Oh, it was one of those moments...

Normal day at work, then:
"I've got a problem with this, I just bought it at the gun show, it's fired a couple  of times but mostly you can work the action and it won't."

Look it over, AR15 type, on the inside of the dust cover it has '300 AAC' printed.  And no, he didn't know how to lock the bolt open.  Did that, looked it over, ".300 Blackout?"

"Yes."  Hands me a magazine with some .223 in it.  Part of me freezes up, then "There's the problem, these are .223."

"I was told you could use these in it?"

"NO, you cannot."  Discussion follows, including getting a round of .300 and showing him the differences, followed by "If you get one of these to fire it won't hit anything you aim at, but at least no damage.  If this was a .223, and you managed to chamber a .300 round in it, it would blow the gun up."

"Oh."  Pause.  Little more discussion, then off he went to get some suitable ammo, being given a strong warning to "Take all this .223 ammo and put it separate, do NOT let them get mixed together.  Ever."

No, I didn't think to ask what idiot told him he could switch between ammo.  

Lord, this stuff does surprise you at times.

I have a rule about neat new/old firearms:

if it involves having to buy dies and brass to start loading a new cartridge(for me), I ain't doing it.  I've had a whole pile of cartridges I've loaded over time, including forming brass for some of them, and I don't really want to start that with another one.

It doesn't mean I can't read about something like this and think "Hmmm..."

A gentleman reminded me of this guy's channel on the subject of black powder,

in this case a video on the subject of trying a different density and checking results.  Interesting, very.

I strongly suggest watching his stuff on this, he's done a lot of testing, well worth watching.

Were percussion caps hotter in the old days? (updated)

Guy did some research, had a piece on Fecesbook, says yes:

The U.S. 1861 Ordnance Manual calls for percussion caps to be charged with one-half a grain of “percussion powder,” which was a mixture of fulminate of mercury and saltpeter.

Contrary to popular belief, mercury fulminate is not corrosive to iron guns. It works GREAT in percussion guns, but the fulminate was found to turn brass brittle, making it incompatible with modern brass cartridges.

So for experimental purposes I made some caps using the U.S. 1861 mercury fulminate mixture, and tested them alongside modern caps (CCI and RWS). The difference is astonishing. The 1861 caps are ear-ringing loud when snapped off by themselves, and can blow out a candle several feet in front of the muzzle.

I'll try to keep an eye out for more data, this is interesting.

No, I don't plan on making my own

Added: In comments RHT linked to a youtube channel by a guy who makes his own powder, and it's great.  Part of me wants to try making my own, the rest of me says "Just buy the stuff."

And old LE subgun

built for a specific group and purpose.

Ok, it's not a Grail Gun, but

 this is a .41 Magnum I'd love to have

Thanks to a post by a friend on Fecesbook.*

Yes, I'm pissed at Fecesbook.  "We have deleted your picture on this group(where I haven't posted for a long time) because it violates our standards.  No, we won't show you the picture, or provide a link, so you'll just have to try to figure out what we're actually bitching about, but don't worry, you can appeal(even though you don't know WHAT you're actually appealing)"

A different sort of iron sight setup,

with the front sight looking like a rear sight.  Take a look and see what you think

Widener's did some testing of .308 ammo Added

with the subject being armor-piercing.  Some interesting data, along with- to be careful- making sure where you live does not make owning such ammo illegal.

Added:

Long time ago I'd picked up some .303 British ammo, their MkVII ball as I recall, lead core and heavy copper jacket.  I had a small gong I'd made for my kids to ring with the .22, a square plate the railroads used to cover the joint between rails, 1/4" thick.  One day I fired a round at it from the Enfield, and it barely moved or made a ring, which didn't seem right because the shot had felt on, so we looked and found a hole through the plate so neat it almost looked drilled.  So that jacketed bullet at about 2500fps had a fair amount of penetration.

Saw this at Kim's, and

it reminds me of work

when you're standing behind the counter, and the first thing you notice about someone opening the bay door is if you see earplugs or muffs.

Yes, there's been a LOT of "You need to put your ears on BEFORE you go through that door!"

A new Taurus wheelgun with two cylinders,

one for .38 Special/.357 Magnum, the other for 9mm.  It is a pretty thing,

and that is a nice combination for it.

No, barring them saying "We want you to test this out", I don't need one, but it would be nice.

