If any feathers were ruffled on my account, forgiveness please!
For there are still a fair number of rifles chambered for same out there, most prolly in decent+ condition.
Getting hold of
loaded rounds has been a bit problematical for several years, as none of the major manufacturers has rolled off factory ammo for quite a while. (Dangerous Dave the Old Western Scrounger is not exactly a "major" manufacturer, No offense Dave old buddy!)
For quite a while the dealy was hang onto that brass & reload it until such point as the casings wore out...because no more were to be had, and it's not like you could "de-shorten" .223 Rem to fit!
LUCKILY: The .204 Ruger...is apparently a .222 Rem Mag necked down to twenty-calibre, so all one needs do as of last year or so is to get hold of some brass of that ilk, run it through the dies, yada yada yada...and you have some .222 Rem Mag brass ready to go!
To me--a cartridge is extinct when you literally CANNOT find any new ammo for it. (Anybody remember the Herter's .401 Powermag?)
But one can "Easycat" or "Mildcat", if not Wildcat brass in current production calibres in some instances--Jurassic Park on the Loading bench, if you will--to revive out-of-production cartridges.
(Like using .220 Swift to make 6mm Remington-Lee Navy, or .348 Win heavily reworked to make 11mm Mauser, or .38 Special shortened to make .38 Long or .38 Short Colt)
Once in a while...you're just out of luck though. .32 Long Colt being one, 7.62 x 38 Rimmed Nagant Revolver another as far as a box of loaded ammo goes. You can still use .32 Short Colt in the former--and reworked .32-20 for the latter("7.62 x 33" Rimmed Nagant Revolver), but it's just not quite the same. Only other option? Pay whatever Bertram Brass is asking and live with it.
To me--"extinct" means the ammo is no longer around outside of relict boxes turning up once in a blue moon.
And much of the time one can--if things are amenable--"clone" these Pleistocene and Mesozoic cartridges.
(.41 Swiss Rimfire...hey, sorry, that's all she wrote! Least you can still stuff .32 Colt Shortys into some of those "Calibre .320" Victorian leftovers)
Regards---
__________________
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Thee Mad Reloader (Moderator--Back in Time, Cowboy Action, Outdoor Cooking, Subcalibers)
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