Ammo

The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, or SAAMI, just gave the mini shell its official blessing, in part due to Federal Ammunition.

Hornady has been slaying it in the ammo department. You’d think they’d take a minute to rest. But this week I tried three new Hornady offerings and each was a winner.

In addition to making tissue look like it went through a blender, G9 also touts an unparalleled ability to penetrate auto glass, and stay on target. This is a bigger problem than you might think if you have never spent any time blasting auto glass.

It has been an amazing year for us 10mm guys, at least on the gun front. Every company in the industry it seems has developed a new 10mm. Options abound in a way we have never seen. But with all this firearm development, how is the ammo?

You literally cannot ask for anything more than that out of a pistol bullet. When moving at pistol velocities, a projectile’s only real wounding mechanism is penetration.

Getting a new reloading press is a pretty exciting thing! And there is so much to do – from finding the right work area and getting the machine assembled, to deciding what caliber(s) you want to start making. If you are new to handloading then there is also the overwhelming nature of the complexity of the task and the volumes of information to sift through. We’ve all been there!

“Bullet technology,” once the territory none but the most neurotic gun nerds, has gone mainstream. Companies like Sierra, Nosler, and Hornady now mold hunks of lead and copper using the most cutting-edge technology—literally, rocket science.

Hornady’s new ATip Match bullet might be the next step in that technological evolution.

This may seem like an odd comparison, but I cannot count the number of times I have been in a gun store listening to either the “gun guru” behind the counter, or the “expert sniper” on the other side talking about how the 6.5 Creedmoor is like a 300 Win Mag without the recoil.  The 6.5 Creedmoor is also touted as a long range big game caliber like the 300 Win Mag.

One of the great stories of 2018 was the introduction of a new caliber by Federal, the 224 Valkyrie. Initially announced in October of 2017, by SHOT Show 2018, the world was abuzz. The 224 Valkyrie promised to turbocharge the small frame AR rifle, with ballistics that blew the doors off past challengers such as 6.5 Grendal and 22 Nosler. It helped that it was released and backed by Federal, a giant in the ammunition industry. But still, many people questioned the new caliber? Would it deliver? And would it catch on enough to remain available?