Tag: M18

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Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #11

The kids went back to school this week and at weeks end the school is still standing so all is well. The weather this week has been wonderful with the air almost turning a bit nippy at night. We have seen our fair share of rain over the last two days. The leaves aren’t turning yet, but I suspect we will start seeing the maples get a bit of a golden tinge here in the next week or two.

3D printers have become so cheap and so good that it really is not cost effective to build your own, unless you are a sadist. I have long since abandoned my own project to build one.

Along with my many other projects I have been working on trying to fix an SLA printer. I have torn it apart and put it back together more times than I can count. I fixed one issue and then another cropped up. Some people might think it’s more trouble than it’s worth, but at the end of the day it’s a $600 machine rescued from the dumpster. My expectations are low, but I think I’ve got the issue narrowed down, and since the machine is still under warranty, the manufacturer has been willing to send me the replacement parts, though shipping will take 7-20 days.

Website Updates

This week Marc had the opportunity to test out the Athlon Chronograph. He took some time to put together a survey for those folks who might be looking at purchasing one.

Understanding Chronographs: A Guide for Reloaders

Time at the Bench

40 S&W Returning to My Roots

Everyone has their first pistol, this was mine, somewhere I have some old pictures of it. The M&P 2.0 look way cooler, but function more or less the same.

I’ve been loading several lots of .40 S&W lately, which takes me back to when I first started reloading. My first pistol was a Smith & Wesson M&P in .40 S&W. At the time, the cartridge was still being promoted as the “man stopper.” The Utah Highway Patrol officer who taught my concealed carry class swore it was the only caliber where he never saw an assailant get back up. Today, the myth of a one-shot man stopper is well behind us.

I put thousands of rounds through that pistol, most of them cast myself with a Lee 20-lb melting pot and a 145-grain SWC mold, then loaded on a Lee Pro 1000 progressive press. Eventually I sold the M&P, picked up a CZ 2075 RAMI P, and later traded that for an HK45CT. For me, the .40 S&W always felt snappy, and full-power loads were never as enjoyable as running .45 ACP through my HK Mark 23.

I actually purchased this gun without doing a ton of research. I saw it, I liked how it felt and look and I bought it. Shot it a few times, decided it wasn’t for me and sold it. If it had been the metal framed pistol I might have kept it.

As a caliber, .40 S&W is on the decline, especially since the FBI dropped it in 2014 in favor of the 9×19. .40 S&W will not disappear completely because there are probably hundreds of thousands of guns chambered in .40. However, I doubt we will see many new offerings. Shooters are now gravitating towards its bigger brother, the 10mm Auto, when they need something with more punch than a 9mm. The only reason I am loading .40 today is because I have brass, bullets, and an HK VP40 I bought with the intent of experimenting with .357 Sig.

While I do have the .357 Sig barrel, I have not built up a stockpile of brass and bullets. For now, I just load .40 S&W to have something on hand if I want to shoot the pistol. Since I have not done much loading with .40 in recent years, I was caught off guard when I started looking up data for 180-grain bullets with Vihtavuori N330. QuickLOAD showed surprisingly low pressure. I had been running 6.0 grains of N330 with 155-grain Hornady XTPs, and I expected to have to reduce nearly a full grain for the heavier bullet.

Thanks again Brian for the save here. Good Data.

Vihtavuori’s published data only covers N320 and N340. This is when it pays to have friends who can cross-check. After a few texts and photos of different manuals, I found Sierra listed the data I needed. QuickLOAD confirmed their numbers, so I picked a mid-range charge and started loading.

Trust but verify. QuickLOAD was right this time, but as Marc wrote a few months back, it is always best to check data against at least one other source, especially when you are relying on software.

Lee Precision 223 Remington Dies

I have some really nice dies I break out for special occasions, but honestly I have found that Lee Dies work fine for about 90% of of my reloading tasks.

When I started reloading, I used a lot of Lee Precision Reloading Dies and I must honestly say, beyond a few quirks, I still think they are good value for the money.  So, when I found out that I could not find my set of 223 Remington Dies to fix that batch of 223 Remington where the COAL was too long, I ordered a set of Lee Dies.

