Thread: What will the hunting rifles of the future look like ?

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

to see future...maybe look at epic failures and not so popular changes in recent past...
carbon wrapped barrels....some love them,others curse them.
triangle barrels.....interesting concept that didnt catch on...
full overbarrel suppressors......they work really really well BUT you got to clean them properly.....hopefully the concept will morf into a full length overbarrel type arrangement.


suppressed shotguns...the u/o looked like spouting downpipe....awesome idea but cut off over half the market as not allowed for game birds AND need subsonic loads to make huge difference which is giant leap backwards for birdshot killing power...OK for rabbits in back yard but not lot of use at 40 yards.

tacticool...nuf said

subsonic...well its hanging in there but folks have to be very good to make it work well on game,awesome for plinking.

the mossberg 4X4 style stock.....yip interesting which brings up...

the super lightweight concept....great to carry,ok for single round..painfull for lots of rounds and can spray holes everywhere when heat up,cartridges got SMALLER to compensate with corrosponding loss of terminal oooomph for want of better term.

we seem to go around in circles with cartridge design...the funniest one I find is the 223 terminater /223-204 years ago we had 222 magnum,killed off by .223 then ruger grabbed the 222mag case,necked it down to .20 cal and the 204 ruger was born,its now neck up to .224 and is supposed to be best thing thing sliced bread,yip it works,but re invention of wheel to some degree.
the 300blkout yes we all know it was spawned to use in AR15 platform but it does nothing a 7.62x39 wasnt already doing.....and as subsonic round the OLD OLD OLD .32/20 was already doing it all be it with lighter projectile...the 30/30 still does it well too.
give pretty much any older cartridge the advantage of faster twist barrel and they can step it up with the best new jobbies.

barrel twists have gone from really slow for round ball,to fast twist for heavy splitzers then slowed somewhat for light n fast,not going faster again the projectile makers get kicked in arse for projectiles blowing up with fast twist n high speed...and again for stout projectile at slower speed not expanding enough.... monos have had huge push in last decade,they too work best fast and close.....if they keep being pushed as the have to be used,we may see bigger cartridges come back to push the monos faster to stretch range....and will need longer heavy barrel to shoot them straight and decent big stock to shoot them well.


or we will be systematically starved of components untill we all are using home rolled black powder and cast projectiles in flintlocks,or not shooting at all.

Marketing & dare I say it, influencers are the key to the success of any gun, rifle or cartridges.
The sales of 270 Winchester boomed while writer Jack O’Conner (influencer…wasn’t a thing in the 50s-60s!) sung its praises, now the 270 is on the wane, then hello the 6.8 Western is introduced…how long does this cartridge last?
The 284 Winchester introduced in the early 60s, didn’t take off, now the 7mm bullets are popular the 284 shows up again.
5mm Rem Magnum failed, 17 HMR was a winner because of marketing, what’s happened the 22 magnum as a result?
As stated previously, the art of reinventing the wheel & marketing it as something new.