It’s been quite the week for me. I have had a bit of a family emergency, all seems well for now but I was not able to post on my regular schedule.
There are a few good updates I have this week and a bit of commentary. First the updates, I posted my review on Ammunition Making by George E. Frost last week and got some good feedback. Don, a subscriber to the site, pointed out that this book is available for free download at Archive.org. Given this book is out of print, and looks to be prohibitively expensive a PDF copy will have to suffice for most of us. I have updated the review with the link to the PDF. You are required to sign up for a free account on Archive.org, but it is a small price to pay.
There is an updated Burn Rate Chart. I have posted it here. No big changes and I have added Reloder 15.5. Given that it is a fairly new powder the relative position may change as I get more data, but for now, it is between Reloader 15 and Reloder 16 with the burn rate being slightly faster than Power Pro 2000MR. I have found some Russian powders that I would like to add to the chart but that may take a bit of time as there is very little information and load data out there beyond what they provide. The company is, Milan Blagojevic-Namenska which is a government-run entity.
Given current sanctions on ammunition important, I doubt we will see this powder in the US anytime soon. This is a bit of a bummer, I am always game for trying a new powder, even if it is from the Soviet Bloc. There are also some pull-down powders that I have seen listed on the internet which claim Soviet Origin. I was thinking of throwing those on the chart, but am not sure I will. The issue with these types of powder is they tend to be of limited quantity, and the information on who made it and when is typically not available. There are a few surplus powders out there that are reclaimed from pull-down ammunition, with powder being hard to come by commodity I can see where it is tempting, but I would rather not buy a bunch of pull-down powder, do the work of working up a load, and then find out two years from now I cannot get it, or the next batch I get is completely different from the first.
Back to the Burn Rate Chart, I am getting enough requests for a “printer friendly version” that I have put a permanent link on the website for a downloadable copy. Please now while it is printer friendlier, it is not going to be easily printed from your desktop injet. The type will be too small. It is better to print in 11×17 Ledger paper, which means you will need to bring the file to your nearest printer/coper that can handle that size paper.
I got to spend some time playing with a Teslong Borescope this week. I plan on reviewing it and posting some pictures. I have to say, I was impressed. I have used the Hawkeye Bore Scopes which cost somewhere between $600 and $800 up to well over $1k depending on the model. This kit cost $130, came with a handheld screen that doubles as a camera, and has a bit of a magnification feature. Being able to stick the probe in, and sit back looking at a monitor made bore inspection a breeze. The image quality was more than sufficient.
All the rifles I stuck the probe down needed a good cleaning. So I plan to take some before and after pictures and point out some of the interesting things to see in a bore. All of my rifles have been shot quite a bit and the bores show it. I think I might see what there is to see in a few of my suppressors as well.
In addition, I got to handle a rack grade, M1 Garand, from the CMP. Just handling the rifle reminded me how much I really appreciate the design of the M1. For whatever reason, the form, fit, and function of that rifle are about as perfect as you can get. I think it is a gorgeous rifle, even if the one I handled was a bit battle-worn and could stand a bit of extra work to bring it up to the standard a decent marksman might inspect.
Another thing worth noting is the manufacturing of these rifles is almost considered a lost art. While there are a few companies that churn out new M1 and M14/M1A receivers, they are a dying breed. The receivers for the M1 and M14 are by far the most complex receivers ever made for a US service rifle. They started out as forgings which gave the general form of the receiver, large portions of the receivers were broached into the final shape. Broaching was considered the forefront of manufacturing technology in the day. While broaching is still used today, it is an expensive process when compared to what can be done on modern CNC machines.
It is very costly to manufacture a brand new M1 Garand or M1A receiver, compared to an AR-15 receiver, and the demand is not there to justify tooling up. It would not surprise me to see the new manufacture of M1 Garand or M1A’s cease in the new few decades. The existing surplus parts have pretty much dried up. Unless another country decides to retire their arsenal, we are likely with in 5 years of surplus Garands drying up completely. I know it is likely heresy to say, but I would love to see a new production M1 Garand that incorporates some design changes to make manufacturing with existing equipment easier, preserves the lines form, fit, and function of the 80 year old design, and upgrades the system to handle modern 30-06 ammunition at more modern pressures.
