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Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #4

Monday hit especially hard this last week as I returned to work after the 4th of July break. I felt like I spent the rest of the week recovering. As such, this past weekend was low key for myself and my family.  No crazy fishing stories this week. 

Website Updates

Two new articles went live this past week.

The first is my thoughts following the passage of the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) and the Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today (SHORT) Act.  Now that the laws have passed, a myriad of lawsuits have been filed against the legality of the registration requirements. 

HPA and SHORT Act Become Law

Marc has been working on 44 Mag loads for his Smith and Wesson 329PD and took the time to write up his experience loading for this unique pistol. 

Reloading For the Smith and Wesson 329PD

We have updated The Ballistic Library, with a few new books we have picked up over the past few years. If you have a moment, check it out, maybe find some light reading.

Time at the Bench

Estate Sale Score

Marc got lucky and scored some older reloading supplies from an estate sale. One of the more exciting finds was a quantity of 300 gr .429 cast bullets from an unknown maker. These will make for an exciting research project for his 44 Mag loads. He’s been working on a load for them that we will hear about sometime later. 

Marc’s been on the hunt for a new powder for his .44 Mag loads.

Being a traditionalist, he has always stuck to the old favorites powder wise. His recent dive back into the peculiarities of the 329PD has led him to branch out and try some of the newer powders for magnum loads. The recent years have seen many new powders introduced. New options are always welcome in the reloading space. More options will always equate to more shooting and learning opportunities. 

Speaking of Powder Shortages

Many people find their preferred powder is not in stock at their local sporting good stores. I personally have been waiting for RL 33, a Swedish powder made by Bofors,  to come back in stock so I can load up rounds for my 338 Lapua. Wars in Ukraine, and Israel have really sucked up a lot of the manufacturing capacity. ADI powders, from Australia, have been virtually nonexistent for a few years now.  Many reloaders are in the same boat as Marc, trying out new powders and new loads for their favorite firearms.

A little light reading

While it is not time “at the bench” I have been doing some reading. I am a sucker for books that dig into homemade firearms, or books that offer technical information regarding a firearm. I recently stumbled onto the series of books published by Paul T. Jackson host of the YouTube channel “Garage Guy 30-06”

The book I flipped through this time was Building a Target Pistol at Home.  He lays out the process he used to build the pistol with a basic mill and lathe set up. Nothing CNC, just some good old fashioned know how. One of my favorite things to do is to model the firearm based on the blueprints and information presented in the book. Right on the first page, he states that the plans are not a complete set, and there is a fair amount of fitting and handwork that needs to be done. 

The book is informative and presents not only the basic design, but the engineering that goes behind it. I have found that the quality of books that claim to teach you how to build your own firearm varies from dismal to excellent. This book is good, especially if you read some of the other books in his series. 

This specific book covers the building of a 22LR bolt action pistol. However, he has books detailing the building of a couple different bolt action rifles, as well as a semi auto rifle. Anyone who likes to tinker in the shop will likely find these books right up your alley. 

Industry and Legislative News

HPA and SHORT 

The HPA and SHORT Act passed, we are now waiting for the details on how it will be implemented. We expect the date when the ATF will begin to accept $0 NFA’s will likely be January 1st, 2026. However, that could change if the right people put the right pressure on the agency. We will also be waiting for what happens with the lawsuits that have been filed to challenge the rest of the NFA. This is likely going to be a long wait, and we do not expect to see movement for several months at least. 

Harbor Freight vs Steamlight

This is probably one of the more amusing things that have happened in the firearms industry. In June Harbor Freight, released a weapon mounted light under their Braun brand that looked to be a 100% knock off of a Streamlight TLR-1.  The knock off is a little ‘too good’ and Streamlight has filed a lawsuit for both trademark and patent infringement.  The Harbor Freight version is about a 1/3 of the price of the TLR-1 at $50.

This is only the latest example of a Chinese company copying a US product. We see this all the time with everything from optics to flashlights, to Glock switches and solvent traps. It’s a real issue. In fact, I get emails both to this website and to my work asking if we would be interested in purchasing Chinese optics branded to our specifications. There is an awful lot of Chinese glass on the market, no need to add to that space. 

New Yorks Public Nuisance Law

The NSSF lost its case in the 2nd Circuit court challenging the 2021 Public Nuisance Statute which was signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo. This legislation seeks to classify violent crime as a public nuisance and aims to hold firearms manufacturers liable for their role.  

This is a blatant attempt to get around the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) which protects firearms manufacturers from damages resulting in the illegal use of firearms. The 3 Judge panel decided against the NSSF and upheld the law. We expect an appeal, likely leading to a full en banc review.

Cases like these have been a mainstay in the firearm legal world since the 2005 passage of the PLCAA. So far, the pattern has generally been that the plaintiffs have some small victories at the beginning and then get struck down on appeal. We will see if this pattern holds. 

New Guns and Gear

Taurus GX2

Taurus is the latest to offer a new pistol to compete directly against the Sig Sauer P365. It is a micro 9mm and offers a 12+1 capacity. This likely means the GX4, the first micro 9 released by Taurus, is on the outs. It seems to be a trend that Taurus will release an updated model with a new model number and then phase out the predecessor.  It’s priced as a budget pistol, about half the MSRP of the Sig P365. Personally, when it comes to a personal defense pistol, I would rather spend the few extra bucks to get a brand that I know is going to be reliable than to get a “Johnny Come Lately” model. 

I do have one semi serious question, who chooses the color schemes for Taurus Pistols? Cyan, Light Purple, Dark Purple and Black…. it’s the most random thing I have seen in awhile.

Derya DY9

Continuing with the trend of “Sell what works” the Derya DY9 was released. This is a Turkish Glock Clone, though I think the term they use is a Glock Parallel. The internals are nearly identical to a Gen 3 Glock, and it accepts Glock mags and reportedly will work with many Glock holsters.  The market has been flooded with Turkish guns over the last few years, they’re usually “parallel” to other well-known firearms and the quality can be mixed. Derya is imported by Rock Island Arms. 

I personally do not like the grip angle of Glock pistols. So I don’t get as excited when I see a new Glock on the market as everyone else seems to.

That is all we have for this week,

Jay & Marc

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 #3

I was fortunate to have the entire week of the 4th off. I spent some time with the family and got a little work done on the website. True to form I took both kids out fishing, each on separate days. Since I did not want to break a good losing streak, we did not catch anything. When I say “we” it’s my kids and I. My wife caught a small bluegill, on the second cast, and she hates fishing.

Needless to say, the kids have been a little disheartened by the lack of success, so I have been working on another way to spend Saturdays. At some point, we will end up at shooting range, just as soon as I can find one that I like.  Until then, or rather in addition to, I have been looking at getting the kids involved in RC Airplanes. The kind folks over at Flite Test have done a remarkable job of making things very accessible, and the hobby has changed so much since I was a teen.

My brother was kind enough to find some foamy airplanes salvage from an estate cleanout, and I had a box of foam board left over from a drone project that ended up dying on the vine. Each of the kids and I have built some new foam board fliers, and I am slowly working on getting the rest of the things together to make them flyable.

Website Updates

I have been working on an article about dry tumbling for some time now. I finally got it to a point where I felt good about publishing. With the popularity of wet tumbling, I think most newbies never stop to consider using a dry tumbler and there are some benefits to the dry tumbling method. I outline everything in the write up below.

Brass Cleaning 101: Dry Tumbling, Where We Go Wrong

Time at the Bench

Would you load it?

