Month: November 2020

Jay’s Note to the Reader; When I originally wrote this post my impression of “How to Talk to Your Cat About Gun Safety” was taken at face value. The cover of the book was good for at least one laugh, which it got from this gun toting, feline loving, bearded guy. However a reader informed me that the contents of the book is far less innocent. Having not read the book myself, I cannot endorse it, nor can I endorse it’s contents. As I have researched it further, I believe the Author intended this to be a satirical commentary on Alt-Right issues, and this is reinforced when examining The American Association of Patriots website. Either way, whether is satire or not, it is not wholly consistent with the theme of this website. I have made the decision to remove the Amazon link to the product and have added this commentary. Take the cover at face value, it’s good for at least one smile….after all that was my original intent.

Good Cyber Monday! I’ve been busy over the last week and do have some updates that went live. Before we get into it, here’s something that is bound to make you smile.

We are working on getting affiliate programs set up for this website, and some of the other websites we’ve been working on. Amazon is probably the most well known affiliate program and easiest to set up as they do not have a minimum traffic requirement. We tried to apply for the Brownell’s affiliate program but were turned down due to limited traffic. Obviously we’d like to support the industry when ever we can, so we’ll continue to work on the website and reapply after we have grown a bit.

We looked at doing a Patreon, but I could not justify doing it. I am not set up to do exclusive content. We do not particularly like website banners, flashing advertisements, or popup windows. Instead will look at providing links to some of the items we like or we use in projects or around in our reloading room. We will see how this works, hopefully we will raise a little money for our next rifle build.

We have also updated the Burn Rate Chart to include two additional powders that somehow we missed. N555, and Sport Pistol. N555 is a slower burning double based rifle powder marketed by Vihtavuori. It is most suitable for 6.5 Creedmoor, or similar cartridges. Sport Pistol is an Alliant powder, with a burn speed similar to that of Bullseye, depending on the load it is either a very similar burn speed or a little slower. Remember a burn rate chart indicates relative burn speed, and should not be the primary source for developing loads.

In other project news, we’ve received the final parts for the drone and are working out a few of the final bugs before the test flight. I hope to have that initial flight this week weather pending. We’ve already seen the limitations of the current design, namely it’s a bit small to fit everything we wanted in it. I’ve already finished the initial redesign of the airframe, which we have dubbed Spear XL.

We’d like to thank the folks over at reddit, the website really blew up this week as the link to the VZ-58 build was shared there. There are a few loose ends we need to tie up to completely finish that project. We are hoping to finish that up in the next few months. It’s been a popular project, and we are looking forward to tackling our next rifle build.

Lastly, we added a new section to the website that was suggested by one of our subscribers. We added a Mail Bag section. You can submit questions, topics or suggestions to the website through the contact form listed. This saves a step, as you do not have to open a email client. Secondly we will begin posting some of these conversations. Of course we will protect your privacy, first names only and we will not share your email address.

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 I am also on MeWe, and now we’re on Reddit If you’d like to submit a load to our load database the instructions are here.

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The Ballistic Assistant

It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving, and there’s a lot to be thankful for. I’m not sure if it’s been an eventful year because of the pandemic or if it’s been an eventful year despite the pandemic. Either way it’s been a hell of a ride. We appreciate everyone who’s stuck with us.

I cannot remember if I mentioned the news about the 2021 SHOT Show being cancelled. It happened around the time we were moving, and getting settled in. So many of the big announcements that were likely being saved for the SHOT Show are being trickled out now. (This actually has been the industry norm for sometime, but more so now that SHOT is not happening)

Vihtavuori has release the N550 power. This is an addition to their N series of powders which are double based rifle powders. They cover the full burn rate from fast burning rifle powers and slow burning magnum powders. I personally am a fan of N570 in 338 Lapua as it is one of the few powders I can hit 2700fps with 300gr pill and a 24in barrel. However N570 is difficult to meter with traditional powder throwers, N565 is suppose to be and improvement but I have not tried it yet. You can find more information on their N500 series of powders here.

There continues to be waves made about True Velocity’s ammunition. Last years SHOT Show had the announcement that they were teaming up with Sierra Bullets to offer a line of polymer cased ammunition for the commercial market. These cases are a bit unique as they have a steel case head, with a polymer case molded around the head. The more current news is they are joining SAAMI as a voting member, and they are working with both Australian and the US Military. All of this was reported by The Firearms Blog.

