Craig Boddington was the senior contributing editor of our modern gun and ammunition caliber dictionary. Craig was involved in the development and testing of many of these and writes from first hand experience. This dictionary was written exclusively for Wholesale Hunter with unique information found nowhere else.
GUN CALIBER DICTIONARY
Rifle
308 Norma Magnum
The .308 Norma Magnum was introduced by Norma in 1960. it is based on the .300 H&H case shortened with body taper removed. Its case length of 2.5991 inches is about the maximum that can be crammed into a standard .30-06-length action. Obviously the .308 Norma Magnum lost the popularity race to the .300 Winchester Magnum (introduced in 1963), but the .300 Winchester Magnum has been criticized because of its very short neck, maximizing powder space and velocity but reducing the case's grip on the bullet The .308 Norma Magnum has a much longer neck of .3582-inch; it is thus very similar to (but generally not interchangeable with) the .30-.338 wildcat. Both the .308 Norma Magnum and the .30-.338 are often considered more accurate than the .300 Winchester Mag, but cannot be quite as fast because of slightly less powder capacity. In terms of actual performance the .308 Norma, .30-.338, and 300 Win Mag are very similar, but the .308 Norma Mag never achieved the popularity of Winchester's .300 — Craig Boddington