It has been a wet summer here in New England. We have had a decent rainstorm almost every week this whole summer, which is a bit unusual. The temperatures have also been cooler then in recent memory. Which has been good, the factory floor I support is often time 10 to 20 degrees hotter then outdoor temperatures and a hot 95 degree day can tip the factory over a hundred degrees indoors.

Marc reports that it has been a very wet summer in the south, with frequent floods, and with a humidity factor so high that mold has been spontaneously growing out of the carpets at some of the schools he helps at. Speaking of my kids go back to school in about two weeks time, and that can’t happen soon enough. I can’t tell who is more excited the kids or my wife.

Meanwhile we have been slowly chipping away at settling in to our new home. With the majority of the healing done on my arm, I have started working on trying to get things set back up again. It’s a process, hamper by long days at work, having to work mandatory overtime, and just trying to fit some time in with the family.  We will get there when we get there.

Website Updates

30 Super Carry

We did a pre-mortem autopsy on the 30 Super Carry. It’s a cartridge that, when announced at SHOT Show 2022, left me scratching my head as to why. I didn’t quite understand what Federal was trying to accomplish, and based on how the cartridge was received by the market, I was apparently not the only one.

It has been a topic stuck on the back burner for quite a while, and I have let it stew. Apparently, it was finally done cooking, and I was ready to put words to paper and answer some of those questions for myself, while also attempting to figure out why the cartridge failed to catch on.

The whole article can be read at the link below.

30 Super Carry: The Right Cartridge in the Wrong Gun

To be clear, the 30 Super Carry is not dead yet. Give it a few more years, though, and unless someone with some serious buying power picks it up, I suspect it will quietly fade away.

Let’s Talk About Stopping Power

Taking the time to write about the 30 Super Carry led me into another topic that had been brewing for some time: the whole discussion about “stopping power.”

I don’t think it is talked about as often nowadays, at least not in the groups or conversations I have with my peers. However, that could simply be because most of us recognize that stopping power is not a single measurable variable, and it is largely useless to try to equate a particular cartridge, or even a single bullet design, with an effective stop.

Still, when I got into the hobby, I read a lot of books and online forums, talked to a lot of people, and encountered plenty of opinions about which cartridge was “best.” So I wanted to write an article that reframed how stopping power should be looked at, pivoting away from the hyper-fixation on the cartridge and toward a discussion about the entire system that produces an effective stop.

Not necessarily an effective kill, but a stop. Those are different requirements.

In short, it is the article I wish I had when I was first learning about concealed carry and defensive shooting

Why We Talk About Stopping Power Wrong

Fundraiser for Marc

Marc and I want to humbly thank everyone who has donated to the fundraiser. One of the things he learned through all of this is that just because you have a fire-resistant safe does not mean that the safe is smoke- or waterproof. When he opened the safe, it was evident that the combination of high humidity, moisture, and smoke residue had contributed to corrosion on many of the firearms. Some obviously beyond repair.

He pulled everything out and wiped it down with Kroil to try to stop the rust, but he still needs to inspect the bores to determine how much damage was done. From there, he can begin figuring out which firearms escaped with minimal damage, which ones need additional inspection or repair, which may need to be rebarreled, and which might ultimately be relegated to wall-hanger status.

The donated money is helping him purchase a borescope so he can begin inspecting the firearms, as well as start replacing the gunsmithing, reloading, and range tools he needs to get back on his feet. He is very grateful for all of the support.

We’ll be keeping the GoFundMe link active for a few more weeks. If you are able to donate, we appreciate it. If you don’t feel comfortable donating through GoFundMe but would still like to help in some other way, please reach out to jay@theballisticassistant.com.

Time at the Bench

New Reloading Bench

I have been working on unpacking from the move, and it has been a slow process. With my arm injury and subsequent surgery, the whole experience was delayed by a good eight weeks. So, I am just now getting back into it.

My brother ended up with a bench frame and wood tops that had been salvaged from a barn. He brought it over, and all I can say is that it is robust.

Someone took a lot of care to weld together what appears to be trailer-hitch tubing, and this bench is complete overkill for what I intend to use it for. Unfortunately, all of the steel is raw, and my basement at the moment is quite leaky and damp. So, before I press it into service, I am taking the time to wire-brush the steel frame and paint the whole thing. The bench also came with a thick butcher-block top, which I will probably coat with polyurethane.

Personally, my favorite workbenches are the UltraHD benches made by Seville Classics and sold through Sam’s Club. Thought they can sometimes be found on Amazon. I have three of them, and they are what I typically recommend as an ideal reloading bench. The new bench I am putting together should support all three of my presses, though, so now I’ll have some extra bench space for other projects.

