Good Monday Evening,
I’ll start off by saying there was no updates over the past two weeks. I’ve been quite busy unpacking, organizing tool boxes, cleaning up the work space in an effort to settle into the new place. Last week was Labor Day and we spent much of the holiday in South Eastern Utah admiring the landscape there. As such I did not send out an update letter.
Of course the world moves along despite me taking a vacation. Industry news of note, Remington is reportedly selling some of it’s companies including Barnes Bullets, which is located in Mona, Utah. Barnes Bullets is most well know for introducing the TSX and TTSX copper monolithic bullets which expand and nearly always retain 100% of it’s weight. Barnes was the crown jewel of Remington’s Ammunition business. When Barnes was acquired by Remington, it was largely left alone, which is likely the primary reason quality never suffered. Unfortunately this was not true of other companies that Remington acquired.
Western Powders announced a recall which I have included below.
Recalls are expensive, when I was working in the industry, a recall announcement cost the company on average of $1 Million dollars. So if Western is announcing a recall there is probably a good reason for it. Check you lot numbers if you use this power. I will likely be working on a catalog of reloading component recalls in the near future. This recall and many others will be posted there.
One last interesting piece of news I ran across today. The military apparently shot down a cruise missile with at 155mm Howitzer. Of course pictures of a salty old Sergeant calling out Kentucky windage immediately comes to mind, but that is quickly overshadowed by the many variables and complexity of the math required to pull off such a shot with any sort of repeatability.
The reported velocity of the round was Mach 5 or roughly 5,750fps. the rounds are hyper velocity projectiles which are light weight and are guided, I.E capable of making course corrections mid flight. Of course I want more details, like chamber pressure, and barrel life. Those are not forth coming.
The maximum theoretical velocity of a bullet is ~6,000fps. So 5,750fps is approaching what can be realistically achieved with the current generation chemical propellants. It is something of a remarkable feat in marksmanship, even if it’s a computer doing the work.
That is it for the updates this week. I do not have any updates to the Load Database this week. If you do some testing and want to share the results, download the submission form and email them to me at jayandrew338@gmail.com. If you’d like to see my progress on unpacking my garage and setting up my workspace, go to our Instagram page. If you want to join the conversation, you can always check us out on Facebook.
Thanks a bunch for Subscribing and Stay Safe Out there!
The Ballistic Assistant