Month: August 2025

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Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #10

The kids head back to school this week. I’m not sure who’s more excited, my wife or my daughter. My son is definitely the least; he struggles with ADHD and what we believe is Oppositional Defiant Disorder. If you’re not familiar with ODD, it makes discipline nearly impossible, once he digs in, there’s no moving him.

It’s been tough on my wife and me as we try to keep order at home and some sanity for ourselves. We’re hoping school resources can help. For all of Vermont’s problems, the schools are well funded and offer solid support for kids who need it, so “back to school” might finally bring us a bit of relief.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working through the reloading backlog and realized I no longer have the time or patience to hand trim brass. I used to spend Sundays at the trimmer with a movie running, but those days are gone. With piles of brass needing attention, I’ve started looking into powered trimmers—more on that in this week’s Time at the Bench.

Website Updates

I mentioned that Marc had some new neighbors move in. That got him reevaluating what loads might be proper to be carrying in his revolver. He put his thoughts down on paper and we published them this week.

Mastering Handloading: Gear Up for Unexpected Wildlife

Time at the Bench

Annealing 7.62×39

If you’re dealing with hot brass from annealing, a tin bucket is a life saver

I’ve been using the AMP annealer for a while, and my latest batch of 7.62x39mm went smoothly with one exception: the Lee shell holder doesn’t let every case slip in and out cleanly. Rim sizes vary by brand, so some snap in—fine for sizing, but tricky when you’re pulling hot brass out during annealing. The Redding #12 Shell holder is said to be the best for this cartridge; I even have one sitting in my Midway cart. In the meantime, I used a .308 Win shell holder. It takes some finesse since cases can drop off if you’re not careful, but it worked well enough that only a few slipped into the annealer, and those were easy to fish out. Cases come out hot enough to melt plastic, so I drop them into a metal pail to cool before transferring them to a plastic one.

Trimming Brass, by hand no more

I really like this method for sorting cases, it beats trying to balance it on a pair of calipers. It’s overkill unless you have the stuff laying around

Anyone who knows me would say that I am a creature of habit. Unfortunately, my habits are taken to the extreme and I can be slow to change.  When I sat down to start sorting the 7.62×39 cases by case length into a “to trim bucket” and a “no trim bucket”, it dawned on me that I was going to be doing a lot of trimming. Most of the brass was as much as .020 longer than the max case length. Which was a bit shocking. That’s a lot of hand cranking on the manual trimmer and given I had done a bunch of hand trimming on 30-06 a few months ago, I was not keen on doing all this 7.62×39 brass.

As I was sorting this brass and realizing the sheer amount of work I was signing up for, I asked myself the question “Why? Am I doing this?”

Why am I sorting brass to trim? It would be far more efficient if I just assumed all of the brass needed to be trimmed and run it through a trimmer that trims it back a set amount. Of course, if I am hand trimming it makes sense to sort it, but if I have a power trimmer, well, problem solved.  

This old drill press was saved from the scrap yard. It was not OSHA complaint, and there was not a good way to make it OSHA Complaint, hence the LOCKOUT Tag

Thus I decided it was time to finish the drill press rebuild I had started months earlier. Rather than buy a dedicated brass trimmer, I put the Delta 220 drill press I’d been given to use. Built between the 1940s and 1960s, these machines are all-metal and far sturdier than today’s budget presses. Before putting it to work, I stripped it down, ran the parts through a washer, bead blasted them, replaced the spindle and pulley bearings, and gave everything a fresh coat of Ford Grey paint. I added a new Jacobs chuck, a ½-hp three-phase motor, a VFD, and I’m installing an RPM sensor and speed dial. I’ve poured far more time and effort into this press than it’s worth, but I expect it to last a lifetime and perform beautifully.

Not quite 100% but close

While it would seem like this is a tangent, it circles back to brass trimming as there are several purpose-built brass trimmers on the market that are designed to mount on the end of a drill or drill press. Probably the most well-known is the World’s Finest Trimmer or (WFT) by Little Crow Gunworks.

The original WFT pictured left is a cartridge specific trimmer, while the newer WFT2 uses inter changeable “Trim Chambers”. There are advantages and disadvantages to both .

However, Little Crow Gunworks is not the only participant in that party. There are at least a half dozen brands and designs of cast trimmers that follow a similar pattern. Here’s a short list.

Draco Engineering

I have not tried these personally however the price point is tempting to try at least one or two and see if they are as good as the WTF.

Frankford Arsenal Universal Precision Case Trimmer

I have messed with this one a bit, and found it was probably an ok entry level tool. Not something I was overly impressed with but at the same time, it was not a complete flop.

Giraud Tri-Way Trimmer

Honestly this is a logical step for Giraud, their all in one unit has been the “Standard” powered brass trimmers have been held to for sometime. The $120 price point is a little high but not unreasonable.

That list is not exhaustive. There are other companies, even some unknown brands that produce these. All of which are very similar in operation and concept.  Lyman has a dedicated trimmer that works like the old Gracey Trimmers. Frankford Arsenal recently released a similar unit. Of course, Giraud has their dedicated unit as well that is very popular among high volume shooters. If you think about it, all the trimmers I’ve mentioned so far are basically a Giraud, or Gracey trimmer without the motor.

The old Gracey Trimmer. I can’t say it was the first powered “3in1” case trimmer, but it has to be up there. Operationally this works almost identical to the WFT, and the Giraud Trimmer. The cutter is a PITA to adjust correctly.

The only thing I think some of the dedicated hand crank trimmers have, an advantage on the powered units, is the ability to do wildcats. The way my RCBS Trimmer clamps on to the back of the shell means I can trim just about any case out there. This is more of a challenge with trimmers that rely on the case body, or index off the shoulder.

