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December 28th, 2011

December SHOT Business Magazine Now Available on Web

SHOT Business magazineAre factory rifles really more accurate than ever? This question is examined in the December issue of SHOT Business. In this issue you’ll also find a good discussion of modern bullet design. In his article Whatever Happened to Bad Bullets?, author David E. Petzal explores why and how bullet performance has improved in recent years. You’ll find plenty of other interesting content in SHOT Business magazine, including numerous gear reviews, retail selling advice, recent news briefs, ATF Q&A, and much more.

The latest issue of SHOT Business magazine is now available for FREE online. You can either read the feature stories in a conventional web layout at Shotbusiness.com, or view the magazine-style ePaper version. This takes longer to load, but you can see larger photos, and flip from page to page like a conventional print magazine.

SHOT Business magazine

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November 26th, 2011

Caliber Preferences Influenced by Component Costs

Prices of bullets and brass have gone up dramatically in recent months. We are hearing from active shooters that cost considerations are influencing their decisions about what calibers and chamberings to shoot. There is a definite trend to smaller cartridges and lighter bullets.

One match shooter told us: “I’ve been debating between a 6.5×47 Lapua and a 6-6.5×47. After comparing the cost of 6.5mm vs. 6mm bullets, I decided on the 6mm. If I save $7 bucks a box, and shoot 4000 rounds a year (40 boxes of bullets), that’s $280.00 in savings–enough to buy a new barrel.”

Here are some comparative bullet prices for 6mm, 6.5mm, 7mm, and 30-caliber bullets at Midsouth Shooters Supply. Prices are for a 100-count box. Note that the 6.5mm match bullets cost 25% more than the 6mms. For active shooters, the price difference adds up quickly. (Prices from current catalog listings; particular items may be out of stock.)

Lapua Brass

Brand 6mm 6.5mm 7mm .308
Berger 105gr VLD
$30.15
140gr VLD
$37.87
180gr VLD
$44.12
190gr VLD
$45.37
Sierra 107gr MK
$26.25
142gr MK
$32.45
175gr MK
$31.08
200gr MK
$33.73

Lapua Brass

Here are brass costs for Lapua brass from Grafs.com. Prices are for 100-count boxes (or four 25-count boxes for the .338 Lapua Magnum). Generally speaking, the bigger the case, the higher the price (except for the .308 Win).

.223 Rem .243 Win 6.5×47 Lapua 6.5-284 .308 Win .338 Lapua Mag
$58.99 $93.99 $104.99 $118.99 $69.99 $264.99

Consider Barrel Life Also
Certainly, moving to a smaller caliber can often reduce what you have to pay for brass and bullets. On the other hand, you need to consider barrel life. Hot-loaded 6mms, such as a .243 Ackley, can burn up a barrel much more quickly than a .308 Winchester. In comparing the “operating costs” of various cartridges, you need to factor in barrel replacement costs as well as component prices. If you have to spend $550 (including smithing) to replace a custom 6mm barrel every 1500 rounds, you’re spending $1100 more than a guy who has a .308 Win which lasts 4500 rounds.

Permalink Bullets, Brass, Ammo, Reloading 2 Comments »
September 21st, 2011

Berger’s New 6mm 105gr Hybrid Match Bullets — First Look

by Robert Whitley
I recently received some of the new Berger 6mm 105gr Hybrid Match Bullets for testing. There is much interest in these new 6mm Hybrids, so I thought I’d share my initial observations. A couple of things are very striking about these new bullets:

Berger 6mm 105 grain Hybrid bullet

1. They appear to be very long, sleek and aerodynamic, while they still maintain a good bearing surface length (full-diameter shank). I like bullets with a sufficient bearing surface length because I find that it makes for bullets that are easier to shoot and tune. I also feel a good bearing surface length makes for a bullet that has a better potential for consistent performance over bullets with a short bearing surface.

