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Reverse Your Rocket Tool for a Smoother Inside Neck Chamfer

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Want smoother chamfers on your case-mouths? Here’s a simple tip that can: 1) remove the sharp edge left by chamfering blades; and, 2) create a smoother entry for your bullets. Smoothing the inside chamfer can avoid nicks on your bullet jackets, and can also make bullet seating more consistent.

If you are using a 45° rocket tool on newly-trimmed brass, start your inside chamfer with two or three turns in the normal cutting direction. Keep the tool centered, and use light-to-moderate pressure — you don’t need to remove a lot of brass. After your cutting turns (which should reveal a shiny chamfer line), take out the tool, inspect the neck and remove any small brass chips or shavings.

Now here’s the secret — put your tool back in the neck and go in the reverse direction for a couple partial turns. Again, be sure to keep the tool centered and use a light touch. The reverse rotation of the rocket tool inside the case mouth will burnish and smooth the chamfer. Next you can make a quick spin with some fine steel wool held in your fingers. Don’t grind away — you do NOT want to get rid of all the carbon in the neck. As a last step we run a hand-held nylon brush in the neck for 2-3 quick passes to further smooth out the chamfer and remove any residue from the steel wool.

Accurateshooter.com Neck Case Chamfer Brass prep

We think, if you use this procedure, your will find that your bullets seat more smoothly and consistently. That can improve accuracy and help avoid mysterious fliers.

Accurateshooter.com Neck Case Chamfer Brass prepYou can use this same technique even if you prefer a sharper angle chamfer tool for your initial inside-neck chamfering operation. Reverse your tool gently a couple turns to burnish and smooth the cut. And always remove brass chips and shavings before you run the tool backwards (in the non-cutting direction).

Don’t Forget to Smooth the Outside Chamfer Too
You can also use the backwards rotation trick on outside chamfers to smooth and soften the sharp edge. A little steel wool, applied judiciously, can help here. If you are chamfering a large number of cases after trimming, you may want to tumble the brass in corn-cob or walnut media after the chamfering procedure. Tumbling further smooths the chamfer. You want a nice, smooth chamfer with no burrs or sharp edges.


Lapua Brass in Many Popular Calibers Available Now

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Lapua cartridge brass accurateshooter.comWe all know that reloading components have been in short supply in recent months. If you’ve been searching for quality brass, your wait may be over.

A boatload of Lapua cartridge brass has crossed the Atlantic, cleared customs, and is now in warehouses. Many large vendors report that they have ample supplies of Lapua brass in stock now. So if you need some cartridge cases, place your orders today.

Here is a summary of the cartridge types in stock, vendor by vendor. Sorry, no 6mmBR brass on hand at these outfits, but you’ll find most other types of Lapua rifle brass:

Lapua Rifle Cartridge Brass in Stock as of 6/12/2013
Creedmoor Sports Grafs.com Powder Valley Inc.
.220 Russian
.223 Rem
22-250 Rem
6.5×47
6.5×284 Norma
.260 REM
.308 WIN
.308 WIN Palma
.30-06 Spr
.220 Russian
6.5×47
.260 Rem
6.5×55 SE
6.5×284 Norma
.338 Lapua Mag
.220 Russian
.222 Rem
.223 Rem
22-250 Rem
.243 Win
6.5×47
.260 Rem
6.5×55 SE
6.5×284 Norma
7.62×39
.308 Win
.308 Win Palma
.30-06 Spr
.338 Lapua Mag

Sierra Bullets Offers Factory Outlet Sales and Factory Tours

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accurateshooter.com Sierra Factory Outlet Bullet SalesWith bullets in short supply and prices rising, here’s an opportunity for you folks located in the middle of the country who can visit Missouri. Sierra offers discounted bullets at its Factory Outlet store in Sedalia, Missouri. Sierra says: “If you happen to be in our neck of the woods, you can purchase available bullet seconds and our full line of products directly from our outlet store”.

View Sierra Bullets Seconds PRICE LIST

Sierra’s Factory Outlet inventory is constantly changing and no guarantees are made as to product availability. Bullet seconds are sold by the pound and are limited to 100 pounds per bullet type and a total of 300 pounds per day per person. There is a limit of 25 pounds of mixed bullets per day. Bullet seconds are for private consumption and not for resale! Factory seconds may include blemished bullets and mixed bullets, so weigh and measure each bullet prior to loading! Factory seconds must be picked up in person and will not be shipped.

accurateshooter.com Sierra Factory Outlet Bullet SalesSierra Production Facility Tours
Along with Factory Outlet sales, Sierra Bullets offers tours of its production plant. If you are in the vicinity, why not head over to Sedalia and see how Sierra bullets are made. Sierra states: “Visitors are welcome in our facility — advance reservations are not required for groups smaller than 10. Tours are available Monday – Friday, 8:30 am to 4:40 pm. Large groups will require one week notice, but for families or individuals, come on in and we’ll make the delay as short as possible. The tour will take approximately 45 minutes. There is no cost for the tour.”

For more information, call Sierra at (888) 223-3006 or send email to: sierra[at]sierrabullets.com .

Story tip by EdLongrange. We welcome reader submissions.

Locate Ammo and Reloading Components with GunBot.Net

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accurateshooter.com gunbot.net ammo and reloading primers supplyHave you been struggling to find brass, powder, and (especially) primers? No luck finding rimfire ammunition or loaded ammo for your pistols or hunting rifles? Well, now there’s a free web-based search service that can help you find what you need. The service costs nothing and you don’t have to sign up to run searches.

GunBot.net employs “search bots” to scour the internet for available inventories of ammo, powder, primers, brass and magazines. GunBot.net checks the inventories of over sixty retailers, including leading vendors AmmoMan, Bass Pro, Brownells, Cabelas, Cheaper Than Dirt, Grizzly, JG Sales, Dan Killough, Midsouth Shooters Supply, Midway USA, Powder Valley, Rainier Arms, Sinclair Int’l, Sportsman’s Guide,, Wholesale Hunter, and Wideners.

