Month: April 2021

Good Evening, and Happy Monday! There is quite a bit going on in the firearms world which probably deserves a mention. However I try and keep these updates short enough to be read on the can, but long enough to at least be interesting. That is to say we probably will not get to everything going on. Just the highlights.

I have always kind of like the 5.7x28mm cartridge. The concept of a light weight projectile driven to a high velocity is not new, nor is it novel to field such a cartridge in a service pistol. However what is rather unique is that it seems to be a longer lived cartridge then some of the others. The Five SeveN Pistol and the PS-90 were the only two firearms that you could purchase the offering, however in the last few years we have began to see more and more domestic offerings. Most Notably the Ruger 57, and the Keltec P50. With Federal loading 5.7x28mm in their American Eagle line there was a decent source of ammo prior to this most recent ammo scare.

Well, one more development has happened that will likely keep this cartridge alive and well for many years to come. NATO has accepted standardization of the 5.7x28mm. As far as small arms goes, there are not many cartridges that have gain this level of notoriety. The 9x19mm, 7.62x51mm, 5.56x45mm and 12.7x99mm. Providing that it is indeed official, the Wikipedia page has already been updated.

At some point in time this will become a SAAMI cartridge. Especially if current trends continue. Do I think that it has any real terminal ballistics advantage over the current offerings? No, except that a single magazine in a service size pistol such as the FN Five seveN holds 20 rounds plus 1 in the pipe. The pistols I have shot, have been loud, but the recoil was more then manageable. Muzzle energy of most loads place it competitively with 9×19 and 45 ACP. However however it does not seem to perform as well when it comes to terminal ballistics as it’s two larger brothers. Whether this is due the lack of quality bullets or just inherent in the high velocity, light weight bullet, is something I am unsure of.

I would love to see Barnes Bullets offer a 30 or a 45gr projectile designed specifically for the 5.7x28mm. I think the solid copper combined with the high velocity would perform quite well on soft targets. Given the 5.7x28mm still has limited market share in the United States, and it is primarily a military cartridge, the demand is probably not high enough for a company like Barnes to pay much attention, at least not yet. Time will tell.

Among the noise about the ATF’s pending new rule on so called Ghost Guns, the Civilian Marksmanship Program released a new guidance on what ammunition is appropriate for use in M1 Garand and Springfield 1903A3 rifles. There honestly was nothing surprising about it, the guidance given falls inline with what the Garand community by in large would advise. Modern SAAMI loaded ammunition is loaded a bit too hot for these old war horses.

The one thing I wish the CMP would have did a bit better was not to rely on Copper Units of Pressure, (CUP). When they say 50,000CUP, it is not saying 50,000psi. The units of measure are fundamentally different. Few if anyone uses CUP measurements when loading ammunition. I believe only Winchester offers copper disks for CUP testing, suggesting at least someone still uses it for the very few cartridges which do not list a PSI standard under SAAMI guidelines. The CMP should have come out and said, we do not recommend any round loaded to a service pressure of 50,000psi or above. That is 10,000psi less then the current SAAMI MAP, and pretty much guarantees that anyone loading for 1903A3 or Garand wills load to a pressure of 45,000 to 48,000psi. If I get a chance next time I’m over at the CMP range, maybe I’ll ask why CUP over PSI.

As far as my shooting and reloading activities over the last week. I have done some. I am in the process of setting up a reloading room for the company I am employed with. I have to say, we got some benches that I am really impressed with. They are a bit on the pricey side, but they are bullet proof. If I had to pick one work bench to go with for a reloading room, these ones sold by Sam’s Club are the ticket.

My biggest concern with these was if they would be tall enough. I like to have a reloading bench a bit tall, basically counter height. Which for me is about 4 inches or so above my waist. These benches were perfect in height, and even when extended to the full height they are solid benches.

My last big issue this week was with shipping a package of bullets to a friend back in Utah. I shipped UPS, it cost me $50 bucks and when it arrived the package contained two PVC legs with cute little footprints on the bottom. Needless to say, my friend was not amused and I am not amused. How the contents of the package were swapped out, baffles and is upsetting to me. About $300 worth of projectiles are missing and we have nothing to show for it. UPS is investigating, but having been down this road I do not have high hopes they will do anything about it. When UPS has a confirmed delivery, they will wash their hands of the issue. We, as shooters, sometimes take for granted what we know, and when it comes to bullets verses ammunition the public truly does no know the difference.