Having True Velocity as a member of SAAMI is likely a very good thing for the industry. Since SAAMI establishes voluntary guidelines that the majority of US Manufactures adhere to, we are likely to see some new SAAMI guidelines on the manufacture and testing of polymer cases. The big benefit to polymer cases over brass is the weight and the reduced cost. It might not seem a big deal to hunters, but to soldiers on the ground, a load out of 200+ rounds weighs a fair amount. Reducing that by 60%+ is potentially a big deal and could allow a solider to carry more ammunition, or maintain the same load out, and cover ground faster with less fatigue.

A year ago (I know it was an eternity ago) Sig Sauer was promoting their new 3 part case design in the 277 Fury, which boasts a service pressure of 80kpsi and uses a combination of steel and brass to lighten the ammunition while boosting performance. True Velocity is promoting their 6.8TVCM for military contracts and it seems they are trying to compete somewhat with the Sig 277 Fury, as this has been their statement to multiple publications.

True Velocity’s ammunition – and particularly our 6.8 TVCM cartridge – are changing the paradigm,” Tedford said. “It turns out you don’t have to operate at unsafe chamber pressures in order to generate increased velocity, enhanced terminal performance and improved accuracy. Our cartridge achieves all of these things, while maintaining safe operating pressures and drastically reducing the overall cartridge weight.”

True Velocity President Chris Tedford

Personally I still see some limitations of polymer case ammunition, which will not be foreign to anyone who is familiar with firearms design and their workings. For one, the spent cartridge case acts as a heat sink and by ejecting the case you are ejecting a lot of latent heat that would otherwise be soaked up by the chamber. This is one of the design failures of most caseless ammunition. Plastic is not a particularly good conductor of heat, so what mechanism will be that heat sink and allow for sustained fire without over heating the barrel? Is the steel case head a sufficient heat sink? The second problem I have is the melting point of most polymers is well within operational temps of many automatics. What does this ammunition do when it is left in a hot chamber at the end of a firefight? None of these issues are groundbreaking revelations, I’m just curious as to the solution.

It is still something to see if polymer cased ammunition is accepted in the commercial market. I for one have preference for ammunition that I can reload. I will pay a little extra to buy Boxer primed ammunition over Berdan primed ammunition, unless I’m tight on cash, and low on reloads, it would be hard for me to justify purchasing poly cased ammo. Further more a lot of people see polymerization of many items lessens the quality of that item. It took time before polymer framed firearms became the mainstay of the firearms world, and people still dog on the introduction of polymer framed variations of their metallic counterparts. I suspect a good deal of the market may be like that until the it is adopted in some form or fashion by the US Military. Like it or not, when it comes to trends in firearms the success or failure in US Military trials has a big weigh in on whether or not a new idea gains steam or falters.

Bringing this back home to updates on projects. We are 95% of the way there on conducting our first test flight. We received the spare batteries and props from Flite Test today. I am waiting on an airspeed sensor. The original one I ordered, I couldn’t get to work with the Pixhawk Cube flight controller. I’m still not sure why, but I ordered another one from a different company so we will see. Should arrive this week, maybe next if USPS is as slow as it was on this last package.

The construction of the thing has been a small lesson on trying to get lots of different components to talk and work together. It has been a bit of a challenge and it has been fun. We’ll have a write up detailing some of these challenges and also what our solutions were. We will also include the results of the first few flights, or first flight if we crash. We still have to add in the airspeed sensor and perform some final calibrations prior to that. Exciting times.

That is all 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 I am also on MeWe, but I have not done much with it yet. If you’d like to submit a load to our load database the instructions are here. I may be updating this form in the future to streamline the submission, for now continue to use the spreadsheet.

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The Ballistic Assistant

Most of the past two weeks have been spent working on the drone, and the accompanying website. I pretty much picked up where I left a year ago and have been ordering and assembling everything together. There have been a few issues that I’ve had to work out. However nothing that has been substantial. A few days ago I put together a write up detailing everything that had been done to date.

Photogrammetry Drone: Putting Everything Together

There is some additional work to be done, mainly the final touches prior to test flight. We will also need to find a suitable test field to fly on and put together a mission plan. The nice thing about the autopilot is we should be able to get a tremendous amount of data on how the flight went. Everything from airspeed to battery life. We will use the data to evaluate changes we make to the airframe, especially as we look to integrate the camera into the build.

