Yes a lot of it is about marketing but I, for one, am gald to see the WSM.s come about. The other two "short mag designs can go away though. As you can see from my post in that thread I don't like the belted cases as they serve no purpose what so ever other than to take up magazine space. I suspect that people don't like the WSM's simply cause the old belted mags that they have numerous rifles chambered in are "tried and true", what ever that means. What if the designers of the belted mags hadn't been lazy and actually designed a case that used all available space that the casing took up? We would have the WSM's and possibly standard length magnums with out the belts.


You also gotta look at past trends. The 6.5mm has never sold good in the states. You got the 260 Remington that doesn't sell, the 264 winchester that doesn't sell, and the 6.5 Sweed that doesn't sell. Why would they introduce another 6.5mm cartridge that isn't going to sell? Sure they are popular with the wildcatters and the hard core reloaders but how many of the general public fit into these two categories? If you do fit inot one of these categories then you can have virtually any chambering that your heart desires.

The fact is the 22's, 243's, 25's, 270's, 7mm's, 30's, and 338's sell in the states, that's it. With the 270, 7mm, and 30's far outselling all of the others.