I had to explain to the manager of the store that shipping copper and lead projectiles was allowed, and did not require any special hazmat licenses. She was very insistent that it did, even after I explained the the projectiles were inert, did not contain any powder, shells or primers, and were simply elemental copper and lead. It was a frustrating conversation. When I shipped the package, I labeled it as “Precision Machined Parts”, because I knew people get excited when you say bullets. The only reason we had the conversation is I had to tell her the contents to explain why a 25lb package should not weigh 1lb when delivered.

In the end I’ll probably refund my buddy the money, and let UPS pay me what ever compensation they will. It will likely be the last time I ship anything UPS though.

One last thing, we reached 100 subscribers over the last week and crossed 50,000 all time views. It’s a small mile stone for the website. We’re still a very small website with a very small corner of the internet. I appreciate everyone for reading, commenting, and emailing me with their thoughts and comments. We’ll keep on keeping on, life has kept me busy and I have not made a lot of progress on bringing new content to the site recently. Stick with it, as I have time, I’ll roll it out.

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.

As always, shoot straight and stay safe!

The Ballistic Assistant

Good Monday Evening, another new week, another update. This past week has been a news filled week unfortunately a lot of it quite troubling. As much as many of us wish we could live isolated from the rest of the world, that just seems not possible. I am not much for conspiracy theories, I have a few friends who get big into them, but honestly, I find the theories to be somewhat maddening. With that said it is hard to deny there is a feeling, or a sense that the trajectory we are headed on, whatever that may be, may come to an apex at some time. I do not know what that may be, what that might entail, or even when the tension we feel in the United States will pop. It is just a feeling I have, and I know others who feel the same way. Troubling.

I do not have any meaningful updates on the website to report this week. Which usually means I will provide a bit of thoughts on the current events. The one thing that really got my attention was the Daunte Wright case which happened on April 11th, 2021 and has since exploded into the latest controversy regarding a ledge police bias. I do not wish to dive into the conversation over the particulars of the case, only to wish for all of us to learn a bit from this.

We must recognize that muscle memory is real and can have real negative consequences. I do not believe there is any reason to suspect this officer was incompetent, and I have not been presented with any evidence to suggest she was deliberately trying to do anything but carry out her prerogative as police officer. People will point out how a taser is different in many ways over a pistol evidence would seem to indicate that it is different enough as a google search turns up three similar events in the last five years. It is easy to pick it up and note the differences when you are calm, it becomes a whole different scenario when you have adrenaline pumping and the situation is high stress, the differences are clearly not enough.

As an individual who carries concealed daily, what can I learn from this? She obviously acted on muscle memory. I do not know about the particulars of the training she went through, but the consequences of her actions, seem to suggest perhaps she practice her pistol draw more often and more frequently than her taser draw. Remember, in a stressful situation we do not rise to the level of our training, often we fall to the lowest most practiced aspects where the muscle memory is strongest. If we train to draw and shoot right away, if encountered with a scenario where we need to draw, we are highly likely to press that trigger right away right or wrong. Therefore, it is important to draw, assess, and then shoot only if it is prudent. This means we also train to draw, assess and then holster.

I am not a certified firearms instructor, and I have not been in a situation where I have needed to use a firearm, though I have attended a few training classes. I have been my experience that every teacher presents and emphasizes different aspects to the drills. Yes, there are instances where you must draw and fire as quickly as possible, and there is the saying “You must be ready to fire a pistol if you draw it, anything else is brandishing.”  I think had the officer paused for just a moment, she might have realized the mistake she was about to make. I realize that is easy for me to type, but I do believe it is a failure in training.  

