Stats on Most Common Centerfire Rifle Calibers?

[raindog]

I sometimes read remarks in reloading manuals or "Cartridges of the World"-type books about how a certain caliber is the second or third most common caliber. But I've never seen stats.

Just curiosity on my part. By common I mean rifles that exist that shoot that caliber in the U.S., not by number of rounds that exist. If we went by number of rounds, then the US military would greatly skew the numbers. I'm thinking more hunting/civilian rifles.

I'm going to take a wild guess that top calibers are 30-30, 30-06, 308, 270, 7mm, 223...but I don't know what order I'd put them in or the relative numbers, and I don't know what the next 10 on the list would be.

 

[holdencm9]

I am always skeptical of those claims as well. Sometimes they give an indication of what they mean by "most popular" or "most common" but other times they don't. Chances are, they are simply looking at what they see out in the real world and attributing fact to the observation.

I think your list is about right. I think .308 may creep past 30-06, and .223 ahead of .270, just for all the AR's out there. But I am just basing that on the people I know who own guns chambered for various cartridges, and how much ammo is on the shelf for each cartridge.

Other times, I think they just look at the number of militaries around the world that have officially adopted the cartridge in question, but do not consider the sizes of the forces.

One neat statistic would be the google search trends. It stands to reason that more popular cartridges are searched more often. If you look closely, obviously .223 spiked recently since talk of bans came back, but even before then, it was pretty high on the list of the 4 I searched. .308 and 30-06 track pretty close, with .270 lagging behind. This is not absolutely conclusive, but helps give an idea of overall popularity. You can even filter by time, country, type of search, etc.

 

[dcarch]

I definitely feel like there are many, many more 223s out there than it's placement on your chart. I would rate it (around here) at no. 2 or 3. But, in Iowa, you can't hunt deer with a centerfire rifle in most of the state (last time I checked), so there's not as much demand for 30-30 or 30-06.

 

[Fishbed77]

I find it hard to believe 7.62x39mm doesn't appear on that list. It seems like everyone and their brother has an SKS, and there are a lot of AK-pattern rifles out there too.

 

[raindog]

"That list" was just my speculation I could be quite wrong.

 

[rcmodel]

Hows this for official Numbers?

2011 RCBS reloading die sales:
Rifle:
1. .308 Win
2. .223 Rem
3. 30-06 Spr
4. .243 Win
5. .270 Win
6 . .300 WinMag
7. 7mm RemMag
8. .22-250 Rem
9 7mm-08 Rem
10. .300 WSM

Handgun:
1. .45 ACP
2. 9mm Luger
3. .40 S&W
4. .38 Spl/.357 Mag
5. .44 SPl/.44 Mag
6. .45 Colt
7. .380 ACP



2011 Federal loaded rifle ammo sales.
1. 30-06 Spr
2. .223 Rem
3. 30-30 Win
4. 308 Win
5. 270 Win
6. 7mm RemMag
7. .243 Win
8. 22-250 Rem
9. 300 WinMag
10. 25-06 Rem

rc

 

[JEB]

I definitely feel like there are many, many more 223s out there than it's placement on your chart. I would rate it (around here) at no. 2 or 3. But, in Iowa, you can't hunt deer with a centerfire rifle in most of the state (last time I checked), so there's not as much demand for 30-30 or 30-06.

true true. here in IA centerfire rifles are allowed for deer hunting, but only in the southern most two tiers of counties and only during the January antlerless season. im right down in the south-East so it seams like almost every deer hunter in the area has a shotgun for December and a rifle for January. from our hunting group, the most popular calibers are 30-06, followed very closely by 7mm rem mag, then 12ga, with 30-30 bringing up the rear.

RC,

all good info to go off of. looks like .223 is in a solid second place either way you look at it.

 

[RPRNY]

RC Model's extrapolative lists from published sources seems to match up with my less scientific model of informally sampling Walmart ammo shelves in TX ore Sandy Hook.

 

[Welding Rod]

Hows this for official Numbers?

2011 Federal loaded rifle ammo sales.
1. 30-06 Spr
2. .223 Rem
3. 30-30 Win
4. 308 Win
5. 270 Win
6. 7mm RemMag
7. .243 Win
8. 22-250 Rem
9. 300 WinMag
10. 25-06 Rem

rc

Wow, I find that hard to believe unless 556 is not being calculated with the 223. So much federal 223 / 556 ammo is sold by the case to high volume shooters. From what I see in local stores I would have guessed 223 / 556 would outsell 30-06 at least twice over, if not more like 5 times over, possibly even more.

 

[rcmodel]

It's very possible 5.56 NATO was not included in .223 Rem sales stats.
But you would also think they would include 5.56 NATO sales if it wasn't.

