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- Oct 22, 2014
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Hornady also came out with the 376 Steyr, 30 TC, 338 Marlin Express, 308 Marlin, 300 and 338 RCM and probably others that they didn't support. They also had a temper tantrum and refused to support the 6.8 Western. They have too much influence on the industry in my opinion.
I agree Winchester does need to market better.
So that’s actually a pretty clear indication of what happens when you bring a “hunting” focused cartridge to the market where there is no large gap. The pure “hunting” community does not shoot enough ammo to justify keeping any new cartridge for long. Hunters do not drive innovation or ammo sales- shooters do. Hornady has done extremely well with “precision” or “target” focused rounds. However, if your cartridge is based on “shooters”, then it’s easy to drop a hunting bullet in it and have a great hunting cartridge too.
The 6.8 Western is another example of it. This is historically true as well- the 30-06, 308, 5.56/223, 9mm and 45 auto are, or were, all military and “shooting” cartridges first. If Hornady brought out a 7mm “hunting” cartridge that was designed as most hunting cartridges are- it wouldn’t sell either. It isn’t just marketing- saying so ignores why these cartridges continue to sell and make it, and others such as the WSM’s, 6.8 Western, etc didn’t or won’t.