i certainly agree that popularity isn't the way to judge the quality of a cartridge. some excellent cartridges get killed off by ballistically inferior competitors. you're spot on about the 280. and i wonder if thereare better all-round medium cartridges than the 7mm mauser and 6.5 swedish? but how many companies chamber for them? bugger all, coz we've all gone magnum crazy. the 6mm rem is better than the .243 as well. but is it betterby enough margin to convince people to upgrade? no way. so the .243 will continue as a best seller, whilst the 6mm struggles along, kept alivelargely by remington's persistence.so (unfortunately) popularity does play a part in what is commercially viable to maintain.

Unless they can take market share from old favourites like the 22-250 and 243 ( and i don't think they'rea big enough improvement) to force other companies to chamber for them,i just feel the wssm'swill end uplike, say, the.222 magnum- ballistically impressive, but consigned to the pages of history.

i should clarify, too, that here in OZ, gun ownership is highly regulated and painfull to put up with. so we don't tend to rush out and buy the latest offering just because it's 100 fps quicker than something we allready have, or simply because we wantto ownevery calibre. there is too much red-tape and cost involved, so we a pretty careful in evaluating what is worth purchasing. perhaps these calibres will die here, butbe a roaring successin the states.