The Firearm Blog

ATI is importing 5.56mm NATO and 7.62×51mm NATO ammunition from Turkey. It is manufactured by Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKEK), the Turkish state owned arms and munitions manufacturer.

Hornady 7.62×39mm and 5.45×39mm Double Tap self defense ammunition loaded with VMAX (polymer tipped) bullets will be on sale soon.

Polymer tipped v-max bullets.

TacticalGunFan has reviewed pre-production samples and they are in fact using steel cases, presumably to save money. He was impressed with the ammunition, although he incorrectly states that this is the first 7.62×39mm self-defense load. There are many hunting and self-defense rounds to choose from.

For the first time American shooters will be able to buy a modern expanding load designed for self-protection in this caliber. It’ll also be the first time a quality projectile will be available in this diameter to enhance the accuracy potential of this military cartridge.

So, American shooters will finally have a domestically produced 5.45×39mm load that combines accuracy and terminal performance.

Midway lists the price as $23.99 for a box of 20 rounds loaded with 123 Grain bullets.

About a month ago I mentioned a post by Caleb warning people not to use 9mm NATO rounds in 9mm Luger / Parabellum pistols.

A reader, who shall remain anonymous, emailed me this account of what happened to him.

Your message about the 9 mm Nato versus 9 mm Luger (9×19 mm, 9 mm Para) is correct and should be a warning to all users of 9 mm pistols. I found out the the higher pressure of the Nato round can be punishing. The same day as I received my first and brand new police service pistol, the Walther P5, I took it to my shooting club to show it to the lads and to shoot it.

Because I ran out of ammo, I borrowed a box from a military friend, who used 9 mm Nato rounds. After two shots my new pistol jammed, because the extractor broke off. I had some explanation to do the next day in order to get my service gun back in working order and got the message: Never use military ammo in non-military firearms. So, any surplus army ammo: use it in the Browning High-Power or the Glock, but not in “civilian” pistols.

Piet, a South African, emailed me information about a wildcat he shoots. The .416 Strauss aka. the 416-03 Strauss in named after the inventor, a friend of Piet.

.303 British (left), .416 Strauss (middle, loaded with a 350 gr Speer bullet in a Norma case)

The parent cartridge is the .303 British. It is blown out to .416 caliber and loaded with a 300 grain Barns-X or 350 grain Speer bullet and S265 Pistol powder (a local South African powder). The 350 grain bullet is propelled at 2300 fps and generates 4112 ft/lbs of muzzle energy. The lighter bullet is pushed out at 2500 fps and generates 4164 ft/lbs of muzzle energy.

The performance seems similar to the .375 H&H Magnum. According to Cartridges of the World (11th Edition), the .375 H&H can push a 300 grain bullet at 2530 fps, generating 4265 ft/lbs. The small caliber .375 bullet would have greater penetration than a .416 bullet. The cartridge works about to be about 20% less powerful than a .416 Rigby

Piet uses the cartridge in a with with a P14 (Pattern 1914 Enfield) action. The groups are not all that great as he does not have a custom die set and has to use a .405 Winchester die for seating the bullet.

The .416 Strauss P14 (click to expand)

I think this is a very compelling cartridge. I am surprised I had not heard of .303’s necked up and turned into big game cartridges before. It seems like a good idea as I am sure Africa is has more than its share of .303 surplus rifles.

A big thank you to Piet for emailing me the photos and information.

Federal have produced two new loads, under the American Eagle brand, for the M1A (M14) and M1 Garand rifles. The cartridges have staked primers and the powders used were chosen with the rifle’s specific gas system design in mind.

The M1 (.30-06) load pushes a 150 grain FMJ bullet at 2740 fps fps and the M1A (7.62×51mm NATO) load a 168 grain Open Tip Match (OTM) bullet at 2650 fps.

Also from Federal is a Power-Shok hunting load optimized for AR-10 style rifles chambered in .338 Federal. The loads pushes a 200 grain soft point at 2700 fps.

Two months ago I blogged that the Norwegian Army suspected that the ammunition used in their new H&K 416 rifles were making soldiers sicks. Chief of Staff Brig. General Rune Jakobsen initiated an investigation after Army HQ received three different reports about groups of soldiers getting sick after firing the new rifles. Symptoms included headaches, fever and joint pain. The investigation has determined that the soldiers were experiencing mild heavy metal poisoning caused by the “green” lead-free 5.56mm NATO ammunition manufactured by Nammo.

