Tag: SAAMI

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Brass, Barrels, and Bureaucracy #5

This week flew by. For me it was all about work, trying to get projects wrapped up and meeting deadlines. Probably the most important thing is the kids have introduced me to the latest and greatest cultural sensation to grace our screens in the last month. I will spare you the agony of the details of what, where and who. However, it is worth mentioning that my kids and I use the same YouTube account on the TV, and when the kids watch things on YouTube, the algorithm picks up on their patterns.  As a result, my YouTube feed on my phone has been cluttered with K-Pop videos, and it’s largely drowned out my usual firearm- focused channels.

Learn from my misery, and if you have grandkids over, have them use a dedicated account, otherwise you’re going to sort through hours of junk.

Website Updates

I have been working on cleaning up some of the older articles on the website. Many articles are 5+ years old, and they were written when I was still figuring things out. They are replete with typos, grammatical mistakes and formatting inconsistencies. Also, things have changed in the gun world, and I’d like to update the information.

PDW Round Comparison 5.7x28mm vs 4.6x30mm

We have also updated the SAAMI Pistol Catalog. The additions are the 5.7x28mm and the 30 Super Carry.

SAAMI Pistol Cartridge Catalog

Time at the Bench

Fix-it Sticks

I spent more time gunsmithing this week than I did reloading. Mainly I was working on a few double stack 1911s.  I found a “new-to-me” favorite tool; the ratcheting T-Handle.  The specific brand is “Fix-it Sticks”, and I have seen them around for several years but have never really had an opportunity to mess with one.

The kits are expensive, just having the ratcheting T-Handle is enough for me.

It’s one of those tools you don’t think is going to be that big of a deal until you try it and it surprises you. I really liked the ergonomics of using it over a traditional L shaped wrench as it allows you to put a bit more pressure on the screw to make sure the bit is fully seated in the socket. It might save you from stripping a screw head.  It’s got a few more features that I haven’t really used yet. Honestly just having the T-Handle ratchet really won me over. Sometimes it’s the little things.  

Fix-it Sticks come in all sorts of preassembled kits that would work great in a “Go Bag”. Personally, I just picked up a couple of the handles, I have all the bits I need.

AGS Brass Annealer

If you haven’t gone down the rabbit hole that is brass annealing, now it is about as good as it gets. Especially if you do a lot of rifle reloading.  When I first got into reloading in 2009, annealing was around, but I don’t remember seeing as many purpose-built tools as we have today. People talked about it, but it always seems to involve some variation of a pan, some water and a torch.

I use the AMP Annealing machine, and it’s been fine. Honestly, I was impressed when a buddy of mine showed me a video of him running the AGS Brass Case Annealer 3.0, that he picked up from Amazon for about $300

AGS Brass Case Annealer 3.0

Obviously, this is made for all sorts of countries. His unit came with three different plugs and no torch head. Which, based on his experience, get the machine before you get the torch head to make sure it all goes together right.  However, once he had it all set up, it ran very well. It’s faster than the AMP machine, and I’m sure those case necks are every bit as soft as ones that were induction annealed. If you’re in the market for an annealing machine, this seems to be a pretty solid option.

Industry and Legislative News

HPA and SHORT Act

Lawsuits filed to challenge the legitimacy of the registration requirement for Suppressors, SBRs, SBSs and AOWs continued to be filed over the last week. What started as a deluge is now tapering off to a trickle. Expect things to move at a snail’s pace as it works its way through the courts.

Pistol Braces off the Chopping Block

Anyone who has been following the trend of pistol braces knows that the ATF has waffled back and forth on their legality. This has been going on for the better part of a decade. In 2021 they proposed a new set of criteria on evaluating whether a pistol brace was indeed a brace, or if it was a short barreled rifle. After legal challenges resulted in two court rulings (Mock v. Garland, Britto v. ATF) against the ATF, we have been waiting to see if the ATF would file an appeal.

The news broke last week that ATF has abandoned the case and will not file for an appeal leaving in place the previous court rulings.  