Results can be sorted by price or time (most recent results first). You can even get email alerts notifying you when the product you need is available. (To get alerts, you must first log-in and create an account with GunBot.net. There is no charge for this service.) GunBot.net’s search spiders work constantly, so results are normally very current. Pages auto-refresh when new “matching items” are found.

Primers Found Efficiently with GunBot.net
GunBot.net saves us time by instantly checking inventory at many dozens of online retailers. In May, we were looking high and low for large rifle magnum primers. Then a quick search with GunBot.net revealed that site sponsor Powder Valley, Inc. had some in stock. We placed our order and had the primers in our hands the next week. Here’s a screenshot showing primer inventories on June 17, 2013:

accurateshooter.com gunbot.net ammo and reloading primers supply

Magpul Introduces New 40-Round Magazine for AR Platform

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Magpul is now offering 40-round capacity PMAG GEN M3 magazines for AR-platform rifles chambered for .223 Rem/5.56×45. Just 2 1/8″ longer than a 30-round Magpul magazine, the new 40-rounder will fit and function in standard AR mag wells. Magpul claims that: “The new PMAG 40 is just as reliable, durable, and compatible as the PMAG 30.”

Magpul’s new 40-round magazines should prove popular with 3-Gun competitors. The extra 10 rounds can reduce the number of mag changes, which should allow 3-gunners to shave seconds off stage times. As with other latest-generation PMAGs, the new PMAG 40s feature an over-insertion stop catch that prevents the magazine from being slammed too far into the gun during fast changes. This stop catch prevents mag damage and lessens the chance of a malfunction. For LEO and Military personnel using select fire ARs, Magpul notes that: “The optimized magazine spring can handle feeding at cyclic rates over 1150 rounds per minute.”

Major vendors, such as Brownells, will be selling the PMAG 40s very soon. Brownells is charging $19.95 for the PMAG 40, product #100-012-633WB. We expect these things to sell like hotcakes. The editors of Guns.com note: “These magazines are going to be incredibly popular. Everyone likes extra ammo, even when it’s hard to find. And when most magazines with capacities greater than 30 run $40-$50, at these prices Magpul is going to tear through their competition.”

Magpul PMAG 40 40-round magazine

Mobile Ballistics Program for I-Pod Touch and I-Phones

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Runaway Technology offers a sophisticated yet easy-to-use ballistics program that runs on the Apple I-Pod Touch and Apple I-Phone platforms. The BulletFlight 4.0.0 software contains all the features you would want, including: user-selectable BC models (G1, G7, G8 etc.); output in inches, cm, MOA, Mils, and scope clicks; 360° wind drift calculation; computation of actual BC from collected data; and built-in accelerometer for angle detection.

AccurateShooter KAC Bullet Flight Ballistics Software

In addition, BulletFlight 4.0.0 comes with a large database of bullet types (including weights, BCs etc.). You can also create your own custom ammo profiles (with velocity, BC, bullet type), allowing you to easily output ballistic plots for multiple firearms, without having to enter the rifle/bullet profile every time. The latest 4.0.0 version is faster than before, and 299 more projectile types have been added to the bullet database.

AccurateShooter KAC Bullet Flight Ballistics Software AccurateShooter KAC Bullet Flight Ballistics Software

BulletFlight 4.0.0 is a very sophisticated program that rivals anything you can run on your home computer. A version of BulletFlight is already in use with the U.S. Military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Apple operating system and “multi-touch” screen allows an extremely user-friendly interface. (And with the I-Pod Touch, you do NOT need a phone service contract.) “Ruggedized” Otterbox carry cases are also available for both first- and second-generation I-pods.

AccurateShooter KAC Bullet Flight Ballistics Software AccurateShooter KAC BulletFlight Ballistics Software

Software Starts at Just $3.99
There are three versions of KAC BulletFlight, all very affordable. The basic BulletFlt L1 edition (3.1.0 version) costs just $3.99. We recommend the BulltFlt L2 edition (3.1.0 version). At $11.99, the L2 software adds a full calculation screen, the ability to generate a range-card, cosine-angle calculation, and GPS functionality. Finally, the $29.99 BulletFlight Level ‘M’ 4.0.0 version further adds the ability to calculate an actual BC based on bullet drop, two velocities, or flight time. The Level ‘M’ version can also correct for subtle factors, such as the Coriolis Effects, which come into play at ultra-long ranges.

AccurateShooter KAC Bullet Flight Ballistics Software

New Colt “Hunting and Defense Match” Ammo from Black Hills

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Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC (Colt) is introducing a line of ammunition for Colt tactical and competition rifles. This new Colt-branded “Hunting and Defence Match” ammo will be manufactured by Black Hills Ammunition. The initial offerings are designed for rifles chambered for 5.56×45 NATO and will feature 55gr and 77gr Sierra match bullets. According to the Guns.com Blog: “The 77-grain cartridge may strike a few people as somewhat familiar. It is for most purposes Black Hills MK 262 77-grain ammo… considered by many to be the best factory-loaded 5.56 NATO ammunition on the market.”

accurateshooter.com Colt Black Hills ammunition 5.56 Triple Nickel .223 Rem

Colt Claims Ammo Will Shoot 1-MOA Groups at 500 Yards
Colt says its ammunition will deliver long-range accuracy. During the development process, this line of Colt ammo was ballistically tested in Colt rifles with a requirement of consistent five-shot, one-MOA (5″) groups at 500 yards. Colt calls this the “triple-nickel” standard (5 shots, 5″, 500 yards). Colt claims that the “Triple Nickel” capability of its ammo “assures the experienced shooter incredible performance right out of the box, with no need for load development or experimentation.”

Holding 1-MOA at 100 yards is not that exceptional. But maintaining 1-MOA groups at 500 yards would be impressive indeed. This would require consistent powder charges and tight bullet-seating length tolerances to keep vertical dispersion to a minimum. It will be interesting to test the Colt-branded ammo when it hits the market and see if it works as well as claimed.

