It is that time of the week again. Life seems to be cruising by at a breakneck pace. We are settling into the home here in Alabama. We survived our first tornado warning, which was exciting, ok not really. Had there not been such a hubbub made about it, it is likely we would not have known any warning was in place. Still it is a different experience, a different part of the country that I have never been in before, and I have been surprised a bit.
A holster like this should have some sort of retention, or should be worn under a jacker. I realize this is an advertisement for the holster, but far to often to I see people who open carry a holster with no retention and I think it’s a mistake.
For example, I have been out here for about five or six weeks now. I have seen at least a half a dozen or more people open carrying. It seems more commonplace here in Alabama then it was in Utah. Now, open carrying does not bother me, however I do notice it, being the firearm nerd that I am. What has bothered me has been the poor quality of holsters and sometimes the complete lack of retention devices on the pistols. Listen, if you want to open carry you are free to do so, but with the ever-increasing scrutiny that firearms owners are under, part of me wishes the people doing the open carrying would at least be a better representation of firearm owners. Not saying that Uncle Mike holsters and white tank tops do not have a place, but they do not leave the best first impression.
With everything that I have been up to in getting the family settled in, I have not gone live with any website updates this week. There are things I am working on, namely the powder catalog, but I am not quite to the point I feel comfortable going live with those changes. Keep looking for it to be updated but realize it might be a bit. This next weekend we will be making one, and probably the last major haul from Texas. Got to move the rest of me and my family’s junk, unfortunately for the immediate term it is moving from one storage unit to another.
As I am writing this, more news is coming out in respect to another recent shooting in Boulder Colorado. No doubt conspiracy theories will continue to populate about the timing and the validity of these shootings. I do not subscribe to the idea that there is someone, or some people who orchestrate this nonsense on a grand scale in order to ram through a political agenda. Rather I honestly believe there are some sick individuals out there, and in a country with 300+ Million people, there can be 10 million odds of such an event in any given year and we would end up with 30 potential events.
This painting by Jon McNaughton has often captured many of my feelings in regards to crisis accelerating the trampling of Individual Liberties. He has many other painting that speak to liberty minded that I enjoy and it worth checking out if you have the time.
Given these things tend to happen in clusters, one shooting seems to breed another, sadly it is not unusual to have a few of these events within a few weeks or months of each other. The great travesty is the lack of attention that is paid towards the mental and moral decay of the individual that leads to these types of atrocities. They are not unique to the United States, similar type events happen worldwide. Unfortunately, it would seem no government or political party seems interested in answering the hard questions of what drives the individual to commit these acts of evil, rather they focus on the tools, driving legislation that shifts the power from the people to the government. Thus, creating an endless cycle that feeds off the resulting contention, dividing the nation rather then healing it. I find it all deeply troubling.
That is all I have for this week. As always if you are looking to get in touch, best way is to send me an email jay@theballisticassistant.com. You may check us out on Parler, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. If you’d like to submit a load to our load database the instructions are here.
Good Monday Evening! All is well here and I’ve been busy with a few different things. We have a few updates to the website to go over and some thoughts on current events. I’ve updated the powder burn rate chart, you can find the updated chart here. Updates include the addition of N568 and some previously missed Bofor’s powders. I also did some linking of powder equivalencies which had not been previously verified, and I tweaked a few powders burn rate ranking to fall more in line with the data. It’s a living document, and I do not claim it to be 100% perfect, but no powder burn rate chart is.
Remember burn rates are variable by nature and when loaded to different service pressures in different cartridges powders may behave a bit differently. Lot to lot variation also can play with relative burn speed. Remember a Burn Rate chart is simply a quick reference guide and is never the primary means for load development. If you would like a printer friendly version, pleas email me and I will see what I can do.
With the ammo craze we likely will not see much done with this cartridge until things settle down but I have my eye on it.