USPS and Handguns

The Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the Gun Owners Foundation are challenging the law prohibiting the shipping of pistols via the US Postal Service.  Currently it is a felony for private individuals to ship pistols using the USPS, though FFLs may do so under specific rules. Personally, I am not all that trustful of the US Postal Service when it comes to delivering mail period, let alone shipping a firearm. I find it more inconvenient that it is a felony to carry a firearm into a USPS facility.

“Ghost” Guns Liability

The last piece of news that caught my eye is a lawsuit from the five victims’ families of the 2023 Kingsessing Mass Shooting against Polymer80 and its parent company JSD Supply.  This is an attempt to hold the manufacturer liable for selling an “80% Lower” to an otherwise prohibited person. No doubt this will get into the minutia of what constitutes a “Firearm” and to what extent a company is protected by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).

These so called “Ghost” guns are privately manufactured firearms. Where the controversy has been is where companies have pushed the line to reduce the amount of work and skill needed to make a homemade firearm. It used to be you needed at least the patience of a monk and a file to manufacture something that might not blow up. Now you can make what is essentially a functional AR-15 receiver with a Dremel and a little luck. Capitalism at its finest.

This will be an interesting case as it will likely test the limits of the PLCAA, and if the courts rule in favor of the Plaintiffs we could see the “80% Market” take another serious blow.

New Guns and Gear

Tisas  PX-9 Duty Comp

Tisas announced on July 16, 2025, the release of their new competition variant of the PX-9 striker pistol. It features a large “scoop” style comp that is integral to the slide. This style of compensator has really become popular. Almost like the Mag-na-porting of the previous century. It also comes optics ready, and they claim an upgraded trigger.

Folks not familiar with the Tisas brand can be forgiven, they are a more recent brand to make their way State side.  Based in Turkey, they make a decent pistol for the price. Their 1911’s are everything you might expect a 1911 to be, and their double-stack 1911s are solid for the price. Right now, the firearms market is awash with Turkish firearms. Most are solid; some are not, so do your homework.

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

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

Jay – jay@theballisticassistant.com

Marc – Marc@theballisticassistant.com

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Website Update 6/2/2025

Good Monday evening!

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

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

Website Updates and New Stuff

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

The updated SAAMI Rifle Catalog can be found here.

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

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

Time at the Bench

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

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

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

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

Industry and Legislative News

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

Supreme Court Ruling

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

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

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

Texas

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

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

Connecticut

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

New Guns and Gear

Dillon Auto Center Decapping Die

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

Springfield Armory KUNA

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

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

That is all I have for this week. 

Jay

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Website Updates 2-1-2021

The older I get the faster the years seem to go by. Not sure if this is because life just gets busier, or because my perspective of time seems to change. I.E, the older we get the shorter a day becomes, relative to the total amount of time we have lived. I saw that now, but there are still days and hours that seem to drag on. This is the long way of saying another week has past, and we are through the month of January in what seems like record time.

This past week and the next few weeks following are promising to be quite busy for myself and my family. We are once again on the move, this time to Alabama. This will hopefully be the second to last move we have as a family for some time. We will be moving into an apartment to allow us to find a house and property in the area that fits our needs. This also comes with a career change yet again, which will be a return to my passions which include CAD design/drafting, teaching, and of course the shooting sports.

As we make this transition, I’ll do my best to try and keep adding to the content on the website. There are some things that remain a work in progress. Of course, there was something if an informal 2021 SHOT Show, and manufacturers have been announcing new products, including some in the reloading category. I still have some work to do to finish what I feel are the highlights of these new releases. In the meantime, I have completed another book review

Clicking on the picture will take you to Amazon.com where you can purchase a copy of this book. A portion of the sale will go to supporting this website at no cost to you.

