Cartridges you just hate

[Hunter-Habib]

.460 Weatherby Magnum. The recoil is absolutely brutish.

Other than that, I basically love all calibers & jump at the chance to try out a new firearm in the field whenever I can.

Come to think about it, I don’t even hate the .460 Weatherby Magnum if it’s hand loaded to reasonable speeds and chambered in a reliable control round feed action rifle.

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Anything Weatherby.

 

[CZDiesel]

458WM.....

 

[Challer]

All the short magnums.

 

[SoVa]

I don’t hate any cartridge

That being said I don’t/wont own any of the long action, non magnum cartridges. Like 30-06, 25-06, 270, most of the Mauser cartridges etc.

In my mind I’m going have a short action round or a short mag and if I go to a long action it is only for magnum performance.

 

[Raven]

I don't like .308 Win. He's a little weak for a big beast. It's not suitable for small animals either. And for the average beast, there are a large number of other calibers.

However, I have two rifles in .308 Win. I do not even know why this happened. I hunt mostly with .375 H&H Mag.

 

[ftrovato]

What makes the 30-30 great is how "handy" it is. I grew up when people had gun racks in pickup trucks and a lever action rifle was a common sight, in Idaho and Washington state. Very useful in short range hunting, utilizing iron sights, or in my case a peep sight (or ghost ring). A lever action rifle fits well in a horse scabbard too, a lot less bulk than a scoped, bolt action rifle. That makes for a better ride for the hunter. My recent hunt with a 30-30 was excellent. It's a very pleasant experience to shoot a low recoiling rifle and witness up close its still significant stopping power.

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I cant agree more or say enough about the 30-30, 32 Special and 35 Remington calibers and lever guns. Simply fun to shoot and get it done very well on anything under 250 lbs out to 125 yards...I've seen countless whitetail deer taken with them when I was a kid back in the 1960's & 70's. Every farmer in my area swore by their old Winchester 30-30 or 32 Special!

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

I don’t care for the business practices of the ammunition and firearms makers of late, hype a caliber as the latest and greatest manufacture for a few years and then completely drop them from their line.

 

[Doug Hamilton]

Well, hate may be a strong word. But it makes for a good click-bait.

In any case, lately I have been running into people who, when asked, what rifle caliber they would like to buy now, reply .308 Winchester. Now, do not get me wrong, I not only like the .308 fundamentally as a cartridge and always wanted a rifle chambered in one, but I even own a few. However, having had and still owning several, every time I get one, I wonder why I bothered. I need one for Palma style/FTR matches. But for hunting, if I shoot .30 cal, I shoot .30-06. If I wanted more power and recoil, I'd shoot .300WM or .300WSM or .300 PRC. I do not want/need that. So ought-six it is. Pretty much same availability as .308, pretty much the same price, pretty much the same choice of bullets. Actually better I'd say. So why would anyone need or want the .308? Ugly ass, short cartridge.

I also do not like .243 Win. And when I remember it is based on .308, I dislike it even more. What do you need 6mm for anyway? If I was hunting smaller animals in Europe, I'd use 6.5 of some kind. Probably 6.5x57. Or 6.5x55. Or maybe even that 6.5 Creedmoor.

I hate .25-06, yet my buddy kills deer and elk with it at distance on regular basis.

I hate .270 Win. Just Weird caliber to me. Too much recoil and blast for what it is. Plus everyone loves it "sooo much".

I used to hate 6.5 Creedmoor without ever even firing or seeing one. Probably because everyone liked it "sooo much", like the .270. So, I decided to get one to be able to substantiate my "hate". Well, it turns out, it's falling into the same bucket as the .308. Nice, yet nothing special. Wanted to hunt with it this season but did not get out enough, so was not successful in filling my tags. So, jury is still out. But it only sends 140gr bullet at 2625 out of my 20" barrel. Switching to 130gr Terminal Ascent, I can send it at 2718fps, so good enough to 400m or so. But even if it kills deer well, I hate Short Actions and will go back to 7mm for hunting...wait, maybe that is why I do not like the .308 or .243. Maybe it's that one is really limited by the COAL of these. But at least I like the 6.5CM more than the .308 and will probably use it to replace 6.5x55 to punch paper and shoot occasional coyote.

I dunno. I also hate .416 Rigby. I like how it looks, I hate the recoil, muzzle blast and concussion.

