times if he might want to shoot a group with one of the ARs I might own. He has never once taken me up on the offer. The last semi-auto rifle he fired was the Garand issued to him in the Marine Corps in 1957.
 
He who owns the very loud 204 Ruger in question would never put a suppressor on any of his rifles. "He" is not me but rather my best shootin' buddy, JR. JR is old school; he looks at AR-type rifles as for nothing other than killing people. He and I have been friends for almost fourteen years. I have asked him many times if he might want to shoot a group with one of the ARs I might own. He has never once taken me up on the offer. The last semi-auto rifle he fired was the Garand issued to him in the Marine Corps in 1957.
Sounds like he isn't well versed on what a can really does to make it worth his while then. And he sounds at no disrespect to you or him, but rather uneducated as far as gun sense goes. I dunno though; if he thinks AR types is only for killing people and yet it's becoming wildly popular with hunters due to the mainstream of boutiques that fit in a small frame AR that is humane to hunt with, yet does not want a can therefore he's being unknown to him hostile to people in the near area of fire by startling them who are unused to rifle fire and being hearing safety hazard to his friends that isn't sporting or even a friendly thing to do.

He needs to be educated. That is exactly the reason that our mall operator radicals get upset about which fuels our own division even more to the point past where no one will listen to others no matter how wrong they really are.
 
And he sounds at no disrespect to you or him, but rather uneducated as far as gun sense goes. He needs to be educated.
JR has been using guns since the middle 1940s; he knows quite a few things about them. He's retired, so the costs of a suppressor must take a back seat to the living expenses of both he and of his wife.
 
JR has been using guns since the middle 1940s; he knows quite a few things about them. He's retired, so the costs of a suppressor must take a back seat to the living expenses of both he and of his wife.
I reckon that I too know a thing or two about guns myself. But with this being said, I just don't act as if I'm the only one who shoots, hunts,or daily carries and no one else but me knows what's best for everyone else. That's the actual point here. I mearly stated that a .204 traveling at close to mach 4 is still just as ear damaging as a 223 going mach 2 and if a brake is being used, it's even worse no matter the caliber. The other guy likes 204, you seem to not and were both going at it based on semantics. I provided a solution to a problem that can be avoided. Don't shoot so close, use proper ear protection that correctly is rated for and actually seals. No more problem.


Take care.
 
Don't shoot so close...
As I recall, I was about 30 feet to the side. The noise was sharp, like a 16d nail to the ear. He's never brought it again when we've gone out to shoot. He had Hill Country Rifles rebarrel a bolt-action .223 and he's enamored with its 3/8" groups. We usually sit with a bench between us when we go to an NRA-recognized range. JR doesn't hear very well so we sit far enough apart to stay out of each others' way when we're out in the desert, but still close enough for me to shout at him and have him hear me. He wears custom-molded ear plugs with muffs over top of those, so I have to really shout.
 
I loved shooting 30-06 in the 1918 B.A.R. Now the gun is some fun. It's a heavy one too i was barealy able to shoulder fire, but I did it. The 338 win mag is a good one too. I have a browning a-bolt in that caliber
 
Since I do shoot a .204 and have done so through three different rifles and over 700 rounds, I can honestly say that no one has ever complained about the noise. I shoot at the local sportsman's club where everyone wears ear protection as a rule. The only complaint I have ever seen is by a friend sighting in a new BAR in .338 with a muzzle brake. He quit after five rounds because of the complaint.
We resumed at an abandoned quarry being the only ones at this location. Ear and eye protection are worn by myself and provided to any spectators when I shoot. I also mainly shoot.223, .308, and .22lr as my main rifle caliber choices. I still have been amazed by the accuracy of the .204 Ruger round in both bolt action and AR type rifles. Yes , l am an old guy who has been shooting for over 50 years. Many tens of thousands of rounds in handguns, rifles, and shotguns. I have a nice collection of shooting and collectibles that have taken me a lifetime to come by. If you are ever near me shooting and have a complaint about the noise from one of my rifles or pistols, you can be sure I will stop. As a side note I perceive the sound from my .460 handgun as louder than my .204 rifles. Not scientific, just my own perception.
 
I loved shooting .30-06 in the 1918 BAR. Now, the gun is some fun. It's a heavy one, too. I was barealy able to shoulder-fire it, but I did.
My friend JR carried the BAR when he was in the Corps in 1957-59. He was a big, lanky kid from Hartville, Missouri back then and had such long legs that he could outrun the whole platoon. His hearing was destroyed at a young age because his dad owned a sawmill and had JR as a nine year-old work under the headsaw sweeping-away the sawdust. JR originally carried the guidon but he couldn't hear the cadence, and he'd keep running forward after the platoon had turned and run in another direction. To put an end to this one boot running off by himself he was relieved of the guidon, given the BAR and placed at the rear corner of the platoon.
 

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