Ever reach into a bag of brass and the first one you pull out looks uglier than sin? I was fishing through the brass for an example photo when I stumbled across this beauty. First piece of brass I pick out of the bag…

When I find a defect, I generally assume that I am not lucky/unlucky enough to pick the one defective piece from the lot of how many tens, hundreds, or thousands may be part of that lot. To me it always screams, there is probably more where that came from. The bag of brass I pull this from was all range pickups. I probably have more Perfecta brass mixed into that bag. While placement of the flash hole isn’t ideal, I’ll still probably load and shoot it in a “plinking” load.

I use the original FW Arms Decapping Die (Now owned by Dillon Precision), and it’s about as bullet proof a die as you can asked for, I highly recommend it, especially if you deal with a lot of military brass that sometimes have crimping in pockets or the odd Berdan primed shell mixed in. So I am not concerned about breaking a decapping pin.

Tumbler Woes

My Cabela’s 400 tumbler, which I have had for about 15 years finally gave up the ghost. While that one bearing was not in great shape, it was not the root cause. The motor windings are likely shorting out. It’s a shaded pole motor, the kind of motor you usually find in bathroom ceiling fans, there’s no brushes or start capacitor to replace. There is a silver lining to the whole thing.

I reached out to Berry Mfg. who made these tumblers for Cabela’s (and a few others) and asked if I could purchase a new motor, and a new lid for the tumbler (my lid is being held together by shipping tape). They do not sell the motors, but they will refurbish the unit for $35 which includes replacing the motor, lid and bowl, as well as return shipping. Sounds like a pretty good deal.

The downside is they are in St. George, Utah. I kind of wish the tumbler crapped out about four years ago, when I was living in Cedar City, Utah. It would be a nice road trip. Now I am seriously debating if the shipping to get it out there, combined with the $35 service, is worth the cost and hassle. The cost of a new Berry’s 400 is about $70. Shipping rates have gotten outrageous lately. I haven’t made up my mind as to what I’ll do, so for the time being I am down a tumbler.

Even so, Berry’s customer support deserves a shout-out for continuing to service older units; especially one that was purchased under the Cabela’s label.

Industry and Legislative News

Hearing Protection Act (HPA) & Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles and Tools (SHORT) Act

If you have been following the news, then you should already know that President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful, Bill” passed and was signed into law on July 4th.  Included in the Bill was both the HPA and the SHORT Acts which reduced the tax to $0. To be honest, I was expecting some 11th hour challenge to strip the HPA and SHORT acts completely from the bill, but that never materialized.

With the laws signed, everyone’s question is naturally what’s next? Fortunately, we did not have to wait long, in fact we knew what was going to happen several hours before the bill was signed into law. Nearly a dozen Pro 2A groups announced they would be filing lawsuits challenging the Constitutionality of the NFA registration requirements now the tax is $0.  I am working on a write up that I plan to publish this week detailing what the next four years are likely to look like. It’s too much to try and cover here.  

In short, if there’s going to be something done through the courts, there has never been a better time to do it. We have the Supreme Court’s rulings that have set legal precedents regarding firearm rights, we have a President who is likely going to direct the DOJ to have muted defense or symbolic defense. We also have several conservative district courts and a conservative leaning Supreme Court. With that said it’s not going to be a quick process, and we may not have an official outcome until closer to the end of President Trumps term in 2029.

In the meantime, we should be looking to the ATF to propose changes to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) on how the affected NFA items are to be transferred. They have the power to change the rules and eliminate the need for fingerprints, a redundant background check, and requirements to report movement of items across State lines.  If this happens, it will likely be a leading indication of how the DOJ as a whole is going to move forward with the change in the law.

As to when the requirement for the $200 tax will be lifted, the soonest we could expect to see it may be October 1st, or roughly 90 days after the bill was signed into law. However, I have seen some reports that this requirement may persist until January 1st 2026.

The last thing I will say about this is some of the responses we have been seeing among the influencers. There are a lot of people who are rightly celebrating this as a win. This is a huge win, and it is something that the 2A community has been working towards for 20+ years. We did not get everything we wanted, but we got enough to make a legal challenge on the rest.

There are some in the community that have a “All or Nothing” mentality. That sort of attitude really creates a log jam in the legislative process. We can say we would like more, and that we are disappointed that we couldn’t completely repeal the NFA, but I think it threatens to primary Senators and Representatives who were able to by and large deliver a win, even if it was not the “total victory” we were hoping for, is not seeing the forest for the trees. We got a win here, the ball is closer to the end zone, we can work with this.

New Guns and Gear

Athlon Optics Rangecraft

In the world of chronographs, a lot has changed in the last 15 years. First it was the Lab Radar which made Doppler radar-based velocity measurements accessible to the shooter. (I love mine). Lab Radar was the King of the Hill for a while until a surprising competitor came kind of out from the left field, Garmin, a company known more for GPS base navigation aids. Their 2023 release, the Xero, really upended the market for radar-based chronographs and guys who did not like the bulk of the Lab Radar gravitated immediately to the Garmin Xero.

Now we are starting to have some real market competition. In 2024 Lab Radar introduced the LX model, and Cadwell introduced the VelociRadar. Now in 2025 we have the Athlon Rangecraft. The thing that makes Rangecraft appealing is the sub $400 price tag. Looks to be very comparable in features to the Lab Radar LX, and possibly a complete rip off the Garmin. (Seriously, I haven’t seen this big of a copy since seeing Ruger’s LCP next to a Kel-Tec P3AT)

As a side note, the LabRadar LX is listed as discontinued and or unavailable by many leading online retailers (Brownell’s, Optic Planet, Midway USA). It is still listed by Inifintion on mylabradar.com, however its unavailable on all of their dealer websites. The 1st gen unit, that I like because it gives the down range velocities, also has either been discontinued or is being phased out.

Regardless, we live in a time where excellent chronographs are not only available but really becoming affordable. Given these all sitting behind and to the side of the muzzle, you no longer even have to cross your fingers and hope you don’t send a shot low.  A good chronograph on the line will teach you more about how your handloads are doing than nearly any other tool you can to buy.

That’s all we have for this week.

Jay & Marc

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

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Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #2

The past week started off being hotter than the dickens. We reached 95+ degrees both Monday and Tuesday. The heat wave broke for us on Tuesday and when it broke it went in the complete opposite direction. Temperatures dropped into the high 60’s / low 70’s during the day and would dip down to the low 50’s in the evening.  A full week later and this must be the coolest week of July 4th that I can remember.

Personally, I love the cool weather, I very much wish this was about the norm for summers. I really need to track down somewhere I can let off a few rounds. I have new loads to test and rifles to sight in. The weather is about as perfect as you can ask for now.

Website Updates

I have been working on cleaning up the website. We wanted to guide it back to focus on reloading, shooting, and gunsmithing. What didn’t fit in the that rubric I am working on moving to an archival page. Frequent visitors are going to see changes over the next few weeks

We also built a new page for short and sweet articles offering tips, tricks and advice for handloaders called “The Handloaders Corner”.  Many of the articles that Marc has been writing are posting there. I have a few in the work as well.

Speaking of articles, Marc’s new article went live, see below:

Trust But Verify

Time at the Bench

Tumbler Woes

My tumbler finally gave up the ghost. I mentioned before I could hear it starting to bog down. At the time I thought perhaps it was a bearing beginning to seize. Well in comical fashion I ran it for a bit to “charge” my media and it suddenly stalled.  It did not recover.