I am about 90% sure Lee uses 12L14 as their die material of choice, as it characteristically forms a very light rust on the exterior surfaces over time.  The decapping pins are a one-piece deal, and they are usually soft, to where the pin will bend quite a bit before it breaks right off. Those pins do not take the abuse like some of the other pins out there on the market. Sometimes you’ll get a die or a tool head that has some pretty rough chatter or ugly looking threads, but at the same time, I have not personally seen where a $400 sizing die improves accuracy much, if at all, over a $20 Lee sizing die.

Once I am done with loading the 40 S&W, I’ll switch everything over and drop in the Lee dies to run through those 223 Rem loads through my Dillon 550.

Industry and Legislative News

Much of the week’s industry news was overshadowed by tragedy. It is a grim reminder that evil exists in the world. Our hearts go out to all those affected. As a parent, I cannot imagine the pain and anger of going through something like that.

These moments always spark reflection on the balance of freedom and risk. The same tools that preserve liberty can also be misused. The freedom to travel means we endure car accidents and, at times, deliberate acts of violence with vehicles. A free financial system allows us to work and spend as we wish, but it also creates opportunities for criminals to exploit and drain the savings of others. No one, left, right, or center, has an easy answer.

With that weight acknowledged, the industry has still moved forward with several notable developments this week.

Air Force Clears the M18

“…SIG guys strut like they’re fresh of a SEAL team six op but really they are just trying not to ND in the parking lot…”

Sig Sauer announced that the Air Force has cleared its pistols to return to duty. The last update on this case involved an airman who was arrested for making a false statement. It seemed there was more to the story than an “uncommanded discharge,” but the Air Force’s decision to reinstate the pistols does not settle much.

I remain skeptical. Sig has too much at stake to be impartial, and with multiple lawsuits pending, dismissing the issue as poor gun handling feels hollow. Remington tried that same approach with its safety problems: deny everything, fight it in court, and only change course when forced by a judge. That path contributed to Remington’s bankruptcy. I hate to see Sig following in those footsteps. Time will tell.

Hanover Armory Loses Baltimore Lawsuit


Hanover Armory lost a case against Baltimore over sales of so-called “ghost guns.” In reality, these were unfinished receivers. I am not sure which type they sold, but it hardly matters. The company stopped selling them after Maryland’s ban took effect. The lawsuit claims Hanover failed to conduct background checks on 80% lowers before the ban, despite there being no legal requirement to do so.

The decision came from a jury, which in firearms cases often means prosecutors stack the deck by excluding jurors who know the subject. This case will likely be appealed, and I would not be surprised to see it overturned.

Tennessee Judge Tosses Gun Restrictions

If I don’t have a map to remind me where Tennessee is, I am liable to forget. It gets lost in that cluster of states that have a Buc-ee’s and the ones who don’t

A Tennessee judge struck down laws tied to the vague phrase “intent to go armed.” The wording was too ambiguous to have legal merit, and the court ruled that restrictions on carrying firearms in parks were unconstitutional.

The ruling does not affect permit holders directly, but Tennessee is already a constitutional carry state. That created a contradiction: citizens needed a permit to carry in parks but not to carry concealed elsewhere. The judge’s decision resolved that inconsistency, and it was the right call.

New Guns and Gear

The Glock Store GS 26X Frame

For those folks who like Glock pistols, The Glock Store has their 26X frame on preorder. This frame seeks to make the ultimate Glock conceal carry gun, it combines the G19 grip length, allowing the use of double stack magazines, while allowing you to pair it with a G26, 27, 28, and 33 slide. The front profile of the grip features a very similar profile to the G43X which allows the use of sub compact weapon lights and lasers.  

This is something that really caught Marc’s eye as it is something that the Glock community came up with. They saw a niche application and purposely designed a frame to fit. This is not an 80% grip, rather it’s a serialized frame so you’ll need to run it through your local FFL.

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

Jay – jay@theballisticassistant.com

Marc – Marc@theballisticassistant.com

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

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Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #8

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

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

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

Website Updates

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

Estate Sale 300 Grain Mystery Bullets

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

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

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

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

Time at the Bench

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Industry and Legislative News

HPA and SHORT Act

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

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

California Ammo Background Check Law Struck Down

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

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

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

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

The Unintentional Consequences of Magazine Capacity Limits

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

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

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

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

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

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

SIG Sauer and the P320/M18

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

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

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

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

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

New Guns and Gear

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

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

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

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

Starline making ARC Family Brass

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

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

That’s all we have for this week.

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

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

Jay – jay@theballisticassistant.com

Marc – Marc@theballisticassistant.com

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

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Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #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.