My copy of Cartridges of the World is the 9th edition – published in 2000. For every surviving cartridge (particularly in rimfire) there are many that did not survive – the book lists them as current. The first obsolete cartridge I find is the 5mm Remington Rimfire Magnum – and it came out in 1970 – it’s younger than I am. It’s also still available – Aguila turns these cartridges out in Mexico and they are available online.
The next obsolete cartridge is the 22 Short – 40 grain . . . but Aguila (Mexico) now turns out their 22 subsonic sniper – a 22 short case with a 60 grain bullet. This is the cartridge that feeds my Smith & Wesson jamamatic (Escort) with awesome reliability.
The old 22 Extra Long is listed as obsolete – but anything chambered for the Extra Long can still be used with the 22 long rifle cartridge – the 22 Extra Long is long obsolete, but the old rifles can still be used.
Then we come to the 22 Winchester Rimfire (22 WRF). It’s listed as obsolete – but Winchester kept coming up with an occasional run of ammunition that kept my old (model 1906) rifle fed, and now CCI produced 22 WRF is usually available. It does cost about a quarter per round – but given that my old Winchester won’t take anything else, the rifle is still useful. It did go through about 30 years of limited use as I hoarded shells to keep it full.
Fiocchi still produces the 9mm (Flobert) shotshell – but it costs about $1.10 per cartridge, so it’s cheaper to use a 12 gauge – but the cartridge is still in production.
Declaring something obsolete doesn’t always count it out.
Trego's Mountain Ear 
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