If it is a case that this was a failure in training, then that should alarm us. We all like to believe that police are trained to be next level shooters. However, that is just not the case. The pistol is only an exceedingly small part of what police are trained on, and in many instances, requirements are to pass a once per year qualifier. Police training costs money, and as we know from paying for training classes, it is not cheap. Ammunition, time away from work, paying for training and range time. This costs money. Whenever there is police shooting, justified or not, there is a very vocal outcry that police need to be defunded. This may mean police departments budgets are cut. This leaves departments understaffed, but the long-term impact of this means the shoestring training they have is going to be threadbare. These types of events are destined to become more, not less, common. It is quite troubling.

This is a tragedy; Daunte Wright was not a saint. Not by a long shot, he was a criminal, he had a felony warrant. The police were doing their job by confronting and arresting this man. The way media spins it, the narrative that this was an innocent man pulled over and killed for a minor traffic violation is false. An officer made a mistake, she discharged her firearm negligently, causing the death of a man, a criminal, but a man, nonetheless. Both of their lives are irreversibly changed, two families are shattered, and that is the unspoken tragedy that no one will talk about.

Not much else I have to say on that. On a more positive note, and if you are a history buff, you will appreciate this. An Amicus Brief was filed by the Firearms Policy Coalition to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on April 5th, 2021. This really details the history of repeating arms and how these arms were not only known by the Founding Fathers but were likely handled by the members of the First Continental Congress in consideration of fielding them during the Revolutionary War. The brief is a dry read but worth it and should be something everyone who is interested in Firearms Right’s gives a glance at. The link can be found here: FPC Amicus Brief April 5th, 2021

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.

As always, shoot straight and stay safe!

The Ballistic Assistant

Good Monday! We are almost halfway through April. The older I get the faster time seems to move. It is a weird experience. The length of a second has remained unchanged but I feel like there are less of them in a day. There are quite a few things to talk about, unfortunately not much to report regarding the website. The family and I are still settling, still getting things unpacked and organized and that takes a good portion of my free time. That and the kids are getting to be more and more of a handful.

The big news is obviously the Biden’s Administration’s announcement of new executive orders. I will be honest, none of them surprised me all that much. I was more surprised that there was not an announcement about the State Department cracking down on ammunition importations. That still may be coming, who knows.

What I found to be more frustrating than the Executive Orders, (like I said I was not surprised by any of them), was what was said in the announcement of these orders. Particularly that “No Amendment to the Constitution is Absolute” and that “From the very beginning, you couldn’t own any weapon you wanted to own. From the very beginning the Second Amendment existed, certain people weren’t allowed to have weapons.” Of all the half-truths and outright lies that were told these two bothered me the most. They cut to the very core of the Constitution and what the Amendments to the Constitution represent.

If we can pick and choose what Amendments are “Absolute” and which ones are simply “Eh, we will follow it when it’s politically convenient”, then the idea of Rights is completely eroded. After all, President Biden surely would not be so indifferent if he was referring to the 13th Amendment which abolished Slavery, or the 14th Amendment which granted those free slaves’ citizenship, and extended the protection of life, liberty, and property.

Furthermore, we know that many of the early gun control laws, which were passed in the early days would surely be found to be Unconstitutional in every court today. These laws prohibited slaves from owning firearms, these are the people Biden is referencing, by saying that “From the very beginning the Second Amendment existed, certain people weren’t allowed to have weapons.”

Cannons were largely considered some of the premier weapons of the day. In the days when the 2nd Amendment was ratified it was not uncommon for private citizens to own warships with a dozen or more cannons. It was also not uncommon for the United States Government to give commissions to Private Citizens, or Private entities, known as Letter of Marque, in order to hunt those considered enemies of the State. For a time, an industry was built around this notion and were even have a word for captains and crews who engaged in such practices, Privateers.

Repeating rifles were also invented and known to most if not all of those who signed the Constitution. Repeating rifles, the precursor to modern Semi-automatic rifles, had magazines exceeding 10 rounds, some up to 22 rounds or more. I do not expect the general public to be well educated or well versed in any of this. However, I do have a misguided expectation that my leaders, particularly the President, to be better at making arguments on behalf of why we should allow Government to infringe on our Rights. This is not to say that I would agree, with any one point, but rather to say, that the serious nature of the discussion deserves well thought out, and articulated arguments on both sides. This is something of an art that is lost.

