Archive for the 'Ammunition' Category

An informative video from a legend.

Ammoland.

The Army Ordnance folks around the beginning of the 20th Century had seen the failures of round-nosed, full-metal jacketed bullets in the British .303 rifles, and our own .30 U.S. Government (aka “.30-40 Krag”) in stopping a determined armed assailant.

They reasoned that since their .38 Long Colt Model 1892 revolvers had shown similarly poor results, and the re-issuance of the .45 SAA (Single Action Arm) into combat had added to the eventual defeat of the Philippine Moros, our military review board sought to adopt another large bore handgun. The British too paralleled this thought process, and as early as the mid-1880s they had already started issuing some of the first .455 Webley revolvers as a result.

By the middle of the first decade of the 20th Century, Colt was developing, along with the genius designer of most of their handguns, John Browning, a .45 cal. semi-automatic pistol. While the original development utilized a 200gr bullet at approximately 900 feet per second in 1906, the Ordnance Department subsequently desired a cartridge that approximated the old .45 Colt revolver cartridge in power, while being shorter in length than the substitute standard .45 S&W Schofield round.

Thus, the 230gr RN FMJ bullet at 850 fps nominal speed was created, and it found a home in the concurrently developed Colt Model 1911 pistol, the longest serving pistol of any military force to the best of my knowledge, some 75 years of official issue.

In the civilian world however, it has remained as popular as ever. Due to the existence of new generation jacketed hollow point bullets, it still retains its terminal ballistic advantages of expansion and consistent penetration compared to smaller bore diameter offerings. A recent detailed study indeed illustrated that the Federal HST 230gr standard pressure rounds offer 16” of penetration and consistent 0.85” of controlled expansion with no bullet fragmentation in an unofficial “FBI heavy clothing test” into simulated ballistic gelatin.

One other thing that is not mentioned much is that its stopping power is achieved without superior “sectional density,” high pressure, or high velocity. It operates at a very low 21,000 copper units of pressure, it has no supersonic crack, and is, therefore, nearly ideal for use with a suppressor. The recoil, while “there,” is more a push than a quick snap, while controlled-pairs shooting aimed rapid-fire are pretty easy to do out to ten yards and can usually be within an inch of each other. I’ve done it, and I’m just not that great a shot.

Moreover, the . 45 ACP cartridge has long borne the brunt of technical development as a precision target shooting round as well as being a supremely controllable defense round. In both the original 230gr RN,FMJ format for “hardball matches,” as well as reduced weight 185gr and 200g target matches, it remains one of the most accurate service pistol rounds extant.

And of course, with the hotter loads you can get from Buffalo Bore and Double Tap, you can send a 230 grain ball at around 1050 FPS, or a 450 SMC at 1120 FPS, and be okay for defense against large predators.

I like the push instead of the snap.  I love shooting the .45 ACP more than any other cartridge, pistol or rifle.

To me it’s not just a competition or self defense round.  If somebody said, “Hey we’re headed to the range, grab a gun,” the first thing I’d reach for is a 1911.

This is not good news.

At the same time that gun sales have skyrocketed as more Americans reach for a firearm to protect themselves from threats real and perceived, warning shots abound that should have gun rights advocates on edge.

The latest is the court ruling allowing a lawsuit against the Cabela’s store in Cheektowaga to proceed after it sold ammunition to then- 19-year-old Jake Klocek, who used it in a handgun to accidentally kill 19-year-old Anthony King, a friend he’d invited over while housesitting for an Elma couple.

The suit by the victim’s family contends that Cabela’s – a defendant along with Klocek and the Elma couple – “knew or should have known its failure to use reasonable care” in selling the ammunition to someone like Klocek would result in serious injury or death.

But that claim hinges on the fact that Klocek, under 21 at the time, could not legally buy handgun ammunition.

However, he could legally buy long gun ammunition. And as Cabela’s attorneys point out, the ammunition in question – .45 ACP – can be used in both handguns and rifles. If the clerk asks and the buyer says it’s for a rifle, how is the store supposed to know, short of having a polygraph machine at every register?

Nevertheless, the fact that both a State Supreme Court justice and an appellate court allowed the case to proceed is likely to ripple through the retail firearms industry. If the case makes it to trial and King’s parents win, it’s easy to envision it precipitating more of the types of marketplace constrictions that anti-gun politicians can only dream about.

