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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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
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.
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.
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.
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Jay – jay@theballisticassistant.com
Marc – Marc@theballisticassistant.com
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