These things are well worth the money

The comedy of it was not that the tumbler stalled, it was why I was charging the media. I hate listening to the tumbler “growl” so I picked up a programmable switch. I scheduled the time I wanted it to run from 2am to 4am. I figured that no one would be awake. When I put brass in the tumbler, I’d schedule the run on an app on my phone. This has worked pretty darn well. It keeps me from over tumbling, which breaks down the media without adding additional shine or cleanliness, and I don’t have to listen to it.

Well, the last couple of batches didn’t get as clean or as shiny as I would like. So, I figured the media was breaking down. It seemed kind of fast to me, the media was not that old. So, I started looking into what I could do to squeeze some extra life out of it. It was during this that the tumbler stalled out and I thought perhaps it was stalling out at night. I mentioned it to my wife, who is a night owl. Turns out, there is someone awake at 2am, and that someone was startled not once but twice, two days in a row, when the tumbler suddenly kicked on. Long story short, my media is fine…but the tumbler is not so I tore into it hoping it was an easy fix.

The bearing on the left, is good, the one on the right, not so much. The bearing isn’t seized but it doesn’t rotate freely as the shield has been beaten into the races. The issue is in the housing; a raised lip beat the snot out of the shield. Given that I have had this tumbler for 10+ years, it’s probably due to a new set of bearings. A package of ten was about $6 on Amazon.  Took me about an hour to get everything replaced and cleaned up.

I ran it for a bit, and it would drop RPM’s and then pick back up again. The next day it went back to the “Turn on, jerk then buzz”. At this point I believe the motor is just done. It is a shaded pole motor, and I could replace it. I bought the tumbler back when it was a kit that Cabela’s sold. It’s a Berry’s 400 with Cabela’s branding.  I might drop an email to Berry’s see if they can sell me a motor, (and a new lid mine is cracked to high heaven), and if not, I may look to upgrade. I do like the Thumler’s Tumblers but they seem to be out of stock everywhere and are price at the high end of my budget. We will see.

Close Quarters Reloading

It’s been several years since I have been able to get my microscope and camera all set up. That happened yesterday, so you’ll be seeing close up shots of all sorts of things.

The two pictures above were taken with the set up. The top case is the same in both photos, while the bottom case on the left-hand photo was deburred using a traditional case deburring tool, which I hate. The photo on the right is a case which was deburred with a counter sink blade shown in the photo below.

This blade is very sharp but works very well. Takes a very minimal effort to knock the burr off and leaves a nice edge break behind. For me the best part is there is no “Squeal” which I find grating. Below are images magnified by 300x to really show the edge of the case mouth.  The image on the left was done with the counter sink blade, while the image on the right was done with a traditional OD deburr tool.

Is there a practical difference? Not really. That more or less what I was curious about. I do like the ergonomics of the deburring tools used in more traditional machine shops, so I am going to continue to experiment with them. I have plenty of brass that needs a trim.

Industry and Legislative News

Hearing Protection Act (HPA) & Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles and Tools (SHORT) Act

This has been a whirlwind of news lately.  Far too much to cover in detail in this short section. I’ll give you the summary and if you want more I have gone into greater detail in this write-up.

HPA and SHORT Changes (June 30, 2025)

Bottomline, both the HPA and the SHORT Act remain in President’s Trumps Big Beautiful Bill as of 6/30/2025. However the wording has changed, it was determined that the Senate could not pass a bill that removed items from the National Firearms Act (NFA) by the Senate parliamentarian. However, it could zero out the $200 tax stamp for suppressors, SBR’s, SBS’s, and “Any other weapons” AOW from the NFA.

At this point it is completely speculative on how the ATF will handle the paperwork. Since no tax is being paid, you really can’t call it a “Tax” Stamp. A registration stamp? Regardless, the ATF could also change the Code of Federal Regulations and make it far easier to obtain NFA items not requiring a Tax Stamp. There is no congressional mandate for people to be fingerprinted, or a requirement for notification to a Chief Law Enforcement Officer.  This is all the machinations of a bureaucracy looking to make the process painful.  We can hope that with the current administration, proper pressure can be applied to the ATF to change the rules and lessen the burden.

I doubt we will see the NFA registry completely disappear through any action of congress. There are not 60 votes in the senate to get the legislation passed. However, with the tax removed, there is a fair constitutional argument that the vestigial remains of the NFA no longer are constitutional as it no longer falls under the congressional powers of taxation. That will take years to work its way through the courts and may become moot the next time the Democrats have both the Congress and the Presidency. You can rest assured that they will try to put that tax right back in place, and it’s not going to be $200

New Guns and Gear

Magpul UCS

Magpul recently announced the release of the UCS Stock. It is designed to attach rifles that have a 1913 Picatinny rail on the rear of the receiver. This could be an MP5 or G33, some AK variants, the popular CZ Scorpion, or an MSR rifle with a modified bolt that allows folding stocks. Of course it comes in the 3 most popular colors, black, tan, and olive green, my descriptions not theirs.  

I like most of what Magpull offers. I’ve had sights, stocks, magazines, grips and all sorts of stuff from them. I haven’t ever been disappointed. It’s reliable and tough.  I could see this going on that new SBR I might build if a certain tax get’s zeroed out.

That is all we have this week.

Jay & Marc

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 firearms 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

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Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #1

Make sure you’re storing you ammo in places your are comfortable sitting for long periods. Periods of extreme heat, can change the performance.

New England is getting a taste of Texas this week. It’s supposed to top out at 97 degrees, which is downright miserable. I have lived in a lot of different areas in the United States. It is interesting to see how different regions make fun of other regions. Places that get lots of snow will mock places the get shut down over a flurry. Likewise, places with 90% humidity and 90-degree heat will laugh at northerners complaining about a few hot days. At the end of the day, northerners do not have central AC but have tons of snowplows, which is pretty much the exact opposite of the southerners. I have determined it is far more about the equipment then it is the people.  

No fishing this past weekend, so my catch ratio remains unchanged.

Website Updates

As you may have noticed we are trying a different format for these updates. My original intent was to publish a weekly post highlighting new articles and tools on the site. This has morphed into a weekly newsletter of sorts that goes beyond just reporting on the website.

Since the purpose of these updates have changed we felt it was best to handle them differently. Hence the new title and a issue number. Marc and I will continue to keep our ears to the ground and provide industry news, and commentary, we’re just going to structure it a bit differently. We hope for the better.

Time at the Bench

I have been working on prepping brass and experimenting with a few new things just to see how they work. As most handloaders know, trimming brass tends to leave a burr on both the inside and outside of the case mouth. One of my least favorite things about the process is the OD deburr as it just squeals and feels miserable. So, I decided to try something new.

I have used one more times then i can count but have never tried one on brass until now…

I started playing around with deburring tools used in machine shops to see how well they might work. Honestly, I was very impressed. The cutters are very sharp, and the ergonomics are a bit better. It looks like it would be awkward to use, but it knocks out that inside burr with one rotation. There is a similar attachment for the OD deburr. It takes very light pressure to trim away the burrs and leaves a very consistent edge break. I am going to play with it some more but if it’s something I end up liking I may do a future write up.  

This right here, should be banned

The one thing that always causes me a bit of annoyance is when a case uses two different primer sizes. 45 ACP typically has a large pistol primer, but it is not uncommon to find brass that uses a small primer pocket. That is apparently true for 7.62×39, which I have been working through this week. I get why companies do it, at the end of the day both rounds perform fine with their smaller primers. The cost of a small rifle primer when compared to a large one is small, but not zero. Margins on ammunition are notoriously small, so anything a company can do to increase margin they will. Still bugs the hell out of me though.  