Berger 6mm 105 grain Hybrid bullet

2. The published ballistic coefficient (BC) numbers on these bullets are quite high. They have a stated G1 BC of .547 and a G7 BC of .278. Looking at the bullets themselves it’s easy to see why these BC numbers are so high. The front end of the projectile is quite long and similar to what you see on long-range VLDs, but the transition to the bearing surface has a blended appearance (the Hybrid part) vs. the sharp transition you typically see with most VLDs and secant ogive bullets. The 105gr Hybrid bullets also have a long boat-tail.

Berger 6mm 105 grain Hybrid bullet

3. The new Berger 105gr Hybrid bullets measure right around 1.261″ OAL. By comparison, the many other 105gr to 108gr bullets I’ve measured all seem to run in the range of 1.210″ to 1.225″ OAL. The Berger 105gr Hybrid bullets are thus a fair bit longer than the others, which is why a true 1:8″ or faster twist is recommended for them. The bearing surface diameter of the new Hybrids was dead on at 0.243″. So these bullets are neither “fat” nor “skinny”.

4. The tips on these bullets are quite uniform, with the meplats closed up nicely. The Hybrids have nice small tips similar those on the Berger 108s (reasonably tight in diameter). While I sometimes like to point my match bullets, I like to shoot bullets that are ready to go “out of the box”, and these are just that. I’m hoping they will perform very well without meplat trimming or pointing.

Berger’s 6mm 105gr Hybrids Slated to Go on Sale in Late October
Berger has done its own in-house testing on these bullets and found them to be accurate and appropriate for release for additional testing by shooters out in the field. Unless this additional field testing reveals something that no one anticipated (which I doubt), I suspect these new projectiles will be one of Berger’s most popular bullet offerings. The planned official release date for the new 6mm, 105gr Hybrids has been tentatively set for mid- to late-October of 2011. So, barring some last minute changes, these 105s should be on dealers’ shelves before Thanksgiving.

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July 3rd, 2011

30 Caliber vs. 7mm for Long Range — Litz Offers Analysis

Bryan Litz, Ballistician for Berger Bullets, has authored an excellent article on bullet design, What’s Wrong With .30 Caliber?. This story originally appeared in Precision Shooting magazine, and now can be read on LongRangeHunting.com.

In this article, Bryan analyzes the design of long-range bullets, from .22 to .30 caliber. He notes that while 30-caliber bullets can have very high ballistic coefficients, 30-caliber bullets must be very heavy to match the BCs of the 6.5mm and 7mm projectiles. As the chart below shows, it takes a 240gr 30-caliber bullet to match the G7 BC of a 180gr 7mm VLD. But most 30-caliber shooters don’t use those ultra-heavy projectiles because the recoil is excessive and because it takes a monster cartridge burning lots of powder to drive 240-grainers to optimal velocities. Litz notes: “Heavy recoiling rifles are harder to shoot accurately. Even if a shooter overcomes the mental aspect of heavy recoil, the ‘system’ is more sensitive to minor imperfections in shot execution. This may be another reason that drives .30 cal shooters down to the ‘middleweight’ 190-grain class bullets instead of the proportionally heavy 220-240 grain bullets.”

Ballistic Coefficients

Litz concludes that the heavy 7mm bullets are a better choice than the biggest 30-calibers (except in unlimited weight “heavy guns” where recoil is not a factor.) Bryan writes: “Even a moderate 7mm chambering is capable of delivering 2800 to 3000 fps with the heavy 7mm bullets, much faster with magnums. The heaviest .30 cal bullet requires a big magnum just to get to 2800 fps. So the first problem is: you can’t get the heavy .30 cal bullets going as fast as the heavy 7mm bullets! Even if you could get the same muzzle velocities from the heavy .30 cal bullets, it would take much more powder to do it, barrel life would suffer, and you’ve only achieved parity with the 7mm. The various negative effects of the incredible recoil are really just the ‘nail in the coffin’ for the heavy .30 caliber bullets.”