Norwegian solider with H&K 416

The report states that the gas exhausted from the rifles contained high levels of copper and zinc which account for all the symptoms suffered by the riflemen. A few, quite comical, short term solutions have been recommended. These include only shooting outside, slower rate of fire and spacing the shooters out more when at the range!

In 2003, under pressure from environmental groups and politicians the Army started using environmentally friendly ammunition. Since then they have had plenty of problems. The Norwegian ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) troops in Afghanistan were ordered to use the new ammo. The ammunition delivered either failed to fire or did not have enough energy to cycle the weapons. 300,000 rounds had to be dumped leaving the troops with no reserve ammunition. All the troops who did not need to leave the base had to hand in their ammunition so it could be distributed to those who needed it. The Army has also had to ban the green ammo from use in the MG3 machine guns because unspecified malfunctions occurred that could harmed the operators.

Nammo 5.56mm ammunition

I found a powerpoint presentation on the internet made by Nammo in 2006 extolling the virtues of their green ammunition. Here are a few very ironic slides (I added the red arrows):

Recently it was determined that the “green” tungsten training ammunition used by the US Military could be toxic.

So in summery: don’t use green ammunition.
Many thanks to Daniel Watters of The Gun Zone for the research he did for this blog post.

I had no idea you can sort of reuse primers. This video, by ammosmith.com, explains how to “reload” your primers with the ignition compound found on matches. It is a slow process, not 100% reliable and the priming compound is corrosive.

Part 1

Part 2

Fascinating! Start hoarding your spent primers, you may be needing them.

Hat Tip: Tech, Guns, and Food

Caleb wrote an interesting blog post last month about the the different in pressure between the SAAMI spec’ed 9mm loads (9mm Luger / Parabellum) and the NATO load (9×19mm NATO). I had forgotten to mention it here until I was browsing his blog today.

The ammo industry uses something called SAAMI Standards to establish the pressures that ammo should be loaded to. The SAAMI pressure for 9mm Luger ammo is around 35,000 PSI, and C.I.P (think European SAAMI) rates 9mm Luger ammo at 34,080 PSI. According to documentation, the 9mm NATO rounds are pressured at 36,500 PSI (again according to CIP). That means that when compared to standard 9mm ammo, the 9mm NATO ammo is running a higher pressure, analogous to a 9mm +P load, which SAAMI rates around 36,000 PSI.

Read the full post here.

Because of demand from customers have Federal have brought back the .22 Long Rifle UltraMatch Rimfire Target

load.
Two Gold Medal loads are now available: UltraMatch and Match. Both are standard target loads (40 grain subsonic).

Reader WarWolf emailed me this photo. It looks like it is a 5.56mm NATO round loaded with a semi wadcutter shaped lead bullet. weird. Can anyone identify the round and/or read the writing?

Would the ridge not cause chambering problems? Maybe the intended use is in a single shot rifle or pistol.

UPDATE: Mystery solved. Koko’s comment below:

This is a plastic bullet that was devised to provide the IDF with a bullet enableing a non-lethal way to stop Palestinian demonstrators during the first Intifada (1988-1993).

The bullet was to be fired at demonstrator legs – but ended up inflicting more drastic wounds then initialy imagened – even killing on accution.

The ballistics of the bullet proved to be strange – after a while the standing orders were changed to the ammunition to be used only by a trained designated shooter from a fixed ground position – then the bullet was dropped altogether and is not used today (as far the I know).

The load was also reduced – as noted on the package – this forced to shooter to manualy load the bullet after each shoot.

Makes sense that it needed to be loaded single shot!

Thanks to everyone for the translations and comments.

In the past tungsten has been considered non-toxic and more environmentally friendly than lead at shooting ranges. Recent research has shown that Tungsten is in fact toxic and potentially carcinogenic. Danger Room reports:

There have been growing concerns about tungsten for some years. An October 2008 Issues Paper from the state and federal waste managers’ group says that the “original position of the scientific community with regard to fate and transport, analytical testing and toxicology” of tungsten has “drastically changed.”

The report further warns: “Over the past years, soil and groundwater samples collected at certain small arms ranges have demonstrated that tungsten is very mobile and soluble once it is released into the environment. In addition, limited yet important health studies have also revealed that tungsten may pose risks to humans and ecological receptors.”

