The Firearm Blog

One of my favorite websites, Ballistics By The Inch (BBTI), has been updated with more information.

Two more cartridges have been tested: the 9mm Makarov and 9mm Ultra/Police)

They have also tested an additional ten .380 ACP chambered pistols with a variety of ammunition. This has yielded some surprising, at least to me, information. For example, the Bersa Firestorm (3.5" barrel) produces about 10% greater velocity than the Taurus 738 TCP (3.3" barrel) across a variety of different ammunition.

Keep up the good work BBTI!

Finish company Ase Utra are a well known suppressor manufacturer. They have posted a couple of interesting videos on YouTube.

[ Many thanks to Tuulos for emailing me the videos. ]

Guy shows us the rifle he is taking Elk hunting next month. I look forward to reading about his experience in Shoot Illustrated.

The Remington Semi-Auto Sniper System (RSASS) is a prototype 7.62x51mm rifle. It features a full length rail, uses Magpul 7.62mm magazines and has a left-side foldable charging handle. Nice! I stole these photos from the AAC Blog ...

I am a little surprised to see that they are not using the Magpul Massoud as the basis for their upcoming 7.62mm rifle.

Armalite's 10th Anniversary Limited Edition AR-50A1 features a custom black/silver speckle finish and comes bundled with a a variety of accessories including three different scope rails.

Read more about it at Accurate Shooter.

Ryan Smith, of Bushmaster, hosted Drake Clark from Magpul at the Bushmaster factory. Drake was one of the co-designers of the original Magpul Masada. This video, a TFB exclusive, shows Drake putting an ACR through its paces ...

This video clears up the debate of weather or not there are full-auto Bushmaster, as opposed to Remington, ACR rifles. There are!

[ Many thanks to Ryan Smith for the video. ]

[ Y-Man, TFB's resident Nigerian shotgunner, continues his series of guest articles about his quest to build the perfect shotgun. Being one of the lucky few in Africa to legally own a gun, he has to fabricate many parts and ammunition himself because supplies of gun parts are so limited. You can read Part 6 here. ]

I have been in need of good sights forever, and like many know: I live in a country where firearms are highly restricted, and firearms accessories and fittings are impossible to get.

I had a discarded B-Square mount in the house, and began to wonder what I could use it for, so I used the upper rail section to fabricate a tactical sight using some left-over Shotgun sights I had at home, which I thought I would never be able to use again. So I fastened the top rail part to my barrel, similar to how I once fastened an aluminium tube to the barrel to form a quite effective sight.

See pictures of the “tacticool” sight I fabricated here:

They work! I was able to use them on the range the other time: really good and adjustable sight system: all assembled from discarded items.

Homemade drag-stabilised slugs.

In the past, I had fabricated Foster-type slugs for use from my smoothbore shotgun, and initially got very good results. Later, and with a change of firearm: I noticed very inaccurate performance and inconsistency in my shooting, over the last few months. I have been VERY busy trying to develop the best kind of slug that would give me the performance I need. I have filled the cavities with hot glue, and have done very deep research: nothing has been good enough.

It has become such an obsession: this quest for the best slug, that I have not fired a regular, unmodified shot-shell in a year now!

I have been able to develop the following slugs, using vary basic equipment. They have been very inaccurate, complicated to produce, and generally not satisfactory.

The original Foster-type slugs (Initially performed well, then performance degraded...I could barely get 3 rounds onto an 18-inch target consistently.)

Then, at one point, I got a mold fabricated: and achieved this: what I call the “Socket Wrench Slug” cast from a No. 16 socket wrench.

These did okay at close range: 15 yards, but moving to 20 to 25 yards; began to tumble. Accuracy at 30 yards was almost impossible.

Then, with this unacceptable performance, I moved further to this: a hybrid of the Socket Wrench Slug, with a square base “fin”: Using a No. 16 Socket Wrench, and leaving the square bit on.

This one performed woefully: tumbling almost as soon as they emerged from the muzzle. The rear had a cavity drilled into it (To ensure the slug is always front-heavy and point-forward in flight, the typical Foster slug theory), but this did not help. It tore big holes in targets, but also caused pressure spikes: the projectile alone being up to 45 grams in weight sometimes! (My Shot-shells carry 32 grams of shot normally.)

Moved on further: I got another mold fabricated: a really unique one which took a lot of thinking and planning. It was not easy: I don’t have metal working tools or training myself, and having to explain and guide an experienced but illiterate technician in fabricating this. It was NOT easy! But we got it made.

From this: I was able to produce this Flat Top slug prototype: (Notice the resemblance to the Lyman-type slug? That was the inspiration.)

Sadly: these also did NOT give good performance! Key-holing, tumbling, skirt collapse, wads forced into cavity, etc. Even filling of the cavity with Cream of Wheat, or hot glue, did not help. I was mostly getting 6 shots out of 10 onto an 18 inch target at 30 yards, but those 4 misses could mean the difference between life and death, or food on the table and starvation, in a real-life situation.

(I have become very good at capturing my fired slugs, using sandbags: and I have been able to see the actual performance: which slugs have tumbled, which slugs have key holed etc...)

So I did some more thinking: I used an aluminium cap to achieve a more aerodynamic shape for my Flat-top slugs:

These seemed to have more promise: but the irregularities in the size and fitting to the bore, still led to poor, inconsistent performance also. It was really getting DISAPPOINTING! A smoothbore projectile ideally should have good sliding fit through the bore. When a projectile is bouncing off the walls: it could emerge from muzzle in any orientation completely, thus, no consistency. This was proved in several test firings.

