I’ve seen a few people mention the new 7.62x40mm WT cartridge but never read any real detail about it. Thankfully a guest blogger over at The Firearm Blog has the scoop. Basically the 7.62x40mm is a .223 casing necked up to accept a .30 bullet. It’s also yet another caliber I’ll toss onto the list of cartridges that seem like a good idea but are obscure and thus will be prohibitively expensive and difficult to come across.
I like having my guns in fairly common calibers even though I reload all my own ammunition. For instance my main handguns are in .45 ACP while my main rifles are in 7.26x51mm (can you tell I have a preference towards larger calibers). Both are common as they were military issue leading them to be easy to find. Likewise I can go to the range and find discarded casing for either which allows for some cheaper reloading.
I’ll give credit to Wilson Combat for coming up with a cartridge based on the .223 which is as common as water now. My bet is that this new cartridge will join the 6.8 and 6.5 on the list of cool but uncommon rounds and I still want to get but probably never will. Still the idea of firing a .30 using a standard AR lower is neat.
It’s also yet another .30 round based on the .223 case. Last time I checked there were like six. All of them valiantly striving for acceptance and market share.
.300 AAC Blackout looks like the best contender of them to make it.
I still have hopes that 6.8 will stop being so obscure. I’ve seen it at several gun shops now at least.
As a fan of larger calibers I wouldn’t mind a nice .30 that can be used in a standard AR-15 lower but it seems while everybody and their grandmother is making such a cartridge none of them are really catching on. I think what is needed is such a cartridge to gain a decent level of acceptance in military applications as that usually seems to increase the popularity of a cartridge.