Bryan’s Updated Second Edition Ballistics Book
If you are interested in learning more about bullet design and ballistics, check out Bryan’s book, Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting. This highly-respected resource, now in its second edition, includes experimentally-measured Ballistic Coefficient (BC) data for over 236 long range bullets of various makes. The new edition of Applied Ballistics was upsized to 7″x10″ and Bryan added two new chapters, while updating the existing chapters. Bryan’s book comes complete with a CD containing Version 2.0 of the Point Mass Ballistics Solver. CLICK HERE to order Litz’s book and CD for $49.95.

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March 7th, 2011

Lapua Introduces New .224 Caliber Bullets

new Lapua bulletsLapua recently announced that it is replacing three of its .224-caliber bullet types with new and improved versions. For service rifle shooters, the new GB541 looks like a good choice for short-course events.

55gr Softpoints Replaced with Non-Cannelure E539 Bullet
Two older soft point bullet designs, the 55gr E372 and the 55gr E369, are being replaced by Lapua’s new E539 55gr bullet. The E539 is a multi-purpose NON-cannelure soft point design with a 0.202 G1 BC.

New Higher-BC GB541 Bullet Replaces 69gr GB401
The .224 GB501 69gr Scenar has been replaced by a ballistically superior GB541 69gr Scenar bullet designed especially for long range target shooting. The new GB541 bullet has a 0.341 G1 Ballistic Coefficient and a 0.171 G7. Both numbers were established in field testing using Doppler Radar.

Story sourced by Edlongrange.
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March 6th, 2011

Gear Review: Bruno Concentricity-Checking Tool

German Salazar has posted an informative article about concentricity-checking tools on his Rifleman’s Journal Blog. In that article, German provides a detailed review of the impressive new Bruno Concentricity Checker which features a high-grade dial indicator and an innovative system for holding both loaded cartridges and empty brass in place during the measurement process. German gives the Bruno tool high marks and it is now his favored concentricity gauge, replacing on older Sinclair tool (also reviewed in the article).

German writes: “When measuring a seated bullet, the Bruno [tool] is simple and intuitive in use: adjust the length of the tip holder, set up the indicator to bear on the ogive and get to it. I usually slip a Sinclair hex nut comparator over a bullet to make a faint mark right at the ogive to help me in determining where to set the indicator. I then set the indicator tip about 0.010″ behind the mark so that I am definitely on the bearing surface even if some of the bullets have a bit of variance. It’s a handy way to get set up consistently from one session to another.”

German continues: “Reading an empty case requires a little more effort, but not much…. Once the case mouth is smooth, the readings are in line with those of the Sinclair tool, although easier to read to a fine level of precision due to the finer gradations on the indicator and its horizontal mounting. The Bruno tool has become my principal tool for checking the concentricity resulting from different die setups and for comparing the results of one loading process to another. I simply have more confidence in my ability to get an accurate reading from it. After many years of service, I’ve decided to retire the old Sinclair and make the Bruno tool my primary concentricity tool. It is simply a better made, easier-to-use, more accurate tool and those are the qualities I value in any tool.”

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January 29th, 2011

SHOT Show Report: GS Custom Bullets from South Africa

GS Custom BulletsGS Custom Bullets has been producing high-quality hunting and target bullets in South Africa since 1993. GS Custom Bullets specializes in monometal solids. For hunters, the GS solids have proven extremely effective on game animals, including the biggest species on the African continent. The GS match bullets are CNC-machined to very exacting tolerances, offering superior concentricity and uniformity. The large match bullets feature drive bands for reduced engraving force, and an extremely slippery shape for exceptionally high ballistic coefficients. GS has made a special 1,100-grain 50-caliber projectile that has a calculated G1 BC of 1.85! This bullet, launched at 3400 fps, can stay supersonic out to 4,000 meters — that’s 2.49 miles!

GS Custom Bullets

Gerard Schultz, founder of GS Custom Bullets, holds a number of patents on his bullet designs. Currently GS Custom is selling to the American market through its South African website, GSCustom.co.ZA. However, this year GS Custom hopes to expand production to North America, starting a production facility in the USA. The North American effort will be lead by Gerard Schultz’s daughter, Gina, and her husband Anthony. They can be contacted through GSCustomUSA.com. We met with Gina and Anthony at SHOT Show in Las Vegas and learned more about these remarkable bullet designs. The video is worth watching. These are no ordinary bullets.