9x19mm Processing

As I mentioned last week, I had a die loose and ended up seating a bunch of bullets longer than what would gauge in a cartridge checker. I debated on whether I should just sort through the rounds and separate out the rounds which were too long or if I should just run them through the press again and set the bullets back and reapply the crimp.

Gauging a round and then popping it out of the gauge takes more time then just running it through the press a second time. When you have 1.5k rounds to “fix” it’s little time savers like this that keep you sane.

I decided on the latter. It is quick enough to feed rounds into the bullet seating station on a 550 and run them through bullet seat and crimp. Probably faster to do it that way than to sit down and sort the whole batch. I have a tendency to load cartridges long.  Unless I am trying to line up the case mouth with a crimping groove, or loading solid copper, I like to keep the distance between the bullet and lands to a minimum, provided they will still feed.

These are a life saver to have on the bench, but they require you to use them to be effective. Something I forget to do.

The advantage here is that since my nominal, non-screwed up COAL was long already, I could set up the seating and crimp die to knock everything back .020 and still have a safe load. For me the only reason to do this was to have a degree of consistency. Everything got pushed back to the same point and crimped in the same relative location.  I am just about through it all. I have the same chore to do with several lots of 223 Remington I loaded a while ago.

Speaking of Reloading Mistakes

I have a collection of quart, pint, and gallon containers I keep things in while sorting.

Pictured above is my reject bin from the marathon batch of 9x19mm I loaded. What do you do with your rejects, split necks, backwards primers, crushed case mouths? I set them aside with the intention of salvaging components, but more often than not they end up in a “live ammo” scrap bin.   

Industry and Legislative News

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Connecticut’s Assault Weapons Ban

This probably is not a surprise to anyone, the 2nd Circuit is a left-leaning Circuit court, and gun advocates were expecting a loss here. This case, NAGR v. Lamont, is very likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court. Right now, this is setting a stage for some serious questions to be asked at the Supreme Court as the lower courts seem to consistently uphold the constitutionality of Assault Weapons Bans despite these bans running directly in opposition to the Heller decision.

New Mexico’s 7 Day Waiting Period Blocked

The 10th Circuit Panel blocked the 7-day waiting period required for gun purchases, saying it violates the 2nd Amendment. You might as well say it violates logic as well, if I am a gun owner, and I have a gun, why should I have to wait seven days to take possession of another gun? That is the relatively benign consequence of such a law. The real consequence is a woman who may be legitimately in fear for her life is blocked from purchasing the very thing that could preserve her life. 

Since 2023 Vermont has a 3 Day “cool” down period on all handgun purchases. I have yet to find any meaningful data that indicates that a waiting period has had beneficial results.

Glock Switches in Illinois

We’ve talked about this before. Glock switches are a thing that turns pretty much any Glock on the market into a select fire pistol. They are very much not legal. In a testament to Glock’s design (I can admire the design even if I am not particularly fond of Glocks) the core components have changed very little, if at all, since its introductions. This means that most if not all the parts in a Gen 1 Glock fit and work in a Gen 4 Glock.  What is unfortunate for Glock is that this means illegal Glock switches will work in every generation of Glock.

The Glock Switch is about as simple as a device as it gets. It prevents the trigger bar from catching the striker and holding it until the trigger is released and is “reset”. Instead the striker is held by the sear and the sear trips automatically when the slide goes back into battery.

These Glock switches aren’t being churned out but the thousands in some dude’s basement machine shop. They were/are being imported from China, you could buy one on wish.com, when that website was popular a few years ago. So, they are not especially hard to get, they are easy to install, and no one seems to know what to do about it. This has fueled at least one lawsuit against Glock for not changing the design, and it is fueling a particularly concerning crime wave in Chicago. There have been more than 20 new cases in the last 18 months, and over the last four years seizures have skyrocketed.

Unfortunately, the picture that is being painted here is not what is happening. No one is pointing to China and saying, “Hey knock it off”. They are pointing their fingers at Glock, and gun owners. It’s not hard for those who have anti-gun tendencies to paint with a broad brush, and that’s exactly what’s happening here.  We are seeing a legislative push in California to ban Glocks outright as a consequence of this.  

New Guns and Gear

Shell Shock 308 Win Next Gen Cartridge Case

 Shell Shock Technologies has released their new nickel-stainless composite shell for the 308 Win. This joins their line up of 380 ACP, 9x19m, 5.56 NATO, and 300 AAC Blackout. The company’s claim to fame is their composite cases which use a thin-walled nickel alloy for the case body and either stainless or aluminum for the case head.

The nickel case body is thinner than brass which allows more case volume, and should deliver better performance when using slower burning powders. They are also lighter. However the rifle brass is not reloadable. The pistol brass can be reloaded and supposedly they have quite the long life cycle. However they require special dies to reload.

There are several companies who are working on composite cases, and this does seem to be the way of the future of cartridge case technology. Brass is heavy, expensive and soft, which limits the pressures it can handle. Composite cases can handle much higher pressures, tend to be lighter, and they also can have larger case volumes.

With the price of copper on the rise, and the market looking for the next generation of ammunition, do not be surprised if we see more stuff like this.

H&R Introduces an M-14                                               

H&R has announced they are bringing out an M-14 under the H&R Brand, and hinted that there may be an M1 Garand in the works as well. As a big fan of these old war horses, I am happy to see this. I really enjoy shooting my M1A and the few times I have shot an M1 Garand, I very much wish I had one of those as well.

H&R was a company that was basically put into a grave by Remington. During the 2020 Remington Bankruptcy the H&R Brand was purchased by Palmetto State Armory. So it is nice to see a legacy company essentially come back from the dead. Time will tell if these rifles are of a quality build or not, but it’s exciting to see something new to hit the market that isn’t a polymer Glock clone or another M4 / AR-15 build. 

That is all we have for this week.