Looks like we won’t get the props until the 18th, so any test flight will have to occur after that date. I’ll have additional write ups to discuss the lead up to, and the results of the test flights.

In terms of firearms news. A friend and I had an interesting discussion regarding calibers, barrel length and elk. He wanted me to talk him out of purchasing a 45-70 lever gun. He was concerned his 308 Ruger American rifles with a 18in barrel wasn’t enough to do the job. He was considering either purchasing a 45-70 or another Ruger American with a 24in barrel, chambered in 308 Win. He stated that he wanted a rifle that he could comfortable take an elk from 0 to 300 yards. (My first response was his beard was not long enough and he did not live in a log cabin in the mountains to justify the 45-70)

I stated to him that I believed that he would be fine with the 18in 308 Win, especially if he switched to a 150gr monolithic bullet such as a Barnes TTSX or a Hornady GMX. The reason being the copper monolithic tend to penetrate deeper, track straighter and have less mass lost when compared to a a conventional cup and core lead bullet. After getting off the phone with him, I decided to run the ballistics to see if my statement was accurate or if I was just blowing smoke.

At the muzzle, there is no doubt that the 45-70 Govt. has the energy to take down an elk. However due to the flat nose bullet design of the 250gr Barnes TSX Bullet, the energy is lost quickly. As we approach 200 yards we drop below the 1500ftlb of energy that the Colorado Parks and Wildlife recommend as the minimum amount needed to reliably down an elk. In addition the bullet drop on the 45-70 is pretty dramatic, nearly twice that of the 308 Win at 300 yards.

The differences between the 308 Win barrel lengths is less dramatic. The criteria is from 0 to 300 yards as that what my friend felt were the ranges he’d be shooting. So if we look at the energy requirements we see both bullets make the cut off but the 18in barrel squeaks by at that 1500ftlb threshold while the 24in barrel imparts 1700lbs or a difference of around 13%. Now, is the elk likely to notice if it go hit with a bullet with 200lbs more force? No, I don’t believe so. The terminal ballistics are going to be very similar.

There is one thing that does matter which is the minimum velocity needed to reliably expand. Nosler claims there minimum expansion velocity is 1800fps. What I don’t know is the level of expansion you get at 1800fps. Is that the expansion that yields the picture perfect expansion you seen in the magazine photos or is that just enough to open up the tip to claim the bullet expanded. (Perhaps a couple test shots are needed with some wet newspaper). With the 1800fps spec provided, we can say that the 18in barrel will meet the spec yielding 2023fps.

At the end of the day, I told him he did not need to buy at 45-70 Govt. and that he was likely fine with the 18in barrel. Now that I’ve taken the time to run the numbers, I am more confident in the conclusion. His 165 Nosler Partition load will be fine for elk when shot from his 18in American Predator. Yes the energy threshold is just barely there, but as long as he does his part to place the bullet in the proper location he will fill the freezer.

So how about my advice on the loads? Switching from the 165gr Nosler Partition Bullet to a 150gr Monolithic? Well, I substituted a 150gr Barnes TTSX, and adjusted the load using QuickLOAD to get an estimated velocity of 2515fps. Since the bullet is a little bit lighter we get a bit of a velocity boost.

The minimum velocity for expansion for the Barnes 150gr TTSX is 2000fps, when purchased as a handloading component. The bullet used in their 308 and 30-06 factory loads have an expansion window down to 1600fps, but to my knowledge, is not sold as a handloading component. So he is likely on the edge for the stock 308 150gr TTSX handloading bullet on store shelves.

As far as terminal ballistics goes, it is true that the copper monolithic penetrate deeper, track straighter, and retain more weight when compared to traditional lead core hunting bullets. Undoubtedly the 1500ftlb minimum was set with traditional bullets in mind, and the advancement in bullet technology may reduce the amount of energy needed for an ethical kill. That is up to an individual hunter to decide. I am not convinced it will make as big of a difference as I initially had thought.

Well that is all I have for this week. We did decide to move to Parler, but are keeping our Facebook and Instagram account live for now. You can find us @TheBallisticAssistant. We are looking at MeWe, but haven’t finished the set up over there yet. For right now we are treating Parler kind of like Instagram sharing photos but we may expand how we use the platform. We will see.