I’ve finally finished adding the new SAAMI approved cartridge’s to the SAAMI Rifle Cartridge Catalog. These include cartridges such as the 6mm ARC, 277 SIG Fury and the Nosler series of cartridges. I’m also working on adding the SAAMI standard test barrel length as part of the description. There are only a few rifles barrels that have P/V barrel lengths that are not 24in. Notably the 277 Sig Fury, and the 300 AAC Blackout, however pistol barrel lengths are all over the place. This is one thing I find myself looking up from time to time to compare ballistics and load data. If it’s handy for me to have it in one place, I suspect there’s someone else out there who will find it helpful. As with many of the projects on this site it is a work in progress.
I’ll be working on some stuff this week, likely the powder catalog. Lot’s to do there to get that flushed out to where it needs to be. I’ve got a couple other irons in the fire with some other websites I’ve been working on rolling out. We will see what things I am able to get done.
As many of you are aware, two gun control bills passed in the House over the last week. H.R 8 which outlaws private sales and creates a national registry and HR 1446 which may extend a “Delay” from three days to indefinitely. There is a lot of commotion over these two bills, but most people in the industry are not expecting it to make it past the Senate, and while a vote may be held, current Senate rules require a 60 vote majority. No one is saying it cannot happen, only that it is unlikely to happen.
While these bills are concerning to me, what I am more troubled over is how some in our community have taken upon themselves to slander/harass those who own firearms but support one or both of these bills. In an age where we have at least a dozen different ways to communicate electronically, we have forgotten how to have a conversation. We cannot talk civilly, even to those who are sympathetic but my not agree in every detail. Somehow we have become blind to the fact that when we use the terms “Fudd”, “Butters” or “Boomers” we shutdown and destroy any hope of having a meaningful conversation. In fact we are more likely to force those, most likely to be our allies, to the other side, who are all too willing to welcome gun owners if only to paint with a broad brush by saying “See, even gun owners agree with us.”
The stakes are high, to preserve our Rights, we have to bat a 1000. We have to win every legislative battle, every court case, every single time. Most importantly we have to win the public opinion battle. To do that, we cannot afford to alienate even one potential ally. If all you know how to do is shout “Molon Labe” in internet forums and chat rooms, then might I suggest you shut up, sit down, and pick up a book. Learn to have a conversation longer then what can fit on a bumper sticker. You are not doing the firearms community any favors, in fact you are doing us a lot of harm. Better yet, chip in $20 bucks to the Second Amendment Foundation.
If it was not for the contributions of Ben Franklin and John Adams, George Washington would not have had the arms to fight the revolution. Remember war is a costly endeavor in both blood and money.
When wars are fought, regardless if they are cultural or physical, it takes money. We often forget that when General George Washington needed money for arms, Ben Franklin and John Adams turned to the French, the Dutch, and the Spanish Government. By the time the war was won the new country was $2 Million dollars in debt. In today’s dollars that is a mere $60.4 Million. Last year there was an estimated 8 million new firearm owners, if each one chipped in $8 bucks, that would pay for a lot of legal expenses. If we could get America’s 100 Million gun owners to chip in $8 bucks, we’d have this war won for a spell. This is all to I have to say, enough talk, let’s go to work.
That is all I have for this week. As always if you are looking to get in touch, best way is to send me an email jay@theballisticassistant.com. You may check us out on Parler, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. If you’d like to submit a load to our load database the instructions are here.
Only took five months but for the first time since leaving Utah we are starting to get to some sense of normality. The Alabama weather is taking a bit of getting used to, but so far it has been survivable, still does not seem natural to be having 70- and 80-degree days in March. There are a few things that I am realizing about the Southeastern US. First, culturally it is quite different then the Western States, and secondly, I am really beginning to rethink what I should be doing with my Long-Range Rifle.
You can make a reasonable argument then when I went out and bought my Barrett MRAD in 338 Lapua Magnum, I was really kind of boxing myself in. Naturally, being as stubborn as a horse, I probably would not have listened to you. That was almost 6 or 7 years ago, and I have since had some added experienced in both the shooting sports and the industry.
