Fudd Friday: The Smart and Silly of Straight-Wall Cartridge Laws
It may be a traditional pastime, but the American deer hunting world is a world of fads, and the hottest fad these days is straight-wall cartridges. These laws are intended to send hunters out with lower-powered rifles to ostensibly avoid accidental shootings. Are the new laws sensible? No, but then, how much of Fudd Land is built around sensibility? At least this is a case where politicians' ignorance is finally working out in gun owners’ favor. Maybe.
Straight-Wall Cartridges @ TFB:
A brief explanation of straight-wall laws
Most hunting rifle cartridges today have a so-called bottleneck design; the case narrows down at its mouth, like a bottle, meaning a bullet that’s .3-inch diameter is loaded into a case that’s .471 inches in diameter at the base, in the case of the .30-06. This means you can stuff more powder into the case behind the bullet, since it has a larger volume due to its increased diameter. It also means you can let the powder burn to a higher pressure, shooting the bullet out at a higher velocity.
On a straight wall cartridge, there is no bottleneck. The case is the same diameter as the bullet all the way to the base, meaning the case’s walls are straight, instead of stepped. This typically means the cartridges are lower-pressure and, in theory, lower-velocity.
Straight-wall cartridges used to be a thing of the past, mostly old revolver cartridges like the .357 Magnum or .44 Magnum, as seen below.
This meant that rifles chambered in these cartridges were typically lower-power than bottlenecked rounds. For the most part, straight-wall cartridges were only used in old lever-action rifles like the Marlin 1894 or oddballs like the Ruger 77/44.
So, some outdoorsmen thought it might make sense to get these lower-powered rifles legalized in hunting zones that otherwise prohibited rifles. These are very common in the Midwest and in some parts of the East. Worried about deer hunters blasting someone in the next county over with an errant .270 shot, regulators restricted many hunting zones to using shotguns, with slugs or buckshot. The idea was that these wouldn’t theoretically be as dangerous as rifles. So why not use lower-powered straight-wall rifles as well?
In Michigan, regulators agreed with that reasoning. In 2014, the state’s shotgun-only zone in the south changed to allow rifles with straight-wall cartridges of .35 caliber or larger. Ohio did the same soon, then Iowa, Indiana and Illinois in the following years.
Why straight-wall laws are silly
Back in 2014, most hunters using straight-wall cartridges were shooting an old-fashioned rifle with an old-fashioned cartridge. In the decade since, ammunition manufacturers have worked to deliver increasingly more powerful cartridges like the 350 Legend and 400 Legend. In other words, as soon as they saw a loophole, the manufacturers exploited it to the max. Now, they have rifles that are far more powerful than the old lever guns chambered in .357 Magnum or .454 Casull and so on.
The new straight-wall cartridges do have more drop than the classic bottleneck deer gun chamberings, but they’re getting farther and farther away from the older gun designs, and more and more dangerous at long range. To be clear, I don’t blame the cartridge makers for this at all—I applaud them. And I applaud the gun makers who are building modern rifles around these modern cartridges, getting away from the old buckhorn-sighted John Moses Browning designs. But I’m pretty sure we are now a long, long way from what the regulators intended.
Also, with proper following of firearms safety guidelines, bottlenecked cartridges are not more inherently unsafe than the straight-wall rounds that are now allowed where the other ammo is banned. And if you aren’t following firearms safety smarts, a bullet fired from a 360 Buckhammer can do as much damage as a bullet fired from a .30-30.
Finally, straight-wall cartridge laws are arbitrary and silly. A good example is the .45-70, which is a straight-wall cartridge but banned in Michigan and Iowa’s former shotgun zones due to its overall length (it’s legal in other states with straight-wall zones). While this is typical of any deer hunting regulations, it’s frustrating and is just one more silly law that frustrates hunters who are trying their best to keep up with arbitrary regulations.
The plus side of straight wall laws
The good news is, even if these laws are silly, they’re still an improvement over shotgun-only zones, and the firearms industry has adapted to the new laws quickly. Now, massive OEMs like Savage are offering their standard deer guns chambered in cartridges like 400 Legend, making it easy for hunters who don’t want to try to scope an old lever-action rifle; they can buy something like a Savage 110 in the newfangled cartridges and be ready to go.
The result is improved sales for manufacturers and busier gun counters … and maybe, just maybe, better results for hunters who are no longer confined to shooting heavy-recoiling slug guns. In an era where gun counter sales have been largely driven by fear of conflict, fuelling massive increases in self-defense and tactical sales, straight wall cartridge laws have helped the traditional hunting-oriented side of the business stay busy, and that’s good for all of us.
Professional hoser with fudd-ish leanings.
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Iowa has abandoned the straight wall cartridge law and now allows anything over .35 caliber. I don't know what they think they're accomplishing by allowing stuff like 35 whelen but not allowing a 30-06 but still, a vast improvement over the days of my youth hunting with shotgun slugs
The cool thing that the straight wall cartridge fad has created is cheap, highly effective AR ammo for deer. If you're not out West and most of your shots are less than 150 yards there is something to be said for the effectiveness of a large caliber bullet for deer. I have shot most of my deer with 357 Magnum and 44 Magnum lever and bolt action rifles. They are incredibly effective. I have never lost a deer to a 357 Magnum 158gr XTP going about 1800 FPS from my Ruger 77/357. The one buck I shot with a 44 Mag 240gr XTP (from a JM Marlin 1894) I shot facing me and the bullet traveled the entire length of the deer stopping right under the tail. I got into the 350 Legend for an AR 3 years ago and it's a really capable cartridge! It does great from a 11" barrel and doesn't gain any noticeable velocity above 16" barrels so it's great in compact guns!