There are a whole lot of cartridges out there for every use under the sun. Unfortunately, there’s a lot less knowledge about them than there needs to be. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We have a deep and authoritative knowledge base on hundreds of individual cartridges available to us. My friends, referring […]
The winds of change are coming to deer camp. States across the country are now allowing the use of straight-walled cases in what used to be shotgun-only zones for deer. Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Iowa are among the states where a somewhat new cartridge is taking the woods and fields by storm. The .450 Bushmaster […]
Many a young child got their first taste of a ‘real gun’ when they put dad’s slug gun to their shoulder. The awakening, for so many poor, innocent younglings, came rudely. Every November I get to watch the little kids wearing puffy coats and gloves struggle to see through cheap scopes and hold steady while […]
For most people out there, the .44 Remington Magnum is the ‘most powerful handgun in the world’, even if it never really held that title at the time Clint Eastwood uttered those now famous words. The .44 Mag has a special place in Americana and it stands among other immortal cartridges in our ballistic pantheon […]
The 7.62x39mm cartridge is one of the most common rifle rounds on the planet. If you’ve not heard of the cartridge, you’ve probably heard about one of the rifles that fires it: the AK-47. The popularity of the AK series rifles comes as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the worldwide […]
There are few calibers that occupy the American imagination as much as the storied .30-06. This is the cartridge that Americans used to fight both world wars, firing it from legendary weapons like the 1903 Springfield, the M1919 machine gun, and the M1 Garand. It’s also the cartridge of choice for famous hunters and adventurers […]
The Calibers for Beginners series has been dedicated to delivering fast facts about some of today’s most common, controversial, and useful cartridges in a way that’s easy for new shooters to grasp. So far we’ve looked at a diverse group of cartridges to include the ever-popular 9x19mm, the slowly dying .40 S&W, and the love/hate […]
The debate around 6.5 Creedmoor never seems to end. There have been many times where I’ve discussed this cartridge in my articles and there has always been some level of misunderstanding around it. So let’s talk about what 6.5 Creedmoor is and what it isn’t as far as a new shooter is concerned. The 6.5 […]
The .357 Magnum is a relatively misunderstood cartridge in today’s shooting world. It’s powerful, wonderfully effective, and probably one of the best all-around calibers ever made. But it’s both a great and a terrible beginner’s cartridge, depending on the load and the gun that it’s used in. On the plus side, a novice has the […]
Following hot of the heels of .223 Remington (see my earlier post here) in terms of general popularity is .308 Winchester. The .308 has enjoyed a reputation of excellence for decades and deservedly so. Most shooters that grew up before and even during the AR revolution that wanted a do-all cartridge went with the .308 because […]
There are only a few things that confuse the novice more than rifles that chamber the .223 Remington/5.56mm NATO round. The fake news media describes the AR-15 as a big, scary gun that fires 100%-all-the-time-lethal ammunition at a rate of fifteen rounds a second. In reality, the .223/5.56 (more on that small difference later) isn’t […]
The .380 ACP, also known as 9mm Short, 9mm Kurz, or 9x17mm, is one of the most important calibers of the last few years, probably even the last couple decades. Why? Simple: it’s gotten more people to start carrying than virtually all other calibers combined. The .380 has seen a massive increase in popularity thanks […]