The Ballistic Assistant is a website dedicated to the art of handloading and shooting. We aim to share tips on reloading and shooting, inform others on what’s going on in the firearms community, and provide our opinion and thoughts on firearm related news and events. If you like what you read, we only ask that you subscribe and share with a friend or two.

If you have questions, comments, or ideas, we’d love to hear from you.

Jay – jay@theballisticassistant.com

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Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #9

I am seriously hoping this past week was the last gasp of summer. It felt like a normal day in Alabama, which is to say, hot, humid and miserable. Then suddenly the weather turned and this week feels like late September/Early October. It has been fantastic (Sorry Marc).

I got the R/C airplane patched up, I think I have narrowed down the issues to having a prop that was too small and improperly set up control horns. I got the replacement parts on order.

Most of my time has been spent trying to finish this batch of 9mm. This has been an ongoing project for the last couple of weeks, and I was glad to wrap it up last night.  About 2k rounds in the bank, it’ll last me a good while. It never fails that I always seem to have left over bullets. If it was one or two, I could probably get over it, but 10 is just annoying. It’s not enough to justify doing much of anything with. Next time I load 9mm, there’s a good chance I won’t even be able to find them.

Marc has also had a new set of neighbors move in, a mama bear and her cubs. He’s overjoyed at the development and sent me some screen shots. I have found it analogous to those back-to-school photos that seem to be all over social media lately. On a completely unrelated note, Marc has also been reevaluating whether his bear loads are ready to bear.  

Website Updates

No new updates this week.  I do have a bit of catch up to do there’s some editing that needs to happen before I can make a few articles live. Expect to see them this week.

Time at the Bench

Primer Woes

As I mentioned at the beginning, I have been working through this batch of 9mm loaded with a 124gr Berry Plated hollow point. This is the first time I have loaded any but 45 ACP on my Dillon 550. The Dillon 550 is a fine piece of machinery, and it really has not caused me that much trouble. Things tend to just work.

However, this week I’ve been having some issues with the primer pick up tubes. For some reason when dumping the primers into the primer feeding tube, I’ll get a primer sideways into the blue funnel tip. Once that primer flips sideways, it’s all over, it jams up the works. When this first happened it really bound up the tube and I spent the better part of 20 minutes trying to unjam the feed tube and not spill primers all over the place. I was successful in only one of those tasks.

The plastic on these things are brittle and they grip pretty tightly to the tube itself. Not sure why Dillion decided that was the best way to do things.

After cleaning up the primers off the floor, I noticed a few primers had some damage on the cup, I’ve taken a picture below.  The primers are a surprisingly tight fit in the primer pickup tube, and these dents may have been part of the culprit. At the same time, I’ve struggled with a few of the tubes since then. They always want to flip just as they transition from the end of the tube to the funnel. That’s where they get stuck.

Ultimately that was not the cause of the jams in the primer tubes, but it did not help any. These would jam up inside a tube, something to keep an eye out for if you’re suddenly having issues.

Being aware of the potential problem I have been careful when loading primers, and I have found a few of the tubes are more prone to it than others. I am suspecting it is more of a tube issue than it is a primer issue at this point. I have at least one tube that reliably dumps primers without an issue. You might think you could just replace the blue tip, but the only way to get one off seems to be breaking it, they are stuck on something fierce.

If I keep having these issues I may consider looking into Derraco Engineering’s pickup tubes for the Dillon Press.

Apparently they have redesigned the blue tips to eliminate the primer flipping issue and for the price they are worth a shot.

Speaking of Worn Out

When I first set up the Dillon 550 about seven or so months ago, I noticed it seemed a little stiff. I put a little oil on the ram and checked everything. I didn’t pay much attention to it and once I got to loading, I got used to it. Then it started to squeak. I hate it when it presses squeak. I spent about a half hour troubling shooting that.

I ended up spraying some WD-40 that was impregnated with PTFE on the upper and lower hinges. A few squirts and two things happened. 1st, the squeak was silenced and 2, the press felt like a brand-new press.

This was much to my chagrin. I try and keep my nice presses clean and lubricated but it was obvious to me at that point that I had failed to grease the pins on the press.  Dillon makes a special maintenance kit, which I have never used. Now that I am ready to tear the press down and switch over to 40 S&W I’ll probably take a look at cleaning and greasing the bottom end of the press.

Caution when Loading Large Batches

To be honest, I think the best advice I can give someone is never load too much in one sitting. I am the worse offender of that, I will spend the afternoon loading, as it is very cathartic. The danger in doing this is that you can really start getting complacent or take shortcuts that will later burn you. Especially when loading with progressive press.  Once everything is set up, you just get into the motion of things, and it is easy to dig yourself a big hole.

I have been reminded of this twice in the last two weeks. The first time I went to grab some 223 I had loaded about a year and a half ago and came across a note reminding me I needed to set back the bullet. That ammo was the product of a marathon loading session where I did not check to make sure the COAL would work in the magazines I was using. They gauge fine, they ran fine on the press, except now I have probably 3-4k of 223 that I need to knock the bullet back by about .025 so they will not drag the tip against the front of a standard AR-15 Mag.

“The facepalm” the universal sign for “Someone screwed up and created more work for everyone else involved”.

With the 9mm I was loading this past week, I had bullet seating die back off. I caught it when I went to drop a round in the ammo checker, and it would not sit all the way. I have no idea how many rounds I loaded with the COAL being too long. I made the corrections, but I will need to go back through the batch and sort out the rounds that will need to be seated a bit deeper.

Dillion 750XL

A few years ago Dillon Precision seemed to really make a push for first time reloaders to purchase the Dillon 750XL. I thought it was a misguided campaign by Dillon. I constantly had to remind people when they were looking at buying a Dillon 750 as their first press. “You are either going to load a bunch of good ammo, or a bunch of junk ammo” and “You’re better off figuring out how to make good ammo, before you try to load a bunch of it.”

