True Velocity have made a very interesting announcement about their 6.8 TVCM ammunition which was originally developed for the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program. True Velocity have successfully chambered several 7.62x51mm chambered weapon systems in the new 6.8mm TVCM round.

The Gould Brothers are a pair of exhibition shooters specializing in some pretty extreme shotgun shooting. The brothers offer a special brand of outdoor entertainment with their one-of-a-kind trick shooting demonstrations and enthusiastic personalities. This week, the Gould Brothers have broken two of their own records and nailed a 180-yard pigeon break using Federal Ammunition’s Heavyweight TSS #7 shot.

Federal shotshells will be the official ammunition used by the United States Olympic Shooting team for shotgun events. Due to extremely strict regulations surrounding ammunition and firearms possession in Japan, competitors will have to have ammunition shipped to them and held offsite until on-site reserves need to be replenished. Federal will be shipping their Gold Medal 24-gram International loads and Federal Gold Medal Paper loads which are said to have the extremely consistent shot size and patterning.

I’m not usually one for gun art but I think this little piece of history mated together with nature is a nifty idea. A Facebook post by Juneau’s Hidden History page featured an Alaskan tree stump loaded up with spent brass casings that completely covered its top surface. The age of both the stump and casings is a mystery as some of the cases have gone out of commercial production since before WWII.

Competition participation is becoming increasingly popular over the year and with that increased popularity has come to a much higher demand for competition-grade products. Sierra has been a well-respected name in the reloading community for its high quality and consistent projectiles for reloaders who like to roll their own competition loads. Sierra is now offering a new line of MatchKing Competition ammunition for those that are looking to eliminate variances in components performance for competitions.

According to a recent piece of news from CBS Miami, the nation has seen a 31% increase in firearms purchases in the first four months of the year when compared to 2020. According to FBI statistics, nearly 16 million background checks for firearms purchases were accomplished between January and April. Every gun store I’ve heard from has seen record sales and despite the ammo shortages, each range has maintained a more or less steady stream of customers throughout the last year. I wonder, however, if all of these gun sales will continue to outpace the ammunition industry or if we will start to see boxes of ammo show up on the shelves.

Taya Kyle’s company Loyalty Bound, LLC has partnered up with United Forces Enterprises, a distributor of both domestic and foreign ammunition and arms, to introduce their new line of American Sniper ammunition under the Chris Kyle Brand. The partnership aims to do this by sourcing domestically and foreign-produced ammunition to help supplement the struggling ammunition industry. The partnership is stated to provide ammunition ranging from .22LR all the way up to .338 Lapua Magnum as well as shotgun cartridges. Sportsmans Guide is slated to be the retail launch partner for the new line of ammunition with the ammunition being made available for sale on their website.

Hornady, one of America’s top quality ammunition manufacturers, has had success with their BLACK line of ammunition geared towards MSR platforms for a number of years. I’ve had great luck with their 7.62×39 loading, as well as with their excellent BLACK SBR 5.56 offering.  Recently, I purchased some of the Hornady BLACK 6.5 Grendel 123gr ELD Match loads to try out.  I have a compact 16″ barrel medium game rifle chambered in 6.5 Grendel, so I’m always on the lookout for different ammunition to try out in this gun.  Let’s see how the Hornady BLACK 6.5 Grendel did.

Hello and welcome back to another edition of  The Rimfire Report! The Rimfire Report is an ongoing series all about the rimfire firearm world. I’m sure many of you are feeling the ammunition squeeze and rimfire junkies like myself are not insulated from the current inflated price of ammunition. Before this spike in ammunition prices, most of us could have expected to pay about six or seven dollars for a 100-round sleeve of standard velocity .22LR ammunition. Now that price has skyrocketed to over $12 per sleeve if you can even find it on shelves. Today we’ll be attempting to circumvent the inflated prices and unavailability of the ammunition using nail blanks and commonly available 22 caliber pellets.

I suppose it is par for the course in these strange and difficult times for shooters but two more price increases have come out from two more reputable ammunition manufacturers. At the end of April, both Hornady Ammunition and Kent Cartridge announced a set of price increases due to increased manufacturing costs and the price of acquiring raw materials.