As always, you can reach me at jay@theballisticassitant.com. Email me with your comments suggestions or questions. I have no new updates for the load database this week but if you’d like to add your pet load, the submission sheet can be found here and we will get it added ASAP.

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Stay Safe Out There!

The Ballistic Assistant

Well, I fat fingered something and lost the whole update. *Facepalm* Here we go again…

We will stay away from the election results. Though we do not expect that the ammo/component/firearm shortage will ease anytime soon. So that’s going to be fun for us.

Moving to Texas has been a change of scenery for myself. Utah is in the midst of a snow storm, and I can’t step outside without breaking a sweat. The humidity is a bit much for me in November. It scares me to think this is mild compared to what it can be. I’ll get used to it. We are working on settling in, part of that is going to be checking the sites on my rifle.

Changes in atmospheric conditions can have dramatic effects on downrange ballistics. Moving from an average elevation of 5500 feet to 350 feet is about as dramatic of a change as you can get. Air is more dense down here, which means drag is going to be higher. The bullet is going to lose more velocity at a given range, and the point of impact will be lower as a result. The effect will be more noticeable at range. Which is why I am a protenant of a 100 yard zero, but checking the rifle at range you actually expect to shoot at. The table below reinforces that point.

I know people who have spent serious $$$ on a limited hunt. They lived in Utah and planned on hunting somewhere close to sea level. They spent a ton of time working up a load, developing and checking a ballistics table, and then when they get their they check their rifle’s zero on a hundred yard target. Well, it should surprise no one that they felt their rifle was just fine.

As long as they were taking game at or under 400 yards, they are probably going to be ok. The difference is about an inch. At this distance, if you are shooting 1 MOA, which is the absolute best most experience shooters can hope to do in the field, you are noticing a 1 inch shift down in your point of aim/point of impact. given group sizes are going to be around 4in, this may not be immediately noticeable.

However this changes as you begin to past 500 yards, where this point of impact shift becomes 2 inches. At 600 yards it’s 4 inches, at 7 yards its 6 inches, and by the time you hit 8 yards it is more then 1 MOA difference (Mind you these are results from my 338LM, other calibers such as 45/70 could be more dramatic). It’s arguable that you shouldn’t be taking game past 500 yards anyways, but people do it, and if you are planning on it, you should know the variables which will affect shot placement.

Shooting competition is where these differences are really going to be noticeable. You cannot check the rifle at 100 yards an have any confidence that things are on. You must check at the ranges you will be shooting at. Notably if you are someone who likes to run heavy for caliber bullet weights. High elevations are more forgiving of bullets that are riding the edge of the stability envelope. You might get by running a 90gr 223 cal bullet in a 1:7 twist at 6000 feet. However you drop down to 300 feet above sea level and the bullet will start to key hole.

Running heavy for caliber bullets is a trick some competition shooter use, as bullets have slight imbalances that can cause groups to open up a bit the faster you spin them. If you spin them just enough to stabilize but not a revolution more, you can sometimes get slightly better groups. It might be enough to eek out a win over the competition, or so proponents say. However it will bite you, if you’re shooting at a range that’s at a different elevation. Sometimes all it takes is shooting a match during a cold morning to upset these loads.

There are other variables that can affect things. A notable one is the companies published B.C values. We all rely on them to generate that initial bullet drop chart. However the company doesn’t typically shoot them in all atmospheric conditions. For example Barnes Bullets shoots must of their data at a range in Price, Utah. How does the B.C compare to that of a bullet shot in Backwoods, Georgia? These are all variables that can only be taken into account by shooting and developing a table in the actual environment you intend to shoot in.

Lucky for me, I really only have one precision rifle I shoot. I’ll check and adjust the tables on my Barret MRAD, but the rest of my rifles have either iron sights or they are something I do not plan to shoot at distance with. The 30-06 I have, has only a 10x scope on it, and I would find it hard taking shots at more then 400 yards, so I’m not terribly worried about it. Perhaps when I have a developed pet load for the rifle I’ll develop a drop table for it.

In other news I have been busy with putting the drone together. We started this project about a year ago but ended up shelving it. Well now that I’m putting together a business that centers around drone surveying, it’s a good time to finish it. Kind of a key component of the whole operation.

