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Why so long to develop a new cartridge?

n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427 ✭
edited October 2008 in Ask the Experts
Why does it take Ruger and Hornady such a long period of time to develop a new cartridge which could have been done by Joe Blow and a set of new reamers?

Sage 1
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    Wehrmacht_45Wehrmacht_45 Member Posts: 3,377
    edited November -1
    Because you have to make a new cartridge marketable in a crowded market of other cartridges that probably can do pretty much the same job, and because the older ones are more widely available, and often cheaper and more available at retailers.

    Joe blow who reloads can shoot a wildcat because he is not trying to sell it for a profit.
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    richbugrichbug Member Posts: 3,650
    edited November -1
    Marketing
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    tsr1965tsr1965 Member Posts: 8,682 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I agree it is all in being able to take it to market and not have it flop. It costs a bundle to tool up for production, and all the R&D.

    It is not all about a chamber reamer today when it comes to development, especially at the level Hornady has been turning out new developments. The powders they are using are proprietry blends also, and have been developed to the very edge of the performance spectrum. A hand loader can't in some cases even come close to duplicating factory ballistics. 10 years ago there was not one cartrige I could not duplicate factory performance of, or better from my reloading bench. Not so today.

    Hope this sheds some light on the subject.

    Best
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    ElMuertoMonkeyElMuertoMonkey Member Posts: 12,898
    edited November -1
    Because if Joe Blow screws up, it only costs him his gun and maybe a portion of his hand.

    If Hornady screws up, it's gonna cost them their @$$.
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    agloreaglore Member Posts: 6,012
    edited November -1
    How much do you think it cost Winchester for patent infringement on the WSM cartridges?
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    grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 53,466 ✭
    edited November -1
    Somethng called law suites
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    beantownshootahbeantownshootah Member Posts: 12,776 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Sage1
    Why does it take Ruger and Hornady such a long period of time to develop a new cartridge which could have been done by Joe Blow and a set of new reamers?

    Sage 1


    Developing *A* new cartridge is fairly easy. If they wanted to make the investment, any of the big ammo manufacturers could probably get one into limited production in a matter of a few weeks.

    Developing a new cartridge THAT ACTUALLY DOES SOMETHING BETTER (or at least different) THAN ONE OF THE MANY ALREADY-EXISTING ONES is pretty hard. Metallic smokeless cartridges have been around for a century, and in that time most of what is useful has already been done (and redone. . and redone. . and redone. . .).

    .45 ACP. . .its 100 years old, and it still works pretty well.
    .45 GAP? So you can have a *slightly* smaller grip? Who needs it?

    (Ditto for .38 special, 9mm, 30-'06, .22LR, and a host of other popular rounds).

    If your new cartridge isn't better than an already existing one, then why is anyone going to buy it? Why would any gun maker want to make guns for your shiny new cartridge if nobody is going to buy guns in that caliber?

    So now you've wasted a huge amount of time and especially money developing a commercial flop.
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