The Army has now stopped production of “green” tungsten ammunition:

The Army is concerned enough about possible risks that it has stopped making the tungsten ammo. “The U.S. Army developed a lead-free 5.56mm round during the mid 1990s with a tungsten-nylon alternate slug materiel. Environmental studies later determined that the tungsten-nylon combo had a possible environmental impact. The Army stopped production of its tungsten-nylon 5.56mm [rounds],” Tonya Townsell, a spokesperson for the Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, tells Danger Room. “The residual inventory of 5.56mm Tungsten-Nylon rounds is still available for use in training at lead-restricted sites as it is deemed safer than lead.”

While the majority of lead-free civilian tactical and hunting bullets are either solid copper or copper jacketed with a tin core, some bullets do use tungsten. Two examples are Barnes MRX Bullets and Extreme Shock Ammunition.

The core of Barnes’s premium long range hunting MRX bullet is made from a tungsten based compound called Silvex. One the Barnes website the compound is said to be “non-toxic”:

Screenshot from Barnes.com

The core of Extreme Shock frangible ammunition is made from a tungsten powder/flake compound called Ny-Trilium. It is also said to be non-toxic:

Screenshot from Extremeshockammo.net

I imagine some people are not going to be happy after paying a premium for ammunition that promised to be non-toxic, only to find it isn’t. Is this lawsuit material? I don’t know, but I do wonder how long it will take manufactures of tungsten bullets to remove the “non-toxic” text from their websites.

An Albanian woman was hit by a stray bullet 12 years ago during civil strife. The doctor incorrectly thought it passed through her cheek and it was only discovered last week. The BBC reports:

But doctors told her the bullet passed straight through her cheek and simply patched up her wound.

The truth was discovered a week ago when she collapsed in pain, and the 2.8cm-long bullet was eventually found.

“I was covered in blood and my husband took me to casualty where there were many people injured,” she told Albania’s Ata news agency of the 1997 incident.

“But the doctor told me the bullet had come out and cleaned the wound.

…

“The unique thing about this case is not the operation, but the fact she kept it unknowingly for 12 years in her head,” the surgeon told Reuters news agency.

The 180 year old Czech ammunition manufacturer Sellier & Bellot has been acquired by Brazilian firm CBC. CBC also own Magtech Ammunition and Metallwerk Elisenhütte.

From the press release

We are pleased to announce that CBC has acquired Sellier & Bellot, an industry leader of quality ammunition since 1825. Acquiring Sellier & Bellot’s proven brand with over 184 years of history will complement our existing product lines and enable us to further expand our global presence in the ammunition industry. Sellier & Bellot fits perfectly within our philosophy of investing in leading, high- quality, highly recognized brands which complement our existing portfolio of branded ammunition product companies

The full press release can be read at Gun Holsters and Gear.

I am not sure I like the conglomeration of the consumer firearm and ammo manufacturers worldwide.

Extreme Shock Ammunition are producing a .50 BMG projectile that can penetrate 1″ of meal and yet will not over penetrate soft tissue. The Fragmenting High Velocity (FHVL) round is made up of a propriety tungsten powder/flake compound.

From the press release:

Extreme Shock Ammunition, known for producing the world’s most advanced ammunition, continues to raise the bar with the redesign of their 50 BMG ammo. It is the only 50 in the world that will penetrate 1 inch of metal but will not exit a soft tissue target. Extreme Shock Ammunition continues to impress with the astounding performance and safety enhancements found in their 50 BMG.

The Fragmenting High Velocity (FHVL) Round is a lead-free replacement that offers far superior tactical capability over the lead core bullet. The FHVL has the same range and accuracy as a lead bullet of similar weight. Long range, reduced ricochet, controlled penetration, and exceptional accuracy make the FHVL the most technically advanced tactical round available today. The FHVL grants the operator enhanced tactical capability, such as controlled penetration (NO EXIT) and increased ability to eliminate threats instantly, all while eliminating ricochet and over-penetration hazards.

Impressive.

No military at this point in time is going to use expanding anti-personal expanding ammunition because it would be in breach of the Hague Convention (1899) (regardless of wether they signed it or if a 110 year old treaty is worth honoring). I cannot see civilians needing or wanting to use this ammunition and I cannot recall seeing photos of cops with .50 BMG rifles. I think this ammunition is likely being marketed to paramilitary / anti-terrorism / internal security forces such as the Mexican Army who regularly conduct internal operations and who like their .50 Barretts.

The cost is $161.14 for a box of 15 rounds.