Mystery Bullets

The mystery bullets we shared last week are still a partial mystery. Mark K. has memories of doing this back in the days when “Dirty Harry” was popular. They would stick a BB in the nose of the hollow point to make it more “Barrier Blind”. That was the going theory anyway, but there was no hard data to confirm the effect. Best explanation we’ve heard so far.

Thanks Mark for taking the time to provide that insight.

Industry and Legislative News

For the most part this past week has been quiet. I have not seen any major developments in any of the major stories we’ve been following.

There was one interesting news article that caught my eye, that was a reported sniper kill that was 4,000+ meters.  The article claimed that artificial intelligence and drone coordination were used to enable the shot. The rifle used was a Snipex Alligator chambered in 14.5x114mm.

This is a massive rifle, and the round is markedly larger than the .50 BMG.  Developed in 1939 the 14.5x114mm is effectively 58 Caliber, and the bullet weighs on average around 980 grains. Muzzle velocity from the Alligators 47in barrel is reportedly around 3,200fps.  The rifle weighs over 55lbs. The purpose of the rifle and the rounds are antimaterial, but obviously it can be used to be just about “anti” anything you want it to be.

The .50 BMG is on the far right of the image label by it’s NATO designation as 12.7x99mm. The 14.5×114 is directly to it’s left and you can clearly see it’s a monster.

I am a sucker for the big guns and have long been fascinated with .50 BMG, .460 Styer, .416 Barrett and the 20x138mmB fired in the Solothurn S18-1000. Of course, one of my personal favorite cartridges is the 30x173mm which is fired from the GAU-8 Avenger mounted in the Fairchild A-10.

I really do have a soft spot for this aircraft. I do not know why, but I just do.

As anyone knows, hitting a target out past 1760 yards is about 60% skill and 40% luck. There are just too many variables that you have no possible way of accounting for.  Even if your rifle could hold half MOA, the dispersion pattern is not linear, .5in at 100, and 1in at 200, does not equal 5in at 1000. The combined effects of wind, velocity variation, and little things like variation in jacket thickness, causes groups to open. Extreme Long-Range shooting is something that I love to participate in, and guys can pull off some truly incredible shots. Someday I would love to know what the shooter did to pull it off.

Artificial Intelligence in the Firearms Industry

Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve heard about ChatGPT and other so called “Artificial Intelligences” which are more correctly referred to as large language models . They are everywhere, and it seems like there is a frenzy of “powered by AI” or “Integrated AI”. Marketing is having a field day, and I can only assume it is a matter of time before we see “AI Integration” in optics.   The aforementioned article of the record long distance shot mentioned it was accomplished in part with the aid of AI.

Gun owners tend to be naturally suspicious of new technology, and of course new ways that Government and/or Corporations can take advantage of us via data harvesting. All of these concerns have proven to be real. With that said, about the worst thing we can do is to shy away from it. Like the internet, AI is not going away, it will become a more and more prevalent tool in everyday life.

I don’t know how AI was involved in the longest shot, anything I might say is pure speculation, but what I do know is that AI cannot replace the fundamentals. If there is a takeaway from this mini discussion, is it this: AI does not create, it regurgitates information. In many ways it is a magnifying glass, if you are already knowledgeable about the topic, you can use AI to expand your depth of knowledge. If you are ignorant, it is likely AI will make you look like a greater fool.  I have been on both sides of that coin when using AI as a research tool.  

New Guns and Gear

Springfield Armory Operator

Honestly as someone who likes 1911 pistols, it’s hard to get excited about a new 1911. It’s all be done before and it’s all the same just different dressing.

Springfield Armory recently announced a new 1911 build.  Honestly, I probably will not have much chance to mess with one. However if the build quality of the Springfield Prodigy (A 2011 pattern pistol) is any indication of what to expect in a Springfield Armory 1911, I probably will pass. Unless I plan on swapping out the sear, disconnector, hammer and safety for something that is a bit more quality.  These parts are all Metal Injection Molded (MIM), which makes sense, these are tricky parts to machine.

From a design standpoint, they can be tricky parts to model, I’ve done it a few times. From my experience MIM parts are designed to be massed-produced at a lower price. There are sacrifices to quality and durability, the metal in theory should be strong enough to handle everything you ask of it, but in practice they break. Especially along edges that need to be sharp, such as the sear and hammer hooks.  This results in a heavier trigger, or if you try and tune it to be a lighter trigger, the gun will hammer follow.

RCBS UPM-3 Competition Powder Measure

Traditional powder throwers do not seem to get much love anymore. Everyone seems to gravitate towards the automated powder dispensers. Which are cool but they are also often an investment, and unless you purchase a high dollar one, they are slow. For that reason,  I have gone the other way. When I first started loading I really wanted  an automated dispenser. I bought a Hornady one and it served me well for many years.  I have since fallen in love with a Harrell’s powder thrower. With most powders it is accurate to the .1 of a grain. Which, for loading rifle, is plenty accurate enough to get SD’s in the low teens to single digits.

I think new handloaders would almost be better off using a traditional powder thrower rather then trying to get sucked into the world of automated powder dispensers. This new thrower introduced by RCBS would be a good one to take a look at. It claims to have a meter tube that can dispense as little as .5gr up to 100gr per throw. For the cost, $200 you are going to throw charges that, for the money, are as accurate as a similarly priced powder dispenser in a tenth of the time.

It is still valuable to have a quality scale to set up the thrower, but once it’s set up, very little changes. At some point in time, I’d love to do a comparison between all the powder throwers on the market, but for right now the only one I can definitively say stay away from is the Lee Precision thrower, that is a miserable piece of junk.

That is all we have for this week.

The Ballistic Assistant is a website dedicated to the art of handloading and shooting. We aim to share tips on reloading and shooting, inform others on what’s going on in the firearms community, and provide our opinion and thoughts on firearm related news and events. If you like what you read, we only ask that you subscribe and share with a friend or two.

