6 Dying Rifle Cartridges that Deserve a Second Chance
BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 6 months ago
The .30 Remington AR was introduced by Remington in 2008, just in time for the Obama-inspired AR buying frenzy. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. Everybody wanted an AR15, but not for hunting, which is the 30 Remington AR’s forte. The same stupidness that would eventually lead Remington to bankruptcy pushed the cartridge into obscurity. Some early advertisements for the 30 Remington AR listed the cartridge’s 300-yard velocity as its muzzle velocity. Even more foolishly, Remington never offered a blister-packaged complete upper receiver and magazine to allow shooters an easy conversion from an AR-15 in .223 Remington.
Designed specifically for the AR-15 platform, the .30 Remington AR will push a 150-grain bullet to almost 2600 fps and a 125-grain bullet to about 2800 fps. Nothing else in the AR-15 platform comes close, and with that rifle twice as popular now as it was a decade ago, it’s time for this cartridge to return and make the AR-15 all that it can be for the hunter. Some folks get it through. Every year Melvin Forbes at New Ultra Light Arms sells several .30 Remington AR rifles in his less than five-pound bolt-action Model 20-Short rifles. I have mine and the deer in West Virginia hate me for it.
I have little interest in the rest of them, but I sure would like to see a comeback for this particular round. I missed this when it came out, probably because no one chambered a rifle for this round.
On May 24, 2021 at 11:58 pm, 41mag said:
35 Whelen was looking pretty awesome to me for a bolt gun. 30-06 brass necked up to a 35cal boolit? Kickass.
The .25-06 was really fun to shoot in a Ruger No 1 years ago. Still have some ammo but no hardware.
On May 25, 2021 at 4:00 am, Pat Hines said:
I built my first AR-15 in 6.5 Grendel caliber. The ballistics are impressive and still have a double column magazine of 25 rounds.
I’d consider an AR-308 (denoting the large frame only) in either 260 Remington or 6.5 Creedmoor, 20 round magazines work with both calibers. You can even get a complete FAL in 260 REM..
On May 25, 2021 at 3:36 pm, TRX said:
The “.30 Remington AR” is basically the .30 Enfield, which was the last iteration of their ‘intermediate’ cartridge for the EM-2. It was a decent cartridge… but Remington didn’t learn the name lesson from it’s first go-round.
I have a Remington rifle, chambered in “.30 Remington.” Not “.30 Remington AR.” The .30 Remington was designed by John Moses Browning, and was chambered in the FN Model 1900 and, later, the Remington Model 8… where it was headstamped and sold as “.30-30 Remington.” Which no doubt caused no end of customer confusion, and people picked up boxes of Remington .30-30 to feed their Winchester or Marlin and found that they had rimless cartridges which would (sometimes) chamber, but not (usually) extract… the .30-30 Remington being practically identical to the .30-30 Winchester, other than the lack of a rim.
On May 25, 2021 at 3:44 pm, =TW= said:
The Remington .30 AR looked good to me. It never caught on.
But .300 BLK did.
Meanwhile:
Wilson .300 HAM’R.
https://www.wilsoncombat.com/300-hamr/
On May 25, 2021 at 7:28 pm, Rocketguy said:
I’ve always been a fan of the 25-06. Just a great all around cartridge.
On May 25, 2021 at 11:57 pm, Ned said:
I had a 264 WM. Loved that cartridge. Eventually rebarreled the rifle because of barrel problems to a 358 Norma Mag. Have to say I like all the choices presented. Leave it to Remington to screw up the life of a cartridge as good as the 30 REM.
On May 28, 2021 at 3:19 pm, TRX said:
> I’ve always been a fan of the 25-06. Just a great all around cartridge.
Magazine experts: “Why won’t the .25-06 just DIE?”
.25-06 shooters: fill this season’s tags and see if they need to buy another box of ammo yet.
On May 29, 2021 at 4:38 pm, Pat Hines said:
@TRX,
The .25-06 is a great caliber.
In the early 1970s I bought a Ruger M77 in .257 Roberts not knowing that it was a short run of rifles. I won’t tell you what I paid. It was a “round top” which Ruger no longer makes, 24 inch barrel on a long action receiver. Back then I was big on handloading ammo for it, could load a 120 grain bullet out just short of the start of the rifling, giving me a huge space for powder in the case. I had great fun with that rifle shooting gophers out to 200 yards with 75 grain bullets at close to 3800 FPS, and used the 120 grain one time to dispatch a black bear. I still have that rifle, it’s in semi-retired status.
On May 29, 2021 at 4:51 pm, Ohio Guy said:
Most magazine writers are not riflemen. I suppose that’s why they’re magazine writers. OG