Fresh off a successful coyote hunt last month in MT with our friend Luke Strommen (we saw and called to a bunch of critters and shot 3 for a special episode of Big Deer TV) Luke sent this photo that he dug out of his files:
Mike: My brother and I called in this fox off the river bottom a few years ago. I shot him with my Remington 5mm Magnum rimfire. Have you ever heard of that cartridge? Way ahead of its time. I still have the rifle and this beautiful pelt. Go Big Deer Predator Team!
I had heard of the 5mm, but I knew little about it. Some digging here revealed that the cartridge resembled a .22 WMR case necked-down to accept 5mm/.20 caliber bullets. It was introduced in 1970 in a pair of Remington bolt-action rifles (Models 591 and 592).
As Luke said, the cartridge was ahead of its time and for whatever reason, hunters did not embrace it. Those 5mm rifles were made for only 5 years. The 5mm has the dubious title of shortest lived cartridge introduced since the end of WW II.
I did learn also that the 5mm is not completely obsolete. Centurion Ordnance makes 30-grain jacketed hollow-point loads for hunters who might own one of those old Remington 5mm rifles (but this ammo is in short supply too).
Anybody ever owned, shot or hunted varmints with the 5mm?
