Archive for the 'Ammunition' Category

That’s not the name of a court case, but I expect it will be in the future.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has accused the Fort Worth-based website Cheaper Than Dirt, which primarily sells firearms, ammunition and hunting gear, of price gouging at the start of the pandemic.

The AG’s office identified over 4,000 sales that involved price gouging and has directed Cheaper Than Dirt to pay $402,786 in refunds to consumers, according to court documents filed this month.

Over 100 people have complained to the AG’s office about Cheaper Than Dirt, the Houston Chronicle reported earlier this year.

The same week that Gov. Greg Abbott made a pandemic-related disaster declaration in Texas, ammunition orders to Cheaper Than Dirt substantially increased. In response to the increased demand for its products, the website raised the prices on hundreds of its products, according to the AG’s office.

The Texas AG’s office has identified ammunition as a necessity and, as a result, is arguing that those price hikes were against the Texas Business and Commerce Code. The code forbids businesses from “taking advantage of a disaster” by selling “fuel, food, medicine, lodging, building materials, construction tools or another necessity at an exorbitant or excessive price.”

Additionally, the following weekend that Abbott issued the disaster declaration, Cheaper Than Dirt manually raised its prices outside of its normal schedule.

“Making these manual ‘real-time’ price changes caused confusion for consumers because the prices consumers saw on the website pages when selecting items for purchase were different from the prices that appeared in the final check-out cart,” the AG’s office said in court documents.

Some of the comments I’ve seen online point to declarations of guns and ammunition as being essential and necessary, and you can’t benefit from that in a time of emergency (not that I agree with Covid being an “emergency”) and then raise prices without running afoul of the law.

On the other hand, making stores and products available in an emergency isn’t the same thing as buying them for you, or even ensuring price controls.

I don’t believe in price controls.  No free market advocate believes in price controls.  I’ve seen the CTD ads in my in-box and if I stupidly open them, I usually laugh out loud at the prices.

You can find better ammo prices elsewhere by a large margin.  It just requires a little work.  I choose to ignore the CTD ads, almost never visit their web site, and just don’t shop there.  They’ll probably never get any business back from me.

That’s how it’s supposed to work.  Screw the customer, lose your customer base.  The government should have nothing to do with it.  However, I will say that letting people drop things in online carts and then raising the prices is pretty stupid.  There should be a time-out on carts, and users should be informed what that is.

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.