SOMETIMES a new cartridge starts out full of promise but fails to gain the kind of popularity it deserves and gradually fades into obscurity. The .307 Winchester was one. It was intended to give the company’s Model 94 Angle Eject XTR lever-action the extra reach and power of a .308 but it failed to dethrone the good ol’ .30-30. This was a shock because the .307 was a relatively simple redesign that produced a worthwhile ballistic advantage over the ancient .30-30.
The .307 has become so redundant that the current Nosler and Speer reloading manuals don’t list data for it.
The development of the rimmed .307 cartridge began in 1980 and it was introduced in a revamped Winchester Model 94 XTR Angle Eject carbine in 1983. The Angle Eject was an improved version of the Model 94 Big Bore XTR which had appeared in 1978 chambered for the powerful .375 Winchester, an accelerated version of the old .38-55 that worked at the relatively high pressure of 52,000 CUP. The .375's heavy recoil didn’t win many friends and it eventually faded away.
Outwardly, the 94 Big Bore had the same traditional configuration as its .30-30 counterpart but the
