| 9.3x57 |
| (.450 member) |
| 19/02/24 01:41 AM |
|
Re: 378 Weatherby: Why is it still around?
|
Quote:
Certainly is the cartridge 378 Weatherby Magnum primarily a matter for reloader.
However, the cartridge 378 Weatherby Magnum was initially presented as the ultimate big game cartridge. The following cartridge 460 Weatherby Magnum owes its birth only the cartridge 458 Winchester Magnum. Unfortunately was the cartridge 460 Weatherby Magnum not a great success either.
You just dug up a memory I have of reading the .378 pitch, more or less that it would obsolete every other dangerous game caliber which of course as we know it did not. But Weatherby was a marketer and looked for empty slots in the caliber roster where he could pitch a line never before pitched.
TBH I think this was Elmer Keith's angle as well. I'm a fan of Elmer's writing and he got me out of a lot of potential trouble as a kid but he was a poverty-stricken, failed Idaho rancher who possessed great observation skills and a knack for homespun writing and...found a niche in declaring that calibers like the .30-06, etc were inadequate for elk and more or less marginal for deer! Elmer was something of a fan of the .378 as well and did recognize it was NOT a prime buffalo and elephant round but great on other species (where frankly, sorry, Elmer...even the .30-06 does good work!)