If you shoot suppressed, you like the quieter experience that a silencer provides. Hearing-safe shooting is the main benefit to a can, right? One issue that may arise is that most common ammo isn’t designed to perform at subsonic levels. This means that even though your suppressor will help in containing the rapidly expanding gases propelling your bullet – and thus the flash and sound this creates – if and when that projectile breaks the sound barrier in flight, it will make a popping noise that is actually a tiny sonic boom. The quietest suppressed shooting typically requires the use of subsonic ammo. 300 Blackout was designed primarily intending to do just this, although supersonic .300BLK options like Barnaul‘s 145-grain loads do exist.

Pilgrim Ammunition is a dedicated self-defense ammunition company focusing on lightweight, high-velocity rounds. Their Torch lineup includes 9mm,.380 auto, and .45 ACP, and all three offerings currently use a high-velocity solid copper hollow point (SCHP)

The Civilian Marksmanship Program offers vintage military rifles and pistols for sale from time to time for a purchase to the general public. In their latest site update, CMP warns against the use of certain types of .30-06 Springfield ammunition inside specific rifles that are at least 70 years or older. The warning is being issued as an addition to the manual that is included in each of their rifle shipments.

Back in 2017, a new ammo brand called NovX came onto the scene. Their intended differentiators were supposed to be twofold: the use of Shell Shock NAS3 stainless steel/aluminum casings instead of standard brass, and the use of copper/polymer projectiles. NovX claimed that their designs, specs, and choice of these non-traditional materials had allowed them to create rounds that they characterized as having/being “…ballistically superior; reduced recoil, match-grade accuracy, devastating wound channels.” However, things went largely quiet after that initial release, and although some ammo appears to have been produced and sold since those early days, today NovX is not particularly widely used or known. The company may be looking to change that now, as they’ve recently ramped up media activity, and issued the following press release (their apparent first since December of 2017) regarding a new ammo offering.

RCBS is one of the biggest names in reloading and also happens to be one of the most trusted companies for purchasing reloading equipment and supplies. The RCBS Matchmaster lineup includes both a neck bushing sizer die and a micrometer adjustable bullet seater die so that reloaders can get their case neck tension and bullet seating down to an extremely precise and consistent measurement. Meanwhile, the Group D dies are RCBS’ popular lineup of die sets for bottleneck cartridges of which there are 8 new calibers being added.

Long-time reloaders who favor Dillon Precision Reloading rigs or components will no doubt be familiar with Dillon’s Blue Press catalog. The bi-monthly catalog is a complimentary subscription service that Dillon Precision offers to anyone who desires it. Inside the small magazine is a full catalog that is updated with every new edition as well as articles about reloading and other topics the guys over at Dillion Precision find interesting. The Blue Press is now available in a digital format right to your inbox!

Many of you will remember that last year the Remington Arms Company was broken up by several of its component and brand divisions and sold off in what has probably been one of the largest firearms company selloffs in recent memory. Remington Ammunition was acquired by Vista Outdoors and it’s now back in “full swing” according to the Remington Ammunition president. This acquisition included the Remington Outdoors Lonoke, Arkansas ammunition facility. Remington Ammunition President Jason Vanderbrink had some enthusiastic news about the rebirth of the Remington Ammunition brand.

Vista Outdoor – the parent company for CCI, Federal, Remington, and Speer has just announced that there will be price increases in response to “unprecedented raw material price increases” that have occurred just over the last couple of months. Customers can expect to start seeing the effects of these price increases around July of 2021 for both ammunition and primers.

As supply continues to struggle to meet demand in the ammunition market, several manufacturers have been announcing price increases across the board for all of their rifle, pistol, and shotgun ammunition. Fiocchi just announced in late March that there would be a minimum 5% increase on their rimfire, centerfire pistol, centerfire rifle, slug, buckshot, and target loads beginning April 30th, 2021. Full details and exact price increase percentages are contained in the press release below.

Hello and welcome back to another edition of  The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about rimfire firearms, ammunition, and other related subjects. This week I’d like to start diving into some rather obscure or lesser-known ammunition types found within the annals of rimfire history. This week we’re beginning this ammunition history trip with a rather obscure but notable cartridge – the 17.5mm Danish Snider or more accurately 17.5mm x 29R (that is .69 caliber). This cartridge was used extensively with both the Danish Navy and Army leading to two different rifles being produced for it. The rifles began to see use sometime in the 1860s but there is much debate about which exact date/year the cartridge and rifle actually were pressed into service by the Danish military.

