ORIGINAL: saladin
in my (humble) opinion the smaller wssm's - 223 and 243 - are dead in the water. browning have just had a sale in australiawhere rifles in these calibres are down to half price, coz they can't shift them. do either of these rounds do anything that something else already can't? yes, they can burn barrels and throats quicker than the standard calibres! anything that dumps a large powder charge into a narrow bore has this problem. if the case is short and fat, the problem is made even worse.
the cases are hard to make feed cleanly, too.
and with the 223wssm in particular, it is still just a 22cal projectile, and therefore just avarmint cartridge, so you'd expect to fire a lot of rounds. i'd opt for the 22/250 or 220 swift, myself.
as for the larger wssm, that might be more practical, because you wouldn't be as likely to put hundreds of rounds through it. but i still think other, traditional rounds would be preferable.
Ahhh the misinformed. The A-bolts(not sure on the Wins)have chrome lined barrels for theWssm's so they will last as long as a non-lined barrel for standard calibers. ST magazine had a huge article on this a few years backabout that misinformed rumor of these guns being barrel burners. Mostwere comparing the speeds and pressures in standard barrels not thelined barrels. After the test they noticed had no problems.
As far ashaving another caliber we dont need and not becoming popular, take a look at the 300Wsm. That is one of the most popular calibers out right now, almost every manufacturer has a gun for this caliber now. If 5 years ago you asked if we
needed another casing size to shoot a .308 bullet the answer would have been no. From all the 300Wsm sales that would have been the wrong answer.