In the not-too-distant future, U.S. military snipers may be able to steer bullets right to the target, thanks to DARPA, the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency. Believe it or not, DARPA has developed a guided .50-caliber projectile fired from a conventional rifle action. DARPA’s Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) system combines a maneuverable bullet and a real-time guidance system to track and steer the projectile to the target. Inside EXACTO bullets are optical guidance systems, aero-actuation controls, and multiple sensors. The top-secret technology permits the trajectory of the bullet to be altered in flight, allowing the bullet to move left or right, or even fly in an arc around an obstacle.
Colt’s Maggie Reese with wicked-looking Vepr long-magazine shotgun.
North America’s top female action shooters converged on St. George, Utah recently for the Brownells Lady 3-Gun Pro-Am Challenge West Match. Dozens of competitors from the USA and Canada attended this event which featured some amazing stages. Check out the video of the Roller Coaster Stage — bet you never saw anything like THAT at a shooting match before. (This Roller Coaster side-match raised funds for Urijah Smith, a two-year-old boy suffering from cancer.)
Watch Roller Coaster Stage at Lady 3-Gun Pro-Am Challenge West:
Team Smith & Wesson shooter Julie Golob has a message for Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10th). Julie writes: “While some are using Mother’s Day week to push a gun control agenda, I’d like to encourage moms to ‘Take a Moment’. Talk to your kids about firearms safety. Help them learn what to do around firearms and have an open, honest discussion about guns and gun safety.
I truly believe that, no matter if you are pro-gun or anti-gun, everyone should know and understand the basic rules of firearm safety. It is equally important for parents to have the discussion about guns and what to do if your child finds one. Both the NSSF’s Project ChildSafe and the NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe® Program are excellent. They offer resources for parents, educators, and child care providers to help ensure kids stay safe.
In this video, Julie encourages parents to have “the talk” about firearm safety with their kids sooner rather than later, and provides tips for how to have a helpful discussion. Sherra Scott, a mom and a certified NRA instructor, agrees with Julie: “Whether you have firearms in your home or not, if you have children in your life, please watch this video and talk WITH them about firearm safety and what to do if they come into contact with a firearm.”
Jason Baney was one of the “founding fathers” of this website when we started out as 6mmBR.com a decade ago. Jason’s latest project involves an interesting wildcat, a mid-sized 7mm cartridge based on the 6.5×47 Lapua case. In this report, Jason (who now works at Eurooptic.com) talks about the 7×47 wildcat and his initial velocity (and feasibility) tests. To determine the 7×47’s velocity potential, Jason did a multi-stage test, cutting a barrel in two-inch increments. This process is illustrated in a video, embedded below. You may be surprised that the little 7×47 cartridge could drive a 180gr Berger Hybrid at 2770+ FPS with a 32″ barrel and Reloder 17. Max Velocity with H4350 (and 32″ barrel) was roughly 70 FPS slower. With a 24″ barrel length, the 7×47 was still able to propel the 180gr Hybrids over 2600 FPS with H4350. That’s impressive performance for a mid-sized cartridge pushing a very big bullet.
7×47 Lapua Part 1: Velocity Study
By Jason Baney, Eurooptic.com
The biggest enemy in long-range shooting is wind. This also happens to be the hardest to gauge and predict. The only way mere mortals can attempt to defeat the wind demons is to shoot a cartridge with the most ballistic efficiency, yet maintain a user-friendly combination of recoil and component consumption as well as performance on target.
The 7mm bullets tend to yield the best compromise of all of these aspects. Their BC-to-weight ratio is outstanding and 7mm bullets provide sufficient impact energy for most situations. In addition to that, the recoil of 7mm bullets can be more manageable than heavier/larger .30 and .338 caliber projectiles.