Professional drones cost quite a bit of dough, and many of them use the same off the shelf components that I’ve ordered. For this reason I’m building my own. It will reduce maintenance costs, and operations costs as long as I am successful. Given this technology is mostly DYI, and there is plenty of information out there, I find it hard to believe I’m going to have substantial issues getting it in the air.

I plan on working on this over the next few weeks hopefully having a successful test flight sometimes next week and able to carry out surveys Thanksgiving weekend. Accompanying this has been the development of a website for the business showcasing some of the work I’ve done for other companies. If I can make enough money to support my family, I’ll call it a success. We will see.

Its all related to ballistics, even if it is a different field. Hopefully some people will enjoy seeing this project finished and flying, even if its a bit off the normal topic of the website.

As some have notices there is a concerted effort to move people from Facebook to Parlor. I have not decided whether or not I will make the change. There have been similar efforts in the not so distant past. They seem to be somewhat limited to the firearm’s community and has always been in response to Facebook’s crack downs on content. This time feels a bit different, there seems to be a larger movement, though it seems to be limited to those of a more conservative mindset. These campaigns do not typically work, as the reach on alternate platforms never comes close to what the reach on Facebook is. From a business aspect, if the people aren’t there, it doesn’t make sense to invest in it.

I am considering doing doing both a Parlor page and a Facebook page, I’ll provide and update next week on what we come up with. For now you can check us out on Facebook, Instagram or you can send us a email at jay@theballisticassistant.com. As always I welcome the feedback. If you have a new load to add to the database, you can do it here.

Stay Safe Out There!

The Ballistic Assistant

Today is election day, which for the United States happens once every two years. There is no secret that my political views are more conservative leaning, with that said I do try and be somewhat a-political in running the site. Hopefully, everyone has had a chance to go vote, make their voice heard, if not for the presidential election, for the down ticket candidates and ballot measures. In most States, that is what where your voice matters most.

We got to Texas early, we left mid day Sunday, drove all day, spent the night in New Mexico, and then drove all day Monday arriving to our destination about 2am Tuesday morning. We are beat, the last week has been a whirlwind of activity, culminating in about 24 to 26 hours of driving. We were fortunate, we fit everything we intended to. We have not even began to unpack, so who knows what survived and what did not. Either way we achieved our goal and got to our destination prior to the election results rolling out. I did not want to be caught out on the highways if chaos ensued.

In industry news, there has been quite a bit of noise made over the ATF’s recent determination letters and indications that they might be changing the rules, this time in regards to pistol braces, and pistols. A recent determination letter to Q, LLC which manufactures the Honey Badger pistol, stated that the pistol brace effectively was a stock and thus they were selling a SBR.

Controversy over the pistol brace is hardly a new thing. I am young enough to remember that the ATF issued a ruling stating that “Shouldering” a pistol brace is effectively redesigning the weapon into an Short Barrel Rifle. The ATF backed down from that interpretation, but honestly I have been waiting to see this issue come back up again, especially when the ATF reclassified Bump Stocks as machine guns.

Instead of focusing on the the Pistol Brace or on the Bump Stock, I think the real issue is more how the ATF is making determinations. This is clear as they have made indications they are revisiting what is constituting a “Pistol”. There has been some hay made over the definition of pistol, specifically that at pistol is designed to be held “By one hand”. However pistols and rifles are both often “held” by one hand, and “fired” using two hands. To you and I, this would be splitting hairs, but lawyers bread their butter by splitting such hairs.

This is the danger of broad bureaucratic powers that have been granted to the executive branch by the legislator. They are able to define and redefine how they interpret and enforce the laws at whim, and they are not bound by precedent. Groups pushing more firearm laws have been pushing bans on pistols which have a magazine outside of the pistol grip. On the national level these bans have failed, however I strongly suspect they have approached the attorneys at the ATF and are working to have the ATF interpret the law in a way that accomplishes, in part, the same thing, without having to go through the legislator.

It is my sincere hope that the 2nd Amendment Foundation, and other similar groups are able to push back against this behind the scenes effort. I strongly suspect the outcome of such efforts will be tied to the outcome of this election, which is not how it should be for something that is a constitutional Right.

Well, we are watching results come in. Over the next few weeks I’ll be working on another website, so I do not expect to have significant updates. As always we will keep top on of the Load Database, if you have some load results to submit, email me, jay@theballisticassistant.com. You can join the conversation on Facebook, or check out our latest doings over on the Instagram.

Stay Safe Out There

The Ballistic Assistant