Or a new press or two… I haven’t decided.

Sheridan Engineering Case Gage

I have a project coming up involving the .338 Lapua Magnum, and despite now being able to shoot on my own property, I am still a big believer in chamber and ammunition gages. I am no longer stuck driving all the way to a shooting range only to discover that the rounds I loaded won’t chamber, but these tools have saved my butt more than once.

It is incredibly convenient to have a gage sitting at the reloading bench to make sure you are sizing correctly and that, when applying a crimp or setting overall length, you aren’t getting overzealous.

I have owned several different cartridge and case gages over the years, but honestly, the brand I like the most is Sheridan Engineering. They make a great gage, and I particularly like the window cut into their slotted models. It lets you see how the cartridge sits in the gage and gives you a visual indication of where you might be having a problem.

My only critique is that I wish they offered an even broader selection of cartridges.

Sheridan Engineering isn’t paying me to say any of this, they are not an affiliate of the website, and I bought the gage myself. So, I suppose this is a bit of free advertising for them.

Industry and Legislative News

Federal Court Strikes Down Key NFA Registration Requirements

Unless you have been living under a rock and have completely shunned social media, you have probably heard about the recent ruling involving the National Firearms Act.

On August 5, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas ruled that several of the NFA’s registration and approval requirements could no longer constitutionally be enforced against covered plaintiffs for firearms whose making and transfer taxes Congress reduced to zero. Those firearms include short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and suppressors. Importantly, this was not a Second Amendment ruling. The court instead found that, without a tax to collect, the challenged regulatory provisions could no longer be justified under Congress’s taxing power.

The court permanently enjoined ATF and the Department of Justice from enforcing those provisions against the plaintiffs and, where applicable, their members and customers. However, Judge Hendrix declined to issue a nationwide injunction, meaning this is not simply a case of the NFA registration system disappearing for everyone overnight.

The judge stayed his ruling for seven days to give the federal government an opportunity to seek relief at the appellate level. That stay expired on August 13 without the Department of Justice seeking to prevent the injunction from taking effect. That does not, however, mean DOJ has lost its ability to appeal the underlying ruling. As of this writing, the possibility of an appeal remains.

At 12:01 a.m. on August 13, Silencer Shop transferred suppressors to Brandon Herrera and Texas state Rep. Wes Virdell without going through the NFA registration and approval process. Gun Owners of America described them as the first lawful unregistered suppressor transfers since the NFA was enacted in 1934.

There has understandably been a tremendous amount of discussion about what all of this means. Does the ruling apply nationwide? What does it mean for gun shops, individuals, trusts, and manufacturers? The answer at the moment is considerably more complicated than some of the social-media posts would have you believe.

The injunction is not nationwide. It protects the named plaintiffs and, where applicable, their current and future members and customers. Gun Owners of America is one of those plaintiffs, which has understandably created considerable interest in GOA membership. But joining GOA should not be treated as some magical incantation that makes every NFA transaction lawful. Anyone considering acting under the injunction needs to understand whether they are actually covered by it and whether any applicable state laws still apply.

Meanwhile, companies including Palmetto State Armory, Silencer Shop, and others have wasted little time trying to capitalize on what could become a significant increase in demand for suppressors and short-barreled rifles.

If the NFA registration requirements for SBRs, SBSs, and suppressors are ultimately allowed to die, and I hope they are, I think it could be a tremendous boon for an entire class of firearms and accessories. I also suspect it would put considerable downward pressure on suppressor prices.

Suppressors are not all created equal. There are legitimate differences in sound reduction, back pressure, flash suppression, weight, durability, mounting systems, and overall design. However, if the regulatory barrier to buying one largely disappears, I suspect we will see much greater competition at the affordable end of the market. Premium manufacturers will have to do more to convince buyers that their additional performance or features justify substantially higher prices.

Personally, I live in an area where I have enough property to shoot, but I also have neighbors. Using a suppressor seems like the polite thing to do. I already own a few cans, and I am keen to expand the collection so I can shoot most everything suppressed.

However, I am not rushing out to do anything just yet.

The legal process turns slowly, and the fact that DOJ did not seek to stop the injunction from taking effect does not mean the case cannot still be appealed. I am also curious to see how much staying power this decision ultimately has. Firearms law exists within a political environment that can change remarkably quickly. It wasn’t that long ago that we were operating under a very different political landscape, and I fully expect that pendulum to eventually swing the other way.

For now, this is a significant and fascinating development, but I don’t think we have seen the last chapter yet.

Has the 2011 Bubble Burst?