Industry and Legislative News

Hearing Protection Act

The provisions currently remain in the Senate bill to remove suppressors from the NFA entirely. Current events have put a damper on a lot of the conversation around the “Big Beautiful Bill”, which I think is a good thing. The quieter the public discourse, the better its odds of passing, in my view.

Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles and Tools (SHORT) Act

Possibly the most exciting news of the week is the inclusion of the SHORT act in the Big Beautiful Bill. This bill removes Short Barrel Rifles and Short Barrel Shotguns from the NFA. This had been a provision that was in the original House bill but was removed and was not adopted in the final version of the bill that was passed to the Senate.

Well, the Senate added it back into their version of the bill. If it passes the Senate, the two different versions will need to be reconciled and approved by both before it can reach the president’s desk.

I have a 300 Blackout Shorty that I would really like to build, and of course that build needs a suppressor.

Frank Brownell’s Passing

Frank Royce Brownell III, longtime leader of Brownells Inc. and a prominent advocate for the Second Amendment, passed away on June 18, 2025, at the age of 85 after a lengthy illness. Frank joined the family business in 1965 and played a pivotal role in expanding it into one of the most recognized names in the firearms industry. He served as President starting in 1983 and later as CEO and Chairman of the Board, guiding the company through decades of growth while promoting the craft of gunsmithing and supporting the shooting community.

Beyond his business leadership, Frank was deeply committed to protecting gun rights and fostering education within the firearms world. He helped establish the NRA Business Alliance and was a familiar face at industry events like the SHOT Show and NRA Annual Meetings. A generous philanthropist, Frank supported youth shooting sports, conservation, and gunsmithing scholarships. He is survived by his wife, Nancy, and son Pete Brownell, who continues the family’s legacy of advocacy and innovation.

New Guns and Gear

Sig 211-GTO

I am not gunna lie, I think it is a handsome looking gun.

This year probably should be the year of the 2011, 1911 Double Stack (DS). Pretty much every major pistol manufacturer seems to be coming out with one. Sig was clever in its name. 2011 is a trademarked term licensed to Staccato and staccato protects that aggressively. Sig just dropped the zero.  I think Staccato is a bit overly ambitious in protecting its trademark. At this point it has become a colloquial term for double stack 1911’s. Kind of like Kleenex is to tissue paper.

Serious question, if we retain some design elements from a DS 1911, but do our own thing, is it still in the DS1911 family…like a second cousin twice removed type thing?

The Sig 211-GTO has a very nice look and has some nice features. However, it departs from the traditional 2011 or 1911 design quite a bit. Ambidextrous slide release, drop safe (more on this later), external extractor, changes both to the guide rods, reverse plugs and barrels. This is to say that this isn’t a firearm that is going to be compatible with other parts. It is its own beast, and it makes me ask the question, is it truly a double stack 1911, or have they departed so far from the John Moses Browning design that it should be removed from the family all together?

To be completely fair, Sig, to my knowledge, is not marketing it as a 1911 DS, but the market is comparing it to other 1911 DS on the market. This has been the most humorous part of the whole thing. Sig really stepped on it with what was an issue of P320 discharging when dropped. Not only did they not handle the issue particularly well, but their PR firm keeps it top of the news and cannot seem to let it drop.  It’s that friend who made that one mistake that you and all your other buddies refuse to let them forget. Everyone knows Sig Sauer makes a top tier product, but it’s just too much fun to keep needling them on it.

It probably won’t be long before I am able to get my hands on one, I look forward to testing it. Retail is expected to be around $2400

That is all we have for this week. We will be keeping a close eye on the news with bated breath to see where this Big Beautiful Bill goes. Now’s the time to really apply some pressure to your legislators. Call, Text, Email, send Ravens, whatever it is you use to communicate.

Jay & Marc

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 firearms 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

Posted on

Website Updates 6-16-2025

A belated Happy Father’s Day to everyone out there who may be reading this.  This weekend was beautiful, rained for a moment early AM on Saturday but the rest of the day was perfect. We tried again to go fishing, and we saw bluegill swimming around in the shallows. The kids were very excited and determined that today was going to be the day. Alas, it was not. We had bites and nibbles, I hooked one, then lost it. That makes five weekends we have been skunked.  Really think I might need to stick to reloading, this fishing business is giving me the run for my money.

Website Updates and New Stuff

Marc’s post, “Power of a Post-it Note” went live this week.  This will be the first of (what we hope to be) many small but simple things that can be done at the bench to make reloading safer, and more enjoyable for everyone. If you haven’t seen it, you can find the article here.

Much of the recent work has been behind the scenes, so most people won’t notice or see anything appreciable change but there are things in the works. We will announce as we launch or as things are ready to go live.

Time At the Bench

I have spent a bunch of quality time with an L.E Wilson trimmer and trimming brass. As anyone who has spent any amount of time trimming brass by hand knows, it sucks. There’s just no two ways about it. There is a lot of reasons why the Worlds Finest Trimmer, the Giraud Trimmer, and the various versions and knock offs have become so popular. The aim is to get through it all as fast and as painless as possible.

One thing I have always found a little bit cumbersome, and by a little bit, I do mean just a smidge, is measuring the cartridge length before and after trimming. I feel like when I needed to measure brass I pulled it off the trimmer, knocked it out of the case holder, then had to give it a little wiggle as I closed the caliper jaws to get everything square and have confidence in the reading.

This got me looking for a “better” way. By better, really just looking for something that was a tad less cumbersome. I played around with a granite comparator stand, some gage blocks and a dial indicator and came up with something that works quite well. For me it is both faster and less awkward to make quick spot checks to make sure I am trimming the case back each time.

The basic set up is pictured above. I use a dial indicator, in this case a SPI indicator 0 to 1/4  travel. Screw on a 1in diameter foot, which can be purchased from McMaster, and gauge blocks which are stacked to equal my target trim length.

 I zero the indicator on the gauge blocks and push them aside. It then becomes very easy to swipe a case under the foot and take a measurement. The reading is a comparative measurement to the gauge blocks and will let me know if I am .002 from the target trim length, if I am one or zero.  You don’t need the gage blocks, you could trim a case to the length that you want, verified by a caliper check, and then zero off that.

I have found it to be a very quick and easy check and faster than checking with calipers.

Industry and Legislative News

Hearing Protection Act

40+ Firearm Advocacy groups have all signed on to a letter urging the delisting of Suppressors from the NFA. There looks to be strong Republican support, but there are some moderate republicans that have signaled they are not solid “yes” votes.  Of course, every democrat is solidly against the notion with several prominent democrats outright lying that there is no valid legal use for suppressors.

We should expect to have news within the next week if the HPA will be included in Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”. This is being passed through the Budget and Reconciliation process which only requires a majority support. Currently the Senate is made up of 52 Republicans, 51 is needed for its passage. So we can afford to lose one, with Vice President JD Vance available to break a 50–50 tie

ATF – Changing the Rules Again?

There has been a lot of scuttlebutt about the ATF possibly changing its rules when it comes to the “Pin and Weld” method of permanently attaching a muzzle device. When I first came across this, I am a firm believer in the Bongino rule.

           “Wait 24 to 72 hours before believing any breaking news story.”

What Happened?

What we know is that the Gun Owners of America (GOA) filed a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) which exposed an internal incident occurring in 2021, where an ATF Firearms Tech branch agent, Eve E. Eisenbice, dismantled a pinned-and-welded muzzle device from an imported Beretta handgun using a vise and breaker bar. After breaking it, the agent deemed the installation “not permanent”.

The question has been raised as to whether this will elicit a policy change from the ATF.

Who Is Eve Eisenbice?