So I left off for almost 2 months, and when I had the time, did some thinking, and research. I realised two major things have been missing from my designs:

1. A good front-heavy and long projectile.

2. A good bore-size sliding action for the projectile: a projectile that fits properly in the bore on its way out.

So, I realised something when I was picking up some fired slugs one day at my “range”: I was also picking the wads too! (Many wads tore through my targets too: giving me very bad results from my shooting...)

Epiphany!!!: Slugs and wads fly together! This is the basis for the Brenneke slug! So why don’t I just fix the plastic wads to some 1 oz solid lead slugs?

So, I did some casting: solid slugs, with a starter hole for screws: weighing 28 to 30 grams. Then I cut open some shotshells, brought out the wads, and fastened them together to the slugs with brass screws. Brass because they are a bit softer than steel screws: just in case they twist out of alignment on firing. I weighed everything and they are less than 32 grams: well within safe pressure limits!

The slugs and wads MUST be correctly aligned, as they will be coming out of the barrel together, and will fly to target together.

See these below:

These slugs fit very well in the shells, and when I tested they slide properly down the bore of the shotgun too. A good fit.

So: I went off to the “range” today, and fired off 6 rounds of these slugs, at a 18 inch metal target from 27 yards. (Just a metal/ enamel tray.)

I fired:

3 rounds 2.75”Modified Shell.

3 rounds 3” Modified Shell.

It WORKED! 6 rounds fired: 6 solid hits!

A. 3 rounds 2.75”: Group: 4 inches @ 27 yards. (One “flyer”.)

B. 3 rounds 3”: Group: 3 inches @ 27 yards. 1 FTE. (Took some strong racking to get it out...Strange...)

*5 rounds were high and to the left of POA, 1 low right.

Total group: 18mm (7 inches) Excluding “Flyer”.

See target: (The plastic can was my “slug-trap”. Filled with sand to trap fired slugs.)

I then proceeded to blast the target at 25 yards with 3 regular, unmodified shells for the fun of it.

See target:

Like I said before, I have recently learnt to recover my fired slugs. Today was not different: I recovered 3 out of my 6 slugs (3 went right through my sand trap!) Here they are: you can see it looks like every single slug was point-first, there was little deformation, and wad collapse. Little expansion, but these would definitely put a world of hurt on a target.

I think the combination of good sights and the slugs has worked. I am much more confident now.

Last note

The situation in my country is getting more worrying now: we are aware there are a lot more illegal guns and ammo being smuggled in: in “preparation” for the politics for next year... I was shocked to watch a local news report the other day: a whole container load of Turkish and Russian shotguns, and a semi-trailer load of 12-gauge ammo intercepted at the port. Unfortunately: the attacks, the killings have begun already: not widespread, but assassination of political aspirants and party activists here and there... There is also the tension of religious factors: the incumbent president is being pressured to run for election. He was the former vice president, who got into power because of the death of the erstwhile president. He is from the Christian South-South, while the Muslim Northerners feel Northern rule should continue.

God help my country in the coming time, and God grant me a good target picture, a steady hand, good cover, and enough ammo, God forbid that it comes to that...Amen!

Last weeks NRA Curator's Corner featured the M3 Grease Gun. NRA Blog says ...

With a 30 round magazine and a muzzle velocity of 920 ft/s, the M3 was manufactured from 1943 to 1945. During that time, roughly 700,000 were produced. Soon after it was created, the M3 was tweaked with hopes to improve reliability and decrease weight. The result was a gun that saw service all the way from World War II to Desert Storm — the M3A1.

Lars Dalseide, of NRABlog, was kind enough to share these photos of the M3 ...

I have never fired a M3. It has always been high on my list of guns to shoot (full auto, of course!).

[ Many thanks to Lars Dalseide, of NRA Blog, for sending me the photos. ]

Defense Review has been burning up ammo. Videos here

From BerettaSupport.com ...

Beretta U.S.A. Corp. has discovered a potential condition with Beretta .22 caliber NEOS semiautomatic pistols in which the pistol will fire even if the safety is activated and, in some cases, the pistols may fire if the safety is moved from the OFF to the ON position. Chances of either of these situations occurring is extremely remote and no injuries have occurred because of this condition, however, because of safety concerns relating to this situation, Beretta U.S.A. Corp. is immediately implementing a recall of Beretta .22 caliber NEOS semiautomatic pistols.

If you have a Beretta NEOS pistol, please send it to our Accokeek Maryland Service Center for repair. Instructions on how to send your Neos to Beretta is available at www.berettasupport.com/neos or by calling 1-800-BERETTA. Note: Some pistols are not subject to recall. Please visit www.berettasupport.com/neos to see if your NEOS has already been repaired.

Your pistol will be retrofitted, at no cost to you, with a replacement firing pin assembly. The new firing pin assembly can be identified either by a circle on the back of the firing pin that includes a red dot in the center, or by a vertical line (either version is suitable for your continued use) as seen in these illustrations:

Please make sure that your Beretta NEOS pistol is unloaded before delivery to the service center.

Do not experiment with your Neos pistol to see if it has the potential safety issue. Some NEOS pistols have already been repaired. If the firing pin for your NEOS looks like Version 1 or 2 above, you do not need to return it for retrofit. Please visit www.berettasupport.com/neos to see if your NEOS has already been repaired.

This is a good reminder that you should never rely on a mechanical safety. Cooper's set of rules is the only reliable safety.