Southern Utah, a few months before I got the tax stamp approved on the suppressor. You can’t see it but the steel is 700 yards, and there was room to keep moving back to get 1000+ yards. It really is a Long Range Shooters paradise.
When I was single, investing almost $2 a round in a handload did not seem to be that bad and being able to ring steel pretty darn reliably out past 1000 yards was exciting. Fast forward, married with two kids, a shoestring budget, and suddenly having a $5k rifle, with a $2k optic and a $2k suppressor, that costs $2 bucks a round handloaded, seems kind of stupid. Especially when you move to a state where the longest practical shot at the local range is 600 yards.
With a barrel swap kit for the MRAD is coming in at somewhere between $1,300 to $1,600. I am left with an interesting problem. You can buy a heck of a rifle for $1300, namely a Ruger Precision Rifle, or can build a Rem 700 clone for something less that that. I am not sure exactly what I am going to do, but it has been something on my mind. Unfortunately, it seems like my MRAD may become something of a safe queen, a relic of a time when I lacked the wisdom, it would pain me to sell it, but I am almost as equally as pained to drop another chunk of money into a kit when I could get a rifle just as good for equal or less…but then of course then we’d need another optic…. buy a mouse a cookie…maybe $1300 is not so bad after all…
Enough about my own problems, (I may do a dedicated write up on getting into long range shooting, what I wish I had known before dropping a ton of money) lets get into the fun stuff.
With a new power will come an update to the burn rate chart. Not this week but soon…
There a few new things on the market that were announced around Shot Show that I am just beginning to appreciate, first Vihtavouri introduced a new powder Vihtavuori N568. They indicate the burn rate to be a wedge between N570 and N565 which means this powder is likely going to be another good powder to test for 338 Lapua Magnum, or for cartridges which are both overbore, and long. The 300 PRC, 6.5 PRC, 300 RUM, and likely the 7mm RUM. It will actually be interesting to see if this powder is just a better metering version of the N570. I did do some testing with N570 in 338 Lapua Magnum with 300gr SMK’s and found it to be an excellent powder with the exception of how bulky and difficult it was to meter. You were basically relegated to using an auto dispenser as I could not get it to meter at all through a Harrell’s Precision thrower.
I am going to freely admit, the more I have gotten into handloading, the more I have become a press and die snob. I started with almost all Lee Precision Equipment and have since really gained an appreciated for Redding Dies and especially their T-7 press. It is not necessarily that the rounds you make are that much more precise, it is the fit and finish of the equipment that just give for a better overall experience. I have never gotten the same warm an fuzzy feeling when looking at Lyman products, as I have Redding, Dillon and L.E Wilson, and that may be because I’m just not a huge fan of the color orange in general… seriously…it’s between that and brown as my least favorite color.
A micrometer adjustable crimping die? Not something I am used to seeing, not something I consider game changing, but it is something different, and I very much appreciate the overall look and feel of the dies. For us quasi engineering nerds…it would be nice to know what stainless steel they are turning these from….it’s a wild guess but I bet its 304
With that said, the Lyman Stainless Steel Pro Dies, have kind of grabbed my attention. One of the things that has driven me nuts about moving from the dry arid environment of Utah into the hot humid south is how quickly every die, and reloading press I own developed a light layer of rust just from sitting in storage for a day. Some of this is no doubt from the widespread use of 12L14 or other leaded steels in some components of the dies. This is a soft free machining steel that is great for automated production and can be case hardened. A lot of reloading dies used 12L14 or similar steels, the down side is they rust, quicker then an O1 or similar type tool steel. Seeing a die made from stainless, is not new, L.E Wilson has been doing it for some time, but it is appreciated. Given that most of our wives relic our hobby to areas where climate control does not exist, a garage, a basement, under a rock…
I have not laid hands on one of these dies yet. When I do I’ll give my thoughts, but I do like the concept of a micrometer adjustment on the crimping die, even though I would be hard press to find a situation where I would use it in my handloading routine. What they do not currently offer, but what I could get behind, is a micrometer adjustable flaring die. I do like to give my rifle brass a hint of a flare, just to complement the chamfer prior to seating the bullet. I could see where a micrometer head on a flaring die would let me obsess over one more step, which probably does not actually impact down range performance, but makes me smile anyhow. (I do bring the flare in with a crimping die, but it does not crimp, just corrects the case mouth as to not snag on feeding).
