It was early afternoon, and I'd just arrived in Texas for a deer hunt. We gathered our stuff and headed out to the range to sight in our rifles, but when I opened the case, instead of finding the new lightweight Lazzeroni Global Hunter that I'd planned to shoot, I discovered a Savage 110. Both the Savage and the Global Hunter were in cases in my gun locker, both with tags that read ".308 Patriot." Yes, I had grabbed the wrong gun.

The .308 Patriot from John Lazzeroni predates short-action magnum offerings from both Winchester and Remington, and its capabilities prove their worth on tough shots such as this whitetail, killed at relatively long range and in heavy wind.

Lucky for me, it was chambered to the cartridge I had brought with me, the .308 Patriot, which, while a bit much for deer, produces astounding velocity from such a short case, and various Patriots have produced some of the tightest groups I have ever shot. But it had been years since I'd shot the Savage, and I'd never shot it with the 180-grain Swift Scirocco load I had with me, so I had no idea if it was zeroed and less idea if it liked the Scirocco.

The first shot from that long-unfired rifle with the untested load was almost centered at 100 yards. A second shot was right beside it. I counted my blessings and walked away from the bench.

John Lazzeroni's thick, stubby cartridges literally define short and fat. The family was created by cutting his monstrous full-length case down to size, and as with the full-length cartridges, Lazz has necked them to every sensible caliber (and some that are a bit whimsical).

As short cartridges go, all are the fastest in their class. I've spent a little time with the aptly named 6.5mm Spitfire, and I've seen the 7mm Tomahawk and the .416 Maverick in the field.

Me, I'm mostly a .30-caliber guy, so I really like the .308 Patriot. With a case length of 2.05 inches it is a true short magnum, and with a diameter of .580 it is also plenty thick. It obviously offers plenty of case capacity--about 81 grains--and clearly illustrates the now well-known efficiency advantage of the short/fat case concept, meaning that the primer flame accesses a greater percentage of the propellant at ignition, promoting more efficient burning. This in turn yields a bit more efficiency per grain of powder and allows the full charge to be burned in a shorter barrel.

With a .580-inch base diameter, Lazzeroni's cartridges are too fat for many commercial actions, and the full-diameter rim is too fat for many commercial bolt faces, certainly not without a lot of work. Without question the proliferation of the WSM and RSAUM families put a huge knock in Lazzeroni Arms' business, but Lazzeroni Arms continues to roll along.

Like I said, Lazzeroni's cartridges remain the fastest in their various classes. In my .308 Patriots I can easily get a 180-grain bullet to 3,100 fps with a 23-inch barrel. With a 26-inch tube, like I might have on a .300 Weatherby or Remington Ultra Mag, I can easily get the same 3,200 fps that I can coax out of these much longer cartridges. This is tremendous capability from a short cartridge, far exceeding the other short magnums and the .300 Winchester Magnum, and this capability can be housed in a fairly light rifle without an extra-long barrel.