With Ruger's recent release of the Mini-300 (Mini-14 in 300 BO), there have been lots of threads considering other calibers for the Ranch Rifle / Mini platform. I posted a thread positing a Ranch Rifle in 500 S&W Magnum as a real bear of a round (mostly tongue in cheek). While not likely, I consider a real possibility to be a Ranch Rifle in 357mag and 44mag.
Consider that the Ruger 99/44, a semi-auto 10/22 look alike that was sold in 44mag caliber, had in fact a Mini-14 action on a 10/22 style stock, i.e. they have the action and the barrel. All Ruger would have to do is adapt the Mini-14 mags to hold the rimmed 357mag brass (a mag like their Mini-30 would accommodate the rimed cartridge) and then chamber it in 357mag and 44mag. Something very inexpensive and very, very doable for Ruger as they in fact have already done it.
Consider the ballistics of the 300 BO and compare those to those of a
357mag and 44mag in a 16" - 18" carbine. True, the 300 BO has a pointy
bullet for better supersonic longer range performance out more than
200yds, but for a fun gun to shoot, with a
caliber that has similar performance out to irons ranges, and one that's
considerably more economical to shoot in both commercial and handloaded
ammo, take a look at the performance of both the 357mag and 44mag in a
carbine.
Consider
the ammo. All three calibers (300 BO, 357mag, and 44mag) use the same
powders for handloading; magnum pistol powders like H110, W296, Lil-gun.
The 300 BO and 357mag have similar case capacities and they have a similar range
of bullet weights in light to medium weights (90grn to 180grn). The 300
BO and 44mag comparison shows that the 44mag case holds more powder and
therefore produces higher velocities than the 300 BO in medium to heavy bullet weights (165grn to 300grn) than the 300 BO.
Why
the
357mag caliber you say? Because
comparing the supersonic 357mag to the supersonic 300 BO in 125grn
& 140grn bullet loads using Nosler's data for the 300 BO
HERE vs Hodgdon's 125grn and 140grn bullet loads
HERE shows a very similar performance in a carbine. Because
supersonic 357mag commercial ammo is readily available from 90grn to 180grn while 300 BO isn't. Because
it's considerably cheaper to buy commercial 357mag
ammo than commercial 300 BO. Because it's cheaper to produce handloaded
357mag ammo
than 300 BO in similar bullet weights.
Why the 44mag you say?
Because for suppressed use, a subsonic 1,000fps, 300grn,
.429" bullet (44mag) produces 666ft/lbs muzzle energy while a subsonic
1,000fps,
220grn, .308" bullet (300 BO) produces only 488ft/lbs muzzle energy.
That's only 73.3% of the 44mag muzzle energy and a huge difference in
short range performance. Because
it's considerably cheaper to buy readily available commercial 44mag
ammo in bullet weights from 165grn to 300grns than commercial 300 BO.
Because it's cheaper to produce handload 44mag ammo
than 300 BO in similar bullet weights. Because 44mag subsonic ammo can
be produced in many bullet weights higher than the heaviest (220grn)
bullet of the 300 BO.