Ok, I just got finished saying how I liked the new Lyman products, but a spring loaded decapping die?….when I first read it I thought maybe it would prevent you breaking a decapping pin on Berdan primed cases, but nope, just applies spring pressure to the spend primer to ensure positive ejection. This seems more like a solution in search of a problem.
The last thing of note is Nosler’s Reloading Guide, this is the #9th addition. I have not flipped through it, so I cannot give it a proper review. Even with a lot of online data being published I do like to have dead tree versions of load manuals to flip through. If you do a lot of handloading for Nosler bullets or would like to get some load data for the Nosler 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, and 33 this may be a good book to add on the shelf.
That is all I have for this week. As always if you are looking to get in touch, best way is to send me an email jay@theballisticassistant.com. You may check us out on Parler, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. If you’d like to submit a load to our load database the instructions are here.
Welcome to March! It’s been a busy past week. I was hoping to have more updates and content on the site but it just has not panned out. We did get the family moved from Texas. It was a bit of a blitz, drove over Friday, got in early morning Saturday. Loaded up the vehicles and drove back all day Sunday. I figure I spent 28 hours total on the road during the span of 72 hours. We are all in one place again, but the new home looks like a disaster zone…such is moving.
Anyway, the little bit I did do on the site was to upload an email conversation I had over the summer. I’ve pulled some information that would identify the sender, but everything else was left untouched. I do value the conversations I have with subscribers, and will do everything I can to protect your privacy. If you’d like to read the conversation you can find it here: [7-15-2020] Ballistic QC Equipment
Some brief comments on the primer shortage we are seeing. I do not know how many people are aware of the details of Remington’s bankruptcy. Remington was essentially broken up and sold off in pieces to the highest bidder. During this process all cashflow was stopped, meaning the purchase of raw materials could not take place. Effectively Remington was completely shutdown, and who knows what state the plant was left in during shutdown. Only recently has cash flow restarted and operations are beginning to resume.
Why is this important? Well, Remington’s Lonoke Arkansas facility represents roughly 1/3 of the industries production of primers. Primers cannot be built over night, there are some aspects of primer construction where the primer’s have to age, or more accurately, dry out for a period of time. I seem to remember it was about 30 days, but it could be longer. All this means that if Remington restarted operations and was in full production by tomorrow, it would likely mean we would not see Remington primers on the shelf for at least 60 to 90 days.
With that said, I do not know what the Remington restart looks like. I do know not all processes can simply resume at the flip of the switch. Even when they do resume there is typically a ramp up period. New employees need to be trained, processes need to reach a steady state, and Remington is likely going to dedicate it’s primer production to satisfy it’s own needs for ammunition prior to selling to the handloading market. All of this is to say, even with Remington back in operations we are likely not to see a reprieve in the primer shortage for many months.
In the mean time companies that sourced Remington primers for their own manufacture of ammunition, have had to go elsewhere. This combined with a year of political unrest, about 8 million new firearms owners, a flipped election, and the fact everyone who cannot find ammo is suddenly jumping into reloading, has created the perfect storm of market conditions where no one gets primers. If this seems like a soft rebuttal of some of the conspiracy theories going around, it is.
It will take a bit, but we will see things get back to normal, in the meantime, it’s really frustrating for a lot of folks. Especially those whose livelihoods depend on the slim margin of profit made on ammunition sales. It’s a hard market right now.
That is all I have for this week. As always if you are looking to get in touch, best way is to send me an email jay@theballisticassistant.com. You may check us out on Parler, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. If you’d like to submit a load to our load database the instructions are here.
