Federal Ammunition has introduced a new line of shotshell loads on the heels of this year’s Olympics. The new High Over All (HOA) shotshell loads are intended for competitive use and offer shooters better reloadability and more consistent shot patterns. Federal has optimized these loads for trap, skeet, and sporting clay shooters that need the best that Federal Ammunition can offer its customers.

SAR USA have announced they will be bringing Turkish-made 9×19mm ammo into the US from their parent company Sarsilmaz. The SAR 9mm ammunition is available in 50 round boxes in either 115 grain FMJ or 124 grain FMJ.

Under new State Department sanctions, there will be no Russian ammo or firearms coming into the US beginning on September 7th of this year. The Department of State published a fact sheet today regarding new sanctions imposed on Russia. The relevant text of the sanctions includes:

If you shoot match-grade .223 ammo, this alert is for you. Earlier this year, in February, the bullet makers at ammo manufacturing company Berger announced two new additions to their .223 Remington caliber offerings. They released a 73-grain boat tail target load and a 77-grain OTM Tactical model. According to the official product description, the 77-grain version was meant to be “…a premium solution for Mil/LE applications with 1:8” twist platforms and faster. The 77 Grain OTM Tactical projectile has a superior ballistic coefficient and performance to any comparable projectile in its weight class. Its OTM design and sleek, tangent ogive profile, provides flawless performance from magazine-feel applications in any gas-gun platform. Trusted by professionals around the globe, the .223 Remington, 77 Grain OTM Tactical delivers when lives are on the line.”

The recent and hasty withdrawal of the United States Armed Forces from the country of Afghanistan has been somewhat of a controversy. Many say that the withdrawal of US forces was irresponsible while others are lauding the decision as a step towards a more peaceful world. No matter what side you fall on, if you’re a serious gun aficionado then you are probably curious about all the shiny new hardware the Taliban has found themselves now owning. Today we’ll take a brief look at some of the new weapons of the Taliban and how they are already starting to integrate some US and European weaponry into their arsenal.

Is everyone excited to still be talking about the growth of ammo prices over the last year and a half? Of course, we’re not. Unfortunately, although there has been some recent relief in some areas and for some calibers, for the most part, we’re still nowhere near pre-panic levels. Even more unfortunately, it looks like the journey to get back there may be slow or possibly never fully come. Between 2020-2021’s prolonged period of massively increased demand and logistical/supply chain problems, it’s been a tough time for most shooters’ bullet budgets. TFB has reported on some prior pricing increase announcements, and sadly, we now have to do so again. The quote below comes from a memo that Vista Outdoor recently sent their dealers.

Earlier this year Winchester was awarded a $35 million dollar ammunition contract with the United States Army to provide the service 5.56, 7.62, and .50 caliber ammunition in what ended up being their first military contract following the decision for Winchester to be the operating contractor at the famous Lake City Army Ammunition Plant. Now, Winchester has just received yet another federal contract, this time from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to provide the agency with .308 Winchester/7.62×51 NATO for a 5-year term and valued at $5 million.

True Velocity first showed composite-cased .308 Winchester ammunition intended for the civilian market at the SHOT Show 2020. Recently, the company released a limited run of commemorative box sets of this ammunition. And shortly after that, they announced that their .308 Win composite-cased ammo is now available commercially.

When looking at all the different aspects of carrying concealed, there’s a wide variety of opinions of carry ammo. Depending on who you talk with, certain people like a specific type of defense ammo for one reason or another while others don’t even think it’s an important aspect to think about. Besides the actual handgun, having the right self-defense round will be a crucial component to defending yourself in a given situation. Let’s take a deeper dive into why self-defense rounds are necessary and a brief rundown of a few popular models of carry ammo.

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! As rimfire shooters, we are all pretty intimately familiar with the various load offerings that .22LR has on tap for us to choose from. Anything from very quick and very light 32-grain hollow-point offerings all the way up to some tough to stabilize yet heavy-hitting 60 grain subsonic offerings. The specific cartridge we are talking about today is the Australian-made 42 Max rimfire. 42 Max features a 42-grain projectile and was offered both in a subsonic configuration (1,062 fps) and supersonic (1,320) with a truncated cone hollow point bullet configuration. At the time of its release, it was considered a godsend by many American rimfire shooters for its combination of heavy bullet weight and speed which made it perfect for varmint hunting.

I’ve been following the Precision Rifle Series (PRS) for quite some time now and I still have yet to take the plunge into becoming a competitor myself. At a recent media event, I had the pleasure of meeting Troy Livesay – a professional PRS shooter who attended the event to give us all a good rundown of a few new Bushnell optics ( XRS3 and DMR3) as well as give us a few of his personal tips for improving your performance at any PRS match. Troy gave us these 5 tips in the hope that it would help spring PRS shooters (like myself) and bring new shooters to the sport.

