In this installment, we’ll be looking at a very unique round. The 6mm SAW was probably the first small arms round ever designed using computer-calculated parametric analysis, and it was also probably the first American rifle round designed from the outset for [Read More…]
The 6x35mm TSWG, also commonly called the 6x35mm KAC, is a round shrouded in mystery. Apparently designed by Knight’s Armament Company for the interagency counterterrorist program cryptically named the “Technical Support Working Group” alongside the [Read More…]
In the late 1950s, after the first public demonstrations of the AR-15 and its new small caliber, high velocity cartridge, the Soviet Union took notice of the radical developments in military .22 caliber rounds in the United States. By 1959, four years before the [Read More…]
In the early winter of 1918, it seemed as though the Boche wouldn’t stop, and the war was sure to continue on into 1919. New, secret weapons were needed to complete the victory over Germany, and one of these was John Pedersen’s “device”, [Read More…]
Once again SIG has added to it’s ever expanding line of handgun and rifle ammunition. This offering is a match grade .308 in the “Elite Performance” line. This round uses the highly successful 168 grain Match King bullet. This from Sierra: MatchKings® [Read More…]
In a previous article on TFB, we compared a Mauser 712 Schnellfeuer to a Glock 17 with an auto sear, and along the way discussed how very limited the usefulness of the modern machine pistol is. Fully automatic pistol-sized weapons have been around for over a hundred [Read More…]
Creedmoor Sports has been manufacturing a wide variety of products for the firearms community for more than 35 years, and now they’re also manufacturing ammunition. Their ammo line thus far includes pistol calibers in .38 Special, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, .357 [Read More…]
Earlier this year, Winchester Ammunition officially announced the addition of two new calibers to its line of predator hunting ammunition. The Varmint X line will now include the .17 Hornet and .22 Hornet cartridges. Both of these lightweight loads are moving at very [Read More…]
While there is a plethora of videos showing how common centerfire ammunition is made, 22LR and similar rimfire ammunition has been kept relatively close to the chest. CCI had a video out a few years ago, but it disappeared from their official YouTube outlet and was not [Read More…]
I have not seen destruction of an AR upper receiver like this before. The left side of the upper receiver has been peeled open almost like a banana peel. Marky of Tactical Tshirts condemns the cartridge because it is too easy to mix up ammo and have a catastrophic [Read More…]
Allegiance Ammunition manufactures ammunition meant specifically to fulfill high-performance needs. They describe a successful high-performance self-defense or hunting round as being able to “achieve adequate penetration to reach vital organs [and] expand or [Read More…]
At this point we’ve looked at the data for seven intermediate calibers currently on the market, each of which is – one way or another – influencing the discussion around the question of what next generation military rifle caliber will be. Those rounds [Read More…]
On the heels of the 7.62x40mm WT, we are now going to take a look at another former wildcat based on the 5.56mm case, the .25-45 Sharps, a round I’ve discussed before. This .25 caliber round existed for years as the .25-223, a niche quarterbore caliber used mostly [Read More…]
Like the .300 AAC Blackout that we discussed earlier, the 7.62×40 Wilson Tactical was intended to be a medium-performance .30 caliber cartridge that would function in standard AR-15 type rifles with minimal modifications, such as a barrel change. Also like the .300 [Read More…]
Previously, we talked about the Soviet 7.62x39mm caliber, which was paired with the famous Kalashnikov automatic rifle. With its much heavier bullet, larger caliber, and lower velocity, the 7.62x39mm contrasts heavily with the US 5.56mm caliber, and US weapons [Read More…]
One of the most ballistically interesting intermediate calibers ever developed is the 6.5 Grendel, developed by Arne Brennan with the assistance of Bill Alexander, and promoted heavily by the latter’s company, Alexander Arms. The 6.5 Grendel is interesting because [Read More…]
CCI’s Velocitor .22 long rifle ammunition has been extremely popular since its inception, but CCI may have outdone themselves with their new Copper-22. With Velocitor pushing an impressive 1,435 Feet/Second (FPS), the new Copper-22 moves at a startling 1,850 FPS! [Read More…]
I’ve written quite a lot about the ballistics one of the first Western competitors to 5.56mm in the new millenium previously, and you can read that by following the link here. The 6.8x43mm Remington SPC was developed in the early 2000s by MSG Steve Holland and [Read More…]
As a lover of all things quiet, I realize the significance of .300BLK. A heavy, subsonic round that can be easily adopted into the most popular semiautomatic rifle system in the country, if not the world? Awesome. However, I have yet to find an application for .300BLK [Read More…]
Perhaps the oldest rival of the 5.56mm round is its older brother in the intermediate cartridge world, the 7.62x39mm round developed by the Soviets in the late 1940s from their earlier 7.62×41 M43 cartridge. The 7.62x39mm, despite its age, has maintained a very [Read More…]
What was the first military .22 caliber high velocity infantry rifle round ever developed? Many would name the 5.56mm round designed in the 1950s to that title, but that would be incorrect. In truth, it’s probably impossible to know for sure due to the large [Read More…]
Previously, courtesy of The Wound Channel we got our first looks at the stellar ballistics of the 7.62mm M80A1 EPR round, which proved to combine excellent fragmentation with good armor penetration and barrier blind characteristics, while being extremely consistent. [Read More…]
“Nathaniel’s starting another series? Oh brother…” Bear with me. I think that there is a lot of rhetoric thrown around with regards to modern defensive/military calibers that exists apart from the necessary additional data and context of the [Read More…]
Today I want to address something that has come up in small arms ammunition development several times in the past 150 years: The small caliber bullet problem. For the sake of this article, I’ll characterize this problem as a perceived trend recognized on several [Read More…]
I have been using CCI .22 long rifle shot shells to dispatch garden pests fairly successfully this spring and summer. That is, until now. My arch nemesis, the chipmunk, shrugs off the anemic shot shells at any distance over seven yards. In fact I was sure the one who [Read More…]
Winchester has announced three new calibers within its Deer Season XP series of ammunition. The new calibers continue to round out the brand including loadings in .30-30 Winchester (150 grain), 7mm-08 (140 grain), and 300 Blackout (150 grain). This brings total [Read More…]
This image was posted by 9 KUSA News. One in a billion.” That’s how this shot was described by police: A Jeffco deputy fired at an armed robbery suspect… and ended up shooting a bullet straight down the other gun’s barrel and disabling it. [Read More…]
Nathan S. did a great review of the Salvo 12. However there were a couple shotguns he did not test it on. I got my hands on a Salvo 12 and put it on a variety of different shotguns with varying loads. I went on a hunt for low velocity rounds. I found a box […] [Read More…]
When it comes to muzzleloading, we are all looking for ways to make this primitive means of hunting more modern and convenient. One great convenience muzzleloaders use is pre-formed powder pellets. As opposed to pouring traditional powder, pre-formed charges are easier [Read More…]
Since we know that gunshot wounds follow physical laws – Newtonian mechanics, specifically – we can use physical quantities to describe what happens to a bullet when it enters a fleshy target. In a previous post, we were introduced to three physical [Read More…]