There have been reports over the last week that Staccato laid off a substantial number of employees at its facility in Florence, Texas. The exact number seems to vary depending on who you talk to, and I have not seen Staccato publicly confirm the number of employees affected, so I am hesitant to put an exact figure on it.

What Staccato has confirmed is that it is substantially reducing the size of its authorized dealer network. The company says the move is intended to concentrate its support and resources among a smaller number of dealers, while also stating that approximately 85% of its sales still come through the dealer network.

Taken by itself, that could simply be corporate restructuring. Companies hire too many people, expand too quickly, change distribution strategies, and occasionally discover that the spreadsheet used to justify all of this was considerably more optimistic than reality.

However, I don’t think Staccato exists in a vacuum.

For several years the 2011, or double-stack 1911 if we want to avoid arguing over trademarks, was one of the hottest segments of the handgun market. Staccato largely owned the production-gun portion of that market. There were much more expensive semi-custom and custom options, but if you wanted a high-quality production 2011, Staccato was generally where the conversation started.

Naturally, the rest of the industry noticed there was money to be made.

Today there are double-stack 1911-style pistols available at nearly every price point. Military Armament Corporation currently offers its MAC 9 DS for $984 and compensated versions for $1,103. Stealth Arms starts the highly customizable Platypus at $1,400. Springfield has continued expanding the Prodigy family with additional configurations and price points.

That creates an interesting problem for the premium production segment.

A few years ago, spending $2,000 to $2,500 was simply what it cost to get into a good 2011. Today a customer can spend half of that and get much of the same basic experience. The more inexpensive guns that enter the market and prove themselves to be reasonably good, the harder it becomes to convince someone that they need to spend another $1,000 or $1,500 unless the more expensive pistol offers something they genuinely value.

There is another data point that makes me think this may be larger than Staccato.

Perfect Zero, a sister company to Atlas Gunworks, has offered Springfield Prodigy pistols that were extensively tuned and upgraded by a gunsmith, essentially taking a relatively inexpensive production 2011 and addressing many of the areas enthusiasts typically wanted improved. Some of those guns are still listed on Perfect Zero’s website for around $2,500 as I write this.

I have a few friends who are involved at Atlas Gunworks, and I have been told that Perfect Zero is shutting down the tuned-gun program because the sales simply aren’t there to support it.

That is anecdotal and it represents one program at one company, but I think it is an important data point.

A tuned Prodigy occupies a very interesting place in the market. It isn’t an inexpensive entry-level 2011 anymore, but it also isn’t a $5,000 or $6,000 custom gun. At roughly $2,500, it is competing directly with guns like the Staccato P. If Staccato is reducing its workforce and dealer network at roughly the same time that another company is deciding there isn’t enough demand to continue offering a $2,500 tuned Prodigy, I start wondering whether the problem is less about which 2011 consumers want and more about how many consumers currently want to spend $2,500 on a 2011 at all.

I don’t think the 2011 is going away.

If anything, the platform may be healthier than it has ever been. There are more manufacturers, more configurations, more parts, and more affordable guns available today than there were just a few years ago.

What may be dying is the 2011 bubble.

The industry discovered a profitable enthusiast market, everybody piled into it, prices climbed, manufacturers expanded, and eventually consumers were presented with more double-stack 1911s than they could possibly buy. That is not exactly an unfamiliar story in the firearms industry.

The next stage is usually consolidation and price pressure.

If a $1,000 pistol can provide 80 or 90 percent of the experience that caused someone to want a 2011 in the first place, that puts enormous pressure on the companies selling $2,500 production guns. Likewise, the companies selling $5,000 and $6,000 guns have to convince customers that the additional craftsmanship, performance, exclusivity, or customization is worth paying for.

The middle may end up being the hardest place to survive.

I am not prepared to declare the 2011 market dead based on layoffs at Staccato and one discontinued gunsmithing program. However, I do think we may be seeing the first real signs that the explosive growth phase is over.

The 2011 isn’t dead.

The boom might be.

Good Guys With Guns at Idaho In-N-Out

On August 1, a gunman opened fire at an In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho, killing three people and wounding seven others. During the attack, multiple people chose to confront the shooter, including an armed civilian, an off-duty Idaho State Police trooper, and a former police officer. Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks later said the actions of the armed citizen and off-duty trooper helped drive the gunman away from the restaurant and prevented further casualties.

That armed citizen was 35-year-old Jordan Salinas, a healthcare worker who had arrived at the restaurant with his girlfriend. When he realized what was happening, Salinas retrieved an FN Five-seveN chambered in 5.7x28mm with a suppressor attached and engaged the rifle-armed attacker.