[ … ]

If this case proceeds to trial and Cabela’s is found liable, I would expect it – and parent company Bass Pro Shops – to join the list of businesses making it harder or impossible for law-abiding shooters to find the guns and supplies they want.

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) doesn’t matter to these courts because no one will enforce it.  Federal Marshals won’t be dispatched to arrest local judges who let stupid things like this go forward, and the Supreme Court hasn’t the balls to take up something like this.  So lower courts do what they way to do, unencumbered by any rules or social mores.

As if things could get any worse for gun owners and ammunition buyers (guns won’t work without ammunition), keep this in mind for the future.

Shooting Illustrated.

CCI’s Clean-22 coating technology has been around for awhile now, helping rimfire shooters getting the most range and power from the .22 WMR. New for 2020, CCI has introduced the Maxi-Mag Clean-22 segmented hollow point (SHP), which features a polymer bullet coating that reduces copper and lead fouling in the barrel with leaving excess residue.

““New Maxi-Mag Clean-22 SHP is the industry’s only segmenting hollow-point bullet in .22 WMR,” according to CCI Product Line Manager Dan Compton. “Personally, I like its Olive Drab Green color on the bullet which gives it a hunting look, and I can’t wait to hear stories and see photos from our happy customers who use this new magnum rimfire round on prairie dog towns, in the squirrel woods and for their fur trapping efforts.”

The SHP bullet splits into three equal sizes upon impact, greatly expanding wound channels on small game, including varmints. The 46-grain bullet features a polymer design and allows for separation at lower velocities and longer distances than other conventional copper jacket designs.

It’d be interesting to see ballistic gel tests with this round.

Outdoor Life.

We actually know precious little about this new squad weapon, since military procurement is shrouded in classified secrecy. But here’s what we do know: It will be chambered in 6.8mm. The projectile it fires will be a copper slug tipped with steel to pierce the body armor of “peer adversaries” at long range. And it will be capable of belt-feeding and the high rates of fire required by the successor to the SAW, as well as slower rates of fire but more precisely placed shots from squad-deployed carbines. Also in the Army’s requirements: Despite shooting a heavier bullet, the gun, together with its ammo, must be 30 percent lighter than the current platform firing the 62-grain 5.56mm load. The Army’s new 6.8 is not to be confused with the 6.8 SPC, based on a .30 Remington case. The external dimensions of the new 6.8 are bigger, both in diameter and length, and require a new magazine configuration, according to sources.

[ … ]

We’re covering this arms race because if the history of military small-arms procurement teaches us anything, it’s that technology developed for the battlefield eventually shows up in the deer stand. The Springfield Rifle, the .30/06, the AR platform, the .223/5.56 round, nearly all of John Browning’s inventions, plus hundreds more innovations were developed for military use. How soon will we see the 6.8 cartridge and associated weapons platforms come to our sporting-goods stores?

Okay.  Well, color me unimpressed.

Solid copper slug, with no proof that it will tumble and fragment upon impact like the 5.56mm does?  No experience yet in feed reliability?  No time in the field yet with guys banging those weapons and cartridges around?  No in-situ experience with effects on rifling?  No experience yet on the effect of increased muzzle velocity on barrel lifetimes?

And this cartridge is supposed to replace the M4 & 5.56mm Stoner system, a battle tested and proven platform and cartridge, and the soft tip .270, which has taken more deer than any other round in America (outside of the 30-30)?

So give it a half century to prove itself.

I hate to do this, and I don’t want to be charged with starting yet another caliber war only to be told to stop in the comments.  Really, I’m not warring on anything – I’m just observing.  You can make your observations without insulting the author of the post or the other commenters.

First up there is this incident.

Then there is this incident.

So count them.  Eleven rounds for the first incident to stop the threat.  Seven rounds in the second incident to stop the threat.

The upshot is that if you carry a 9mm pistol, your magazine can hold a lot of more rounds than, say, a magazine full of .45 ACP, due to the cartridge size.

But the downside is that you’re more likely to need them.  I usually carry .45 ACP.  I think that’s probably enough.  In a circumstance like this one, if there was a good way to conceal it (say, a 4″ barrel), I’d almost rather have a .44 magnum wheel gun.

Like I said, I’m not trying to start another caliber war.  But I didn’t make up the events in the videos.

News from Fargo.