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GS Custom Bullets

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January 26th, 2011

SHOT Show Report: Lapua .260 Rem Brass and “L” Series Bullets

You’ve probably heard by now, but this is big news, so it bears repeating. Lapua has started production of .260 Remington cartridge brass. Lapua hopes to deliver the first shipments to the USA by late March, 2011. This is a very positive development for hunters, high power shooters, and tactical shooters. With the latest generation of powders (including Reloder 17), the .260 Remington is a potent cartridge with the 140gr-class bullets, and it hammers with the Lapua Scenar 123s or Berger 130s, and H4350-speed powders. In the video below, Kevin Thomas, Lapua’s USA Marketing Manager, provides more specifics about the .260 brass, and Lapua’s other new-for-2011 products.

Lapua 105 L ScenarOn the bullet front, Lapua is proudly rolling out its new “L” series of projectiles, starting with the 6mm 105gr Scenar and then expanding to the whole Scenar match bullet line. NOTE: These are NOT new bullet designs — Lapua is not changing the bullet shapes, weights, or internal construction. So you’ll be getting the same bullets, only with tighter tolerances, and improved quality control.

Lapua has tightened its production tolerances for the L series of bullets. Lapua claims that the L series of bullets will be more uniform in weight, with improved concentricity. Length from base of bullet to ogive will be held to very tight tolerances. Apart from the notations on the box, the new Lapua L bullets will be marked with an “L” crest stamped on the bullet heel. Lapua claims this tiny stamp will not affect accuracy nor reduce the bullet’s ballistic coefficient.

Lapua explains: “We have set out to tighten all measures and requirements, including our already famous quality control standards.” Scenar L bullets will exhibit: “closer weight tolerances, tighter jacket wall concentricity standards, and greater uniformity in every dimension, starting from the gilding metal cup, lead wire and jacket forming, ending up to core-jacket assembly, boat tail pressing and tipping.”

Lapua 105 L Scenar

Lapua Scenar L 105 6mmTesting the Scenar Ls for Uniformity
Are the new Scenar “L” series bullets actually more uniform than previous Scenars (which were really very, very good)? Based on my quick test of 20 sample bullets pulled at random from a box, I would say the 105gr Scenar Ls are some of the most uniform factory bullets ever. Adam Braverman gave me a box of the new 105gr Scenar “L” bullets. I randomly chose twenty (20) bullets, and measured them base to ogive using a Hornady comparator. With the exception of one bullet, everything was pretty much “dead on”. I listed two at 0.7125″, but they were awfully close to the others. Basically, except for the one bullet measuring 0.711″, they were all the same within the practical resolution of my calipers. Very impressive indeed.

All Bullets within One-Tenth of Grain
Next I checked for weight uniformity. I weighed each of the 20 bullets twice, using a calibrated RCBS ChargeMaster scale. NOTE: This is NOT a lab quality scale. The 0.1 grain total spread among the bullets is within the scale’s range of error. But I did weigh each bullet at least twice, and the ones that were one-tenth of a grain light I weighed four times. Three bullets out of the twenty measured 105.2 grains. All the rest were 105.3 grains. Remarkable.

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December 4th, 2010

ARES Color-Coated Cast Bullets from Slovakia

ARES color BulletsARES Puškárska Dielňa, a Slovakian bullet-maker, has come up with a new colorized bullet coating for cast lead bullets. This coating provides a surface barrier so that the lead does not contact the rifling in the barrel. In addition, no bullet lube is required and the colored coating reduces friction. As explained on the Wieder-Lader.de website, “Please take into consideration that ARES Colored Bullets are more quick than copper plated/FMJ bullets. If you used to [shoot] copper plated/FMJ bullets, please start reloading Colored Bullets (CB) with approx. 5% less powder and adjust the final quantity of powder on basis of your own speed measurements. CBs keep the barrel clean. CBs are ready for reloading, i.e. it is not necessary to grease CBs.”