But they didn't??

It also surprised me that in RCBS die sales, more people were buying .308 dies then .223. dies.
And 30-06 came in 3rd. place ahead of .243.

Who knows?
Only the Shadow knows some things.

rc

 

[Welding Rod]

It doesn't really surprise me that more 308 dies are sold than 223. 223 is normally inexpensive enough that it becomes hard to justify the time to hand load it.

That changes some for match 223, but not that much as Hornady Match ammo from CMP still makes it hard to justify spending free time in front of the load bench.

Personally I load 223 once in a while, like if I am out of factory ammo, but shoot mostly factory loads. Anything 308 class or above I shoot almost exclusively hand loads.

 

[JEB]

It also surprised me that in RCBS die sales, more people were buying .308 dies then .223. dies.

lots of people loading for .308 target rifles to get optimum accuracy would be my guess. .308 tends to cost enough that reloading is usually worth it to most people, where as .223 is generally very inexpensive and for many people, just not worth the time to reload.

 

[Ehtereon11B]

I wouldn't go off the die sale numbers. I know plenty of shooters who buy bulk ammo for their umpteen rifles and handguns but don't handload/reload. I knocked the idea of loading back and forth for a solid two years before I decided to get into it but I know plenty of shooters who looked at the detail required and simply said "no" before hitting add to cart on a few cases of 7.62x39.

 

[jmr40]

There are probably close to 20 million 30-30's in current use and few of those guys reload. They are not high volume shooters as a rule either. 30-30 ammo sales are probably in the top tier, but I'd GUESS they are way down the list below 223/5.56, 308, and 30-06.

I'd not be surprised if more factory loaded 30-06 ammo is sold each year based on what I see on store shelves, but I'd bet more 308 ammo is reloaded and fired.

I don't think predicting this based on the number if dies sold is accurate. I don't reload 223/5.56 or 9mm because I can still buy loaded ammo cheap enough. Not worth my time or effort to me, but those are the 2 rounds I probably shoot the most. I shoot 338-06 far less than any others, but load for it because it is the only real option.

 

[holdencm9]

Yeah looking at die sales is definitely interesting, but I don't think it means much as far as number of guns in circulation chambered for that cartridge, or overall rounds shot. As others have mentioned, the more economical rounds to shoot like .223 and 9mm Luger will not be as well-represented as they should be. I have begun to reload 9mm and have dies for .223, but I have no qualms about buying it still (whenever I see it). Compared to .45 auto, the round I specifically started reloading in order to be able to afford shooting

RC, is the Federal ammo sales in dollars or rounds? If the former, I can see it being accurate, and Welding Rod's skepticism perhaps abated, since you can usually buy 80 rounds of .223 for the cost of 20 30-06.

 

[303tom]

Hows this for official Numbers?

2011 RCBS reloading die sales:
Rifle:
1. .308 Win
2. .223 Rem
3. 30-06 Spr
4. .243 Win
5. .270 Win
6 . .300 WinMag
7. 7mm RemMag
8. .22-250 Rem
9 7mm-08 Rem
10. .300 WSM

Handgun:
1. .45 ACP
2. 9mm Luger
3. .40 S&W
4. .38 Spl/.357 Mag
5. .44 SPl/.44 Mag
6. .45 Colt
7. .380 ACP



2011 Federal loaded rifle ammo sales.
1. 30-06 Spr
2. .223 Rem
3. 30-30 Win
4. 308 Win
5. 270 Win
6. 7mm RemMag
7. .243 Win
8. 22-250 Rem
9. 300 WinMag
10. 25-06 Rem

rc

Guys these are SALES, which means, more people came in and bought .30-06 than .223, they may have bought more .223, these SALES not number of rounds. If you want # of round bought, that would go to the .22 LR & yes I know that is not a center fire...........

 

[d2wing]

Thanks RC for that list. I would think that Federal List is good because it shows commercial sales which would indicate general use of rifles. This doesn't include surplus ammo or hand loads. Those figures would skew the results away from hunting rifles to high volume shooters for target or tactical use.

 

[Skribs]

I gotta say I am surprised not to see 7.62x39 or x54R up on either list RC provided, especially with how economical rifles chambered in these cartridges are.

 

[baz]

I gotta say I am surprised not to see 7.62x39 or x54R up on either list RC provided, especially with how economical rifles chambered in these cartridges are.

Most x54 is probably milsurp ammo, and a lot of x39, also. And a lot of new production in those calibers is going to be from Russia or Eastern Europe, and so not reflected in RC's figures either. I have a LOT of both of those, and none of it is Federal.