The Firearm Blog

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)

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

Taiwan is to ship one billion 5.56mm bullets to the US over the next five years. Interesting.

62 grains x 1 billion = 4017.53 tonnes of lead and copper being shipped approx. 7000 miles to the US then flown(?) another 7000 miles to the middle east!

I bet China is not liking this.

Taiwan has shipped one billion rifle bullets to the United States for NT$560 million in a rare arms sale to the United States, it was reported yesterday.
The 5.56 mm bullets are mainly used to replenish supplies which have run low after wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Taipei-based China Times reported, citing a military source.

Taiwan’s defence ministry last year beat off competition from the likes of Singapore and South Korea to win the five-year contract from a U.S. military subcontractor, it was reported.

More here.

From the air gun expert B.B. Pelletier

Nate in Mass. asked if it’s permissible (possible, without damage to the gun) to shoot pellets loaded backwards. He was thinking of them acting as extreme hollowpoints.

Well, Nate the short answer is “yes,” and so is the longer answer I will give today.

More here.

A very interesting experiment over at ctmuzzleloaders.com

The question of whether a static electric spark can set of black powder has been debated for a while, and I recall hearing of some previous experiments showing that it could not. Since I am involved in the design of a BP breechloader which is to be electrically fired, I resolved to put the matter to test in two experiments.

Apparently sparks do not ignite blackpowder!

Read the article here.

Hat Tip: The Real Gun Guys

This is *very* *very* funny:

Hat Tip: Yuri @ The Read Gun Guys

I read this on the BBC News website:

‘Special bullets’ killed Menezes

Specialised bullets designed to kill instantly were used by the police marksmen who shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes, the Old Bailey has heard.

The bullets “immediately incapacitate” the victim and flatten, rather than pass through the other side of a body, the jury was told.

Of course these are simply hollow point bullets. The same type of bullet millions around the world use for hunting, self defense, policing and plinking every day.

The media just cannot get it right.

“The bullet flattens on impact and immediately incapacitates the target,” he told the court.

The British army invented JHPs (Jacked Hollow Points)

The hollow-point bullet, and the soft-nosed bullet, are sometimes also referred to as the dum-dum, so named after the British arsenal at Dum-Dum, near Calcutta, India, where it is said that jacketed, expanding bullets were first developed.

(From Wikipedia)

If you really want you can read the BBC article here.

I’ve tried, but I can’t warm to the .243. It’s billed as having three great attributes: it’s death on varmints, it’s adequate for

deer-sized big game and it is a great cartridge for young hunters because of its moderate recoil. I think it is a poor second-choice—if that—for any of these tasks.

More here.

I must say that I agree with the following comment by Ben on the blog post

Well, if everyone had money to dedicate to a varmint rig and a deer rig then yes, going with a .22 and a .25 or 7mm would make perfect sense. However, since this isn’t always affordable some people split the difference and find that the .243 fits the bill. 55-70grns for varmint, and 85-100grns for deer.

As for the .243 being too big for varmints - a .222 is too big for most varmints, realisticly a .22lr is all you need to kill most varmints - people just like the high powered .22’s because they reach out considerably farther - so too does the .243. And if you’re looking to save coyote pelts it can expend energy in a hurry, unlike the heavier .25’s.

At the end of the day though, if you’re hunting armored deer or Wile E. Coyote then yes, by all means you certainly need more than the little 6mm.

Came across this question @ Yahoo Answers.

Just use #000Steel Wool with nothing on it. Brasso and other solvents will neutralize Powder and Primers on any ammunition. They will be perfectly safe to shoot as long as the green corrosion is on the bullet itself and not the casing…….

Answer by JD

I recently discovered Yahoo Answers. I have not asked any questions, nor do I intend to. Most questions I have can be answered by fellow shooters and friends, and if they can’t help me I turn to gun forums.

There do seem to be some knowledgeable people answering questions at Yahoo.

Some beautiful 1911 photos:

(Click to increase the size)

From RocketFoot @ PFOA