Ammo

While most premium self-defense ammo will cost you over a buck per round, Remington’s HTP line appeals to the more budget conscious crowd. Packed in boxes of 50, it sells for about the same as most self-defense ammo packaged in boxes of 20. Doing the fancy math indicates that it’s a little less than half the cost of the most expensive stuff.

Cartridge development has an interesting and sordid history; the cartridges we have come to know and love – more often than not – are based on an existing design, modified to suit the shooting public’s needs. Some of our most famous cartridges, ones we have used and read about for decades, have a lineage that may surprise you. Let’s take a look at some of the family trees of cartridges, and see how they’ve intermingled and branched.

The multi-caliber Scavenger 6 is a survival rifle dream gun. It’s a stocked revolver with each chamber cut for a different cartridge. By using multiple cylinders, it’s possible to have one design fire a dozen and half or more cartridges.

There’s just something about shooting rimfires. Even with all the cool calibers I get to test out, I never, ever tire of shooting rimfire pistols and rifles. Maybe they just bring one back to the pure joy of plinking. The lack of noise, muzzle blast, and recoil isn’t a bad thing either as you can focus on the pure enjoyment of shooting. Even with the higher prices of rimfire ammo these days, you can do a whole lot more shooting for your dollar.

I’ll share my Christmas list with you, just for fun – or in case you’re looking for ideas of your own to begin hinting at – or maybe because there is an enthusiast on your list and you need ideas. Whatever the interest, here are the top five that come to mind for me this season.

I’ve always been a big fan of .357 Sig caliber. Yeah, I know, it’s got more recoil and muzzle blast than 9mm. On the other hand, it comes darn close, and sometimes matches, the performance of the classic 125-grain .357 Magnum round. It’s hard to argue with the effectiveness of that cartridge.

One big contributor to poor group consistency is bullet concentricity in the case. Think of it this way, if you stuff a bullet into a cartridge case exactly straight, then a line from the center of the tip through the exact center of the base would continue on through the mathematical center of the case and out the center of the primer.

The ATF has issued two notices on explosives — and has quickly retracted one of them.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned a ruling against the military that will spare the Army millions in damages and royalties.