Do you think that a new ban on "assault weapons" could lead to the development of new rimfire cartridges?

Question

With the renewed push for a federal ban making news lately its conceivable to think we could be facing a new law similar to the expired 1994 ban. Some states that have pushed for their own individual bans have added language so that the restrictions only apply to centerfire weapons.

There are also some extremest who want to completely ban all semi-auto rifles. If that proposal stands any chance of gaining political support it will have to come with a clause that its for centerfire only.

So its conceivable to think that in the near future there could be new federal regulations either limiting cosmetic features of semi-auto rifles or completely banning semi-auto rifles. Its entirely possible though that any such law would apply only to centerfire weapons.

If that happened, do you think the gun industry would respond with the development of new, larger, rimfire cartridges? Or possibly attempt to revive some of the larger obsolete rimfire cartridges from past generations? What do you think that might look like?

I can imagine possibly 2 new rimfire rounds. The smaller one would be designed to replicate the ballistics of the .223/.556 cartridge. Perhaps up-size it just enough to make it suitable for use on white tail deer as a slap in the face to all the people who have bad-mouthed the AR-15 as not being a hunting rifle.

Then the 2nd new cartridge would be a .30 caliber of some kind, designed to fit in with the applications of a .308 or .30-06 and suitable for elk.

John de Witt · Answer

I wouldn't think there would be that much of a market. Most people use bolt actions, lever actions, or even single-shots for medium and large game. And people who want firepower could learn to use lever and pump guns to replicate semi-autos, until their tube magazines were empty of course. It's always amazed me how many people take a lever gun down from their shoulder to load each shot.

Anonymous · Answer

Nope.  It didn't the last time.  All it did was take a marginal rifle and turn it into a bestseller literally overnight in 1994.

Rimfire isn't practical for high pressure cartridges -- the rims have to be thin enough to be crushable with priming compound in them, and that creates a weak spot where the rim could fail with modern chamber pressures.

If congress wants to introduce a new ban, this time around the news will spread faster and a LOT of Democrat heads will be on employment chopping blocks.

1994 proved that gun control is political suicide, no matter how loud the hysterical, histrionic, vocal minority gets or how big they try to make themselves seem.

What WE may need to do is REMIND them of that.  And that WE have long memories AND WE VOTE.

Equinox · Answer

You know, they used to have large bore rimfire cartridges back in the day. The big issue with rimfire is that when you grow the diameter of the base of the cartridge, the asymmetry of the primer's flame front starts to have a significant impact on the consistency and accuracy of the cartridge.

Plus, it's difficult to cover just the rim in priming compound. Instead, they just squirt some at the bottom of the case. That means that bigger diameter cartridges need exponentially more priming compound, and that gets expensive.

They used to hit the rim in multiple places to help alleviate some of the accuracy/reliability issues, but quickly abandoned those designs once centerfire comes around.

What is more likely is that we will end up with the types of guns that the UK has, where an AR-15 equivalent rifle is available, but only as a very fast straight pull or pump action version.

L.N. · Answer

Who knows exactly what, but it would lead to all kinds of Innovations to get around the ban.

Do you think that a new ban on "assault weapons" could lead to the development of new rimfire cartridges?

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