Eve E. Eisenbice is, to put it bluntly, a nut case. One that I hope this administration decides to fire as she has a history of making extreme or absurd legal claims. Among her past assertions

  • Pillows and potatoes can function as suppressors (and are thus regulated as such provided that you intend to use them as such)
  • Check Rests constitute a stock
  • Metal Water bottles could be used to manufacture a firearm and thus could be considered a firearm.
  • Threaded titanium tubes could be considered suppressors by virtue of their features

Why This Story Took Off   

This isn’t the first time the ATF has been accused of pushing boundaries. Historically, they’ve leaned on Chevron Deference, a legal precedent that gave administrative agencies wide latitude in interpreting regulations, even beyond their statutory authority.

Chevron Deference was overturned on June 28, 2024, which weakens the ATF’s ability to impose sweeping rule changes without clear legislative backing.

So, does this mean the ATF won’t keep trying? Not likely. But it does mean they’re less likely to succeed when challenged in court.

Is a Policy Change Coming?

No formal policy change has been proposed. One rogue agent with a history of overreach destroyed a barrel (not a firearm under federal law) and claimed that somehow invalidated the entire concept of a permanent muzzle attachment.

If the ATF intended to act on this, they would’ve done so in 2022 when they had more leeway. That they didn’t suggests they viewed Eisenbice’s findings as fringe—and not legally defensible.

What’s Really Going On?

This story has been heavily sensationalized, especially by GOA and several YouTube channels, many of which have used it as a fundraising vehicle. That’s what bothers me more than anything.

The ATF is going to do what the ATF always does. But I expect more from those who represent our industry, namely more honesty, less fear-mongering.

Anderson Mfg Closing its Doors

The last bit of news: Anderson Manufacturing is closing down. disappointing, but not entirely surprising.

While best known for budget AR-15 lowers, Anderson had expanded into full rifle builds and even released a Glock-style pistol in recent years.

The industry is currently in what I’d call “Trump Slump 2.0.” It’s not as dramatic as the first one, but market conditions have tightened. The modern sporting rifle segment, ARs in particular, is especially competitive, with players like Palmetto State Armory dominating on price and marketing.

Companies like Anderson, Del-Ton, and others are either shutting down or scaling back. The powder shortage continues, and the broader economy isn’t helping when it comes to disposable income.

New Guns and Gear

There was not anything new that caught either myself or Marc’s eyes. So we’re going to skip this section this week.

We hope everyone has a good week and we’ll catch you next Monday.

Jay & Marc

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 firearms 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 any questions, comments or ideas we would love to hear from you, contact info is provided below.

Jay – jay@theballisticassistant.com

Marc –Marc@theballisticassistant.com

Posted on

Website Update 6-9-2025

Monday always sneaks up faster than it should. It has been a very wet spring; we are on the fourth weekend straight of rain. No fishing this weekend, just rain.  That’s fine, more time at the loading bench.

Website Updates and New Stuff

This week we are welcoming Marc as a contributor to the site. He and I worked closely together doing product development at a previous employer. He brings with him a wealth of wisdom when it comes to reloading (and life), much of it practical know how that it was done before the age of the internet.

To introduce Marc, we have updated the “About Us Page”

We are working on a landing page for him but expect to see practical tips and tricks in reloading that get lost in the internet noise.  His first article can be found here.

How the Internet Almost Blew Up My Gun

I am working on a few things on the website, trying to get formatting and stuff to look right on Mobile. If you see some things that are off or just plain annoying on a mobile screen, I am working on trying to fix those.

Time at the Bench

As before, I have been working on getting caught up on my reloading. Sorting brass, depriming, cleaning, checking case length, annealing necks. It’s a chore; personally, I find it somewhat satisfying and a good way to unwind in the evening. This week it was about processing some 308 Win and 45 ACP. 

My vibratory tumbler survived another week, though the motor stalled out once. It picked back up again a moment later, no magic smoke so we’ll let it ride.

I have got a few things in the mail, case holders for my L.E Wilson trimmer, and the Lee Ram Prime, for priming some of the tight primer pockets. For $20 bucks I think this little tool is well worth it.  

Industry and Legislative News

Hearing Protection Act

There has been no meaningful movement on the Hearing Protection Act. It remains in the Senate, and right now there is quite a bit of drama going on over this bill. No so much regarding the Hearing Protection Act, but the amounts of taxes, spending, ect. That drama has been all over the news, so I do not think I need to touch on it here. However, I am, like many of you, waiting with bated breath to see if this thing survives.

Supreme Court Rulings

The Supreme Court tossed the lawsuit that had been brought by Mexico against 14 different gun companies. Essentially accusing them of making their arms easy to traffic and blaming them for the violence South of the Border. This whole case was a shame to begin with, something dreamed up by Gun Control Groups and politicians. The court ruled that the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” shielded the gun companies from this frivolous lawsuit.

Last week we were disappointed in the courts, this week we are applauding them. That seems to be the nature of things. Alan, one of our subscribers put a plug in for a good resource on the Supreme Court and other legal news. 4 Boxes Diner on YouTube, the host Mark Smith, is a constitutional attorney and really does a good job breaking things down.

Abolish the ATF?

There has been a bit of buzz about the possibility of the ATF being rolled up in the DEA while no formal plan has been submitted, the rumors seem to be an attempt to float the idea prior to a specific policy proposal. What a nightmare that will be. The DEA is probably the worst three letter agency when it comes to constitutional rights. They believe heavily in civil forfeiture and regularly abuse this power.

The last thing we need is the DEA to expand its jurisdiction to firearms. This would be my one critique of the “Abolish the ATF” movement. We can all agree that the ATF is an unconstitutional infringement on the 2A. However, we sometimes overlook that the government rarely gives up power, there will be something that fills the vacuum, and whatever that is may be, far worse than what we were dealing with.

Remember….

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”
— H. L. Mencken, A Little Book in C Major, 1916

In this light, maybe we are better off remembering the wisdom in old Irish proverb “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”

New Guns and Gear

Barrett Firearms

Personally, I have always really liked Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, the firearms company. They are a modern story of one man, Ronnie Barrett, with an idea that he took that and built a company around it. The cool part is that idea resulting in the Barrett M82/M107. They have been working on what can only be described as a love child between the M107 and the M203.  

Figure 1:Barrett & MARS Inc. 30 mm Precision Grenadier System (PGS)

I vote this as the firearm most definitely going to be included in the next Call of Duty, if it hasn’t been already. It launches 30mm grenades which are programmable for air burst. Of course, designed to engage units which are behind cover, it also doubles as anti-drone as the rounds are programmable.  This was a joint project between Barrett and Montana based MARS, Inc. The official news is that this beat out the FN submission in the xTech Soldier Lethality competition, which does not guarantee adoption, but it does look like it is headed in that direction.

25x59mmB Grenade (Dummy)

This is not Barrett’s first time in the “larger than .50 Cal” In the early 2000’s I remember reading about the 25x59mm XM109 which was designed to be an large bore upper for the 107. It was a programmable grenade launcher. However, it never made its way past the prototype stage.  No doubt much of the lessons learn in that were used in this most recent venture. Sometimes that’s how the development cycle goes.

Trigger Tech

Trigger Tech is releasing their new Glock Trigger this week (June 10th 2025). Called the ACE Trigger system, it is a little bit different than your typical drop in Glock Trigger.  Trigger Tech has completely redesigned the trigger system to deliver a 1911 like trigger in a Glock.