One of the reasons I wanted to start the Library section of the webpage was to highlight books which are lesser known but are of considerable value. Modern Exterior Ballistics is one of those books. It is an expensive book, it comes in hardcover, and it is written as an academic reference. Therefore, unless you are really interested in learning the math and theories behind ballistic trajectory, you may not see the value in this book. You can read my full thoughts and review of the book here: Thoughts On: Modern Exterior Ballistics

In keeping with the SAAMI cartridge catalog, I have finished and publish the SAAMI Rifle Cartridge Catalog . This includes all of the currently recognized SAAMI Rifle Cartridges except for the ones released in September 2020. I need to add these newer cartridges and will come on a future update. As with the other catalogs, important specs such as Service Pressure (SAAMI MAP), Max COAL, Min COAL, Max Case Length and Trim to Length are listed. I have also included the bullet diameter’s, which I did not do for the pistol, rimfire or shotgun catalog but may go back and update those. Again, these catalogs are intended to be a quick reference for people looking for information on a cartridge and not wanting to dig through the SAAMI Manuals.

In other news, a new Firearm Control Bill has been introduced into the house. HR127 or “Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act”. The introduction of this and other Firearm Control measures should not surprise anyone. There are a lot of people making a lot of hay over something that happens every new session of congress. With that said there are some highlights that make this bill pretty terrible, and some new things that I have not seen in previous bills;

  • Ban the possession of ammunition that is .50 Caliber or greater,
  • Ban magazines that can hold more then 10 rounds,
  • a requirement for registration and licensing of all firearms,
    • This includes different licensing categories for different classes of firearms
    • Licensing requirement would include a mandatory 24hr safety class and a phycological evaluation.
    • Only license holders may possess and purchase ammunition (At least that’s how it reads to me)
  • A requirement to pay a yearly $800 liability insurance fee to the AG.
  • The Bill is not clear on what, if any, grandfather measures are included, if it had them I missed them on my read through.

Those are the highlights I took away from reading through the bill. I am pretty sure there are others who can better inform us of some of the particular legal requirements and implications that are hidden in the legalese. While I stand firmly against everything in this bill, I do not think it does us much good to claim the sky is falling around the banning of magazines, or registration requirements, those argument will fall on deaf ears. Personally, I believe the best argument against this bill is the disparaging effect it will have on those looking to exercise their Rights and are part of the middle class and below. Which statistically is overwhelming minority populations.

The $800 yearly insurance requirement is only the beginning of the costs, once we figure in the cost of a 24hr (read a 3 day safety class, which means 3 days of missed work) and the cost of a psych evaluation, we are easily talking about an investment of $2,000 or more, before purchasing the firearm and ammunition. This will disproportionally affect low income populations, acting in effect as a “Poll Tax” requiring fee’s in order to exercise a Constitutional Right. On it’s face this requirement, I believe is unconstitutional, that is before we get into the debate over the 2nd Amendment and what arms or accessories may be legislatively regulated.

In the divided world we live in, I firmly believe that we must focus on messaging more then any other time. These battles can be won in the hearts and minds of our neighbors, but it will take an adjustment in how we discuss Rights, and how that impacts individuals who are less fortunate. Simply backing ourselves into a preverbal corner and crying ” Do Not Tread On Me, or Come and Take it” adds little or no value to the conversation and further rises the temperature. In many instances it makes people more resolute in their views for or against us.

Undoubtedly we will see more bills like this over the next four years. Even if they die in committee the same elements will be copied and paste into the next effort, with a different title and perhaps different sponsors. The pressure we must apply, needs to be applied with both a measure of patience and consistency, not a quick knee jerk response that is promoted by eye catching headlines or inflammatory YouTube videos. This kind of teaching is something our community can be very good at within our own families, but are not as astute at performing outside of our homes. The other side, by nature, is quite good at messaging and education even when we find the things being taught to be disagreeable.

That is all I have for this week. As always if you are looking to get in touch, best way is to send me an email jay@theballisticassistant.com. You may check us out on Parler (if they ever get back online) Facebook, Instagram, MeWe, and Reddit. If you’d like to submit a load to our load database the instructions are here.

Stay Safe Out There!

The Ballistic Assistant