Mike Price, general manager at Bill’s Gun Shop and Range, said their inventory is only a quarter full for guns and ammunition.

He said during the pandemic their shipments can’t keep up with sales.

A number of boxes of ammunition on orders that haven’t come in yet that I was expecting two weeks ago,” Price said.

During the past three months, every handgun safety class has been full.

“A large percentage of business that’s been coming in has been new gun owners,” he said.

The dramatic increase has been in tactical and defense style weapons.

“It could be the pandemic, it could be the fact that you see all of these protests going on, the movement to defund the police, etc.” Price said.

On top of the increase in defense weapons, North Dakota is seeing an earlier and bigger interest in hunting season.

[ … ]

Bill’s Gun Shop and Range have been able to keep up with hunting demand.

“It’s hard to tell, either way, but as of right now I don’t see any shortage of hunting ammunition,” Price said.

That’s basically what I’ve seen.  Pistol ammunition is scarce as hen’s teeth, 5.56mm is just about like that, and there are plenty of nice bolt action guns for the same price as before, nice optics to be had, and plenty of 30-06, 7mm Magnum, 300 Win Mag, and 6.5mm Creedmoor.

I had always wanted to procure some more rather esoteric rounds like Buffalo Bore +P, personal defense, Double Tap pistol rounds, etc., as well as stock up on various brands of PD pistol rounds (instead of just buying lots of range rounds).  They’re more expensive but serve a purpose.

If you can’t buy what you’ve always been buying, then buy what you’ve neglected.

From Ken’s place, this video is a little dated but still very good.  I’ll bet they’re working overtime right now.

I wish they had gone into more detail on logistics, supply, raw materials and sources, and warehouse min-max.  But that may be divulging proprietary information.

News.

Every couple of weeks, Eric Rebels will make a two-hour trip from North Jersey to Eagle Point Gun in Gloucester County in a desperate quest to get ammunition to sell at his gun store.

To get a good place on line, he will sleep in his car overnight to be ready when the distributor opens its doors in the morning.

Sometimes, Rebels scores and is able to get one to two cases of 9mm bullets (1,000 rounds per case). Other times, he comes back empty handed.

In any case, Rebels says these days it is his only option. Not only is ammunition scarce, he notes, but he also has more customers than ever before at County Line Firearms in East Hanover.

“There is a nationwide shortage so what you can get you have to go through to get,” Rebels said.

Guns store owners around the state say the confluence of the coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest and an upcoming presidential election have created an unprecedented surge in residents seeking to purchase firearms and ammunition. The surge began, they say, when the coronavirus pandemic began devastating the country in March and continued to skyrocket in the aftermath of the protests that followed after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was killed by police in Minneapolis in May.

As of August 12, the New Jersey State Police has received nearly 130,000 firearm applications, topping the number of applications the agency received in 2018 and 2019 combined, according to State Police data. The number of applications this year has increased by more than 137% since last year— with more than 4 months left in 2020, according to the agency.

Michael D. Anestis, the executive director New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center, is studying the surge in firearm purchases during the pandemic. “A lot of the purchasing is driven by anxiety,” he said, which is not uncommon in times of uncertainty, adding that preliminary data suggests the demand is the highest it has been in decades.

[ … ]

“There is no product in the country,” said Rick Friedman, who owns RTSP, which operates gun ranges and stores in Randolph and Union. “Until they start producing more and it is hitting the docks, there is just no product to have. It is beyond a dire situation. The country is literally out of ammunition.”

“Right now, getting the guns are hard, the ammo is hard,” said Jack Faenza, co-owner of Garden State Armory. “Everything is hard.”

Excepting reloaders, purchasers of new or remanufactured ammunition have seen the price for reman 5.56mm go from 30 ¢ per round to 60 ¢ per round, and for new ammo from 50 ¢ – 75 ¢ per round to $1 per round or even higher within a few months.

There is still ammunition out there, but you must pay a premium for it.  Pistol ammunition is equally hard to come by and expensive, and even the availability of firearms has been affected.

ARs are in extremely high demand and many brands cannot be found at all, and even some other kinds of firearms are “scarce as hen’s teeth.”  As readers know for a while I had been interested in a Henry Repeating Arms Model X .44 magnum.  Go do a search on these guns and you’ll find that they cannot be obtained.  “Out of stock” is the common heading, and there is no backorder.  And these are lever guns.