It looks like it may retail for about $280 at your favorite dealer. Personally, I am a big fan of trigger tech, every time I have tried their triggers, they seem to be top notch. Sometimes it’s not about buying a new gun but making an existing gun better. An aftermarket trigger is a really good way to make your favorite gun feel like a whole different animal.

Personally, I am not a big fan of Glocks, so this trigger won’t help me much. Here’s hoping that expand this line for H&K VP Pistols. I’d really love to see a trigger for a VZ-58 (I am dreaming now).  Regardless I have a couple of their triggers in a few AR’s, and I am very happy with them.

That’s what we have for this week.

We’d love to hear your thoughts or answer any questions you have,

Jay & Marc

jay@theballisticassistant

marc@theballisticassistant.

Posted on

Website Update 6/2/2025

Good Monday evening!

Overall, it has been a very wet and cold spring in the upper northeast. I’ve been setting aside a few hours each Saturday to take one of my kids fishing on Lake Champlain. It’s supposed to offer pretty good fishing, but so far, we haven’t had a single verifiable bite, let alone landed a fish. I have been watching all the YouTube videos and reading everything I can to remedy the situation.  I’ve learned a lot, various knots, rigging techniques, and the differences between a square-bill and regular crankbait, as well as a spinning reel and a baitcaster, but it hasn’t paid off yet.

I walk into the fishing aisle, and I’m still lost. It reminds me of how I felt when I first got into shooting and reloading, and how a newbie might feel. I think the internet these days does more to confuse people than to help.

Website Updates and New Stuff

This week we have a few website updates that went live. I have finished updating the SAAMI Rifle Catalog. SAAMI has added about half a dozen or so cartridges in the last three years. I have updated the catalog to include these.  This catalog is meant to be a quick glance at some important dimensions such as the max case length, the trim-to-length, and the SAAMI MAP pressure, sometimes referred to as the service pressure. I will be going through a similar exercise on the pistol, shotshell and rimfire catalogs in the coming weeks.

The updated SAAMI Rifle Catalog can be found here.

I have also done a deep dive in the 8.6 Blackout. This is something that I have wanted to do ever since it was announced at the 2022 SHOT Show. I had planned on starting out by comparing the 338 Spectre, 338 ARC and the 8.6 Blackout, however as I began to write it, I realized that just telling the story of the 8.6 Blackout was enough. I plan on circling back and doing a 338 ARC and 338 Spectre comparison at some point in the near future but for now I hope this write up on the 8.6 Blackout is a worthwhile read. 

The article is under Jay’s Commentaries, and is linked here: An Honest Look at the 8.6 Blackout

Time at the Bench

This week I have been wrapping up some 30-06 loading I had started about a week and a half ago. As previously mentioned it is not too exciting of a load, really, I would like to spend more time at the range practicing the fundamentals of shooting then trying to develop the perfect load.  

I have also been doing quite a bit of brass cleaning. I have tried pretty much everything under the sun when it comes to cleaning brass. I keep coming back to the dry tumbling method. The tumbler I have been using and abusing for probably 12 years now, might be starting to die. You can hear the RPM’s of the motor suddenly drop and then recover a few seconds later. Maybe I’ll tear into it, hopefully it is a failing bearing.

In terms of what tumbler, I’ll buy to replace it, that is up for some debate. The one I have was sold by Cabela’s, I doubt it is still made. I will freely admit I was looking at the Harbor Freight models and wondering how they might hold up. Overall, I would like something about the same size, maybe a touch bigger, but would like something quieter.  I know Harbor Freight can be a mixed bag.

Marc and I bought a Harbor Freight dual drum rock tumbler when we were doing some wet media testing. I personally was a big fan of it. We could clean a bunch of brass quickly, allowing us to try out different additives and different tumbling media. The small size of the containers made it easy to load and unload. Something that I really am not a big fan of when it comes to the larger wet tumblers. I would recommend it to someone who is just starting out reloading and is on budget.

Industry and Legislative News

We are all waiting with bated breath to see what happens to the Hearing Protection Act in the Senate. I have not heard of any meaningful movement on this. So, keep pushing on your senators.

Supreme Court Ruling

The news broke today that the Supreme Court has declined to hear two cases regarding the constitutionality of laws regulating “high-capacity magazines” and assault weapon bans. In both instances the circuit courts upheld the state laws, which lead to appeals to the Supreme Court. The rejection of the appeals means the lower court’s ruling stands.  

It’s easy to say that a rejection by the Supreme Court is a loss for Gun Right as a whole. I tend to take the middle road. When a Supreme Court ruling is given, it is supposed to set a precedent for the lower courts to follow (Or Ignore in the cases of Heller and Bruen). What we absolutely don’t want is an unfavorable precedent set. If the justices realize they don’t have the votes for a favorable outcome, I’d rather see the case rejected.

Maybe I’m stretching to see the glass as half full, but politics is messy, and it’s rarely as cut and dried as we might like. Again, it’s not the outcome we wanted, but it is preferable to the alternative.

Texas

As per usual we see laws being pushed on the state level. In Texas they are working to change how they regulate Short Barrel Rifles. In short, they are stripping the language from the State law that mirrors the Federal laws. This does not change a whole lot for Texan gunowners unless SBRs are removed from the NFA, however it does clear the path for Texans if this does happen.

The most interesting piece of legislation to come out of Texas is the banning of municipalities and state funded organizations from holding so called gun buy back programs. To me this has been a scam preying on ignorance. By turning in a firearm, you got a $50, sometimes up to a $100 gift card often times at the taxpayers expense. No questions asked. The firearms would then be destroyed. While it was fun to watch entrepreneurial gun owners craft their own firearms and capitalize on the stupidity of the whole thing, the real harm was done to those people who had a firearm worth far more than a $100 gift card. I suppose you could call it the “stupid tax”.

Connecticut

While we are winning some battles on the state and federal level we are losing some ground in some states as well. Last week we mentioned what in effect would be a ban on Glocks in California. This week it is in Connecticut where we are seeing laws passed that encourage companies and municipalities to file lawsuits against firearm companies who do not enact reasonable controls to prohibit criminals from purchasing or obtaining a firearm.  The “Reasonable Controls” definition is left purposefully vague.  This legislation has been enacted in 8 other states, so it is not novel or new.

New Guns and Gear

Dillon Auto Center Decapping Die

Dillon Precision has released a new decapping die. As far as I can tell it is functionally identical to the FW Arms Decapping die. I am curious to see if they are licensing the patent from FW Arms, if Dillon has stepped in it, or they have found a way around the patent. The FW Arms decapping die is my favorite decapping die on the market. You don’t bend or break a decapping pin if you hit a Berdan primed case, and it positively clears primers past the crimp launching them down through the ram.

Springfield Armory KUNA

It’s not every day you see a new ground up design of a roller-delayed blow back action, however Springfield Armory recently released a new roller delayed carbine named the KUNA.  Technically this was released a few weeks prior to the release of the 2020 Heatseeker, a chassis version of their Model 2020 bolt action, so we are late to the punch but better late than never I suppose.

I think it is a handsome looking piece that is just begging to be an SBR, (Get rid of that silly pistol brace) and it comes ready to be a suppressor host. What’s not clear to me is whether Springfield Armory is doing any of the manufacturing, or if they are just importing it as the firearm was designed by HS Produkt in Croatia, being named after the Croatian word for the European pine marten, Croatia’s national animal. The XD line of firearms was a similar collaboration. The MSRP for the KUNA is not terrible at  $1150 for the version with the pistol brace.

That is all I have for this week. 