If you have questions, comments, or ideas, we’d love to hear from you.

Jay – jay@theballisticassistant.com

Marc – Marc@theballisticassistant.com

If you’d like to support this website, please use the affiliate links. We get a small commission whenever you purchase something through a link regardless of if it is the product that was linked or not. This is at no additional cost to you. 

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Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #8

Another week has come and gone, and we are one more week closer to sending the kids off to school. In the Northeast school typically starts around the 25th of August. This week I spent a bit of time working on getting a model airplane ready to fly. The drone project that I started nearly six years ago finally took flight, albeit less of a drone and more of a park flyer.

I yanked out all the guts that made it automated and reconfigured it to fly like a normal R/C airplane. It was good thing I did, because fly, it did not.

At the end of the day, we had five launches and five crashes. The airframe needs a bit of patching up, and I think I need to redo the control surfaces and look at the center of gravity. Between fishing and R/C Airplanes so far I am 0/2 on picking up a new hobby. We’ll give it a few more attempts, I don’t think the kids will let me not try and fly the models they built.  

Website Updates

Marc found some mystery 44 cal 300gr cast bullets at an estate sale. He put in some time in trying to figure out what they were. This led to him writing up a piece on discussing the bullets and how to go about working up a load for a “unknown” bullet.

Estate Sale 300 Grain Mystery Bullets

In that spirit I have another buddy, Jeb I. who lives in Spanish Fork, Utah. He’s come across some interesting bullets Marc and I have never seen before.  According to him they are 125 grain .357 bullets with what looks to be a .177 caliber BB in the nose.  They were in loaded ammo, but since he didn’t know what the loads were, he pulled it all down with an inertia bullet puller. None of the BB’s came out, so they are in there good.

I’ve seen bullets with primers pressed into the nose, and I have seen pellets with copper BB’s pressed into the nose, but I have never seen 38 Special rounds with a embedded BB. My guess is they wanted it to expand faster?

It could totally be something someone home brewed, or it could be a commercially made bullet. To me it almost looks like a Glaser Safety Slug, but at the same time, the soft lead nose does not fall in line with anything I have seen. If you think you might know what it is, leave a comment or email myself or Marc.

If anyone else has a question on an unknown component or a reloading question in general email us and we would love to take the time to help a fellow handloader. We’d love to be able to feature a question and answer as part of our weekly newsletter.

Time at the Bench

I actually was able to spend a significant amount of time at the reloading bench this week. I have been trying to clear out the backlog of reloading. I hate having firearms sitting without ammo, so I will figure out a load I like and load until I run out of components. Right now, that has been 9mm.

When I am reloading, I usually keep my camera close. You will usually come across something that is noteworthy. Something that an experienced reloader is going to take in stride but it may not be something a new reloader has seen or has considered. The two images below are good examples.

The bullet on the left is a perfectly usable cartridge. It gauges just fine, but if you are a new handloader you may notice that that cartridge has a bit of a “wasp” waist. This is common in straight wall cartridges. When seated the bullet expands out the brass and creates a bulge. It’s a purely cosmetic feature that is perfectly normal to see, even in factory rounds. This is not the worst I have seen, and it’s not the best picture but it’s an example.

The picture on the right is a cracked case mouth. This is typical for the end of the life of a straight wall pistol case. I can be somewhat hard on case mouths because I tend to put a generous flare on the case mouth to prevent scoring or gouging of the bullet when seating. This flare gets tucked in a little while bullet seating but is then fully tucked in during crimping.

Of course, every time we bend or otherwise displace brass, the material gets a little bit harder and a little bit more brittle. The remedy for this is to anneal the cartridge on a regular basis so the case mouth returns to a dead soft state. I personally have not found it worthwhile to anneal 9x19mm brass. So, I let nature run its course and it will usually crack like this when flared.

If you’re loading a lot how often do you clean your progressive press? This is about as dirty as I let it get. Brass dust, and powder kernels can really build up overtime and start to create issues. Usually, the first thing I notice is dents on the primer; this happens when a piece of debris lands on the primer seating punch.

I know a lot of people will use compressed air to clean things off. Personally, I like to use a small paint brush with a long handle. Brushing it off prevents debris from being driven into every nook and cranny. I got one that came with my Hornady powder dispenser fifteen or so years ago, it’s probably the only part of that dispenser that still works reliably.

Industry and Legislative News

HPA and SHORT Act

Two more legal challenges to the legitimacy of the remaining parts of the Natio nal Firearms Act of 1934 were filed last week. One in Missouri Brown v. ATF and an appeal regarding the same issue to the 8th Circuit court.

The 8th Circuit appeal is happening in parallel with an appeal happening in the 5th Circuit which is also challenging the constitutionality of the NFA.                                   

California Ammo Background Check Law Struck Down

The laws requiring background checks prior to California residents purchasing ammunition at point of sale has been struck down. There is a temporary hold on the ruling going into effect, and an appeal is likely. This is a win for California gun owners in the short term. We will see if the ruling is upheld in the 9th circuit.

Washington State’s ban on Magazines Appealed to the Supreme Court

There are a lot of people who are watching this case very closely, including myself. Magazine capacity bans are widespread and affect millions of gunowners. There is no data that supports the notion that communities are safer if magazines are limited to some arbitrary number. However, it is one of the things that Anti-Gunners push for the hardest.

Vermont currently limits rifles to 10rnds and pistols to 15rnds. Magazines which were owned prior to the ban are grandfathered in. The Supreme Court has yet to take up a case regarding Magazine Bans, however, there have been indications that the court may weigh in soon. So, we will wait and see.

The Unintentional Consequences of Magazine Capacity Limits

In the world of “unintended consequences,” one reason the 9mm has become the go-to round is that it strikes a balance between capacity and terminal performance. Before the 2004 sunset of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, pistols were capped at 10 rounds. If you only had 10 shots for self-defense, it made sense to favor maximum stopping power, which is why debates like .45 ACP vs. 9mm actually mattered.

