Tag: Hearing Protection Act

Posted on

Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #6

This week we have seen some unusual weather. We had days that reached the nineties followed by days that were mid-seventies. The kids seem like they are immune to it, they will go outside and run and play just as hard on a hot day as they seem to on cooler days. I try to remember my own youth, and frankly, the weather is not something I recall. I can remember the activity and the outcome, but whether it happened on a scorching or unseasonably cool day escapes me.

Something about getting older seems to trigger a change where the weather becomes an important attribute. Anyway, we are nearing the end of July, it won’t be long before we can enjoy cooler weather on a daily basis. I am looking forward to it.

Website Updates

The 5.7x28mm case is one of the few truly straight wall cases, having not taper to the case body to ease extraction

The update of the 5.7×28  vs 4.6x30mm has gone better than I expected, and I have turned my attention to working through some of the other articles on the website. I have also restructured the menu items on the website to make it a bit easier to navigate.

“Into the Rabbit Hole”

This is the page that is dedicated to the deep dives that we do sometimes. Right now, I have sorted the deep dive into the 8.6 Blackout, and the 5.7×28 vs 4.6×30 into that category. However, I have more articles planned that fall into that category. Expect these to be technical pieces where we dig up and share data and allow that data to drive the summary of the piece.

“Beginners Bench”

This is a page dedicated to providing basic information to the curious, or to the new handloader. Articles posted here are meant to share the basic info, terminology, and practices that everyone should know when getting started in the hobby.   Right now there is just one article I have linked to on this page, but we have plans for more.

Time at the Bench

Unfortunately, most of my time at the bench has been taking pictures for articles. Some of which I am sharing on this post.

10mm Auto Brass Sectioned to show case web and flash hole

Last week a buddy of mine introduced me to the AGS Brass Case Annealer 3.0. He continues to send me photos and videos of that thing running. I stand by what I said last week, for $300 that’s a hard to beat machine.

Industry and Legislative News

HPA and SHORT Act

There has been some news on this, but it’s not positive and it reinforces what many have been warning about. Senator Chris Murphy, a democrat from Connecticut, has proposed raising the tax from zero to $4,709 for SBR’s, Suppressors, and SBS’s, while only raising the tax stamp on AOW to $55. The move is largely seen as pandering to his base and stands little chance of making it through the Republican majority in congress. However it highlights the fact most everyone knew all along, the legislative process is a double edge sword, it can just as easily be used against us as it is used for us.

The astute among us might ask, “Why $4,709?” In the senator’s own words, it was intended ❝to symbolically charge gun buyers the average ‘cost to society’ per injury, rather than just a flat tax.❞ The figure comes from a 2022 study published in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open and is frequently cited by gun control groups. The study calculated the average direct cost of a gunshot wound using hospital billing data. It’s yet another example of how gun control is increasingly being framed as a public health crisis.

Sig P320 Woes

Sig P320 – 18 one of the many variants of the Sig P320

It is being reported that an airman was killed on Warren Airforce Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The exact details are not known; however, we do know that it involved the M18, otherwise known as a Sig 320. Anyone who has been following the industry for the last seven years knows Sig Sauer has constantly been under fire for unintentional discharges.

Sig has consistently denied that any issue exists. This comes despite a voluntary recall to update some of the trigger components. The exact details of what exactly happened have been elusive so most of what’s being said on social media remains pure speculation. That being said, the Air Force has joined a host of law enforcement agencies that have banned or otherwise limited its use.

I see Sig Sauer being stuck between a rock and a hard place. They have taken a hardline stance saying that there is not an issue, and under no circumstances will the gun fire without a trigger pull. However, the weight of the evidence seems to suggest otherwise. Both stances can’t be simultaneously true, we will likely figure out what is true via the courts.

Good Guy with a Gun

There is nothing that is good about the stabbing spree that happened over the weekend at a Walmart in Traverse City, Michigan. All indications suggest that it could have been much worse, had it not been for a group of shoppers which included at least one shopper with a concealed handgun. This is not getting the attention that it should, as it goes against the media narrative of “All people with guns are bad”. It should be noted, that the good guy did not fire a shot.

Stabbing sprees are not common in the United States but do happen with some regularity across other countries. We do not know a lot about the suspect, and have no motive yet, so anything currently being reported or discussed on social media is pure speculation.

New Guns and Gear

Forced Reset Trigger for MP5

Couldn’t find a picture of the MP5 Forced Reset Trigger, so this Zenith ZF5-P will have to suffice

If you have been online at all you have probably seen the buzz that the line of Forced Reset Triggers (FRT) is being extended to both the MP5 and the AK47. Obviously, this was the natural progression of these products. If you’d like to see one in action, Garand Thumb has one of the best videos showcasing the MP5 FRT.  If you’re not familiar with these triggers, it operates a little differently from a full-auto, in the sense it does not “hold and then release” the hammer via the sear, rather it forces the trigger to reset.

This reset happens despite you applying force to the trigger. If you continue to apply force the trigger will break, and the hammer will fall. If you let off the force, the trigger just resets and is ready for the next trigger pull. The difference between FRT and a full auto trigger pull is nuanced. Which is why it was involved in court battles with the ATF and was deemed to be illegal by the ATF, who in turn was sued.

In May 2025, Rare Breed Triggers reached a limited settlement with the ATF that resolved specific lawsuits and allowed them to resume sales of certain forced reset triggers, though the long-term legal challenges and regulatory uncertainty remain. It would not at all surprise me to see the ATF get back on their high horse and go after FRTs under a different administration, or if it is used in a mass shooting.

They are not a cheap trigger, but I am sorely tempted to get one. I’d toss it in a lower and use it for either a Pistol Caliber Carbine, or just a .300 Blackout build. Not sure my wallet can stomach the ammo bill that comes with owning one.

That’s 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 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. 

Posted on

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

Posted on

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

Posted on

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