Jay

Posted on

Website Update 5/26/25

Today is Memorial Day. Let’s take a moment to remember those who gave all so that we may remain free people. It is a shame that this holiday has become so commercialized, and that people are more apt to look for the “Memorial Day Sales” than to take a moment to pause and think of those men and women who gave everything. 

Website Updates and News

In terms of website updates, we have one! The new burn rate chart is finally live [LINK].. We included a few new powders that have been released over the past three years. Mainly Hodgdon powders.

Time at the Bench

The last few weeks I have been working on getting caught up on my reloading. I had a large pail of collected brass, some that I shot myself, some that I picked during range trips.  I have been cleaning that, then running it through a decapping die and cleaning it some more. I really don’t like putting dirty brass on my presses.

 I have loaded quite a bit of 45 ACP and have switched my Dillon 550 over to load 9mm. I think this is the first time I’ve loaded anything else besides 45 ACP on that press. Switching over a Dillon 550 is not hard, it is straightforward it just takes a little bit of time to get everything swapped over and the dies adjusted right.

As far as rifle loading, right now I have been working through the backlog of 30-06 brass I have collected. Mainly I am loading for my FN Mauser in 30-06. I’d like to spend more time shooting that rifle and getting it dialed in. For the load I am running 44.0 grains of N140 under a 168-grain Sierra MatchKing.

I hear Marc is working on some loads for his 45-70. Last time I helped him work up a load he did me a favor and let me test the loads in his Marlin Lever gun. I’ve shot 45-70 before, I had not shot “that” 45-70, and I decided I didn’t much care to shoot it again.

Industry News

Progress of the Hearing Protection Act

The obvious buzz in the industry is the excitement over the possibility of suppressors being removed from the NFA.  The Hearing Protection Act (H.R. 152 / S. 494) cleared the House on May 24, 2025, and is now in the Senate. Now is the time everyone should be on their phones calling their respective Senators to keep this legislation in the bill passed by the House.  I tend to be pessimistic about stuff like this, while a new important milestone that has been reached there is much politicking to be done.  Still, I have a few guns I would love to “accessorize” with a can.

Adjacent to this is the blowback the Silencer Central is getting. I personally have been slow to get upset over this. Brandon Maddox, the CEO Silencer Central and Banish suppressors, gave an interview to Tom Gresham of Gun Talk which aired, Sunday the 18th.  The CEO laid it all out, and I found his explanation about the accusations credible. There is no doubt that if suppressors are removed from the NFA just about any company that makes suppressors is going to see a demand so great that we may see a new industry bubble.

It has been my observation that the Gun Owners of America (GOA) has a tendency to want to make a lot of noise and then fundraise over it. They are not beyond taking on other gun right’s groups if those groups do not take the same 100% No Compromise approach that GOA champions. After reviewing a lot of online commentary, and listening to the interview on Gun Talk, I truly believe this is a manufactured narrative pushed by GOA for the purposes of stirring the pot and then fundraising off emotions. Boy, do we love a good conspiracy theory, and we can often be very quick to eat our own before the full story can be released. Moving on.

ATF settles with Rare Breed over Forced Reset Triggers

Rare Breed, the company behind the Force Reset Trigger, reached a settlement with the ATF in May 2025. While details are limited, it appears the ATF has dropped its classification of the FRT as a machine gun, though stipulations remain regarding use in handguns. This is a stunning about face that I don’t think anyone saw coming.

For those who are not familiar with Force Reset triggers, it still complies with the definition of “Semi-Automatic” as it fires one round per actuation of the trigger. The hammer and sear are mechanically returned to a non-firing state prior to being tripped by the shooter and fundamentally work different from auto sears. As a shooter you are able to increase the rate of fire and prevents you from getting a “Dead Trigger” because you have overrun the bolt.  The ATF had sought to classify these as a machinegun conversion.

With the this new Trump Administration we have the largest swings in governmental attitude towards the 2nd amendment in my lifetime, and quite possibly since the turn of the 20th century.

As always, my concern here is when this political pendulum swings the other way, how many of these changes are going to withstand the test of time in five years or ten years? Then what will be the state response? As we have seen, many states will pass laws for what I chalk up purely to spite.

Legislation Efforts to Ban Glock Pistols

To reinforce the point there are  many efforts in states across the nation in restricting or banning firearms. This is probably the most notable in California where they are seeking to ban any firearm that can be readily converted into a machine gun.

This is mostly targeting Glock pistols as there has been a surge in the availability of so- called Glock Switches (Pictured Right) . Regardless of if you are a Glock fan or not (personally they are not my favorite) it is admirable that the basic design has not changed much since the initial release of the Glock 17. The means that for most of the Glock models’ parts are interchangeable.  Several states have filed lawsuits, claiming that Glock refuses to “fix” their pistols, so that “Glock” switches become irrelevant.

As per usual, these laws seek to make something that is already illegal (it is illegal to modify a firearm to fire more than one round per press of the trigger) to be more illegal. Because making things more illegal, always seems to solve the problem *Sarcasm*.  With California, you can count on them to try this, it will be challenged legally, and it will go to the 9th Circuit Court, which then will likely rule in favor of California, and it will be a crapshoot if that makes its way to the Supreme Court. Other States would have to do a similar thing and we would like need a circuit court to rule the opposite of the 9th circuit.  A process that takes half a decade or more.

Never mind that the Glock Pistol is the definition of “Common Use” as outlined in the Heller decision.

New Stuff

For those who use QuickLOAD. The 4/29/2025 QuickLOAD update is available now. You can find that here.  This updated amends the Cutting-Edge Bullet Database, however like all QuickLOAD updates it will update all the databases with the most current information. If you load a lot of Cutting-Edge Bullets, or you are a few updates behind it is probably worth looking at this update.

Weatherby has launched a new line of rifles: the Model 307, which is compatible with Remington 700 accessories. This is something I can really get behind, anytime you have a manufacturer back a design, whether it is an MSR or bolt gun, I think it is a good thing. It creates more demand for after-market accessories and this benefits everyone.  It is also nice to see Weatherby offering just the action for those guys who like to build rifles.

Springfield Armory has launched a new chassis version of their 2020 bolt action and have called it the Heat Seaker. Marc’s first impression of this was “Who came up with that name?”.  Chassis bolt guns have become popular, especially with the PRS crowd. It’s the flavor of the week right now, no doubt it’s a quality rig. For the price point it better be.

Lastly I wanted to say thank you to all those who wrote in to welcome me back. It was not something I was expecting, and I was grateful to receive so many messages of support.

That’s what I have this week.

Jay

Posted on

Website Updates 5/19/2025

It has been a long time since I have updated the website. At the beginning this absence was due to some family issues. That has since been resolved, favorably. After that it was about getting settled into a new home and a new job. After a 3 year hiatus, I have finally found some time to start back again.

During this time I worked primarily as the New Product Developer for Creedmoor Sports. Odds are you may have seen videos of me on YouTube going over new products. I can honestly say doing product development in the reloading space has become a passion of mine. I worked closely with and developed a deep friendship with Marcus Brown. Together we brought nearly two dozen new products to market with many other getting design updates and improvements. 

That began to change in the fall of 2023, there was a noticeable slowdown in the market. The shooting sports, and particularly our little niche area is highly dependent on disposable income. I strongly suspect that as COVID money dried up and as Americans began to feel the pinch of inflation all the disposable dollars people spent on their hobbies began to dry up.  COVID created a bubble of demand, and I suspect many companies gobbled that demand up, not realizing it was a bubble, and made plans to grow and expand. When the bubble began to subside, the companies that made purchases and tried to expand were left with crippling debt.

Marc and I had more ideas and more designs than we could bring to the market. It was an unfortunate reality of the business, the development cycle is expensive, and it can be hard to go from concept to design unless you have capital to back it. When sales fell so did the appetite for risk, and despite our successes with items like the Wind Indicator, the line of Enhanced Turret Heads, The Comparator Tool, and various other reloading items, the company became risk averse and scaled back.

I have been part of sinking companies before and could see the writing on the wall. I started looking for another job early in 2024, leaving Creedmoor Sports at the end of May 2024. We moved north to the New England area not far from where I grew up.  Marc was at Creedmoor for about another year, and we stayed in touch. He was unceremoniously dismissed from the company at the end of February 2025, due to slow sales. As a southern boy through and through he remains in the south.

Despite some bitter moments, I largely see the three-year period as an amazing period of growth for me. I learned a tremendous amount from the industry, about the product development cycle, and about the market. I also made several connections and lasting friendships that have extended well beyond my employment. It also gave me an opportunity to be exposed to a lot of different reloading tool brands, and I began to develop more of a sense of what I liked and what I didn’t. Brands like L.E. Wilson, and Triebel began to help me see what quality reloading tools could and should be.

I’ve also added new cartridges to my handloading menagerie. Most notably .458 SOCOM and .357 Sig. This has come with a few new guns and gun builds which I am sure I’ll discuss at some point.  It was not a direct intention of mine to get into short and squat cartridges but I have a collection now. 300 Blackout, 357 Sig, 458 SOCOM, and 338 Spectre it’s becoming a trend.

What is the future for the Ballistic Assistant?

The move north has brought stability and an opportunity to finally set up my reloading presses and spend evening slowly working through the backlog of handloading tasks that have piled up over the years. As handloading does, you have lots of time to think, and both Marc and I have a long list of things we would like to bring to market. That will be our next step. I’ll continue to build out this site, offer commentary on current firearms news. Discuss and share projects I am working on, and overall try and keep building this website as a resource for the handloader.

In the meantime, I have been working on an updated burn rate chart. There have been some new powder releases in the past three years that are absent from the chart. SAAMI has also accepted several new cartridges, including the 5.7x28mm, and the 338 ARC which is Hornady’s interpretation of the .338 Spectre.

Federal has introduced the 7mm Backcountry, which has elicited an eyeroll from me on the marketing. I remain unconvinced that steel case ammo and 80kpsi cartridges are the wave of the future. I am also skeptical of Federal’s claims that it can be reloaded, the rumors are that die manufacturers are having a hard time creating functional sizing dies.

We are likely to see big changes on the ATF’s positions on several firearm accessories. We have already seen an about face on the Forced Reset trigger, I suspect there will again be reclassification and changes regarding the rules around pistol braces for the 100th time. I’m also not convinced that any of these changes will last much longer than the next Democratic Administration. I have seen a lot of enthusiasm for possible removal of suppressors from the NFA. Something I completely support and would love to see. However, the realist in me will “Believe it when I see it”, it is not something I expect will happen in this congress.

The industry has seen an explosion in double stack 1911, often called 2011 though the term is trademarked by Staccato, who used to be STI. Everyone who is anyone is putting out double stack 1911’s. I have to admit, they are a pretty nice update to a 100 year old design. Time will tell how long this trend continues.

I have all but dumped the social media scene. It was a tremendous time suck and while I know it is good for website and business growth it also kills a lot of my time.  So I have unceremoniously abandoned Facebook, Reddit and Instagram. For now, it is those who have subscribed, which thankfully, it has seen growth in my relative absence.

As always, if you want to get in contact the best way is send me an email at jay@theballisticassistant.com

Till next week,

Jay

Posted on

Website Updates 2-7-2022

Good Monday Evening! I have been fairly busy working on a few things, but felt I needed to try and get an update out there since SAAMI accepted a few new cartridges. This happens every 6 months as that is the frequency that the SAAMI committee meets. This most recent meeting happened at the 2022 SHOT Show.

These are all rifle cartridges and I will be updating the Rifle Cartridge’s Catalog to include these new chambers.

6mm GT

This cartridge was introduced by Hornady. Think of it as a between cartridge. Not quite as big as the 6mm Creedmoor, 243 Win, and not quite as small as the 6mm BR or the 6XC. As with most cartridges, this has been a wildcat for some time and has gained some popularity with those shooting PRS.

The goal of this cartridge is to try and mimic the low standard deviation that is offered by 6BR but still gets gain on some of the velocity you can achieve with the 6mm Creedmoor. As many have found out, 6mm is kind of a sweet spot as it combines low recoil with high BC.

6.8 True Velocity Composite (6.8TVC)

This is probably the most interesting cartridge in the SAAMI catalog. It is the first cartridge that is based entirely on polymer case technology. You will note there is no external case neck. The case stops at the shoulder.

The big advantage of polymer cases is weight. Brass is dense and replacing it with steel or aluminum nearly always results in a dramatically lighter case. However, nothing is quite as dramatic as replacing it with a polymer case. This is not a new technology, after all, we have been using polymer for shotgun shells for some time. To see it used with rifle and at service pressures of 65kpsi, is a relatively new thing.

The 6.8TVC is aimed at LEO and Military contracts as a polymer case that can increase the number of rounds a soldier can carry. There has long been a push to increase the caliber from 5.56 to something larger, and the 6.8 caliber has been bounced around a few times.

I have previously been critical of the polymer cases as I have been concerned about what happens when a polymer case gets left in the chamber. As it was pointed out to me that polymer does not conduct as much heat into the chamber, and the chambers do not get as hot as fast. I have also been reassured it is not an issue. With several militaries evaluating the technology globally, it will be interesting to see how quickly this gets adopted.

A few other things of note is the cost of polymer is substantially lower than that of brass. For those looking to pinch pennies and still shoot; polymer may be the way to go. TVC also claims that neck tension is far more consistent with their ammunition than what is achievable with brass, resulting in more consistent and accurate ammunition. All things to consider, but still I think I will be slow to make this transition.

338 Weatherby Rebated Precision Magnum (338 WBY RPM)

For those looking for a new magnum cartridge, Weatherby has a new 338 Magnum. The rebated rim allows it to be used on a rifle with a .473in bolt face. For comparison that is basically any 30-06 or 308 Win family cartridge. This cartridge is more or less a necking up of the 6.5 Weatherby Rebated Precision Magnum.

I suppose the purpose of these cartridges is to have a “Magnum” chambering in your caliber of choice while also having an ultra-light rifle. I do not see anything in these cartridges that would make them better choices for long-range targets or hunting when compared with what we already have.

If you are someone who hunts a lot and would like to save some weight on your pack gun, I suppose this might be something to look into. However, I am not sure the performance or the potential weight savings is going to justify the cost of a new rifle. That’s just me, someone else who is a bit more “High Speed, Low Drag” may disagree.

That is the new SAAMI cartridges for this meeting. I suspect next meeting we will see the 30 Super Carry on the list given Federal and Smith & Wesson are in current production. The jury is still out on that new cartridge. I have a few of your looking for versions of the Powder Burn Rate Chart. I am in the process of updating it and will send it out when completed. It takes time to hear back from companies on their powders and then takes a bit of time to do some research to place the powders in relative order. It will be a little bit longer before I publish the updated version. Thanks for being patient.

As always if you are looking to get in touch, the best way is to send me an email at jay@theballisticassistant.com. You may check us out on Parler, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. If you’d like to submit a load to our load database, the instructions are here.

As always, shoot straight and stay safe!

The Ballistic Assistant