#Cartridge

Ammunition maker Federal Premium recently released its full bundle of press info on their new .224 Valkyrie round, coming on the heels of teasers released at Big 3 East. The .224 Valkyrie is a high performance .22 caliber round for the AR-15, which uses heavy, low drag bullets to dramatically improve the long range performance of the platform versus the .223 Remington and other rounds. This is the same principle that has been used in rounds like the .260 Remington and 6.5 Grendel for years, now finally applied to a factory .22 caliber round.

In the coming decades, it is likely that one of the biggest challenges facing small arms ammunition designers will be solving the problem of how to deal with advanced body armors. The problem is already percolating to the surface, as Level IV body armor – which is immune to virtually all general issue rounds below .50 caliber – becomes more available and less expensive. Already, an individual can equip themselves with a full set of Level IV plates and a carrier for less than $1,000. As armor improves, it will only get lighter, cheaper, and more resistant to fire.

While doing a research for another article and looking for different information, I visited Indonesian Pindad’s website. Their small arms page shows the different models of their SS-1 and SS-2 rifles chambered in 5.56x45mm. But then I noticed a couple of rifles designated as 7.62mm ones. Just by looking at the magazine size in relation to the weapon they didn’t seem to be  7.62x51mm rifles. I thought maybe Pindad has chambered these guns in .300 Blackout? Anyway, going to one of that rifles’ pages I saw the full caliber designation – 7.62x45mm! What in the world is that? Has Pindad decided to give a second chance to the long extinct 7.62x45mm Czech cartridge? No. It turns out this cartridge is designed by Pindad somewhere in the early 2000s. Nevertheless, I think many of our readers are not aware of it, too.

Earlier we reported about the first leaked images of the new Russian 9.6x53mm Lancaster cartridge. Recently, Molot published a video explaining the features and showing the details concerning this new cartridge.

Let’s start off with a question: What is the best round for the AR-15?

With the recent push for small arms ammunition with increased range, power and capability, are military customers in danger of being taken for a ride by industry marketeers working to sell rifles in new calibers? Is the primary driving force behind new infantry calibers not in fact a need to be addressed, but a desire to sell weapons in a stagnant small arms market?

What do you get when you take the venerable speedster 7.62 Tokarev, and load it with a muzzleloader-style sabot and 50gr .22 cal projectile? You get one of the most interesting pistol, submachine gun, and personal defense weapon ammunition concepts there is!

It has been a little while since we visited the subject of modern personal defense weapon calibers, so to start it off again we’ll be taking a look at a new high velocity round that is only a few years old: Armscor’s .22 TCM. This round was reportedly developed by Fred Craig as a high velocity caliber for the 1911 platform, and picked up by Philippine company Armscor. Originally called the “.22 Mini Mag”, the .22 TCM (Tuason-Craig Magnum, after Craig and Armscor’s president) is designed to fit inside the magazine well of a 1911 and function from .38 Super 1911 magazines. Although a pistol round, the .22 TCM is based off the .223 Remington case, shortened by about three quarters of an inch. Thanks to the thick web of its parent case, the .22 TCM is capable of handling high pressures of 40,000 PSI. A version with a shortened projectile, the .22 TCM 9R, is compatible with shorter 9mm magazines for weapons like the Glock 17.

Vladimir Fedorov (sometimes written as Fyodorov) was a famous Russian/Soviet firearms designer mostly known for his automatic rifle ( Fedorov Avtomat) which is arguably the world’s first issued assault rifle. Besides designing firearms, he was also one of the most advanced Russian researchers of small arms ammunition of his time. The Fedorov Avtomat is chambered in 6.5x50mm Arisaka. However, the rifle was initially designed to be chambered in a completely new 6.5mm cartridge, which was Fedorov’s own design. So the subject of this article is the history of development of that cartridge.

SAAMI has accepted cartridge and chamber drawings of a couple of new cartridges. Both are Nosler cartridges. One is the recently announced .22 Nosler, which we covered in a separate article. And the next one is a .20 Nosler, which is a cartridge not yet officially announced by Nosler as of today (06/16/2017).

Have you ever thought that 7.62x39mm and .243 Winchester can be a pair of cartridges that are dangerous if mixed? Of course, any cartridge is dangerous if not used in a gun it is chambered for and nobody should do it. However, there are some pairs of cartridges known for causing catastrophic failures if mixed.

RG-037 (a.k.a 7.62x28mm) was an experimental Soviet cartridge developed in 1983. Its parent cartridge is the 5.45x39mm. The RG-037 has similar dimensional relation to 5.45x39mm as the .300 Blackout has to .223 Remington. If you apply the .300 Blackout case forming method to the 5.45x39mm cartridge, then you’ll end up with something similar to the 7.62x28mm. The initial prototypes of this cartridge were probably made by cutting the 5.45x39mm case just below the shoulder (28mm) then necking down the cut case to .311 caliber (with some neck turning).

Many of you may have read the title and asked: “What in the world is a .277 Wolverine?”. So first, let’s see what cartridge it is. In a nutshell, it is a wildcat cartridge based on .223 Rem or 5.56 NATO case with a .277 caliber (6.8mm) projectile. It is developed by Mad Dog Weapon Systems.

The post-election gun industry downturn has hit Federal Premium Ammunition, which laid off a significant number of its employees earlier this month. 110 of the roughly 1400 workers at the company were let go from the company’s Anoka, Minnesota plant, the company confirmed. This announcement surprised Minnesota state officials, who had before the end of last year granted the company set of grants and loads worth $1.15 million to expand. Federal informed the state that these grants would no longer be necessary, and that they were cancelling them. Although the expansion is expected to continue, the hiring goals that were conditions of the grants are no longer achievable, Federal said.

I have no doubt that the majority of our readers know about SAAMI (Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute), which sets the ammunition standards, cartridge and chamber drawings etc. These standards are guidelines for manufacturers, but many reloaders, builders, wildcatters and others also use them as a reference. Anyway, if you hear about SAAMI first time, you can see and download the SAAMI cartridge drawings and much more interesting information on their website by clicking here.