ARES color Bullets

In the photo below, a .40-caliber bullet is shown before and after firing (the bullet was recovered from the target). You can see that the fired bullet (labeled “after”) has been engraved by the rifling, but very little, if any, lead was exposed.

ARES color Bullets

No this is not a hoax — no Photoshop tricks here. ARES offers a a full line of colored pistol and rifle bullets from .25 caliber up to .58 caliber. Ares even offers colored shotgun slugs. We haven’t seen ARES bullets in the USA yet, but they are sold throughout Europe by ARES Distributors.

ARES color Bullets

Don’t Snack on ARES Bullets
Though ARES colored bullets do look like Jelly Beans, they are most definitely NOT to be eaten. We will still have to wait a while for snack bullets, such as BIO-Bullets, the vitamin-enriched “Incredible Edibles” unveiled in our 2010 April Fool’s Edition.

Edible Bullets

Moly-Polymer Coated Bullets in USA
Precision Bullets in Texas sells cast lead bullets coated with a proprietary moly-polymer matrix. With this special coating, the moly does not rub off like most moly-coated pistol bullets. The coating is tough enough to survive heat that will melt the lead core (See Photo). This Editor has shot thousands of Precision Bullets’ coated bullets in my .45 ACP and .40SW pistols. These “Black Bullets” are extremely accurate and the leading in the barrel is dramatically reduced compared to normal cast lead bullets.

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October 6th, 2010

Hornady’s New 285gr .338 Bullet Wins HG at IBS Nationals

Hornady plans to release a brand new 285gr, .338-caliber match bullet within the next few weeks. This bullet, which boasts a mind-blowing 0.735 G1 BC, has already proven itself in competition. At the 2010 IBS 1000-yard Nationals in September, Scott Fletcher won the Heavy Gun (HG) group title shooting the new Hornady 285gr BTHPs. Scott’s 4-match, 10-shot per target group Aggregate was 9.148″. Scott was shooting a large wildcat, the .338 Sloan. That cartridge is nearly identical to the new .338 Norma Magnum*, which could be described as a “chopped” .338 Lapua Mag — shorter with less case capacity.

Weight is unlimited in the 1000-yard Heavy Gun class. Weight soaks up the recoil of big cartridges like the .338 Norma Magnum, making them manageable to shoot. The Big 30-Cals have long dominated this HG category, but some shooters like Fletcher are experimenting with some really big cartridge/bullet combinations, in pursuit of class-leading ballistics. We don’t know how fast Fletcher pushes his prototype Hornady 285s, but that 0.735 BC has to give the bullets awesome performance in the wind.

Artist’s concept — No photos of the new bullet are available.

.338 285grain Hornady

New Manufacturing Process Produces Bullets with Near-Zero Run-out
According to Hornady’s Chief Ballistic Scientist Dave Emary, the new 285-grainer is a VLD-style, secant ogive projectile with a standard, drawn-copper jacket and lead core. This is a BTHP, NOT a plastic tip bullet like Hornady’s A-Max designs. Emary says, “This bullet was originally developed for the military. It has just about the lowest drag possible with conventional bullet construction and ogive design.” The .338-caliber 285gr bullet is the first of two new super-low drag bullets Hornady will be releasing before the end of the year.

The new 285gr bullets are built with a new manufacturing process that improves jacket concentricity to previously unattainable levels. Emary says: “Measured along the entire jacket, these bullets have extremely low eccentricity. We measured zero to a couple ten-thousandths total run-out along the whole jacket. As a result the bullet has show truly outstanding long-range performance, with sub-half-MOA accuracy at extreme ranges.” Hornady Project Engineer (and 1K shooter) Joe Thielen added: “These bullets are specifically designed and built for long-range use, and the jackets are the some of best I’ve ever seen.”

When will the new bullets be available? End of the year at the latest. Emary says the 285s should be available “before the end of November”. When we asked Hornady Marketing guru Steve Johnson, he said “Soon. They’ll be out soon.” When pressed as to “how soon”, Steve responded: “The release is imminent… imminent”.