“We’re very proud of the ‘Triple Nickel’ requirement of this ammunition,” said said Joyce Rubino, Vice President of Marketing for Colt’s Manufacturing: “Our goal with Black Hills was to bring to market a superior line of ammunition for sport shooters to use in Colt rifles, and we feel we have achieved this through the partnership with Black Hills.”

ProGrade Ammunition Builds Loaded Ammo with Premium Bullets

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ProGrade Ammunition Montana accurateshooter.com

A new ammunition manufacturer has started up in Stevensville, Montana. ProGrade Ammunition will be offering a wide spectrum of ammo products, with components selected for particular types of shooting. Prograde will eventually offer nine separate types of pistol and rifle ammunition: Defense Grade, Varmint Grade, Cowboy Grade, Hunter Grade, Bear Grade, Range Grade, Match Grade, Safari Grade and Tactical Grade. Our readers will probably be most interested in the “Match Grade” and “Varmint Grade” lines. The Match Grade ammo features mostly Berger bullets (with some Noslers and Sierras), while Varmint Grade ammo is loaded with Barnes, Hornady, and Nosler bullets.

Click Images to Load Full-Size Images (with larger type)

We have no idea whether ProGrade Ammunition will shoot well and prove reliable. We don’t know what brass, powders, or primers ProGrade will be using. In a recent press release, ProGrade touts its Match Grade products: “Match Grade rounds are all hand-loaded in the United States and use premium components that are held to higher standards of consistency, leaving little room for inaccuracy. Match Grade means every element is made to be as uniform as possible in weight, primer pocket and neck size. This means everything — from bullet weight and powder weight to brass thickness and case length — is as precise as possible.”

ProGrade Ammunition Montana accurateshooter.com

Time (and rounds on target) will determine if ProGrade ammo is good stuff. But in this period of shortages, with ammunition of all kinds being hard to find, it is good to see a new domestic ammo-maker getting into the business, and producing cartridges with high-quality projectiles. We wish the folks at ProGrade success in their endeavor. To learn about ProGrade’s full line of ammunition, call (435) 865-5995, or visit www.progradeammo.com.


New Low-Cost Auction Site for Guns, Ammo, and Accesories

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AmmoBammo.com, an all-new auction website for guns, ammo, and gear, has just opened for business. This new site boasts “no listing fees ever”. Unlike Gunbroker.com, AmmoBammo has a very simple payment structure. There is no “up-front” listing fee, and no membership fee. If an item sells, AmmoBammo takes 2.5% of the proceeds — no matter what the price. That makes it easy to figure out what it will cost to sell your gun or gear. If nobody bids, or the bids don’t reach your thresh-hold reserve price, you pay nothing. If your product sells, you pay a flat 2.5% final value fee. That seems reasonable to us. Read detailed terms of sale here.

To celebrate its launch, AmmoBammo.com is offering a special promotion. Now through July 15, 2013, AmmoBammo is Waiving ALL Fees on auction listings, including the normal 2.5% final value fee. So, for the next couple of weeks you can sell your stuff, and not pay a penny.

accurateshooter.com ammobammo gun auction site

Since this site is brand new, listings are sparse to say the least. As of June 25, 2013 at 12:00 pm, not a single gun was listed for sale (though there were many ammo listings). Hopefully the AmmoBammo site will gain traction as more sellers list their merchandise in the weeks and months ahead.

accurateshooter.com ammobammo gun auction site

Monitor Barrel Temps with Heat-Sensitive Strips

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Thermometer barrel heat accurateshooter.comMany parts of the country are experiencing a heat wave right now. It was 117° F in Las Vegas yesterday. Unfortunately, this is “prime time” for shooting matches, so competitors may have no choice but to shoot in very hot weather. When ambient temperatures soar into the 100s, you need to be especially careful about barrel heat. Bad things can happen if your barrel gets too hot. First, with some barrels, the point of impact (POI) will shift or “walk” as the barrel heats up excessively. Second, even if the POI doesn’t change, the groups can open up dramatically when the barrel gets too hot. Third, if the barrel is very hot, the chamber will transfer heat to your loaded cartridge, which can lead to pressure issues. Finally, hot barrels wear out faster. This is a very real concern, particularly for varmint shooters who may shoot hundreds of rounds in a day. For this reason, many varminters switch among various guns, never letting a particular barrel get too hot.

Bar-L shooting temp strips

How do you monitor your barrel temperature other than guessing by “feel”? BAR-L Benchrest strips visually display heat readings from 86 to 140 degrees F. Think of these strips as compact, unbreakable thermometers. These adhesive-backed strips can be used to monitor barrel heating. Put a strip on the side of the barrel and the barrel’s temp will be indicated by a stripe that changes from black to green. These strips are easy to read. The green box displays the current temperature of the barrel in both °F and °C. We recommend using the Benchrest strip (86F to 140F), shown in the middle. There is also a “General Purpose” strip that reads to 196 degrees (bottom row).

Installation: Before placing the temp strips on your barrel, clean and degrease the barrel with alcohol for better adhesion. Once in place, the plastic-covered strips should provide years of service. Note, we do not recommend use with high-polished blued barrels.

Value-Priced Temp Strip 10-packs
If you have many rifles, McMaster.com (a large industrial supply house) offers the handy reversible, 7 temperature, 86F to 140F strip (item 59535K13) for $10.71 per pack of ten (10) strips. That’s an excellent value.

Another source for BAR-L Temp Strips is Neconos.com. This vendor offers Bar-L temp strips for $9.00, or $25.00 for a 3-pack. From the Neconos Online Catalog, search for “Bar-L” to find the Temp Strips. Three temp ranges are offered: 32F to 86F (Moderate Zero); 86F to 140F (Benchrest): and 86F to 194F (Gen’l Purpose).