The good news is much of this is expected to be noise. It is unlikely we will see significant legislation pass the Senate unless the Senate changes the rules to allow a pure 51 vote majority to pass a bill of this nature. Something that seems unlikely to happen, despite the noise being made about it. We are looking at another month before we see proposed rule changes on these “Ghost Guns” and “Braces” both, I suspect, will have significant legal challenges as we are seeing with the Bump Stock ban. After all, what authority does the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms must change 80% to 60%? I suspect none, it is something that must be done legislatively and while they can try, I suspect the courts will say it is an overreach.

In other firearm news, Alliant has announced a new powder. Reloder TS15.5 is supposed to be a Temperature Stable version of Reloder 15. It also has a slightly slower burn rate that places it in-between Reloder 16 and Reloder 15. It will be a while before I’ll get my hands on it, but it does mean I am likely due to update the burn rate chart to include it. Reloder 16 is one of my favorite powders for 6.5 Creedmoor, especially when loading 140gr. Very temperature stable, even if it can be a bit tricky sometimes to get it to flow neatly into that tiny case neck. If Reloder TS15.5 is anything like its slower sister, it will likely be an excellent powder.

Load data avialible indicates this is likely going to be a good powder for rifle loads that tend to like the slower powders but do not quite reach into the magnum burn speed. This includes cartridges like the 22-250, 243 Win and the 30-06. There is of course some overlap, and it will be a suitable powder for 6.5 Creedmoor, and 6mm Creedmoor. If you are looking to move a heavier 77 or 85gr pill in 223 Remington, and have used Varget in the past, this may be a powder to look into. This extruded powder is made in Sweden, so which means it is highly likely that it is a Bofors powder.

One last thing, there are not a ton of people who get this email, but I think we are up to 95 subscribers. Who knows how many people read my weekly musings, but of those who do, I’d be interested in hearing what features you like in a reloading press? For right now, I am most interested in single stage presses. Do you think one company does it better than the others, and why do you think that? I would be interested in your feedback as I do a bit of market research. If you have some thoughts you would like to share, email me at Jay@theballisticassistant.com.

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.

Thanks for subscribing, stay safe and shoot straight!

The Ballistic Assistant

We have been quite busy in on the homestead trying to get things moved from Texas, so I neglected to write an update last week. This week’s update is also going to be short. I am still alive and all is well, just quite busy getting the family settled and I have not had much time to myself.

A few things of note. There were a few companies that did some awesome April Fool’s Gag’s. So if you would like a laugh, here’s a couple gags.

Hornady’s Production Update

Hornady’s New 7.6 Creedmoor (Fully Compatible with both 308 Win and 7.62×51 chambers)

Accurate Shooter Reported on the New PRS Sonic Tactical Series of Competition

That was just a taste, there was quite a few April Fool gags by the industry poking fun at different aspect of the shooting sports. If you see something worth sharing, send it to me, I can always use a smile.

As a side note, there are a few more rumors of US based companies moving forward with plans to construct primer factories. It seems these facilities may be operational, at least on a limited basis within a year. We will see, it is definitely some welcome news. I do not know any names nor have I spoken to anyone with direct knowledge, but if I was to place a sizable bet on a company, it would be Sig Sauer. They employ more then a few people who spent time working at Remington’s Lonoke facility, and with the trouble that Remington has had it would not surprise me if they picked up some more talent within the last year. With Sig Sauer producing their own ammunition, including bullets, and likely limited runs of brass, undoubtedly they will want to add primer production to have better control over their destiny.

Will we ever see a Sig primer on the reloading market? Who knows, but if they began to produce their own primer, it would undoubtedly relieve some of the demand on the domestic market. (This assumes they source their primers domestically, it is not at all unreasonable to source primed brass from European companies, many US based companies do that, and with Sig being a European based company they make not source things from the US market)

Speaking of components. I have had two emails asking if I sold powders. To be fair they were both from different people of the same company. Unfortunately, I am not in the selling business, and I really cannot be as it would place me in a conflict of interest as I work within the industry. I appreciate the outreach but there is little I can do to help in that regard.

As I said it would be a short update, a bit longer then I thought it would be but nevertheless short. 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.

Thanks for subscribing, stay safe and shoot straight!

The Ballistic Assistant