*The .338 Norma Magnum was originally developed by the American sport shooter Jimmie Sloan as a long-range sport shooting wildcat cartridge. It was designed to shoot the .338-caliber, 300gr Sierra MatchKing projectile from actions/magazines too short for a .338 Lapua Magnum. Sloan licensed the design to the Norma group. Both the .338 Norma Mag and the larger .338 Lapua Mag are derived from the .416 Jeffreys, but the .338 Norma Mag fits in a shorter action.
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September 28th, 2010

Another Amazing Video from Kurzzeit.com

Werner Mehl, the engineering genius behind Kurzzeitmesstechnik (Kurzzeit), a German technology company, has come up with another spectacular ultra-slow-motion video. Werner has developed some of the most advanced video equipment in the world, allowing him to film bullets in flight with frame rates up to 1,000,000 frames per second. That’s not a misprint — some of the Kurzzeit video cameras can record at ONE MILLION frames per second, though typical Kurzzeit “high-speed” videos might be shot at 200,000 or 250,000 frames per second.

YouTube Preview Image

This 10-minute video was specially prepared by Werner for the 2009 SHOT Show. A masterpiece of high-speed movie-making, Werner’s video displays an amazing array of projectiles and targets. You can see bullets hitting armored and non-armored targets, bullets ripping through ballistic gelatin, bullets shattering glass, and even shotgun pellets striking rifle bullets in mid-air. Look for the effect of hollow points as they pass through the ballistic gelatin, and at the 4:26 mark you can see an airgun pellet slice though a paper target.

PVM-21 chronographHigh-Tech Equipment from Kurzzeit
In addition to producing high-speed video equipment, Kurzzeit builds the PVM-21, one of the most advanced consumer chronographs on the market. The “all-infrared, all the time” PVM-21 works in any lighting conditions, including total darkness. It employs two banks of infrared sensors (front and back — the black boxes in right photo). These are aligned vertically and placed 8″ apart (left to right.) That gives you a huge 4.5″ x 8″ sensor area to register shots. We’ve worked with some other chronographs where the practical “sweet spot” for reliable results was just 2″ x 2″, when using an air rifle. The PVM-21’s large sensor area makes it easy to align your rifle, and you don’t get errors if your shot is just a little off-center.

The PVM-21 can hook up directly to a lap-top computer. That way you can record all your shot velocity data directly into a spreadsheet. The PVM 21’s large sensor area and software interface make the PVM one of this Editor’s favorite chronos, along with the classic Oehler model 35P. In the USA, the Kurzzeit PVM-21 is sold by Neconos.com. The $749.95 price includes sensor unit (with infrared), processing/display unit, infrared remote control, and software. It’s an impressive package — we just wish Werner would upgrade the display unit to include a rechargeable 12V DC battery. Right now you need to use an inline 120V AC to 12V DC transformer, or carry a separate 12V battery. I personally prefer to use a 3.5″x1.5″ rechargeable 12V battery rather than a 120v transformer and extension cords.

PVM-21 chronograph

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June 17th, 2010

Videos Show How Loaded Cartridges and Bullets Are Crafted

Hand-loaders know how to assemble bullet, brass, powder and primer into a loaded cartridge. But have you ever wondered how brass cartridge cases are formed, or how bullets are made, starting with raw materials? Federal Ammunition (a division of ATK) has created an interesting video that shows how factory-loaded ammo is created, from start to finish. The video shows how cartridge brass is cupped, drawn, sized, annealed, then finished-formed. In addition, you can see how bullets are formed then inserted in cartridges with automated machinery. This is a fascinating video, worth watching.

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Bullet-Making Process at the Sierra Bullets Plant
A second video, produced for the Discovery Channel’s How Stuff Works TV show, illustrates how bullets are made at the Sierra Bullets plant. Watch 80-lb billets of lead being drawn into wire to be used as bullet cores. Then see how copper jackets are formed, lubed, sized and combined with bullet cores to create the finished product — precision bullets for hunters and match shooters.

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Thanks to German Salazar for finding these two videos.

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