I also do not like Weatherby cartridges, belted cartridges (except .375H&H, .458 Lott), magnum cartridges, big kickers - like the .416 (except .458 Lott and have yet to try .404 Jeffery), rimmed cartridges, any weird ones. I almost wonder why I like anything at all. Maybe I'm getting old and crusty.

I used to like .458 Lott but it's no longer with me. Same with .338WM and .300 WM. Who needs all that recoil and blast anyway? That .338 sure killed good though.

I do like .22 LR, 7x57, 7x64, 280 AI, 8x57, 9.3x62, 9.3x64, .375H&H (though once I shoot up all the ammo it's gone).

I also like 8mm-06, 338-06and 35 Whelen never even firing one of these - so you could say I like things based on 30-06, rather than .308. But I kind of like the 6.5CM, yet do hate that .25-06 and .25 or .277 anything.

I also like .505 Gibbs, .50 BMG not having fired either of these. So how do I know if I like them? Would probably hate the recoil and concussive blast.

I might like 7mm-08 even though it's based on .308, but then I'd probably go for 7mm SAW or 7 SAUM if I wanted a SA 7mm.

Now...Do NOT take this post as criticism of YOUR favorite cartridge (should it happen to be one of the ones I do not favor) but rather as a statement that I recognize I may have completely irrational dislike for some cartridges and still end up owning them, shooting them, but for some unknown reason still hating them. Then one tries to figure it out and comes up with some reasons or rationalizations behind the dislike. Yet it all seems false in some way. In the end I like that we have so many different cartridges to choose from.

However, the main reason for this post:
Do you also hate or dislike some specific cartridge or class of cartridges? For real reasons or just so? Are we nuts? Am I?

I have to agree on the .308 and .243. We called one the Wee-oh-eight, the cartridge would hat wanted to be a .30-06 when it grew up. The other one because it was too much of not enough. I do have a 7-08 that I like though. Go figure.

I never cared for the 8mm Mauser either. Back in the '60s when the Mauser rifles were cheap and easy to come by, the available ammo was seriously under loaded.

 

[CoElkHunter]

I don’t care for the business practices of the ammunition and firearms makers of late, hype a caliber as the latest and greatest manufacture for a few years and then completely drop them from their line.

Hornady and their proprietary cartridges left in the powder dust bin of time and leave the rifle owners holding a tomato stake.

 

[450 Dakota]

270 win, give me a 280 or 30-06. 308, I’ll take the 30-06 again.

 

[cash_tx]

Yeah, unfortunately I remember during the height of the recent ammo/component shortage, you could buy any ammo you wanted as long as it was 6.5 Creedmoor because there was nothing else on the shelves. You could also buy any rifle you wanted as long as it was chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor because that’s 90 percent of what stores had in stock. Hornady and their partnered rifle manufacturers played all of us when OUR chips were down and that’s why I’ll NEVER buy one. Sometimes we have to stand for something or we’ll fall for anything.

Interesting; we had a near-opposite experience here in North Texas during the last buying panic. 6.5 CM was one of the last to reappear on the shelves in significant quantities (I assumed due to demand), but you could find all the 350 Legend and 458 SOCOM that you could ever want; even during the worst of it.

 

[0002S]

.270 and 6.5CM

 

[Desaad]

I like to make fun of the 6.5CM just because of the ridiculously over the top marketing hype and lofty claims. I'm sure it is a fine cartridge but people act like it is superior to every other cartridge ever made. IMO it is not. Based on the ballistics it is underpowered for my personal preferences.

 

[Neil Molendyk]

.22 birdshot. Anyone ever actually able to kill a bird with that stuff?

sparrows in a barn loft

 

[Red Leg]

I do not "hate" any, but I do find mildly ridiculous the excitement over new developments that essentially mimic creations of a century ago. For instance, the whole 6.5 revolution largely imitates a family of cartridges that have done the same thing since very early in the last century. The 6.5x54, 6.5x55, 6.5x57 are wonderful medium game loads that perform today just as well as they did when they were created when Kaiser Wilhelm II was still ruling Germany.

 

[CoElkHunter]

I am dubious about belt cartridges. And aesthetically, and I'm not sure about smooth feeding. But I like rant cartridges. 7.62x54R. Just like the usual ones. 8x57.
It is a pity that it was not possible to resuscitate the "Russian Berdan" 10.75x58 R.

The 7.62x54 is a very good and accurate cartridge. I had two Mosin Nagant 91 rifles one M44 carbine. The recoil of the M44 was terrible but the 91s were very nice.