Controlling Ammunition Temperature is Important Too
Igloo MaxCold 70 Roller CoolerKeeping your loaded cases at a controlled temperature is vital for maintaining good ES and case life. At a late summer varmint match we observed pressure signs with cases that had been sitting in direct sunlight for about 15 minutes. As we were running a “moderate” RL15 load, the pressure indications were surprising. Testing over a chronograph, cases that had been sitting in direct sunlight showed velocities up to 70 fps higher than those that had been kept in the shade. Using QuickLoad’s temperature function, we calculated from the rise in velocities that case pressures had increased by over 4,000 psi–just from 15-20 minutes in direct sunlight! Accordingly, you’ll want to keep your ammo out of the sun, in an insulated container. The Igloo Ice Cube MaxCold 70 Roller Cooler can hold enough ammo for a multi-day varmint safari or a week at Camp Perry. It’s large enough to also store water bottles and cold beverages.

CMP Offers M118LR 7.62×51 Ammo for Sale

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7.62x51 Federal CMP ammunition, ammoThe Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is showing quantities of M118LR 7.62×51 for sale, stock number 4C762M118LR-240. This is quality ammo, manufactured by Federal. We believe that it is loaded with 175gr Sierra Match bullets, but you should call to confirm that. Packaged in 240-rd cans, the CMP’s M118LR ammo costs $275.00 for 240 rounds (that works out to roughly $1.15 per round). If you need 7.62×51 ammo for your M1A, or tactical bolt gun, this should fit the bill.

CLICK HERE to see Ammo for Sale in CMP E-Store

Cartridge Comparison Guide (2d Ed.) Is Gold Mine of Information

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Cartridge Comparison Guide second editionThe updated Second Edition of the Cartridge Comparison Guide is now available. The Cartridge Comparision Guide is the product of many years of labor by Andrew Chamberlain, a Utah-based hunter. Andrew says his Guide “compares every factory available cartridge from the 17 calibers up to the 50 caliber cartridges”. (Sorry, most wildcat cartridges are not covered.) Chamberlain’s Guide also compiles cartridge data from major ammunition manufacturers such as Barnes, Federal, Hornady, Norma, Nosler, Remington, Sierra, Swift, Weatherby, and Winchester. It shows the optimal velocity achieved for each bullet weight and calculates bullet energy, recoil, and powder efficiency.

The Cartridge Comparison Guide provides data for thousands of cartridge/bullet/velocity combos. Charts provide cartridge ballistics including downrange energy. The Second Edition adds 90 more pages devoted to ballistics. The Cartridge Comparison Guide offers a firearms lexicon, plus Appendices covering Cartridge Selection for Game Animals, Bullet Selection/Design, Bullet Expansion, Wound Channel Characteristics and more. In the Second Edition, there is expanded coverage of factory-loaded hunting ammo. The book now provides “100% coverage of all handgun and rifle cartridges produced in the USA by at least two minor factory load sources or one major factory load source.”

New Content in Second Edition of Cartridge Comparison Guide
The Cartridge Comparison Guide (2nd Edition) costs $32.95 plus shipping and tax. This is more pricey than the $24.99 First Edition (which is still for sale), but the latest Cartridge Comparison guide offers considerably more content. Here’s what’s new in the Second Edition:

  • Addition of Shotgun Ammunition (Both Slug and Shot loads).
  • Momentum Calculation for all Rifle, Shotgun and Handgun loads.
  • Integration of Shotgun Slug Ammunition with Center Fire Rifle Data Tables.
  • Factory Load Summary Added (Shows manufacturers and loads produced).
  • One factory load and one hand load for every bullet weight available in each cartridge.
  • Over 90 pages of additional ballistics content (roughly 35% more than in First Edition).

Award-Winning Content
The Cartridge Comparison Guide has been awarded the POMA Pinnacle Award for Excellence. (POMA, the Professional Outdoor Media Association, is the trade association for outdoor writers).

Cartridge Comparison Guide

Cartridge Comparison GuideGreat Resource for Hunters
The Cartridge Comparison Guide’s author wanted to help hunters select the “right cartridge for the job.” Chamberlain states: “This started as a personal project to gather information on the more popular cartridges commonly used for hunting. I began comparing cartridge performance, versatility, bullet selection, powder efficiency, recoil generation vs. energy produced, standing ballistic data for different environments, etc.” Chamberlain adds: “I wanted to find the best all-around performing cartridge and rifle that a guy on a budget could shoot.”

Giant Cartridge Poster for Computer Wallpaper (1665×1080 pixels)
Here’s a great illustration of hundreds of cartridges and shotshell types. For dedicated reloaders, this would work great as desktop “wallpaper” for your computer. CLICK HERE for full-size image.

cartridge poster

Powder Valley Has Factory Second Bullets at Rock-Bottom Prices

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Powder Valley bullet seconds sale BTHP accurateshooter.comNeed quality bullets at affordable prices? Powder Valley Inc. (PVI) has made a huge purchase of FOUR MILLION factory second bullets from a major manufacturer. These come in lots of 500 bullets at great prices. How about $73.95/500 for .224 caliber bullets? That’s just $14.79 per hundred! If you shoot a .30-caliber rifle, PVI also has 168gr and 175gr factory second bullets at great prices. The 168s are $109.95/500 while the 175s are $115.95/500. These factory-second bullets are found on Powder Valley’s Specials Page (Go to PowderValleyInc.com and click on the blue “Specials” Link in the top left.)

NOTE: All these bullets are in stock right now, but we expect these to sell out fast. Note, you can not purchase small quantities. These are only offered in lots of 500.

PVI Special Purchase Major Brand Bullets
Item # Description Price
PVI22477 .224 77 GR HPBT (500) (Major mfg factory seconds) $73.95
PVI308168 .308 168 GR HPBT (500) (Major mfg factory seconds) $109.95
PVI308175 .308 175 GR HPBT (500) (Major mfg factory seconds) $115.95

Practical Thoughts About Transonic Bullet Stability and Accuracy

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One of our Forum Members has a .308 Win load that dips into the transonic speed range at 1000 yards. He is concerned that his bullets may lose accuracy as they slow to transonic speeds: “My target is at 1000 yards. How important to accuracy is it to keep the bullet supersonic (Mach 1.2) all the way to the target? How does slowing to transonic speeds in the last 100 yards or so affect accuracy?”

