The 1960s and the decades that followed saw many rifles begin to adopt new ideas, new shapes and new materials in a drive to modernize, much as cars and watches then developed with the prevailing fashions and technologies.
Alongside these material and aesthetic changes, new cartridges became increasingly popular, with many wildcat developments becoming standardized and adopted by ammunition manufacturers for commercial distribution.
In tandem, rifle makers adopted these rounds, and many older calibers and chamberings became essentially obsolete, or at least unfashionable. For some venerable old cartridges, like the .450 N.E, the supply of ammunition dried up, and