The folks over at Arcflash labs are excited to announce the introduction of the world’s first and only handled Gauss rifle – the GR-1 ANIVL. The GR-1 is a high-energy Gauss rifle capable of producing up to 100 Joules (75 ft-lbs) of muzzle energy – similar to that of an air rifle. The GR-1 is being marketed as a novel armament concept to circumvent the need for gunpowder, avoid firearms infringement and provide a new way to arm yourself. Better yet, Arcflash has put their GR-1 ANVIL into production and it is currently available for pre-order.

I was recently able to attend an event where representatives from RCBS brought out some of their newest reloading products for us to try out during our stay. One such item was the RCBS Chargemaster Supreme which is replacing the ChargeMaster 1500 Combo pack normally sold by RCBS. The new powder dispenser boasts Bluetooth compatibility with the RCBS app (like the ChargeMaster Lite), a 0.1-grain accuracy from its medical-grade load cell, and an improved universal power supply that can work in many countries.

The Texas-based composite-cased ammunition manufacturer True Velocity have announced the sale of their first commercially available ammunition. To celebrate this they are offering commemorative box sets including 22 rounds of “state-of-the-art, composite-cased True Velocity” .308 Win ammunition, a branded D.O.P.E. logbook and an official 1 MOA True Velocity challenge coin. The package is retailing for $159.99 (MSRP).

One of the most popular waterfowl hunting loads is back with a vengeance as HEVI-Shot has just reintroduced their tungsten waterfowl loads with their new HEVI-XII. The HEVI-XII delivers more power down range, more pellets on target, and is completely non-toxic. The new loading will come in several different configurations and will also be available for both 12 and 20 gauges.

Occasionally the guys over at Bear Creek Arsenal will come out with beautifully designed infographics that they will then post to their website. As they have done in the past, Bear Creek has graciously allowed us to share their infographics here at The Firearm Blog. This time the subject of focus is brass vs steel cased ammunition and the pros and cons of each when it comes to the AR-15 platform.

Polymer cased ammunition specialists True Velocity have announced a couple of new appointments. Firstly, Tom Weichel has been appointed operations chief. Weichel is an industry veteran with 30 years experience, joining True Velocity from Texas Instruments. Additionally, Dr. Bruce Jette, the Former Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, has joined True Velocity as Advisory Board Chairman.

Welcome to the TFB Podcast Roundup 2: This week we’ve got a fresh new variety of podcasts as well as one special throwback episode featuring the legendary Chuck Pressburg from Presscheck Consulting. I was drawn back to this particular podcast because of the recent uptick in activity surrounding the Next Generation Squad Weapon. In the podcast, Chuck goes on to explain why we’ve historically gone with lighter calibers over larger ones and why we’ve often opted to go with smaller calibers to carry more ammunition. We’ll save that one for the end and instead start this week out with Vortex Nation’s excellent podcast in which they take 10 minutes to talk about a 6.5 Creedmoor life hack they think you should all know.

The RCBS ChargeMaster line of powder measures is the top of the line when it comes to reloading equipment. With a grain measuring resolution of 0.1 grains and a 2000 grain capacity, the new Bluetooth compatible RCBS ChargeMaster Link is the latest addition to the ChargeMaster lineup. RCBS has recently released the full details of this new powder measure and is now taking preorders that will begin to ship in late August.

Although ammunition availability is starting to become a regular thing again, some big box stores are still missing crucial calibers as well as reloading supplies. A message that was released via YouTube by Remington president Jason Vanderbrink had one simple message “Big Green Ammo is Back on the Shelf.” In the video listed below, Vanderbrink goes over the company’s continued vision and goals as the firearms industry and the community continue to navigate the stage times we are all going through.

TFB recently reporting on the announcement of a safety recall for certain lots of Winchester and Browning 9mm ammunition. The 115-grain rounds in question, manufactured for these brands in East Alton, Illinois by the Olin Corporation, are subject to a factory defect causing the powder to burn improperly. This can cause what is known as a “squib load”, which means that the bullet may not have enough force behind it to exit the firearm’s muzzle. Attempting to fire another round through a barrel obstructed by a squib can cause a catastrophic failure during which the gun could potentially blow up in the shooter’s hand. See below for the previous articles detailing the original Winchester and Browning recall, as well as coverage of squib situations that TFB has published previously.