Interestingly, Salinas was already a firearms content creator before the shooting. He operates a YouTube channel called Poverty Operator, where he had posted videos of himself practicing firearm drills, including several with a suppressed FN Five-seveN. One video posted about a year before the shooting was specifically titled Quick Subsonic Suppressed FN Five-seveN Idaho Sundown Desert Drill CCW EDC. Other videos show him practicing transitions, movement, reloads, and shooting from unconventional positions with the Five-seveN.

That makes this story particularly interesting. This was not simply someone who happened to have a gun nearby and decided to use it. There is publicly available evidence from well before the shooting showing that Salinas regularly trained with firearms, including the same type of suppressed handgun he ultimately used when confronted with a real threat. Salinas has also said that he began taking firearm training more seriously after witnessing the 2021 Boise Towne Square mall shooting.

Salinas was not alone. An off-duty state trooper also exchanged gunfire with the attacker and helped employees escape, while former police officer A.J. James was wounded while confronting the gunman. Other civilians also placed themselves in considerable danger to help people escape or distract the shooter.

The attacker eventually fled the immediate area and later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as police closed in.

There were several acts of courage during the shooting, both armed and unarmed, but this is one of those incidents where we do not have to speculate about whether armed intervention made a difference. Local law enforcement specifically credited those actions with helping drive the attacker away and preventing additional casualties.

It is also a particularly unusual defensive-gun-use story because Salinas did it with a suppressed 5.7x28mm handgun, a combination we don’t often see documented in an actual defensive shooting. Perhaps more importantly, we have something we almost never get after an incident like this: a public record showing that the armed citizen had been practicing with his equipment long before the day he actually needed it.

New Guns and Gear

Shell Shock Technologies Announces New 50 BMG Cases

Shell Shock Technologies has announced that it will be offering its multi-piece NAS³ case technology in .50 BMG following successful independent live-fire testing. Production is already underway, with the company expecting the new cases to become available in August.

What makes Shell Shock Technologies cases unique is their two-piece construction, combining a nickel-alloy case body with a stainless-steel head. In the new .50 BMG case, that construction provides approximately 13.5% more internal capacity than a comparable brass case while reducing case weight by roughly 40%. Shell Shock also reports that the NAS³ architecture is capable of operating at high pressures without the case failures normally associated with pushing conventional case designs beyond their intended limits.

The increased case capacity is probably the most interesting part from a ballistic standpoint. During testing with a 650-grain projectile, WC860 powder, and a 28-inch barrel, the NAS³ case produced 3,111 fps with a 265-grain powder charge at 66,770 psi. Shell Shock attributes much of that additional performance to the increased internal volume available for propellant.

Another interesting characteristic of the nickel-alloy case body is that the cases eject noticeably cooler than traditional brass. Shell Shock also claims the material provides greater lubricity, which should aid feeding and extraction while reducing friction between the case and chamber. These are characteristics the company has promoted across its NAS³ product line.

All of this appears to be movement in the right direction, but from a handloader’s perspective there is still one important question: how practical will these cases be to reload?

Shell Shock describes its NAS³ technology generally as reloadable and is currently selling unloaded .338 Lapua Magnum cases directly to handloaders. However, reloading procedures appear to vary depending on the cartridge, and the company has not yet provided much specific guidance for the new .50 BMG cases.

That is something we will be watching closely.

KelTec Nub Sub

KelTec recently announced the SUB-SDP, better known as the “Nub Sub,” a very short and compact pistol version of its successful SUB2000 platform. It features a 6-inch threaded barrel, an integrated pistol brace, and folds down to just 10 inches long. MSRP is $599, and it is chambered in 9mm.

KelTec also built plenty of accessory space into the pistol, with M-LOK attachment points and a Picatinny rail. There is also a $799 Defender version that adds a Vortex Crossfire optic, compensator, two 27-round Magpul magazines, and a front M-LOK magazine holder.

KelTec is one of those companies I have always appreciated because they are not afraid to try something different. Often what they come up with works. It may not be the prettiest thing on the market, but it tends to be functional, affordable, and just unusual enough that everyone ends up talking about it.

The Nub Sub appears to fit that formula pretty well

Deals to be Had

Nosler is currently in process of moving their warehouse. Currently it is 25% off factory seconds. A good time to stock up on Nosler bullets.

Optics Planet has a set of Gracey Roll Pin Punches on Clearance. This is a handy set of punches if you are doing AR builds or pretty much anything else that requires you to hold and position a roll pin.

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

Jay – jay@theballisticassistant.com

Marc – Marc@theballisticassistant.com