i thin k this one just got lost in the cracks of time. The cartridge wasn't a success at the time when they had just passed the .30 cal and were trying 7.62, and 5.56 was just looming too. All this and three wars in a short time, over a twenty year period and it was forgotten. I would like to try a carbine in that chamber but they are all but unobtanium here in Canada and a registered trial experiment isn't much fun here, not with our overseers.
I'm with you Jim, love to try one, it's a facinating calibre and it would make a potent, handy little Carbine, especially in am M1A1 stock.
Mr Johnson even tried to interest US Ordnance in his 5.7mm cartridge (40 gr bullet at 3000 fps) while they were working on the 22/7,62x51 testing,
but along came the 222 Rem Special & Winchester 224E2 which cancelled out everything else
i thin k this one just got lost in the cracks of time. The cartridge wasn't a success at the time when they had just passed the .30 cal and were trying 7.62, and 5.56 was just looming too. All this and three wars in a short time, over a twenty year period and it was forgotten. I would like to try a carbine in that chamber but they are all but unobtanium here in Canada and a registered trial experiment isn't much fun here, not with our overseers.
It didn't get "lost," the main issue was (and still is) the lack of available commercial ammunition. Ed Johnson couldn't get any major ammunition manufacturer to produce ammunition. Ed tried to make it himself but couldn't produce it fast enough. He had quality problems with several smaller producers, and due to the lack of ammunition orders didn't come in fast enough to stay in business. The cartridge is a good one, but the ammunition problem hasn't gotten any better. Even if today a guy tried to re-introduce the carbine it suffers from the same issue, lack of ammunition. And rifles where one has to "roll his own" have a very small market.
And rifles where one has to "roll his own" have a very small market.
You got that right. I wouldn't worry, just make my own but I've done enough to not worry about it. The carbine here is restricted so, papers and the mags are five round. Takes all the fun out of it.
Restricted on the basis of barrel length, so if a carbine were being made up, a long enough barrel would solve that problem. At least for the time being...
Without straying into the political arena, I think we've all been shocked at the speed of new fireams restrictions in Canada, they don't seem to be letting up either...
I am certain that I posted this short story before: soon after the 5,7 and 22 Carbine Wildcat cartridges found their way into surplus M1 carbines a gunsmith offered a "kit" (not cheap) to convert your carbine in a 7,62x33 mm Kurz caliber using 308 Win cases shortened to fit the carbine magazine with a 110 gr bullet. This kit, as I remember, included a longer barrel with the gas port moved forward, the slide was modified and bolt face opened-up completely, This also included a long recoil spring. A friend asked me to help him complete this conversion on a cheap DCM carbine and I told him that I wanted no part of this project. my photo shows the 5,7mm carbine and 30 Kurz cartridges (my kurz cartridge photo was also used by Cartridges of the World some years ago)
The 7,92x33 still lives as I saw a conversion of the AR-15 to use this cartridge, custom 8mm barrel with kurz chamber plus gages (around $800 ?) and still without a working magazine !