So riddle me this.  In a time of unparalleled economic turmoil in the country, what do the people know that would cause them to spend their few remaining dollars on firearms and ammunition at such elevated prices?

Is it imagination?

Forbes.

Gun and ammo makers are staying cautious ahead of the election despite surging sales, because they remember all too well the crash that happened after the election of President Trump.

Gunmakers can barely keep up with demand. Sales have been booming since the start of the pandemic, fueled by fears of coronavirus and civil unrest. FBI background checks have been breaking records. Makers of guns and ammo are reporting double-digit increases in revenue. Handguns are flying off the shelves and ammo is selling out and getting scarce.

“It’s the 2013 shortage all over again,” said Brian Rafn, a gun industry analyst who recently retired from Morgan Dempsey, referring to the run on ammo during the Obama administration. Rafn, whose family owns shares in Sturm, Ruger, said that nowadays buyers of popular ammo like 9 mm have to hunt for it from store to store like “the guy who’s buying milk during the hurricane.”

But gun and ammo makers are hyper-cautious about ramping up manufacturing capacity. They don’t want to get burned like in 2016, when sales surged to record levels only to implode on Election Day. Sales then were driven by fears of gun control fueled by mass shootings, but those fears evaporated with the election of President Trump, a Republican endorsed by the National Rifle Association. Gun sales plunged immediately after his election, resulting in layoffs and sliding stocks for Sturm, Ruger and Smith & Wesson.

Gun makers fear that fickle consumers could slow down spending, depending on election results, the severity of the pandemic, or the persistence of clashes between police and protesters.

“Firearm manufacturers are making prudent decisions to keep up with extraordinary demand during these past few months,” said Mark Oliva, director of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry group. “Manufacturers are producing firearms and ammunition as quickly as they can to meet customer demand.” But he said that gunmakers must meet the skyrocketing demand, which has outstripped production, “in a way that is going to ensure sustained participation in tomorrow’s market.”

Spikes in demand result in bullet shortages because the ammo manufacturing industry, dominated by Vista Outdoor and Olin’s Winchester, is less flexible than guns. Dionisio said bullet makers manufacture huge batches of ammo with massive machines to maximize efficiency, with no wiggle room to match fluctuations in demand.

“That’s an industry that has less of an ability to max up or max down,” he said. “You’re not going to buy this expensive machine just because demand is going to be up for six months.”

Manufacturers are trying to forecast the future for firearms. Will the election results increase sales or trigger a decline?  Will civil unrest and coronavirus continue to drive sales?

“Like any other manufacturing base, firearm and ammunition makers forecast their best analysis for what the demand will be for their products in the coming year,” said Oliva of the NSSF. “That includes placing orders for raw materials, including bar stock to make barrels, component materials to make ammunition and predicting labor, warehousing and shipping costs, distribution channels and retail demand.”

Logistics is everything.  Warehouse min-max must be adjusted, the upstream supply must match the adjustments, transportation must follow, machinery must be procured, machinery operators must be trained, QA inspectors must be trained, and on the list goes.

As with any industry, it can’t make these switches in an instant.  Moreover, even if they could simply hire a lot of folks, with the time and investment in training, the demand might have gone away at that point.

That would mean a drop in stock prices, the sunk costs of idle machinery, warehouse min-max that needed to be readjusted, and potential layoffs and the corollary severance packages for those manufacturers who want a good reputation for the future.

I know we’ve discussed primers as being the logistical sticking point right now, but this explanation makes the most sense of anything I’ve heard yet.  A fluctuation in demand is difficult to deal with for companies that rely on logistics networks outside of their control and who use complex CNC machinery.

It would be best if you already had what you needed.  I have actually ordered 5.56mm and .45 ACP ammunition for the last size months, even up through last week, at regular cost or perhaps slightly above (10%).  I had to search long and hard for it, but it was there.  But that ammunition was in the pipeline – the availability has basically gone away at the moment.

There may be deals in the future, keep your eyes open.  One thing I have found, for instance, is that the cost of personal defense ammunition has decreased even as the cost of ball range ammunition has increased while it also became unavailable.

If you’re willing to purchase reman ammo (re-manufactured), the deals are a little better.  I’ve found reman ammo to be quite reliable, e.g., through Freedom Munitions.

In the end, it makes no sense for the manufacturers to drop a lot of capital in expansion when their own polls are telling them that they won’t need it in the future.