TargetShooter Magazine and AccurateShooter.com contributor Laurie Holland offers some practical answers to this important question, based on his his experience with .223 and .308-caliber bullets.

Thoughts on Accuracy and Transonic Bullet Speeds by Laurie Davidson.
There is no simple answer to the question “How do transonic speeds affect accuracy”. Some bullets manage OK, some not so well, some fail entirely, and I’ve never seen a guide as to which models do and which don’t. But we do have the ‘boat-tail angle rule’, anyway. Bryan Litz says the ideal boat-tail angle is 7-9°. Go much above 10° and it’s too steep for the air to follow the bullet sides around to the base. This seems to manifest itself as much increased drag and turbulence leading to instability in transonic flight.

It is this effect that has led to the common advice of “Don’t use 168gr 30-caliber bullets at 1000 yards”. That is misleading advice as it resulted from use of the 168gr Sierra ‘International’ (aka MatchKing) bullet with its 13-deg BT angle. (This was, originally, a specialized 300m design — there are various near copies on the market from Speer, Hornady and Nosler.) By contrast, Berger 168-grainers are designed as long-range bullets with 8.9, 8.5 and a really nice 7° angle on the BT, VLD and Hybrid respectively. Hornady A-Max 30-cal projectiles (other than the 208-grainer) fall into this enforced shorter-range bracket too thanks to their 12.6° (and greater) boat-tail angles. (155gr = 13.5°, 168gr = 12.87°, and 178gr = 12.6°.)

Supersonic bullet shadowgraph

Even this boat-tail angle ‘rule’ doesn’t always seem to apply. Many older long-range Service Rifle shooters talk about good results at 1000 yards with some batches of 7.62mm match ammo in their 20″-barreled M14s using the 168gn SMK. I’ve successfully used Hornady and Sierra 168s at 1000 yards in 30-cal magnums which drive the bullets fast enough to keep out of trouble at this distance. This is still not recommended of course thanks to their low BCs compared to better long-range speciality bullets.

Supersonic bullet shadowgraph 7.5mm Swiss
These four photos show the substantial changes in the shock ware and turbulence patterns for the same bullet at different velocities. The “M” stands for Mach and the numerical value represents the velocity of the bullet relative to the speed of sound at the time of the shot. Photos by Beat Kneubuehl.

Transonic Issues with .223 Rem in F-TR
I was much exercised by [concerns about transonic instability] in the early days of F-Class, when I was shooting a .223 Rem with 80-grainers at 2,800 fps MV or even a bit less. Even the optimistic G1 ballistic charts of the time said they’d be subsonic at 1000 yards. (Bryan Litz’s Point Mass Ballistic Solver 2.0′s program says 1,078 fps at 1000 yards at 2,800 fps MV in standard conditions for the SMK; below 1.2 MACH beyond a point somewhere around 780 yards.) In fact they shot fine in a large range of conditions apart from needing around 60% more windage allowance than 6.5mm projectiles [shot with a larger cartridge]. The biggest problem apart from my wind-reading skills was constantly getting out of the rhythm to call to have the target pulled as the pits crew didn’t hear the subsonic bullets and had trouble seeing their little holes.

In the early days of F-TR I used a 24″ barrel factory tactical rifle that was billed as F-TR ready — it wasn’t! The much touted 175gr Sierra MatchKing, as used in the US military M118LR sniper round, was allegedly good at 1000 yards at .308 velocities — but it wasn’t! It would group OK in [some calm] conditions, but any significant change would cause a much greater deflection on the target than the ballistic charts predicted, so transonic flight was obviously making it barely stable. I also suspect conditions on the day had a big effect as Litz’s program says [the 175gr SMK] is just subsonic at 2,650 fps MV at 1,000 in standard conditions. Throw in MV spread and there was a risk of some round remaining supersonic, while others went transonic. Plus warmer or colder air moving onto the range under some conditions might change things.

I used the combination on Scotland’s notorious Blair Atholl range at 1000 yards in one competition in a day of cold headwinds from the north and frequent rain squalls. The temperatures plummeted during the squalls (and the wind went mad too!) and what was an ‘interesting group pattern’ outside of squall conditions changed to seeing me do well to just stay on the target frame at all. On ranges other than Blair (which is electronic, so no pits crew), target markers reported they heard faint supersonic ‘crack’ and saw round holes on the paper, so the bullets appeared to remain stable and just supersonic in summer shooting conditions.

Transonic Problems with M118LR 7.62×51 Ammo
Confirmation of this transonic performance phenomenon has since come from USMC snipers who say the M118LR’s performance ‘falls off a cliff’ beyond 800m (875 yards), which is just what I found when shooting the bullet at slightly higher than M118LR muzzle velocities. A move to the 190gr SMK with Vihtavuori N550 keeping the MVs reasonable gave a vast improvement in 1000-yard performance.

Practical Advice — Use a Bullet That Stays Supersonic
The ‘easy’ / better answer to all this is to use a design such as the 30-caliber, 185gr Berger LRBT with a reputation for good long range performance and to load it to achieve or exceed 1,350 fps at 1000 yards. If I can get the combination I’m using to be predicted to hold 1,400 fps at this range in a G7-based program calculation, I’m happier still.

Incidentally, the old long-range, 30-cal Sierra bullets (the venerable 190gr, 200gr, and 220gr MatchKings), with their extra length boat-tail sections, have a superb reputation for stable transonic / subsonic flight. They were used by GB and British Commonwealth ‘Match Rifle’ shooters at 1000, 1100, and 1200 yards for many years before the current bunch of 210gr and up VLDs and Hybrids appeared.

