Heckler & Koch have introduced their new 5.56x45mm Gen 3 polymer magazine at the 2018 Enforce Tac law enforcement and defence trade fair at Nürnberg Messe, Germany.

Federal Premium has garnered a strong reputation for quality with a lot of their lines of ammunition, but one resoundingly stands out from the others. Their HST hollow-point rounds for various handgun calibers are deployed by consumers and law enforcement the world over. Now to add to that list will be multiple agencies of the United States Homeland Security.

Sellier & Bellot is a firearms ammunition manufacturer situated in Vlašim, Czech Republic, and a subsidiary of the Brazilian company CBC.

Federal Premium is one of the largest ammunition manufacturers throughout the world and is often one of the most sought after as well. From weekend range warriors to the men and women that serve and protect our country, Federal Premium makes ammunition for everybody. Very recently they were awarded a domestic ammunition contract to supply the US Naval Surface Warfare Center – Crane Divison, operated under the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command. This ammunition contract was in the amount of $20 Million over the course of 5 years. The contract begins this year in 2018 and they are expected to deliver .40 S&W frangible rounds, specifically with Federal Premium’s lead-free Catalyst high-performance primer.

There are millions of United States Carbine, .30, M1 Carbines out there.  There’s a lot more to these light, handy, and once-affordable carbines than one might think if one hasn’t handled them before.  Despite their oft-repeated combat ineffectiveness, they make a well balanced and light home defense carbine.  I personally know someone who uses the M1 as their carbine of choice for such a purpose.  My personal version is a papered, 1943-dated carbine of General Motors manufacture.  While I enjoy taking it to the range, the .30 Carbine ammunition that I’ve been able to get for it  has been somewhat low-powered.  I’ve often wondered if I had to use this carbine for defensive purposes, what would be available as quality ammunition for such a purpose?

Now, some folks might argue that it’s “good enough”. That’s a fair point, depending on your interpretation of “good enough” and what use you intend to put it to. Is it “good enough” in the sense that it’s still live ammo that pokes holes in stuff? Sure, I guess. Is it “good enough” for your carry pistol? My opinion is worth every penny you paid for it, but I don’t think so. There are too many solid choices that do meet the standards to settle for anything less than outstanding performance for carry ammo.

As you know, forming the neck, shoulder and taper of the cartridge case is a process that is done after drawing the straight walled brass of proper diameter and length. Starline now offers .223 Remington brass that hasn’t passed the neck and shoulder forming process. It is basically a straight walled case of .378 diameter and 1.8″ length. They call it .223 Un-Tapered brass.

When Federal Premium announced their 3rd Degree turkey loads it put much of the ammunition industry on alert. The idea of putting 3 different shot sizes into one shell sounded like a garbage idea, literally.

Federal Premium has rolled out a new series of shotgun shells for turkey hunting as much of the US gears up for spring season hunts. The all-new Grand Slam turkey loads are going to be offered in your 3 likely suspects of 10 Gauge, 12 Gauge and 20 Gauge with payloads of 4 Shot, 5 Shot and 6 Shot for consumers to choose from.

Solid copper hollow points typically offer excellent reliability and are a solid alternative to traditional, lead core jacketed hollow points, especially in locales where lead is banned. This test features a Springfield Armory standard, 5″ 1911A1 firing Prograde’s loading of Barnes 185 gr TAC-XP through four layers of denim to simulate heavy clothing as well as bare ballistic gel.

A European company called Armanov makes different firearm parts and accessories as well as reloading equipment. In this article, we’ll take a look at a case gauge box made by this company which makes the headspace checking of loaded ammunition a much faster process.

In this article, we’ll take a look at an experimental Soviet cartridge (5.6x60mm) and an interesting technological failure of the manufacturing process. This article is based on one written by Nikolay Dvoryaninov, a renown Russian ammunition and firearms expert. Dvoryaninov’s article was published in Kalashnikov Gun Magazine.

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Federal Premium recently went back to the drawing board to see if they could improve upon a time-tested standard for handgun defense loads. After extensive testing and some minor, meaningful changes they have developed the Hydra-Shok Deep defense load; an improved variant of the staple Hydra-Shok round.

A YouTube channel called WarDoc has published a video where they show a rifle grenade launcher made in self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. This device is basically a tube attached to the muzzle of an AK-74 rifle. Instead of purpose made rifle grenades, it uses the projectiles of 23x152mmB autocannon rounds. As in the case of many other rifle grenades, in order to shoot it, one must load a blank cartridge into the rifle, load the grenade (the 23mm projectile) from the muzzle and shoot the gun. Let’s watch that video then discuss some design aspects of this launcher:

Peterson Cartridge Company is a manufacturer of brass casings for handloaders that are primarily designed for and used by long-distance shooters. Although they are a smaller company based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania they produce a very healthy amount of Peterson Match Grade Brass for consumers.

