The Firearm Blog

From AccurateShooter.com

One of our readers asked “What effect does altitude have on the flight of a bullet?” The simplistic answer is that, at higher altitudes, the air is thinner (lower density), so there is less drag on the bullet. This means that the amount of bullet drop is less at any given flight distance from the muzzle. Since the force of gravity is essentially constant on the earth’s surface (for practical purposes), the bullet’s downward acceleration doesn’t change, but a bullet launched at a higher altitude is able to fly slightly farther (in the thinner air) for every increment of downward movement. Effectively, the bullet behaves as if it has a higher ballistic coefficient.

Worth a read. More here.

DEMIGOD has written a comparison of the 6.5mm rounds: the .260 Remington vs. 6.5×47 Lapua vs. 6.5 Creedmoor.

It’s been a good year for 6.5 mm. The .260 Remington has hit full stride after a ramp-up of several years, with top competitors at most field-style long-range matches shooting it. Lapua’s 6.5×47 saw the first wave of custom LR rifles built around it in 2007 and proved to be just as good as people hoped. Finally, Hornady is announcing its new 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge at SHOT 2008. How do these three mid-size 6.5 mm cartridges stack up against one another? I spent much of 2007 figuring out the answer to that question.

6.5mm Creedmoor

More here.

DEMIGOD LLC has an interesting article on the .260 Remington, a necked down .308.

The .260 Remington provides long-range ballistics conventionally limited to the magnum calibers. Because its parent case is the ubiquitous .308 Winchester, building a rifle in .260 can be as easy as fitting a new barrel. The .260 provides much less wind drift and drop than .308 but has less recoil.

The hunting pedigree of 6.5 mm in Europe proves the caliber is formidable for practical use. For long-range shooters who want a better cartridge than .308, but don’t want the costs associated with big overbore magnums, the .260 is just the ticket.

More here

Winchester will be launching a new line of Safari ammo. They will be offering it in calibers 375 H&H Magnum, 416 Rigby, 458 Winchester Magnum and 416 Remington Magnum cartridge and will be using Nosler Partition and Nosler Solid bullets.

The new ammo will be available later this year.

They have not yet updated their website with the details.

The Press release:

When Africa calls, so does the need for being equipped with the proper ammunition to take down the game on your hunting list—and being prepared for game that may not be. Winchester’s new Safari Ammunition line was engineered to not only tackle the toughest game in Africa and the rest of the continents with supreme confidence, but to provide performance and versatility in virtually any situation.

Offered in the venerable 375 H&H Magnum, 416 Rigby and 458 Winchester Magnum, as well as the 416 Remington Magnum cartridge, the new Winchester® Safari line makes the most of these popular and proven African cartridges by pairing them with the finest bullet choices available—Nosler® Partition® and the new Nosler Solid™.

Nosler Partition bullets—with copper alloy jackets and lead-alloy cores—have long been favored around the world for accuracy and terminal performance on game. The new Nosler Solids—featuring a unique design and homogenous lead-free alloy construction—provide spectacular penetration and an impressively straight wound channel on large, thick-skinned game.

According to Glen Weeks, Winchester Centerfire Product Manager, “The Safari line was developed to meet the most demanding hunting needs. Each of the cartridges in the line provides the energy and knockdown power needed for the largest and most dangerous game. The Partition offerings are ideal for dangerous, or large thinner skin game, while the Solids will offer maximum penetration on the toughest hide and bone.”

Winchester Safari Ammunition features nickel-plated cartridge cases and is packaged in reusable 20-round plastic boxes with labels featuring recently discovered vintage Winchester artwork. The line will be available summer 2008.

This is a fantastics idea. ‘thinking’ over at RFC posted how to make wax pellets for an airgun. Perfect for shooting bugs indoors!

All you need a some wax, a lighter ,some putty for a mold and a pelet.

WARNING: If you plan on shooting an airgun in your house, I recommend cleaning the airgun first to remove any lead. I check myself for lead poisoning every so often.

Read the tutorial here.

Remington have announced a very cool looking new sabot slug called the “AccuTip Bonded Sabot Slug”

Looks cool doesn’t it?

It doesn’t just look intimidating, it’s flattening whitetails and competitors in the tipped-slug market with devastating ferocity. Guided by our new Power Port™ Tip, the AccuTip Bonded Sabot Slug delivers a degree of accuracy and terminal performance unmatched by any other we tested. This masterpiece of aerodynamics consistently prints tiny 100-yard groups and transfers tremendous knockdown force out to the farthest reaches of shotgun range. It’s the largest tipped slug you’ll find anywhere.