Supersonic space shuttle waveTransonic vs. Supersonic

The term “Transonic” refers to velocities in the range of Mach 0.8 to 1.0, i.e. 600–768 mph. It is formally defined as the range of speeds between the critical Mach number, when some parts of the airflow are supersonic, and a higher speed, typically near Mach 1.2, when the vast majority of the airflow is supersonic. Instability can occur at transonic speeds. Shock waves move through the air at the speed of sound. When an aircraft goes transonic and approaches the speed of sound, these shock waves build up in front of it to form a single, very large shock wave. This is dramatically illustrated in this Space Shuttle photo.

Hornady Suspends Production of 150 Ammo Types and 150 Bullet Types for Balance of 2013

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Hornady suspends ammo and bullet productionIn order to increase deliveries of its most popular types of ammunition and bullets, Hornady announced that it will temporarily suspend production of 150 bullet types and 150 ammo types. IMPORTANT: These bullet and ammo products are NOT being discontinued. Rather, these less-popular, suspended items will simply not be produced for the remainder of 2013. By doing this, Hornady can reduce tool/machinery changes and thereby increase production of products in highest demand. On July 2nd, Hornady issued this statement:

Dear Hornady Customer:

As you are aware, 2013 has been one of the most challenging years ever in the sporting arms industry. We are proud of the increases in production we have achieved this year, but we are still faced witha demand that exceeds our ability to produce.

In efforts to increase production, we have reviewed everything, refining procedures, adding people, and equipment when possible. One area that will help us produce more: cutting the number of changeovers in our production machinery.

In order to reduce changeovers, we are announceing the temporary suspension of over 150 ammunition items and 150 bullet items, for the balance of 2013.

Attached you will find the list of items that will be suspended. Our plan is to remove the orders for these items from our system, beginning July 10th, and notify you of the cancellations. We will continue to monitor and update this list as the market conditions change.

Our goal is to try to deliver more to every customer, and while this may impact certain categories, our overall delivery should improve.

Hornady has listed the suspended bullet/ammo items in ten pages of attachments sent out to Hornady wholesalers and retailers. One representative page (covering 6mm, 6.5mm, and 7mm bullets) is shown below. This is NOT the complete list — there are TEN (10) pages! Click on each link below to see suspended items listed by caliber, small to large.

hornady suspends ammo bullet productionSuspension List Contents by Page
1. Suspended Bullets .17 -.25 Caliber
2. Suspended Bullets .270 – .32 Caliber
3. Suspended Bullets .338 – .475 Caliber
4. Suspended Bullets 6mm – 7mm (See at right)
5. Suspended Bullets 8mm – 9mm and Suspended .17 – .223 Ammo
6. Suspended Ammo, .223, .243, 25-06, 270 Win, 280 Rem, 30 Carbine
7. Suspended Ammo 300 Wby Mag, 300 Win Mag, 30-06 Spr, 303 Brit
8. Suspended ammo 6.5 Creed, 6.5×55, 6.8 SPC, 7mm Rem Mag, 7×57 and larger metric
9. Suspended ammo 30-30, .308 Win, .338 Lap, .338 Win Mag, 35 Whelen, .357 Mag
10. Suspended ammo .357 Sig, 38 SPL, 380 ACP, 40 SW, 41 Mag, 44 Mag, 45 ACP, 45 Colt, and rifle 375 H&H, 404 Jef, 45-70 Govt

Notable Bullets on the Suspended List:
22832 – 22 Cal .224 80gr A-Max
22420 – 6mm .243 75gr V-Max
24562 – 6mm .243 105gr A-Max
26101 – 6.5mm .243 100gr A-Max
29402 – 7mm .284 162gr A-Max
29405 – 7mm .285 162gr BTHP Match
30314 – 30 Cal .308 155gr A-Max Moly
30715 – 30 Cal .308 178gr BTHP Match
30733 – 30 Cal .308 208gr BTHP Match
33102 – 338 Cal .338 200gr SST

Note, the above selection of “notable bullets” is just a “short list” of items that caught our attention. Remember 150 bullet types are being suspended for the balance of the year. With some items on the list, partial orders will be filled, or current orders will be filled, but no new orders taken.


Hornady Lists Bullet and Ammo Types That Remain in Production

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We reported yesterday that Hornady, in an effort to increase overall production, will suspend production of 150 bullet types and 150 ammunition types for the balance of 2013. Upon reading this story, many readers grew concerned, perhaps because they did not realize that Hornady is actually stepping up production of its most popular bullets and ammo types. By temporarily suspending production of less-popular products, Hornady can reduce assembly line change-overs and thereby increase production. Hornady explains that this strategy allows it to: “focus our efforts on the most popular and highest-demand products and ship more total product.” In the months ahead, Hornady will continue to produce over 270 different projectiles and over 140 types of loaded ammo. As Steve Hornady says: “There is something in there for everyone….”

Hornady bullets powder update 2013Upon seeing ten-page-long list of suspended products, readers may have become overly concerned because they did not realize that Hornady will continue to churn out hundreds of bullet types and ammo types — and, in fact, the most popular products will now be manufactured in greater-than-ever quantities. Readers asked “So what products will Hornady continue to produce?” On its website, Hornady now lists all the high-demand bullets and ammo types that remain in production for the balance of 2013.

CLICK HERE to View Updated Bullet and Ammunition Production List

CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD Updated Bullet and Ammunition Production List PDF File

Steve Hornady Talks to Customers
In this video, Hornady President Steve Hornady explains the decision to suspend production of some items in order to increase production of Hornady’s high-demand bullet types and ammunition types.

Steve Hornady Explains New Production Strategies (July 8, 2013):

On its website, Hornady has posted a Product Availability Update, which explains why Hornady is suspending production of some products:

One area that we have identified that will enable us to increase production, is the minimization of machinery downtime. The largest period of downtime our machines experience is during change over and retooling to convert a machine from manufacturing one bullet or cartridge to another. Under normal market conditions, we can keep the supply chain full by making popular items on a regular basis and keeping specialty or less-used products on a seasonal basis. However, with demand at record levels, it has become difficult to justify shutting down a machine to change it over to produce a product of less demand. Therefore, we are temporarily suspending some items in order to focus our efforts on the most popular and highest demand products and ship more total product.