Back then, bigger or “magnum” rounds like 10mm Auto or .357 Sig could be a smart choice if you could handle them. Today, the emphasis has shifted to capacity. That’s the whole draw of rounds like 30 Super Carry or 5.7×28 mm. You can fit more in the mag, giving more chances to land an incapacitating hit. With modern bullets, performance differences between pistol calibers are close enough that capacity often wins out.

Let’s play the game, if you only had “10rnds” and a AR-15 what cartridge would you choose? (458 SOCOM, 223 Rem, 6.8 SPC)

If anti-gunners limit me to 10 rounds, why wouldn’t I choose 10 rounds of .458 SOCOM in an AR over .223 Remington? Or 10 rounds of .308 Winchester? 10-round cap for pistols? I might as well make 10 rounds of 10 mm Auto, after all it’s about 60-80% more muzzle energy than a 9mm load. (So 10rnds of 10, is like 18rnds of 9mm right?… We’re adding fuel to that fire one post at a time)

Someone has to keep feeding the caliber debate, otherwise we’re going to start debating things that really matter, like if whether mils or MOA make you shoot better or just buy more optics.

Criminals aren’t weighing ballistic charts before deciding what to use; they’ll take whatever they can get. It’s the lawful carriers who have to think about what caliber makes the most sense when capacity is restricted.

SIG Sauer and the P320/M18

Ok, this is the WRONG M18, but to be honest I am kind of sick of seeing pictures of the Sig M18/P320. Plus, this is a really good impact driver, it deserves a little love.

We’ve discussed the Sig P320 issues at length as it is something at the forefront of the firearms industry. Heckler and Koch (H&K) released a video lately reviewing the many safety features of its pistols. Glock recently announced it would be suspending the civilian sales of its COA Models to focus on LEO and Military Contracts. No doubt both companies see blood in the water.

The correct M18/P320 with a little bit more color then just a picture of a pistol

However, we would be remiss in not providing an update on the case of the Airman who was recently killed by an alleged incident of “Uncommanded” discharge of a Sig P320.  An airman was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter, obstruction of justice, and making a false official statement. This would seem to cause a significant amount of shade on the theory that it was a malfunction of the M18 (P320) pistol. It seems likely this may be a case of negligent discharge.  

This does not absolve all of the incidents that the Sig P320 is implicated in, but it does seem this case may not be as clear cut as we initially thought.

New Guns and Gear

As I have been working the 9mm loads on my Dillion 550, I have had a few occasions breaking out the set of tweezers Marc and I put together with the reloader in mind. My large fingers sometimes have a hard time getting into the small spaces to pluck kernels of powder, or primers from the mechanisms of the press.

We had originally developed these for those guys looking to add a kernel of powder at a time for their precision loads. In our testing we really liked the tweezers with a ceramic tip. Ceramic is much stiffer than steel giving a better feeling when trying to pick up something like a powder kernel, or a primer. We also found that powder kernels did not stick to the tweezers as readily as steel or plastic tipped tweezers did. Be sure you don’t touch the ceramic of the tweezer as oil from your skin can contaminate the surface and cause things to stick. If you do, you can burn it off. Ceramic tweezers were designed to handle hot things, they are brittle so take care not to drop them on a hard floor or use them as a pry bar.

Unless you were in an industry that uses these, you’d never know they existed but they fit the bill for powder handling.

We put together a set of tweezers we felt were the most useful and they were launched on the market. The price that kit is now selling for made us both roll our eyes given how much it cost wholesale. We’ve found a very similar set of half the price.

Starline making ARC Family Brass

Starline has announced that they are making ARC Brass. This includes the 6mm ARC, the 22 ARC and the 338 ARC. If you are looking for a source of virgin brass for your handloads, there you have it.  If you’re looking for some wildcat brass it’s usually not a bad idea to check Starline as they have often have cartridges that you may not find anywhere else. This includes their “Basic” brass which is a straight wall case with the primer pocket and case head formed, but without the neck or body taper. This allows you to finish forming the case into whatever hotrod cartridge you might have dreamed up.

I have loaded quite a bit of Starline brass in the past, and honestly you may have loaded it and not known it. Starline regularly makes brass for OEM with the buyer’s headstamp. I have found it to be of good quality and reasonably priced. Nothing to complain about but at the same time I do not typically considered it on the level as Lapua, ADG or Peterson.

That’s all we have for this week.

The Ballistic Assistant is a website dedicated to the art of handloading and shooting. We aim to share tips on reloading and shooting, inform others on what’s going on in the firearms community, and provide our opinion and thoughts on firearm related news and events. If you like what you read, we only ask that you subscribe and share with a friend or two.

If you have questions, comments, or ideas, we’d love to hear from you.

Jay – jay@theballisticassistant.com

Marc – Marc@theballisticassistant.com

If you’d like to support this website, please use the affiliate links. We get a small commission whenever you purchase something through a link regardless of if it is the product that was linked or not. This is at no additional cost to you. 

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Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #7

Sometimes you start a week thinking it would be a normal week, and about halfway through you realize nothing is going quite as you had planned. That was my week last week.

This little guy is suppose to fly great, I never got to find out…

I have been working for the last few weeks to get some RC airplanes up and going for the kids. I finally got the last few components together and spent the better part of two evenings trying to get the radio communicating with the receiver. I am using an open-source radio and software so there was a learning curve that I had not anticipated. Friday night I finally got everything talking to each other and control surfaces moving in the right direction, and thought I was all set for that Saturday. Nope.

Couldn’t get the model to fly straight, couldn’t get things to trim out properly, and I ended up hitting the broad side of the barn at least once. By the time I thought I had maybe figured out a few things, one of the servos stripped a pair of gear, and my day was over. On the plus side, the kids thought it was great fun, watching it do loops, tight turns, and fly upside down.  So, I guess it did its job, despite my best efforts.