Nestled into Italy’s mountainous northern region, Lombardy, you can find the small town of Lecco. This ancient and picturesque settlement has been the proud home of Fiocchi Munizioni for nearly a century and a half. Fiocchi Ammunition has been producing cartridges and shotshells since its inception in 1876, and began importing ammo into the US in the 1950s. This initial foray into the American market was made possible by virtue of a partnership with Smith & Wesson during that time. The ’50s saw the owning family establish a factory in Alton, Illinois, but this manufacturing effort – and the Smith & Wesson partnership which enabled it –  were destined to be short-lived.

Do you hunt with the 6.5 Creedmooror or the .223 Remington? Good news for you as Lapua just presented new hunting ammunition that will hit the shelves in the summer. The .223 Rem is loaded with a 3.2 g / 50 gr Lapua Naturalis hunting bullet and the 6.5 mm has a 10.1 g / 156 gr Soft Point MEGA projectile. The first one comes with a mushrooming effect for varmit hunting and the latter is designed for the deer hunter.

Though not common today, the 5.45x39mm AR-15 was popular for a time. There are still a fair number of these guns in circulation but they are something of a novelty today.

As a small glint of hope emerges along the horizon of ammunition and reloading components being back in regular stock, many will want to pick up the hobby of reloading. Reloading is not only a great skill to learn but it can also be a hedge or supplement to the purchase of regular ammunition if you find yourself with the extra time and willingness to learn how to do it. Hornady has just announced that they will soon be releasing the 11th Edition of their Cartridge Reloading Handbook. The Hornady® 11th Edition Handbook of Cartridge Reloading will feature load specifications for many new cartridges including .350 Legend, 6.5 PRC, .300 PRC, and 6mm ARC.

The Remington name has been inextricably linked to the world of American firearms for most of our nation’s history. Eliphalet Remington II, the then-23-year-old son of a colonial-era blacksmith, made his first flintlock rifle barrel on his father’s forge in 1816. The gun was so well received that he immediately began manufacturing more barrels in quantity, and the foundations of today’s Remington Arms Co. were born. Now more than two centuries later, the brand’s modern firearms are still in heavy circulation all over the United States and beyond. The company also has a major ammunition manufacturing division, Remington Ammunition, producing a wide variety of rifle and pistol calibers, as well as shotshells.

Current ammo prices are painful. If you’ve been shooting for a while, you understand this all too well. The shortage of essentially all common calibers has been absolutely rampant for months, and the basic laws of supply and demand are being felt across the industry. Demand has spiked, supply has dropped, and so costs are soaring. Unfortunately, 2020 saw a perfect storm of logistical, social, and political pressures that put an unsustainable strain on essentially all ammo manufacturers operating in the US market. At the time of this writing, even the cheapest steel-cased .223 ammo is often selling in excess of $0.60 cost per round – and even then, it’s selling out fast.

SWISS P, a  RUAG Ammotec subsidiary company, has introduced a new sniper rifle cartridge called .375 SWISS P (9.5x70mm). This is a .375 caliber rebated rim bottleneck cartridge. It shares the same rim diameter and overall length with the .338 Lapua Magnum, however, it has a larger (15.73mm (.619″)) base diameter and is advertised as a cartridge that “fills the gap in ballistic performance between the .338 Lapua Magnum (8.6×70 mm) and the .50 Browning Machine Gun (12.7×99 mm)“.

M1152 Ball and M1153 Special Purpose 9x19mm cartridges have been adopted by the US military along with the MHS handguns (M17 and M18). The M1152 is loaded with a 115-grain full metal jacket (FMJ) bullet and the M1153 Special Purpose cartridge utilizes a 147-grain jacketed hollow point (JHP) projectile. The intended use for the M1153 ammo is the situations where overpenetration is a concern, to minimize the collateral damage. Contrary to popular belief, not all hollow point cartridges are banned for military use – the US military has this option for their handguns and apparently, it does not violate any conventions.

Frangible ammunition has been around for quite some time but many frangible ammunitions currently produced still have some amount of material that occasionally retains its weight and can come back to harm the shooter or bystanders. nP Technology has created a new customizable lead-free frangible ammunition that has no splash back on steel targets even when fired at extremely close range.

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world. Today we’ll be reviewing some match grade .22LR ammunition – Lapua X-ACT. Ammunition is quite expensive right now, even for rimfire shooters. However, despite the increased cost of ammo, I have seen people come out in droves to shooting competitions. With a rimfire PRS match on the horizon, I decided to test out some premium match-grade ammunition to see if the extra expense really translates to extra accuracy.