In field testing, this huge .58-caliber slug produced gaping wound channels and crumpled every deer it touched with a single shot. From 5 to 200 yards, it yields perfect mushrooms and over 95% weight retention thanks to its spiral nose cuts, bonded construction and high-strength cartridge brass jacket. With performance as revolutionary as its appearance, this is one tip sure to get stunning results. Available in 2 3/4″ or 3″ 12-gauge versions for 2008.

• Power Portâ„¢ Tip delivers dramatically superior accuracy
• Spiral nose cuts and proprietary bonding technology control expansion at all ranges from 5 to 200 yards
• Huge .58-caliber slug is the largest tipped slug available today
• Over 95% weight retention – weighs more after impact than all the others start with!
• Slug jacket made from high-strength cartridge brass
• Designed for use in fully-rifled barrels only

UPDATE

Check out these amazing photos of the sabot being fired

Hat Tip: vinatoare.ro

Jack @ Rule .303 posted his top five worst new cartridges

1. 7.62×39 Ackley Improved
2. .22 belted magnum
3. .338 rimfire
4. 28 gauge Buckhammer saboted slugs
5. .50 BMG shotshells

I posted a comment saying a hotter 7.62×39 might not be so bad.

Jack went on to post an interesting comment on why this would be a very bad idea, at least economically

Steve,

In theory, one could give the 7.62×39 the Ackley treatment and wind up with a cartridge that makes an extra 120 fps or whatever. And I agree that this would be kinda neat in theory because a little extra oopmh at 150 yards would make this a better deer cartridge.

However, let’s think about this a little bit. The allure of 7.62×39 has little to do with it’s ballistics. America is falling in love with 7.62×39 because it’s become the cheapest centerfire cartridge available (excluding corrosive milsurp ammo). At a time when ammunition costs in general have been going ballistic (heh heh) this thing showed up right on time.

Buying specialty ‘Ackley improved’ ammo would probably cost $16 a box or so. As much as a box of 30-’06 hunting ammo. Kinda defeats the purpose, huh?

As far as reloading goes, one of the attractions of Ackley chamberings has always been that you could shoot the regular ammo in it and the standard cases get blown out to the slightly larger Ackley dimensions of the chamber. Then you can reload that brass and you have cartridges that give you the full Ackley advantage.

That’s great, except that the vast majority of the 7.62×39 that is out there is not brass. It’s steel cased, which is such a pain in the butt to reload that it’s basically impractical. Heck, some of it is even berdan primed as well. I don’t even know if steel cases will blow out to Ackley dimensions on firing the way that brass cases do.

Read the rest of his comment here.

Since when has a bad idea ever stopped a cartridge manufacturer? So if Winchester, Remington, Hornady, Federal or Sierra are reading this and you are looking for the next fad, checkout my .30 Steve.
It is guaranteed to kill deer just as well as the old fashioned 7.62×39mm but costs 5x as much! Your shareholders will love it!

This poster has been around a while but I did not find out about it until I was browsing the archives of Roys blog (you can always trust Roys to find interesting stuff).

I love these bullet posters. I just have to find someone to print it out for me. It is 32.5″ x 22″ in size. It would also make a good wallpaper for your desktop.

Download the poster here.

This page has a printable template and instructions on making a paper brass catcher for a rimfire autoloader. All you need is a printer, glue and fridge magnet.

More here (scroll down the page)

Ruger have announced some new products.

Black Slide Ruger SR9 Pistol

I like the look but prefer the stainless.

The recently launched Ruger SR9â„¢ pistol, the first striker-fired pistol from Ruger, is now available with a blackened stainless slide. The multi-step blackening process improves both the durability and corrosion resistance of the stainless steel slide by creating a surface hardness of 68Rc. The extra hard finish also reduces scratching and holster wear.

Super Redhawk in .480 Ruger

Ruger has finally sorted out the problems they were having with the Redhawk .480

The Ruger Super Redhawk revolver chambered in .480 Ruger, specifically designed with the big game sportsman in mind, is back. Production had been suspended early in 2007 to address a fired case extraction issue. After a complete analysis, it was determined that to provide easy and sure extraction, all .480 Ruger Super Redhawk Revolvers, including the easy-to carry Alaskan, will now feature 5-shot cylinders. Beginning in 2008, they will also feature a Hogue® Monogrip® for added comfort. The Target Grey® All-Weather® version adds a low glare matte finish preferred by hunters.