Speer has always been highly regarded for the hollow-point (HP) ammunition they are able to produce for law enforcement and civilian use. Similarly, the French National Police force is well respected throughout the world for their training and capabilities.

A popular YouTube channel called The Slow Mo Guys makes a variety of cool videos filmed with high-end slow motion cameras. Among their videos, there is a fair amount of gun-related ones too. Arguably one of the most interesting slow motion footages is to see the bullet in flight or hitting various objects. Who doesn’t like to watch these mesmerizing videos?

Nearly at the end of our 2018 SHOT Show TFB Coverage is the catchall category for anything without a serial number. Like the baubles in a Christmas stocking, sometimes the coolest gifts are small and inexpensive (some are just small). Check out some of the most popular ammo and accessories from this year’s show. And thank you to all our readers who submitted ideas and suggestions for our on-the-ground teams.

SAAMI has published drawings of three newly standardized cartridges. As mentioned in the title, these are the .224 Valkyrie, 6mm Creedmoore and .24 Nosler. Let’s take a look at each of these cartridge drawings.

“Novel Combustible Cartridge Cases for Next Generation Small Arms Ammunition” – this is precisely the title of a solicitation of the US Army published on the website of a US Government program called SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research).

A key part of the capability brought to the table by the US Army’s new Squad Designated Marksman Rifle is its chambering for the 7.62mm round. Specifically, this chambering allows the SDMR to fire the (also brand new) XM1158 Advanced Armor Piercing (ADVAP) round, designed to give the squad the capability to defeat advanced ceramic armors at combat ranges. There may be juuuuust one little problem, though: Cost. The US Army’s Ammunition Budget Justification for Fiscal Year 2019 was released this month; in it was procurement information on the XM1158 ADVAP, and a bit of a shocking sticker price to boot:

About a month ago there was a shootout involving a criminal and Ukrainian police officers in Odessa, Ukraine. After the raid on the building where the suspect was shooting from and the subsequent search, police also found an illegal gun shop and  seized several firearms made there. These kinds of incidents frequently happen all over the world. It wouldn’t be too interesting from the firearms standpoint if not the nature of the guns that were seized.

About a month ago we talked about the PICRA family of cartridges. As I mentioned in that article, this Czech company makes not only ammunition but also competition pistols and revolvers, hunting rifles and unusual weapons like net guns and blank firing guns that the manufacturer calls acoustical weapons. In this article, we’ll take a quick look at the Picra’s acoustical gun.

IMI Systems has published a news release telling about their new enhanced performance 5.56x45mm ammunition called 5.56APM (Armor Piercing Match). The round is completely developed and they are already manufacturing it. It is supplied to IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) for testing and evaluation.

If you are a precision rifle shooter, there should be very few reasons that shooters should have to pay over several dollars for a single piece of unfired brass. Unless you are a reloader that is. One of the really neat niches that I came across at SHOT 2018 was a company called RCC Brass based in Amarillo, Texas. RCC Brass machines cartridges from brass, instead of the traditional annealing process that shapes typical brass cartridges used throughout the entire world. They do this by taking a cold hammer forged 12-foot brass rod, cutting it to spec, and then machining the pieces of brass into the contours and specifications of whatever cartridge is required. One of the advantages is that there is no annealing that takes place throughout this entire process or is needed during the course of reloading the fired cartridges.

In an age where everything has to be “Tactical”, GPS gets to the point (although the company does have some “tactical” themed lines”). The company was founded by a Trap and Skeet shooter who simply needed a better way to carry range equipment back and forth. What I’ve always liked about the company is their vision to make a shooting bag tailored for a shooters needs. Different pockets purely made for magazines, cleaning rod holders, separate ammunition storage compartments, etc… A range bag really needs this sort of design input because of the peculiar things needed during a training session. Such as the fact that the bag needs to support a large amount of weight (such as firearms and ammunition). But at the same time, you’re not going to be running through an obstacle course with the equipment.

A Lithuanian company called MakSnipe brought to the SHOT Show 2018 their line of 12 gauge slugs which they are going to launch in the US market. The company plans to offer loaded ammunition as well as the slugs separately. Their 12 gauge ammunition comes loaded with Baschieri & Pellagri powders and in Fiocchi hulls. All MakSnipe slugs are lead-free and have steel and polymer construction. Let’s take a quick look at the slugs this company makes.

Lyman has released a number of new products this year, but we’ll only be able to get to a few of them that really stand out. First off is the company’s new reloading line, branded in bright orange. In order of weight, they are the Brass Smith Ideal C-Frame Press, the Brass Smith Victory Single Stage Press, and the Brass Smith All-American 8 Turret Press.

In the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, top Army officers talked about their plans to modernize the force, and, as part of that, replace both the M249 SAW and the M4 Carbine, the latter of which has been in service since the early 1990s. The replacement effort is called the Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW), formerly referred to as the Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle (NGSAR), and will involve an industry competition to select the weapon that best meets the Army’s requirements for the future. In his testimony, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8 Lt. General John G. Murray, spoke about the NGSW: