Category: Uncategorized

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 18^th.  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 2^nd amendment in my lifetime, and quite possibly since the turn of the 20^th 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 9^th 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 9^th 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

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 100^th 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

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

It’s a day late, and I’m a few dollars short. As per the usual. I’m late in posting this because I wanted to get the SHOT Show 2022 Summery finished up. It is now live on the site and can be read here. It’s a longer read then usual but hopefully it has a few product highlights that have not made it on the typical gun rags.

For those who want the condense version here are a few thoughts on it. There has been a lot of rumors about attendance. It was sparse, but that was not a bad thing. Remember SHOT show is an opportunity for vendors, manufacturers, suppliers, and other supporting parties to meet up and discuss business. Yes it is a big to-do and everyone is displaying the cool and new product, but it is less about that and more about trying to make those connections.

So having fewer people there meant we actually able to get more done. Fewer people were kicking the tires and poking around, and more people were actually there to talk business. This made it a very productive trip for the folks who did go. Even though there were a few major vendors and gun companies that decided not to go, there was plenty to do and see. The biggest benefit of all of this was that you could walk at your own pace rather then the pace of the mob that typically clogs the aisles.

This made it feasible to actually see the whole show in a few days. I put in a little over 50,0000 steps covering about 25 miles in three days. However I saw a lot, and I got to talk to a lot of vendors. From that aspect, it was actually a really good show.

To read the full write-up with my product highlights click on this link.

I’ll be posting a lot fo the pictures I took over the Ballistic Assistants Instagram Page. So be sure to check it out.

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

It has been a busy beginning of the year, so this is the first update I’ve been able to scratch out for the new year and it will be a short one. We did do a new write-up on Creedmoor’s Enhanced Press Head for the Redding T-7 Press. As with a lot of these product highlights it’s telling the story of how we came up with it and why we did what we did.

You can find the write up here, and if you are so inclined to try out one of these heads, let me know what you think of it. Shoot me an email or leave me a comment.

I will be headed out to SHOT Show this year. It is likely going to be somewhat of a muted show. Several high profile companies will not be attending, and I suspect over all attendance will be down quite a bit due to COVID. It is unfortunate but there are some new things being launched. With demand being so high for pretty much everything firearms-related, it will be hard to say how much new stuff will be showcased and of that stuff what the timeline of availability will be. However I am sure I’ll be doing a highlight article to show what thing I found to be interesting.

Like I said this would be short and sweet. There are a few things I am working on in the background for the website, rumor has it I am going to be offloading some of my brass collection. We will see. 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

Good Monday Evening! It is that time of the month again, we get to talk about all the great things that have happened over the last week. In website news, the biggest announcement is that we’ve officially crossed 100,000 views. It’s a small number, compared to a lot of website traffic out there but it is a milestone that I am happy to have hit. It took us a little over two years to get there, and I have not spent any money in terms of promoting the site. So it’s a neat achievement. Thanks to everyone who has made it possible.

This past week I have been working on quite a few reloading-related projects, namely processing a bunch of 338 Lapua brass. It’s all once fired brass that has been sitting in storage and needed to be deprimed, and cleaned. If you have not tried it, or have been thinking about trying it, wet tumbling with stainless steel media is really the way to go. The results have always had me impressed, and it typically goes quicker and leaves less of a residue than any other media I’ve tried.

I know that a lot of people are not big on the “Wow” shiny factor on their reloads, and for a long time, I did not care as much either. So long as they worked and did not foul up my die or rifle I was happy. As I am slowing down, getting older, I find I appreciate the little things and sometimes those little things are nice clean shiny brass. While you can definitely get that with a bit of liquid car wax and corn cob media, the wet tumbling method just seems to do it faster.

My only complaint is that getting the primer pockets perfectly clean seems to be tricky. I am using the Stainless Steel pins, and I do wonder if the chips might be a bit more aggressive. I also wonder if the primer pockets might be a bit hard to clean when a magnum primer is used, given the heat and heat-related etching that likely takes place. I am not saying you can’t get picture-perfect, cleaned primer pockets using the stainless steel media and wet tumbling, I just have not found the right combination of time, additives, and pins to get it right for these 338 Lapua cases.

Another thing that may be worth mentioning is that wet media tumbling with stainless steel media seems to be a bit louder than vibratory tumbling with dry media. Which for most people, that’s not a big deal. When you live in an apartment, or you have neighbors directly adjacent to you, it could be a bigger issue. There are some rubber-lined tumblers on the market that are a good deal quieter than the tumbler I have been using. So your experience may vary and you may not have a problem with it. Since the vast majority of hobby-level reloading has been done in an apartment, or other shared space, I am probably unusually wary of the noise or inconvenience that my hobby may have on others.

Cleaning up some brass was not my only firearm-related venture this past week. I also replaced a magazine tube on a Benelli M4. We swapped out the factory reduced capacity importation rule compliant tube, with the US-made “proper capacity” tube. I’ll be honest, I was a bit disappointed, from everything I had read online, and the youtube videos that I have watched, I expected it to be a hassle. In an odd twist of fate, it was not. It was a pretty straightforward process. I’ll have a write-up done on it in a few weeks. Suffice it to say, this was not a big issue, and I may be I got lucky, but I wonder if people are not warming up the receiver enough to break down the thread locker that Benelli applies at the factory.

That is everything I have for this week. There are a few things I am working on in the background for the website, things take a while to come together, so stay tuned for that. It likely will not happen until after the holidays. 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

Good Evening all. It’s has been a busy last week. I have spent some time working on a few reloading projects and prepping things for the website. Once everything is ready I’ll make a formal announcement but there are a few changes that are coming that I am hoping will bring some good things to the website and help it grow.

One of the most popular projects I did on the website was the VZ-58 build. It is constantly in the top ten pages. I wanted to expand on some of that, there will be more to come to help finish that project out to a good conclusion but for right now I wanted to build a resource for people looking to build their own VZ’s. Here is the link to a new page I’ve started and will maintain for those looking to complete or start their build: VZ-58: Parts and Supplies

If you are a company looking to get listed, please let me know and I’ll add you to the resource page. I do not charge or ask for anything in return, it is just a tool to save people time.

Last week I wrote up and published a new product highlight. This is for Creedmoor Sport’s TRX-925 precision reloading scale. I wanted to tell the story of the development of the scale and why we did what we did. We have been surprised by the amount of conversation it has started. Hopefully, I can help clear up some of the questions, and some of the concerns about the scale. Here is the link: Product Spotlight TRX-925 Scale

This update will be short this week as I’ve got some actual reloading-related activities to do. 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

I hope everyone has survived Thanksgiving. I spent a good portion of it on the road between Alabama and Texas. Finally consolidating everything back to Alabama. Now we have the process of moving it from the trailer to the storage unit and then the long process of going through everything. I am just going to say it right now, if you are a handloader, especially if you cast bullets and like to maintain a healthy supply of lead to feed your addiction…it is best to not move often. Your back, your truck, and just about everyone else you know will thank you if you just stay anchored.

Because it was a holiday week and I spent most of the time on the road, there are only a few things worth mentioning. First, CMMG announced a new AR build in 4.6x30mm. They call it the Four Six. It comes in pretty much every color of the tactical rainbow. From what I understand you can purchase just an Upper or the complete rifle. The 4.6x30mm was developed around a 7.0in the barrel and the Banshee sports an 8in the barrel. It is my opinion, that the only proper way to have this rifle is to go through the hoops and get it as a Short Barrel Rifle as opposed to trying to mess with a pistol brace. For two reasons, the first being the ATF is working on trying to put a crimp in the pistol brace popularity, and secondly, a carbine ought to have a proper stock that fits the shooter well and pistol braces just don’t.

Of course, why stop at just having one tax stamp? No doubt this ankle biter is going to have a bit of a bark to it. So you might as well go all in and get a suppressor, and then a proper red dot or holographic sight. Sure the MSRP is $1399, but I do not see how anyone does not end up with at least a $2500 to $3000 dollar rifle by the time they are done with it. Especially if they do the proper thing and stick a binary trigger in it…with how easy the 4.6x30mm is to control, and the fact the CMMG mag capacity is 40rnds….how can you not?

The 4.6x30mm has been out for quite a while mainly as a Military and LEO cartridge, rarely has it been seen out in the wild in the United States. In Europe, there have been a few bolt action production guns on the market, but again only the people who are serious ammo or firearm geeks really have heard much about this cartridge. It will be interesting to see how this rifle does and if it begins to spurn some interest for other manufacturers to offer bolt guns. Personally, I think it would be an excellent 50 to 150-yard varmint cartridge, in a 16in barrel bolt gun and would offer a viable alternative to the .17 caliber rimfire market, and probably would compete well against some of the .17 cal centerfire cartridges.

As far as bullet diameter goes, the 4.6mm is actually a .18 caliber which more or less amounts to a stouter mouse turd in comparison to the .17 cal. If you wish to reload for it and have big meat hooks as fingers, as yours truly does, a pair of tweezers might be a worthwhile investment. Bullets for reloading are hard to come by. If someone has not already done so, I would expect a wildcat .17 cal with 4.6x30mm serving as a parent case to be not long in the making.

The announcement of this rifle is what likely drove quite a bit of interest in the 5.7x28mm VS 4.6x30mm comparison write-up I did a year ago. For that reason, I did an update to the article as the kids napped and the turkey cooked. Made a couple of corrections and a few additions to mention the CMMG Four Six. Thanks to everyone who has read the article and taken the time to subscribe. I appreciate it.

The second thing worth mentioning is a new (to me) Internal Ballistics Software that I was turned on to. As most of you know I have used QuickLOAD for many years. I have been satisfied with it, and have found it to be a reasonably accurate predictor of pressures and velocities so long as I do my part and feed it the right data (Remember Garbage In – Garbage Out is the defining rule for any simulation). The cost or QuickLOAD is about $153 plus shipping, and then if you want Quick Design that’s another $153. You are a little over $300 to get both. Update CD’s cost about $16 and update the powder, cartridge, and bullet library. A new update is released yearly.

Again, before anyone gets on my case about being critical of QuickLOAD, remember, I love the software and have used it quite as both a hobbyist and professionally. With that said, it does have a dated look to it, think Windows 95. QuickLOAD relies on manufacturers to provide a lot of the data, and some powder companies will not provide data on their powder to QuickLOAD so there are gaps. Most notably, St. Marks will not provide data on its powders. While many St. Marks powders are found in QuickLOAD the data has been gathered by some other means.

That is where I have found Gordon’s Reloading Tool to be quite interesting. First, it is free, and it looks to be community-driven, the funding for development is supported through Patreon. The software has a modern look and feel to it, and integrates all of the features found in QuickLOAD, QuickDesign, and more into one package. I have played around with the software to get a feel for it. The user interface is more modern, and in many ways, I find it easier to use.

From what I read and understand, the guys developing this tool do testing on their own, and develop the models based on the results of the testing. They are clear, the math behind the modeling is different than what QuickLOAD uses, and thus the results will be different. You might ask, well which is more accurate? I am not sure yet, but I am going to use both for a bit, and then come back with my assessment. This is not the last time you will see me write about this software, but I wanted to let you guys know it is a tool that is out there and to go check it out.

Lastly if you are a VZ-58 builder and have some time to kill. Garand Thumb released a new YouTube video with a VZ-58 shorty that is worth a watch. Here’s the link. I noticed in his review he did not complain about the trigger, thus there has to be a better option out there. The fire controls were also modernized a bit with larger buttons/levers. I have been itching to do a bit more with my VZ-58. There is likely a continuation of the build series in the works. I have updated the resource/parts vendor list to include Supanik.com which has a lot of VZ parts for those looking for parts to spice up their build or to just complete it.

Anyway, that’s what I have for this week. 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

We are only a few days out from Thanksgiving meaning we have nearly survived 2021. Once Halloween hits, it seems like all the holidays happen in rapid succession. It’s as if someone is going a feastive mag dump, and then suddenly January hits, and we get into the doldrums. Well, for the majority of the world it’s slow, but for the firearms industry, there is SHOT Show and other trade and consumer shows that tend to happen. If you are in the industry and are in the position to attend these shows, then January, February, and March all tend to be fairly busy months.

This past week I have been fairly busy which has kept me out of the reloading room. I am working on a few things behind the scenes and when I am ready to dive into them, I will make the appropriate announcement. Mainly I continue to pump out 45 ACP loaded with 4.5gn of Bullseye with a 170gr cast bullet. I’ll churn out this load until I run out of brass, bullets, primers, or powder.

As I mentioned last week ago I have been having some issues with the 338 Spectre that I build may go beyond just an ammo issue. I’ll be continuing that project in the near future. I wanted to share a picture of the brass. I have never seen brass crack like that and I suspect a good majority of handloaders have not seen this before either. I posted about the issue in CastBoolits.com several years ago and the consensus seemed to be that it may be due to the hardness of the brass. I suspect there is merit to that conclusion. Starline straight wall brass probably is not annealed at the case mouth like a bottleneck case is. So I am going to anneal the brass. Whether or not it solves the problem, I think at this point it is just best practice. The AMP Annealing machine will make short work of it, and it does a very consistent job of annealing the neck and shoulder.

We will be working through the 338 Spectre build between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hoping to solve each of the problems, and post the process on the site for those who might face similar issues.

I did take some time last week to do a product highlight. This is something that has been out for a little while, but it is a kit that my self and my coworkers helped put together. It is specific to the Redding T7 press. It is a fairly simple product that can really make a noticeable difference in the feel of the press, giving it a more polished and refined feel. You can read up on it here: The T7 Upgrade Kit

Last week we had a major bump in traffic to the website. The tools I have to track the hits to the page, and where they come from are pretty rudimentary. There seemed to be a lot of curiosity about the 5.7x28mm vs 4.6x30mm. The site hit 775 visitors in a 24hr period and 430+ were for that specific article. There is still a notable bump in traffic seven days after the initial. Unfortunately, I have not been able to figure out if it was shared somewhere, or if another website linked back to it. I always like to go back to the source and thank them for sharing the piece, whether it is an individual or it is a group. Anyway, if anyone came across the page via a link in a forum, I would appreciate it if you shot me a quick email to jay@theballisticassistant.com.

Anyway, that’s what I have for this week. 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

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last update but I have been busy in the reloading room. It has been nice to be able to spend some time back at the reloading bench and cranking out some ammunition. There really are two types of handloaders in this world, the first is the guy or gal who handloads just to spend more time at the range, and then there is the gal, or guy who spends time at the range so they can handload.

The older I get, the more I find myself to be the latter rather than the former. I just enjoy handloading. It is the repetitive process of it that I find to be somewhat soothing, and mind-calming. since it’s been a few weeks I’ll share some updates on a few loads I have been working on.

338 Spectre – 300gr SMK Subsonic

I am going to admit, I am a bit frustrated with this load right now. I do like the 338 Spectre because I think the cartridge has a lot of potential as a utility cartridge. A cartridge that allows you to basically shoot everything from super heavy subsonic bullets to light for caliber rounds. All in a handy AR-15 platform.

At least that is the idea and it’s an idea that works well when it works. Right now, I am having issues getting the rifle to run as I want it. To provide a bit of context, I bought the barrel for the rifle and completed the build about six years ago. However, since finishing the rifle I probably put less than 25rnds total down the barrel. Even then I had a few issues. However, circumstances did not allow me to really figure out what was going on.

Now I am digging into it. I am using 12.0gr of CFE BLK with a COAL of 2.250in. The rifle has very unreliable cycling. Even when cycling dummy rounds. Something is preventing the bolt from closing all the way and it’s not consistent. I made up some dummy rounds to check to see if the COAL was hanging up anywhere, I have tried different mags. Nothing seems to make sense.

If that was the only issue, I probably would not be as frustrated. The other issues, I have are off-center primer strikes (Usually not a problem in ARs) a single-pierced primer, which

could be a warning sign of excessive pressure, and lastly cracks on the brass that runs the length of the case. Sometimes when you have a lot of issues with a project it is good to step away and rethink things for a moment. The bolt does close about 95% of the way but you need to use the forward assist to close it the rest of the way, not ideal.

I think my next step will be to strip down the rifle and recheck everything. At this point I am thinking the ammunition, for the most part, is not solely responsible for everything I am seeing. If it was possible for me to get a box of SBR 338 Spectre ammo to test in the rifle I might, but they are sold out. Even still there is a good shot I email them for suggestions. I have never seen a case crack like the length of the body, so I am convinced there is something going on here that may not be entirely ammunition-related.

It’s a rifle I built, I am somewhat determined to get it purring like a kitten before I am done with it. Ultimately I’d like to provide some data for people looking to load for this cartridge as some of the data out there is a bit hard to read and is suspect.

45 ACP – 170gr Cast Hi-Tek Coated Target Loads

This is another project that has been a long time in the making. It started around the same time the 338 Spectre build did and then due to the very same circumstances, got shelved. I di pick it up about two years ago to start casting bullets and to play with the Hi-Tek Coatings but then again due to changes in employment and moves it got delayed. Well, we are finally here.

Some of this project has been detailed in previous write-ups. ( Hi-Tek Coating, Lee Die Issues) There have been a few challenges with this project. Namely, the mold was supposed to produce 155gr bullets not 170gr, (this could be alloyed related), learning how

to do the Hi-Tek coating was a bit of a process, and then having issues sizing them through the Lee Sizing Die really presented an unexpected challenge. I tried mixing up my own blend of Isopropyl Alcohol, Castor Oil, and Liquid Lanolin, which helped but still was not ideal.

Ultimately what broke this project loose was an opportunity to try ad new product developed to specifically solve this issue. That was AquaLube 3000, the kit can be purchased here. Very simple to mix up and it was a dry lubricant. Sizing the bullets was a breeze. I really am impressed by how big of a difference it made when sizing the Hi-Tek coated bullets. Just to give it the best chances at failing I purchased a brand new Lee Sizing die that had not been polished. Yet, it passed with flying colors. I am going to do a separate write-up on this later but, thanks to Mike for turning me on to this solution.

Since a good portion of my brass inventory is currently sitting in Texas, I co-worker of mine “lent” me about 750 pieces of 45 brass. I was very glad to receive it until I looked and saw most of it had crimped pockets. Since it was the only brass I had, I spent several hours swaging out primer pockets to rescue the brass from the scrap bin. I could have cut the swage out but used the RCBS on the Press Swaging tool because I had it, and I needed to do some testing on some new soon to be released product. So it was long and tedious, but I killed two birds with one stone.

Once the swaging was done, the sizing wax needed to be cleaned out of the primer pockets, so into the tumbler it went, and it came out excellent

pockets, so into the tumbler it went, and it came out excellent. 5lbs of Stainless Steel media, 1 gallon of water, 750 pieces of 45 Brass, about 3 capfuls of Frankford Arsenal Cleaner, and about 2hrs. Honestly, if you like your brass neat and shiny, wet tumbling and SS is about the only way to go. I only complain that my OCD necessitates I do a close inspection of the brass to make sure I don’t send SS pins down my barrel.

When developing pistol loads, I generally load for the economy. I am not loading the fastest, hottest load I can get. Rather I am usually looking for the lightest load that will reliably cycle both of my 45 pistols. A light bullet and a light powder charge are one way to do this, and I loaded these extremely light. Now, there are dangers in doing this, you open yourself up to the possibility of a squib load, or you can double charge a case and cause extremely high pressures. So you should be away of these dangers. A double charge of Bulleyes in this load will not get me above SAAMI Min Proof Individual, in fact, it’s quite close to +P pressures. Given both of my pistols and suppressors are rated for +P I have some margin of safety should there be a double charge.

I ended up settling on 4.5gn of Bullseye, which was enough to cycle both my MK23 and my HK45CT unsuppressed. The pistols cycled the loads suppressed as well. This makes for a fun day at the range of leisurely target shooting. When I get the velocity data, I will publish the loads in my load database. I am expecting the velocity to be around 650 to 700fps based on QuickLOAD estimates. I also find QuickLOAD to be optimistic so it would not surprise me to see that these bullets are dribbling out of the barrel at a measly 600fps.

Still with that said it will be nice to have a 50 Cal full of 45 ACP that I can haul around and have on hand for impromptu plinking. Something I used to do quite a bit but have had far less time to do as of late. I need to get some range time in to see how these loads do on paper and I’ll likely post another update after I have that figured out.

On to Other Things

Lots of other stuff going on in the world. Probably the most notable for me has been following the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. I really do not want to get into the particulars of the case. I do want to draw attention to the prosecution. Something that really stood out to me was how just about anything could be used against you.

This means we need to be very thoughtful about what we do. If we carry a firearm, how is it carried, what types of accessories do we have on it? For example, I have seen a lot of people put cute little Punisher backing plates on their Glock slides. I have talked to handloaders who “Roll their own” +P+++++ ammunition. Other people like to carry ammunition that is rather “Extreme” in design and does not follow the conventional Hollow Point design.

My point is not to tell you what to do have on your firearms or what to load your firearms with. That is a personal decision and is something you will likely decide on regardless. My only point is, if you are involved in a self defense shoot, it’s already a bad day. If for some reason you need to go to court and defend yourself over the shoot, it’s going to be a bad 18 months. If you give the prosecution all kinds of reasons to make you look like the worse, most blood thirty human being possible, it could be a bad life sentence.

Always think about how it will look to a jury. Remember that Jury is probably going to have very little firearms knowledge. Usually, people who do, are weeded out by the prosecution as part of jury selection. Always think, lowest common denominator, the person who has a high school education, and likely has seen a mixture of Law and Order SVU, super hero movies, played lots of Call of Duty, and probably has no idea what the difference is between FMJ and Hollow Point.

Anyway, that’s what I have for this week. 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