The .480 Ruger cartridge offers handgun hunting performance without the heavy recoil experienced by other big game calibers. This cartridge offers power without excessively heavy recoil using Hornady’s .475” diameter, 325 grain XTP Magnum bullet. The .480 Ruger cartridge can produce a muzzle velocity of 1350 fps - nearly one-third more muzzle energy than the standard .44 Magnum cartridge, with substantially less recoil than the other big bore hunting handgun cartridges. This exciting cartridge developed by Hornady can be said to effectively “split the difference” between the powerful .44 Magnum and other super-powerful, heavier recoiling hunting cartridges.

M77 chambered in Ruger Compact Magnums

I could be wrong but I think this is the first rifle to be chambered in the new RCM cartridges.

The Ruger Compact Magnum cartridges, developed in conjunction with Hornady Manufacturing Co., are extreme cartridges for extreme hunting. Based on the beltless .375 Ruger, the .300 and .338 RCMs are engineered to offer .300 and .338 Win. Magnum performance in a more compact package. With their short actions and 20” barrels, the M77 Ruger Compact Magnums are today’s “mountain rifles and brush guns.”

The new cartridges are chambered in the compact action Ruger M77 Hawkeye rifles with features that include the smooth and crisp Ruger LC6â„¢ trigger for improved out-of-the-box trigger pull, and a red rubber recoil pad that provides more effective recoil reduction. Other features of the Ruger M77 Hawkeye rifles appreciated by knowledgeable shooters are the Mauser-type controlled feeding and powerful claw extractor, 3-position safety, hammer forged steel barrels and free Ruger patented scope rings. The design of the patented steel floorplate, which bears the distinctive Ruger logo, provides easy unloading and eliminates accidental “dumping” of ammunition.

Two compact-action models of the Ruger M77 Hawkeye rifles chambered in the new Ruger Compact Magnums are available. The matte blued version features the M77 Hawkeye’s slimmer walnut stock with wrap-around cut checkering on the forearm and more rounded contours on the bottom of the stock and top of the pistol grips. The matte stainless version features a synthetic stock with a new recoil pad.

The new cartridges designed by Hornady Manufacturing provide unmatched ballistic performance in compact rifles, less felt recoil, longer barrel life, and superior performance at all temperatures. The .300 RCM is available in 150, 165 and 180-grain SST offerings. Each .300 RCM load exceeds comparative .300 Win. Magnum loads from a 20″ barrel. Muzzle velocities for the .300 RCM are 3,170 fps, 3,030 fps, and 2,900 fps, respectively – from a 20″ factory barrel. The .338 RCM is available in the newly developed 200 gr SST, and 225 gr SST offerings. Velocities for the .338 RCMs are 2,850 fps and 2,710 fps respectively, easily out performing the .338 Win. Magnum at equal barrel length.

These are cool. They each hold 20 chocolate bullets.

Hat Tip: ACE

If you live in a state or country that does not allow civilian ownership of .50 BMG rifles there are alternative cartridges with similar ballistics to the .50 BMG.

Ammoguide.com compares the .50 BMG, .510 DTC, .416 Barrett and .50 Fat Mac.

More here.

This should interest varminters looking for a harder-hitting rimfire round with better ballistics and accuracy. The most common .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR) ammunition features a 40gr round nose or flat point bullet with a Muzzle Velocity of about 1910 fps. All the major makers — CCI, Federal, Remington, and Winchester — sell 40gr ammo loaded to this specification.

Hornady’s new 22 WMR offers a more accurate bullet traveling faster — roughly 300 fps faster to be precise. The new Hornady round features a 30gr V-MAX™ bullet leaving the muzzle at 2,200 fps. The new 30gr Hornady 22 WMR ammo should be available in “early February” according to Hornady.

More here @ AccurateShooter

A photo of arms and ammunition recently captured from militants in Kashmir. The condition of the firearms is just awful. I suppose that the fact they keep functioning is a testament to the design of the weapons.

Ammunition and bodies of suspected militants lie on ground at an Indian Army camp after a gun battle in Pattan, 30 kms north of Srinagar, 09 November 2007. Five Islamic militants and four Indian soldiers were killed in a long gunbattle in Kashmir, officials said. A police spokesman said the fighting had started on the evening of 06 November when Indian troops were attacked by a group of rebels

Hat Tip: Military Photos