Here's an oddball old cartridge

At work got a bunch of old ammo someone needed to get rid of, and there were a bunch of old .22s

And the bullets were magnetic.  Coworker decided to take one apart and grabbed the bullet to twist out, but with just a little torque it snapped off at the case mouth

like this one.  This is a lousy picture of the bullet itself, it appears to be compressed powder in a very thin jacket.  Which reminded me of something, so today, being unable to do much still, got things together, broke this one, put the bullet on top of a can and put a propane torch on it.  Got up to a bright red, nothing melted, which I think means the memory was correct: powdered iron used for gallery loads that would break into powder on hitting the backstop.

Interesting stuff does show up

A lighter Thompson carbine

Makes you wonder why nobody tried using aluminum as a receiver for these before, because I've fired one a few times and they are heavy.  


Winchester has a new ammo line intended specifically for lever-action rifles.  Which is fine, they're fun to shoot, and can be downright handy.  Which reminded me:
One day a older couple came into the store and were looking at, well, everything, it being their first time there.  Wound up with the wife talking to me while the husband was getting details on something, and the subject of self-defense arms came up.  She said that they had some land in California they were thinking of retiring to, and what kind of firearms did I think might work well?

My suggestion was a couple of .357 Magnum revolvers, and a lever-action in the same cartridge.  Reasons being:
You can load both revolver and rifle with anything from the lightest target loads to the heavy, stomping magnums.

Those magnums, out of a 16" rifle barrel, gain damn near 400 feet per second velocity, with a significant boost in energy.

Make that rifle a saddle-ring carbine and you can clip it to a single-point sling and carry it slung over the shoulder, nice and handy.

And even Californicated has not tried calling lever-actions 'assault weapons' that I know of.

So you've got arms that use the same ammo, with the rifle giving the hot stuff a serious boost, all reloadable(if you do so), and still a very common, easy to get ammo.

I still think that's a good combination for most places.  If you're in a place where you might have to deal with bear a heavier cartridge might be better; at best a combo where handgun and rifle both fire .44 Magnum, which gives you .44 Special for lighter loads.  Yes, I know, heavier for the rifle if you really need to worry about big game, but you'd lose the 'same ammo for both' option, which could be a problem for some.

Ammo.com on 'how loud is a gunshot

and how far can it be heard?'

A new S&W is out there

the 386 Nightguard, either a .357 Magnum 7 shot, or a .44 Special 5 shot, both with a 3" barrel.

I want to see one.  Hell, I'd like to shoot one.

Kim's new boomstick is announced,

and it is a good one.  They sell these at the place I worked, and everyone I know who bought one loves it.  I haven't fired one, I can tell you the action is very smooth and fast, and the ability to switch barrels is nice.

No, I haven't.  I've got several nice .22 rifles, and I couldn't convince myself to make space/money for one of these, if I'd been able to I'd have grabbed one.

I can't help thinking this is going to have problems with "Hey, I used smokeless powder like it says,

why'd it blow up?"  Nevertheless, it is a nice step for a bunch of people, a muzzleloader designed to use specifically Blackhorn 209 or one of two smokeless propellants.  New CVA Endura, with a bolt-action breech.

According to their site, 

APPROVED PROPELLANTS FOR THE ENDURA
"Blackhorn 209 is CVA’s all-around recommended propellant for the Endura rifle, as it is both a great performer and legal for use during most muzzleloading hunting seasons.

However, since Blackhorn 209 can sometimes be hard to find, the CVA Endura was designed to also be usable with specific types and amounts of modern smokeless rifle powders. These approved smokeless rifle powders are IMR 4198 and VihtaVuori N120. Be sure to check your local hunting regulations before using such modern smokeless rifle powders for hunting."

WARNING: THESE ARE THE ONLY APPROVED PROPELLANTS FOR USE IN THE CVA ENDURA. DO NOT LOAD ANY OTHER TYPES OF MODERN SMOKELESS POWDER, INCLUDING OTHER SUCH POWDERS DESIGNED FOR PISTOLS, SHOTGUNS, OR RIFLES, IN A CVA ENDURA.

So no black powder, it would seem.  Just saw this this morning, be interesting with bullets work best with it, and what kind of accuracy.

This definitely counts as a 'Why?', and the only reason I can think of

is 'range toy'.

A bit of history on .30 caliber military sniper rounds,

the bullets in particular

Ammo.com piece,

 murders by weapons type

No surprises

Ok, Holosun, what gives?

I picked up one of their sights, which came with a 'Go to this sight to register your purchase' cards.  Which takes you to a huge messed-up web page with big empty spaces with big frames.

Looked up a address and sent "What gives?" message.  "We are the Holosun site for Europe, use this site(address given) to do this in the US."  WHich took me right back to the messed-up page.

Their sights are good, but this is a mess.