In cartridge design, of course you want the best case possible. Having used the 6.5×47 Lapua since its release in 2006, I felt this cartridge was the perfect choice to start with as I wanted a true short-action non-magnum round that gave the least possible wind drift to 1000 yards. The 6.5×47 parent case also allowed seating of the heavy 180gr class bullets completely out in the neck yet it maintained an overall length that would actually work in a factory Remington short action magazine.
How much do you know about BCs, Bullet Shapes, Trajectories, Wind Drift, and other things in the realm of External Ballistics? You can test your knowledge of basic Ballistics principles with this interactive quiz. The questions and answers were provided by Ballistics Guru Bryan Litz of Applied Ballistics LLC. Bryan is the author of Applied Ballistics for Long-Range Shooting and other popular resources in print, DVD, and eBook format. Have fun with our Quiz.
The Quiz contains ten (10) questions. When you complete all ten questions, you can see your results, along with the correct answers.
Every shooter needs to get his or her start someplace. We applaud the NSSF First Shots program that brings new shooters into the fold. If we want to “stem the tide” and resist pressures to close gun ranges and limit firearms use, we need to get new people involved in the shooting sports. And the first step in that process is getting first-timers to the range. Around the country, First Shot Seminars provide free instruction by trained firearms instructors, with guns and ammo provided at no charge to participants. The free First Shots program teaches newcomers firearms fundamentals, safety, and local regulations in a classroom setting, followed by a live-fire session with certified instructors.
Ever wondered how a modern, jacketed bullet is made? Thanks to Berger Bullets, here’s a short video clip that shows how bullets are crafted. In this short sequence filmed at Berger’s factory, you can see machinery that forms the jacket, inserts the core, and then forms the final shape.
This handsome Paterson revolver, the earliest known, factory-engraved Colt, sold for remarkable $414,000 at an April 2015 RIA auction.
Gun prices climbed into the stratosphere last month during the 2015 April Premiere Firearms Auction conducted by the Rock Island Auction Company (RIA). The most expensive gun at auction was an historic Colt Paterson, the first-ever factory-engraved Colt handgun. Complete with the original fitted factory case with various accessories, this Paterson inspired a bidding war that saw the price rise to a stunning $414,000. That is an amazingly high price for a gun that was not owned by a well-known historic personage. Generally, to command a price in the multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars, a gun must have a significant historic provenance — such as having been owned by a legendary figure such as Billy the Kid or Wyatt Earp.
It seems like prices continue to rise every year at auctions of historic and collectible firearms. At RIA’s April Premier Auction, the total sale value of the auctioned guns topped $11.6 million. Remarkably, a first-year production Colt Python (serial #170) sold for $17,250! That makes this Editor regret not having acquired an early model Snake decades ago.
Montana sportsmen can now legally use suppressor-equipped firearms when hunting game (provided the silencer was obtained in compliance with Federal laws). Montana Governor Steve Bullock recently signed HB 250, a new law allowing the use of sound moderators (aka silencers, cans, or suppressors) when hunting all types of game animals in the state. The enactment of this legislation immediately brings Montana in line with the 34 other states that currently allow the use of suppressors for hunting wildlife. Note, in all those states, you must still comply with federal regulations governing ownership of silencers and obtain a tax stamp for each suppressor you own.
The 9th Annual Eastern CMP Games and Creedmoor Cup Matches will be held at Camp Butner, North Carolina, May 1-10, 2015. The Eastern CMP Games run May 1-5, while the Creedmoor Cup Matches take place on May 6-10. All interested shooters are invited to participate in this popular event, which includes: Rimfire Sporter Match, M16 Match, M1 Garand Match, Springfield Match, M1-Carbine Match, Vintage Military Match, Modern Military Match, Vintage Sniper Match, Pistol Matches and more. New for 2015, the CMP will be hold a .22 Rimfire EIC Pistol Match.
The Vintage Sniper Match is a two-person team match, utilizing scoped rifles from the Korean War, World War II or earlier, upon sandbags. Teammates take turns as both shooter and spotter.
Team Smith & Wesson shooter 