We realize that many of the suspended items are going to disappoint some of our customers. We have painstakingly reviewed our order status and order history and unfortunately had to make some tough decisions. It wasn’t easy, but we know that we will do a better job of servicing the industry as a whole by focusing on the items of highest demand.

We are not alone; this is effectively already happening throughout our industry, but is accomplished through selective manufacture with no notification to the industry. We are simply making every effort to be up-front about our plans to maximize production.

Again, this is only temporary. This is not a permanent suspension. We will continue to push as hard as we can to meet the demand of our industry and will produce our full catalog of items as soon as we can. Please know that nobody wants to produce more and get our product to into your hands more than we do.

6MM Creedmoor Brass Now Available at Good Prices

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You’ve probably heard of the 6.5 Creedmoor, an excellent round for High Power and tactical applications. Well there’s a 6mm (.243) version of this cartridge — the 6mm Creedmoor. It has the same external dimensions (other than neck diameter) as the 6.5 version, but it lets you shoot the High-BC 6mm bullets at higher velocities. With a long barrel, you can push 105gr bullets an honest 3070-3100 fps with this cartridge. The 6mm Creedmoor has a large primer pocket and large flash hole (unlike Lapua’s 6.5×47 which has a small primer pocket, and small flash hole — like the 6mmBR).

accurateshooter.com GA Precision 6mm Creedmoor 6.5 brass cartridge6mm Creedmoor Brass
If you’re interested in the 6mm Creedmoor, Hornady-brand brass is available right now at reasonable prices. Yesterday, GA Precision received 110,000 pieces of 6mm Creedmoor brass. Prices are:

$65.00 for 100 pieces
$325.00 for 500 pieces
$620.00 for 1000 pieces

That works out to sixty-two cents per unit if you buy 1000 cases. CLICK HERE to Order.

We have not tested the 6mm Creedmoor cartridge yet, but we know some shooters have had good luck with it. In design, the 6mm Creedmoor is quite similar to the 6XC, which is a proven High Power cartridge that has won many championships. If you want a mid-size 6mm cartridge, with brass that doesn’t cost $1.00 per case, the 6mm Creedmoor may be an option to consider. GA Precision says this about the cartridge: “The 6mm Creedmoor is an ideal cartridge for large-platform, semi-auto rifle for shooters who wish to utilize the long, high-BC modern 6mm projectiles. Compared to the .243 Winchester, the 6mm Creedmoor case is just under .130 of an inch shorter, perfect for the confines of a short-OAL AR-style magazine. This is an ideal cartridge for competitive shooters — charges easily reach 3050-3100 FPS while coming closer to the 100% volume capacity for powder charge, often resulting in lower standard deviations recorded.”

Berger Article on COAL and Cartridge Base-to-Ogive PART 2

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Berger Bullets COAL length cartridgeEffects Of Cartridge Over All Length (COAL) And Cartridge Base To Ogive (CBTO) – Part 2
by Bryan Litz for Berger Bullets.
Part One of this series focused on the importance of COAL in terms of SAAMI standards, magazine lengths, seating depths, and pressure levels. Another measure of length for loaded ammunition is highly important to precision, namely Cartridge Base to Bullet Ogive Length (CBTO).

Figure 2. Chamber throat geometry showing the bullet jump to the rifling or lands.
chamber length loading berger bullets

Look at Figure 2. Suppose the bullet was seated out of the case to the point where the base of the bullet’s nose (ogive) just contacted the beginning of the riflings (the lands) when the bolt was closed. This bullet seating configuration is referred to as touching the lands, or touching the riflings and is a very important measurement to understand for precision hand-loading. Due to the complex dynamics of internal ballistics which happen in the blink of an eye, the distance a bullet moves out of the case before it engages the riflings is highly critical to precision potential. Therefore, in order to systematically optimize the precision of his handloads, it’s critically important that the precision hand-loader understands how to alter bullet seating depth in relation to the barrel rifling. Part of the required knowledge is understanding how to accurately and repeatably measure the Cartridge Base To Ogive (CBTO) dimension. This is explained in the FULL ARTICLE.

Bryan Litz offers an extended discussion on how to measure CBTO using different tools and methods, including the Hornady OAL gauge. You can read this discussion in the full article found on the Berger Bullets website. CLICK HERE to Read Full Article.

Why Not Use CBTO as a SAAMI Standard?
If CBTO is so important to rifle accuracy, you might ask, “Why is it not listed as the SAAMI spec standard in addition to COAL?” There is one primary reason why it is not listed in the standard. This is the lack of uniformity in bullet nose shapes and measuring devices used to determine CBTO.

Figure 4. Two different bullet shapes, seated to the same CBTO length, but different COAL. Note the shiny scratches on the bullets made by the comparator tool which indicates a point on the bullet ogive near where the ogive will engage the riflings.

chamber length loading berger bullets

Benefits of Having a Uniform CBTO
There is another aspect to knowing your CBTO when checking your COAL as it pertains to performance. With good bullets, tooling, and carefully-prepared cases you can easily achieve a CBTO that varies less than +/- .001″ but your COAL can vary as much as .025″ extreme spread (or more with other brands). This is not necessarily bad and it is much better than the other way around. If you have a CBTO dimension that varies but your COAL dimension is tight (within +/- .002″) then it is most likely that your bullet is bottoming out inside the seater cone on the bullet tip. This is very bad and is to be avoided. It is normal for bullets to have precisely the same nose shape and it is also normal for these same bullets to have nose lengths that can vary as much as .025″.

Summary of Cartridge Base To Ogive (CBTO) Discussion
Here are four important considerations regarding bullet seating depth as it relates to CBTO:

1. CBTO is a critical measurement to understand for handloaders because it’s directly related to precision potential, and you control it by simply setting bullet seating depth.

2. Tools and methods for measuring CBTO vary. Most of the measurement techniques have pitfalls (which may give rise to inconsistent results) that you should understand before starting out.