On a more pleasant note, a buddy of mine in Utah sent me a surprise loading block as a gift. Made it to hold 50rnds of 338 Lapua, which worth about one month’s mortgage. He really put a lot of time into it and I couldn’t help but show it off a little.

It was hard to get the picture just right. It really is a beautiful piece.

Website Updates

We’ve been working on quite a bit of background stuff, nothing new to hit the website this week. We do want to give a thank you to all those folks who are using the affiliate links to support the website. July was a record month for us; we were able to raise $20 for the website. While that does not seem like much, we really do appreciate the support, and it means a lot to Marc and I.

Time at the Bench

I should rename this section, to “Time Away from the Bench” as Time at the Bench has been fleeting lately. However, I will be spending some time at the bench to knock out some 124gr 9x19mm loads sitting on some N330. I’d like to get all of it loaded so I can swap the press over to 40 S&W, and then to 357 SIG. All in due time.

Rethinking My MRAD: From Long Range to Muzzle Energy

This week I’ve been thinking about what to do with my Barrett MRAD in .338 Lapua. I picked it up back in 2015, topped it with a Nightforce ATACR 5–25x, and eventually added a Surefire .338 suppressor. At the time, I was living in Utah;  where public land is plentiful and it’s easy to find places to stretch your shots well beyond 1,000 yards.

But now that I’m back east, those wide-open ranges are gone. Finding even 600 yards is tough, and most of my shooting opportunities are much closer. So, what’s the best use for a rifle like this in tight quarters?

Normally I would consider IMR 7828 too fast for a 338LM load but with the longer Barnes TSX 285gr bullets it is right there when it comes to burn speed. If I want to reduce signature, then I compare the muzzle pressure and the amount of propellent burnt. The lower the muzzle pressure and the higher the percentage of powder burn is going to provide a slightly quieter report.

I started playing with QuickLOAD, running a few “what ifs.” What if, instead of building for extreme range, I built for maximum muzzle energy? That changes things. Instead of a high-BC, heavy-for-caliber bullet, I’d want something lighter and faster, something that delivers a bigger punch at shorter distances.

I really like Reloder 33 as it is a temp stable high energy powder that really gets good velocity on 300gr SMK but it’s the completely wrong powder for the Barnes 285 TSX. It’s too slow burning, indicated by poor pressure and high load density. We would also expect a louder report as the powder is still burning at the muzzle generating higher muzzle pressures.

Then I added another layer: What if I also wanted the lowest possible muzzle signature? That means using a faster-burning powder optimized for 16 to 20-inch barrels and pairing it with a lighter bullet to reduce the gas load and blast. Instead of match-grade open tips, I’d run a solid copper projectile like the Barnes TSX for terminal performance.

Left to right, 300gr Hornady A-Max, Barnes 285gr TSX, 300gr Sierra Match King. Barnes 225gr TTSX with no-tip, something I was playing with in 338 Spectre.

This is what I love about reloading. You can rethink the entire equation based on your environment, your goals, or just your curiosity. It’s not always about squeezing out that last 20 fps or shrinking your group size by 0.25 MOA. Sometimes it’s about finding the right tradeoffs for your actual use case.

Out here, I’m not trying to hit steel at 1,400 yards. But I can build a suppressed load that hits like a hammer inside 300. That’s a useful tool, and a fun project.

Reloading gives us the freedom to tailor our ammo to our needs, not just what’s printed on the box. And sometimes, shifting your goalposts is exactly what makes the process fun again.

Industry and Legislative News

HPA and SHORT Act

No significant movement that I am aware of. There is one comment that should be made, the industry seems to be working together, whereas in the past it was often the NRA pitted against the GOA. It made sense, both groups are vying for a finite pool of money. However, we are seeing all of the groups, from the 2nd Amendment Foundation, GOA, NRA, and manufacturers all moving towards a common goal.  I would not say this is unprecedented, but it is a unique moment something I have not seen in my lifetime.

The Law Is the Law – Even When It’s Inconvenient

Colorado is finally starting to recognize what many in the gun community have been saying for years: lying on a Form 4473 is a felony. It always has been. Yet despite tens of thousands of denials each year, the prosecution rate for these offenses remains under 1%.

This issue hit the national spotlight when Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, was charged with lying on his 4473 by falsely denying his drug use. When the DOJ tried to quietly resolve the case through a plea deal, many of us cried foul. It looked like yet another case of politically connected playing by a different set of rules.

Now, Colorado appears poised to take enforcement more seriously. The state is reportedly working to track firearm purchase denials more carefully and dedicate resources to investigating them. Democrats supporting the effort argue that people who try to illegally purchase firearms are at a higher risk of later committing crimes with them. It’s not an unreasonable concern. Still, I’ll be honest; I worry this could be abused, particularly when enforcement is selective or politically motivated.

But here’s the rub: we can’t have it both ways.

We can’t advocate for law and order, then object to enforcement just because it feels inconvenient. If someone who is legally prohibited tries to buy a firearm, they should be held accountable. We need consistency. Either the law matters, or it doesn’t matter. Selective enforcement, whether to protect the President’s son or to avoid tough political optics, undermines the rule of law.

That said, I also fully acknowledge that some people are wrongly classified as “prohibited persons.” I agree with many of the arguments for restoring Second Amendment rights to individuals who’ve served their time, made amends, or were unjustly penalized. The DOJ stopped processing rights restoration requests years ago. That’s a fight we absolutely should be having. But that’s a legislative battle, not an excuse to ignore current laws in the books.

Right now, when someone who shouldn’t own a gun tries to buy one at a dealer, the system often works; they’re denied. But if they’re even moderately determined, they’ll just try to get one through a private sale. That puts the burden squarely on the rest of us.