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world. If you had asked me two years ago if I thought reloading would be almost dead I would have told you no. However, as most of you who do reload have seen we’ve reached somewhat of a bottleneck in regards to one simple core component to the reloading process – primers. Primers have reached an astronomical level of price inflation and it doesn’t seem like the big four can do anything to bring affordable primers back to the consumer market. That is why back near the end of 2020 I was elated to see that Cutting Edge Bullets was offering a pre-order of a .22LR reloading kit which included primed brass. So what’s it like reloading .22LR with one of these kits? Let’s find out.

When it comes to handling your firearms in any capacity or context, nothing is more important than safety. Everyone should know the basic firearms safety rules inside and out before they ever get on a live-fire range. Beyond those fundamentals like keeping your gun pointed in a safe direction and keeping your finger off of the trigger until fully ready to fire, there are plenty of additional facets to consider. Owning good quality equipment and taking proper care of it are also key. One element that tends to get less attention is ammo selection. Particularly these days, with high prices and scarce availability, we tend to take what ammo we can get. Unfortunately, especially with the last year’s proliferation of first-time gun owners who may not know any better, this could cause bad rounds to fall into unsuspecting hands, including some subject to recall.

If you’re an experienced shooter, by this juncture you’re painfully aware of how brutal the ammo supply has been over the last year and change. Supply has been down, costs have gone up, numerous price increases have been announced, and there’s been precious little end in sight for months. Starting in early 2020, the industry saw something of a perfect storm of pressure factors squeezing the supply chain and skyrocketing demand. The cascading effects of Covid-related logistical issues, civil unrest, panic buying/hoarding, vast throngs of new first-time gun buyers in record-breaking numbers, and political/governmental concerns wreaked havoc on the balance of supply and demand for virtually every type and size of cartridges and shells, other than a scattering of more niche calibers like SIG’s 300 H’AMR offerings. TFB has covered the ammo shortage and related matters, like new gun owners, and a sampling of some of those articles from the past year are listed for you below.

Federal Ammunition have announced that they have been awarded a 3-year contract with the Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium. The contract will cover the development of new ammunition and ammunition technology with enhanced lethality.

Six new Sako cartridges are set to make their debut on the US market soon. Announced via their Facebook page and other social media, Sako let customers know that beginning in June new offerings for much popular hunting and precision rifle shooting calibers will be offered by Sako. The new cartridge list is extensive and gone over in detail in the press release below but it’s safe to say that if you have a caliber that you like to hunt with or compete with, it’ll be included in this new list of offerings.

Subsonic ammunition is a world unto its own when it comes to the firearms, loading techniques, and materials used in their design and manufacturing. Handloaders will know the hell that it is to get a loading right and it’s places like Discreet Ballistics and people like David Stark who make it that much easier. Discreet Ballistics specializes in subsonic ammunition production and also produces some pretty unique suppressor innovations like their PopStop first-round pop reduction system. Today on the podcast Pete and David will talk about the company’s origins in New Hampshire and their recent move to Wyoming as well as the methodology and design behind their subsonic projectiles and ammunition.

Winchester Ammunition is one of the top names in the ammo game. They manufacture a wide variety of cartridge and shotshell varieties from their plants based in Oxford, Mississippi and East Alton, Illinois. Last year they took over the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, and produce ammo for the US military as well as their commercial market offerings. From standard rifle cartridges and shotgun shells to rimfire offerings and handloading components, there isn’t much in the world of ammo that they haven’t touched. Now this noted American ammunition maker has announced a special new series, this time with a focus on supporting US military veterans. The new USA Valor series of ammunition has been introduced with the promise that a portion of the proceeds from each sale of this special-edition ammo will be donated to Folds of Honor.

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! The Rimfire Report is all about the rimfire firearm world. Sometimes we talk targets, sometimes we talk guns, and other times like today we’ll be talking about ammunition. 5mm Remington Rimfire Magnum (RRM) is a relatively new offering in the rimfire firearm world. The round was designed back in 1969 but wasn’t put into production until the early 70s. Billed as a more affordable high-velocity rimfire cartridge, 5mm RRM was intended to squeeze a little bit of extra range out of the similarly sized .22WMR case but in the long run, 5mm RRM never quite caught on and eventually was discontinued in 1973. However, in 2008, a few companies started producing 5mm Remington Rimfire Magnum along with rumors that some companies would begin producing firearms chambered in 5mm RRM. So is 5mm RRM completely dead or is there hope of it being resurrected at some point down the road?

According to a Mexican news outlet, over 7 million rounds of ammunition were stolen from Industrias Tecnos (Aguila Ammunition) – a Mexican-based manufacturer of ammunition for small arms. The company, which is based in the city of Cuernavaca, had two tractor-trailers stolen while they were in the Guanajuato which contained a total of 7,114,150 rounds of various types of ammunition. The theft was reported on June 10th, 2021 and at the time of writing, there is no current indication that the trailers have been found.