MachIVshooter
Member
Didn't the old Remington .17 get real close to 5k?
4,400-4,500 is about it.
The .17 Rem, .204 Ruger, .223 WSSM and .220 Swift are the fastest commercial rounds out there, running 4,000-4,500, depending on bullet weight and barrel length. Anything faster is so overbore that throat life is in the hundreds at best. A few wildcats and a couple of the Lazzeroni cartridges can push light-for-caliber bullets to ridiculous velocities as well, but still quite a bit short of 5,000.
The .22 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer (yes, it's real) hit 4,800, IIRC.
Weatherby did push over 5,000 with the .30-378 using custom 60 grain bullets.
.50 BMG firing .308 bullets in sabots have also been pushed to 5,200.
These and other such hyper-velocity attempts require very long barrels to achieve their numbers.
There just comes a point when all you're really doing is burning more powder, increasing chamber pressures and turning the throat into vapor.