There is even a part of me that dreams of finding a way to extend the internal magazine capacity to 10, does away with the dreaded risk of M1 Thumb, upgrade the receiver to handle 65,000psi service pressure, add about an inch to the length of pull, and incorporate a more modern gas system, as is found on the M14 but retain the same form as the original Garand. You might ask why? Well, again, I just love the original look of the design. The lines are clean, the sights are pretty much perfect, the clip system is actually a pretty smooth way of loading, and the clips are light when compared to a mag, and there is not much to catch on clothing. Yes it is a heavy rifle, and there is no doubt that the M4/M16 is a better mousetrap, but there is just something magical about this old warhorse that I would love to see carried forward into the 21st century.
With that said, I am not a fan of what Ruger did in the Mini-14. They stripped everything down to make a rifle easier to manufacture, and it does have its own character. I think there could be room for an “Updated M1” given it would not qualify for service rifle competitions and it could likely not compete against the high power rifles in terms of accuracy, it would be something niche. Something that was a solution for a problem that may not exist, but stranger firearms have seen the light of day.
The last bit of commentary I wanted to touch on was Biden’s comments about two weeks ago. He touted that they would be cracking down on FFL’s who make illegal gun sales. Everyone else focuses on the Nukes, and the F-15’s. Let’s be honest the meme’s that came out of that have been epic, but on a serious note, Biden basically stated there will be a crackdown on FFL’s. I do not believe we have an serious issue of FFL’s selling firearms illegally. I think this is a political ploy. What concerns me is the FFL holders that may have missed dotting an “i” or forgot to cross a “t”. It is entirely likely the unfortunate victims of this so-called “crackdown” will be good people who do not have their books in order. I bet, within a few years, especially as an election nears, there will be some statistics spouted off. That they arrested or yanked the license from 1,000 FFL’s who were selling guns illegally.
The truth will be, they may be caught a handful of bad apples maybe 10 or 20. However, what they really caught was a bunch of FFL’s who were not diligent about record keeping and they got their license pulled. If you are a firearms dealer, do not be caught with your pants down. Go through your books and make sure everything is in order. If you have not called your Senator to oppose David Chipman, take the time to do it, that battle is still ongoing and we can expect if he is confirmed more of these “sting operations” will happen.
That’s all I have for this week. As always if you are looking to get in touch, the best way is to send me an email at jay@theballisticassistant.com. You may check us out on Parler, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. If you’d like to submit a load to our load database, the instructions are here.
As always, shoot straight and stay safe!
The Ballistic Assistant
Your comment ‘even from the Soviet Union’ is curious. Russia is now the Russian Federation, it is no longer Communist, it has merely returned to its routes and become a Tsardom of sorts.
Why bother commenting on this? Because yours is still a commonly held belief, even in US official circles, and is serving at present to drive the Russian Federation into bed with the Chinese- something best avoided.
But for that comment- I love your work.
Good Evening Simon,
Thanks for the comment. You are correct it is no longer the Soviet Union, and the country is not Communist. I do not deny that I am a product, at least in part, of the information that is being fed to me. True or untrue, and to be honest right now in the US it can be very difficult to decern the difference between truth and propaganda. I whole heartily agree that we should be more careful with our language so that we do not perpetuate stereotypes or misinformation. The comment was intended to speak more to the quality of some of the Russian ammunition and components which have been sold as either surplus or newly manufactured steel-cased ammunition. Some of the ammunition was fine, some examples were of suspect quality. It was never unsafe, but rather just inconsistent. Whether that was by nature of the quantity over the quality mindset that was behind much of the Soviet military production/doctrine and has somewhat been carried over to the Russian Federation, or for some other reason, that has been my experience with it. The comment largely was in jest, but since I have no direct experience with this powder I cannot comment on the quality or function of it at all.
I recognize those who live outside of the US have a very different view of the world, and I appreciate the perspective. We lack a lot of diversity in our news, indeed much of our news is centered on events that happen within the United States. What happens outside of the US, with exceptions to something that either impact the US directly, or a disaster of some sort, goes largely ignored. This makes Americans, of which I am one, woefully ignorant of not only what goes on in the rest of the world but also how our foreign policy affects others for good or bad. When it comes to Russia, and China, the Cold Era dogma is still very strong and a general distrust of Russia and China is more the rule than the exception. This can be especially true in the firearms community, which as you rightly pointed out, is not helpful at all.
I am glad you appreciate my work, I enjoy getting feedback from those who visit the site.
Thanks!
Jay