3. A CBTO that produces the best precision in your rifle may not produce the best precision in someone else’s rifle. Even if you have the same rifle, same bullets, same model of comparator gauges, etc. It’s possible that the gauges are not actually the same, and measurements from one don’t translate to the same dimension for another.

4. Once you find the CBTO that produces the best precision in your rifle, it’s important to allow minimal variation in that dimension when producing quality handloads. This is achieved by using quality bullets, tooling, and properly preparing case mouths and necks for consistent seating.

CLICK HERE to Read Full Article with More Info
Article sourced by EdLongrange. We welcome tips from readers.

Reloading for 3-Gun Competition — Practical Advice

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three gun competitionThis article by Corey Swantz originally appeared in The Reloading Press, the Sinclair Int’l Blog.

Much less precision is required to get good scores in 3-gun competition than in strictly accuracy-oriented disciplines like F-Class or Benchrest. In 3-gun, [the game is] about hitting targets in the shortest amount of time, not how close to the center of the target you can get or how small the group can be. Ammunition that’s accurate to 1-2 MOA is more than sufficient for 3-gun competition, as the targets tend to be 4-6 MOA in size.

For my personal 3-gun load testing, I used three powders: Varget, IMR 8208 XBR, and Accurate 2230. All three powders gave me good results, but the 8208 XBR was the leader of the pack. I settled on a moderate charge that pushes a 73gr Berger BTHP at about 2,500 fps through my 16″-barreled AR15. While I’m sure I could obtain a higher velocity with these bullets, this speed yielded the best accuracy results in my initial testing with fully prepped brass.

With the high volume of ammunition that I need for 3-gun matches and practice, I wanted to eliminate as many case prep steps as possible and still end up with ammunition that was accurate enough for 3-gun. I fully prepped some once-fired brass from primer pocket to case mouth and everything in between. I also took some once-fired cases that had simply been trimmed to length, and loaded them without doing any other prep work. With these loads in hand, I headed out to the range to shoot some groups. Below are the results from my 200 yard group tests:

Prepped Brass Delivered Higher Score on Bullseye Target

3-gun reloading brass

As you can see from the photos, the groups yielded results along the lines of what I expected. The fully-prepped brass produced five 10s , whereas the un-prepped brass produced only two 10s, and both of those just touched the outer edge of the 10-ring.

However, the un-prepped brass kept all the shots inside the 8-ring, which is plenty precise for shooting the large targets used in 3-gun matches.

National Defense Match at Camp Perry
I decided to further test my un-prepped brass loads by shooting them in the National Defense Match (NDM) at Camp Perry and the Rockcastle 3-Gun Pro-Am Championship. At the NDM, the target used in the longer-range stages was a standard-size NRA Tombstone target, similar to the targets used in most 3-gun matches. Using the un-prepped brass loads, I was able to keep all my shots on the tombstone targets from 100-300 yards, and had only one miss from the 400-yard line. That one miss was my fault, as I jerked the trigger on the last shot, pulling it off to the left. Un-prepped brass held up quite well under Camp Perry NDM conditions.

Un-Prepped Good Enough for Class Win at Rockcastle 3-Gun Pro-Am Championship
Two weeks after the NDM, I traveled to Kentucky for the Rockcastle 3-Gun Pro-Am Championship. There were seven stages in this match, two of which required long-range rifle shots with my AR15. The longest stage of the match had eight steel targets sized from 4″ to 10″ in diameter, placed from 75 to 265 yards. My ammunition proved accurate enough at these distances to neutralize all the steel targets with single shots, something few other shooters were able to do. I finished over two seconds ahead of the nearest competitor on this stage and ended up winning the event. Clearly un-prepped brass was plenty good for the Rockcastle 3-Gun Pro Am, too!

Because of the results I’ve gotten on the practice range, and two very solid performances in competition last year, I feel confident that my loading process for the upcoming 3-Gun Nation Semi-Pro Series will consist of simply sizing and trimming brass, then loading it with my preferred recipe. While the fully prepped brass was indeed more accurate, the un-prepped brass loads were accurate enough to allow me to hit 3-gun targets . Now, I can take the time I save in the reloading room and spend it out on the practice range.

Corey Schwanz, Sinclair Reloading Technician

Store Ammo (and More) Underground in MTM Survivor Container

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Survivor underground ammo container can MTMIn-Ground Storage
With the price of ammo at all-time highs, folks are looking for ways they can stash ammo reserves securely, without using up precious space in their gunsafes. Additionally, there are important reasons why a locked, steel-walled gunsafe is not recommended for long-term ammo storage (see local fire regulations on the subject of ammo storage). MTM CaseGard now offers a heavy-duty, drum-style PVC container for underground storage of ammunition or other important items.

MTM’s Survivor Ammo Container features a rugged, bucket-style body with a double-O-Ring sealed lid and protective outer cap. The inner lid is held down with multiple screws to provide a secure seal. Then the larger “mushroom head” top fits in place over the whole assembly. Each container includes a heavy-duty Vapor Corrosion Inhibitor (VCI) plastic bag plus a moisture-absorbing desiccant pack. The 13.5″ x 10″ drum costs $22.10 at Midsouth Shooter’s Supply. That’s less than the cost of a box of bullets these days. Internal capacity is equivalent to a .50-Cal metal ammo can. The MTM Survivor will hold up to 600 rounds of .45 ACP or 223 ammo. It can also hold about 15-20 AR-15 magazines.

Survivor underground ammo container can MTM

Outside Dimensions: 13.5″ (H) x 10″ (D) | Inside Dimensions: 12.4″ (D) x 7″ (H)

This is a convenient way to hide ammunition, bullets, copies of important documents, emergency money, coins and other small items. Just make sure of two things. First, remember exactly where you buried your Survivor container. You may want to include a small notation on a site plot that you place in a safe-deposit box or give to trusted family members. Second, don’t just dig a hole, drop the unit in the ground and shovel some fresh dirt over the top. Restore a “natural look” to the vegetation or ground cover over the hole. Otherwise your prominent round dirt pile may attract unwanted attention.

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