If you’re selling a firearm privately, I strongly believe you should demand to see a valid CCW permit or have personal knowledge that the buyer is of sound moral character. If you sell to someone who’s prohibited, and that firearm ends up being used in a crime, guess who the feds are coming to see first? You. That’s a felony. That’s your name in the headlines.

Imagine a case where a person is denied at the gun store, but law enforcement follows up, intervenes, and stops a potential tragedy. Most of us would call that a win. We should want that to happen more often.

So yes, enforce the law. All of them. Even the ones that make us uncomfortable. And at the same time, let’s fight to fix the ones that need to be changed. In the end, I think this comes around to bite Democrats as they end up enforcing the laws the disproportionately affect their constituents the most, then all of this quietly goes away and we are back to where we were.

SIG Sauer and the P320/M18: A PR Nightmare in Progress

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how SIG Sauer turns the ship around on the P320. What started as a promising striker-fired platform has become a full-blown PR disaster. Multiple major agencies, including the Denver Police Department, Milwaukee PD, ICE, and the Air Force Global Strike Command, have either pulled the pistol from service or severely limited its use. Even competitive shooting organizations like USPSA have banned it from competition. That’s a level of rejection that’s hard to bounce back from.

Since 2023, there have been over 100 reported incidents of the P320 discharging “uncommanded”; meaning without the trigger being pulled. Various videos have circulated online attempting to reproduce the issue. One popular method involves pressing the trigger to take out the pre-travel and then squeezing the slide and frame together, which can cause the striker to release. Technically, that’s an uncommanded discharge, but if the trigger is already nearly pulled, I’d argue it’s still a trigger-involved event. The more serious concern would be if compression of the slide and frame alone, without touching the trigger, caused the gun to fire. That’s the scenario SIG needs to disprove; or fix.

From a design standpoint, this is a nightmare. During my time at Barnes (then under Remington), we often discussed the idea that even a “one-in-a-million” failure rate wasn’t good enough. In a high-volume product line like .22LR, that meant you were still seeing 7–10 incidents a year. In the firearms world, rare doesn’t mean acceptable. If even a small fraction of P320s suffer from a tolerance stack, material flaw, or wear-induced failure, you’re still dealing with thousands of guns that might fail under the right circumstances.

SIG’s biggest misstep hasn’t been the design, it’s been the response. Instead of acknowledging the reports and launching a transparent investigation, they’ve stuck to the line that there’s no problem. That kind of stonewalling might work in court, but not in the public eye, especially when officers are being injured and departments are walking away from the platform. Sig doubled down on this on their statement issued on July 29, 2025

I won’t be surprised to see used P320s hitting shelves in large numbers, possibly at steep discounts. I also wouldn’t be surprised if SIG quietly phases out or rebrands the line altogether. Lawsuits are already stacking up, and while the gun may function flawlessly for 99.99% of users, perception is king, right now, that perception is crumbling. I personally believe that Sig has to double down, to admit otherwise will add fuel to the lawsuits.

Only time will tell how deep this issue runs. But if SIG doesn’t change course soon, the P320 could go from flagship product to cautionary tale.

Barrett MK22 “Uncommanded Fire”? Let’s Not Jump the Gun

There’s a YouTube video circulating that shows a Barrett MK22 seemingly firing without a trigger pull. In the clip, a soldier either has the rifle on safe or flips it to safe, presses the trigger (nothing happens), then taps the bolt or bumps the chassis, and the gun fires.

With the recent backlash over the SIG P320, people are quick to assume this is another firearm with a critical design flaw. But based on what’s out there, I don’t think we’re seeing a crisis, we’re seeing speculation without context.

So far, we’ve got a few short clips that may feature the same rifle, in similar conditions, with no details on maintenance, trigger pack adjustments, or prior issues. Yet everyone seems ready to assume the rifle is in “perfect working order.”

To dig deeper, I tested my own Barrett MRAD, an early civilian model with a serial number under 1800, purchased in 2015. The only modification is a left-hand safety swap, which matches the setup in the video. I tried everything shown: flipping the safety, pressing the trigger, bumping the bolt and chassis. Nothing happened. The rifle performed exactly as expected.

So, until we get more detailed reports, ideally from a range of unrelated users, I don’t think we should jump on the hate wagon just yet. Could there be a rare trigger issue? Possibly. But one or two unclear clips do not make for a systemic failure.

Let’s wait for facts, not just viral footage, before we throw Barrett under the bus.

New Guns and Gear

Lyman 6th Edition Shotshell Reloading Manual

Lyman has released an update loading manual for shotshell reloaders. I flipped through it the other day and it’s laid over very well and it’s got some really good information on shotshell reloading. It’s a beautifully laid out book with full color pictures and section views of cartridges.

If you are like me and you have dipped your toes into the world of shotshell reloading, you’ll know it’s a completely different landscape when compared to metallic cartridge reloading.  Most notably there is less “universality”. For example, a Remington 12-gauge low brass shot shell takes different wads, and recipes than a Fiocchi 12 Gauge low brass shot shell. I dabbled in it, but to be honest I am just not that big into shot guns, and hence I never got huge into shot gun reloading, even though I have Littleton Shotmaker and a slug mold.

This is a book I’d have on the shelf just to peruse.

The Ballistic Assistant is a website dedicated to the art of handloading and shooting. We aim to share tips on reloading and shooting, inform others on what’s going on in the firearms community, and provide our opinion and thoughts on firearm related news and events. If you like what you read, we only ask that you subscribe and share with a friend or two.

If you have questions, comments, or ideas, we’d love to hear from you.

Jay – jay@theballisticassistant.com

Marc – Marc@theballisticassistant.com

If you’d like to support this website, please use the affiliate links. We get a small commission whenever you purchase something through a link regardless of if it is the product that was linked or not. This is at no additional cost to you.