Oops.

Not saying names, but we found out how 9x19 Tulammo holds up through a .40s&w Sig today. Gun was not effective, but it made for a good malfunction drill!

Check Your Ammo!

I guess Winchester wanted me to practice some immediate action drills (even if they're less than exciting on a DA-only revolver...)

At least they were nice and stuck it right on the corner there.

Gun Food...

Noticed while at Fleet today, a distinct lack of 5.56/.223 'cheap' ammo (lots of soft-tip Hornady, etc) but a decent amount of 7.62x39 Wolf, etc cheap Comm-block ammos.  I've also got a bit of a surplus of it around here, not so much in regards to AR food (a good amount of loaded mags, but not a comfortable amount for plinking, etc.)

Looks like I'll be busting out the AKs for anything in the near future.  Unfortunately I'm not sure where my AK gear has ended up.  Have a half-dozen steel mags, but not sure where my chest rig ended up.  Time to start poking around and see what I can find/scrounge up.  As an aside, if any vendors of quality AK gear (hard or soft) want to kick-start some blogging efforts, let me know!(Could really go for some open topped MOLLE single mag pouches, especially in tan (have a cheap plate carrier currently serving no purpose.))

Daily Dose of Cool

A series of photos of cartridges precisely cut in half.

Half the challenge is figuring out what most of them are (the ones pictured above are the most "normal" of the bunch.)

State (Milwaukee...) Legislators Herped all over their Derp...

A Democratic state senator and three Democratic state representatives have circulated draft legislation that would ban civilian possession of hollow point or frangible ammunition. According to existing Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources regulations, sportsmen and women in Wisconsin must use such ammunition when hunting deer or bear. The Democratic lawmakers, two of whom are freshman, all hail from urban districts in the City of Milwaukee.

Their reasoning, in their oh so enlightened minds, is that hollow point and soft tipped "serve no purpose in self-defense or hunting use."  Nevermind that anyone that knows anything about the use of firearms will tell you that those are exactly the best rounds to use for both purposes.

To further the proof of their mental deficiency, there's this little tidbit:

 “While used by the military for decades – in part because they inflict massive wounds – hollowpoint bullets have little, if any, practical use for self-defense or hunting in everyday society. Tragically, they are essentially human-killing bullets.”

That right there is solid proof that they did ZERO research, and are talking straight out of their asses.  I can only hope that somebody sends them a copy of the Hague Declaration and they hire another intern to slap them on the hand and say "NO!" when they try to introduce anything else.

I think I may have to send them some photos of all these solid, lead-free bullets I got issued... not a single hollowpoint among them!

3,000fps Rimfire

That's not a typo.  I love the ramp-up to SHOT, all sorts of new and ridicules things coming out.  Winchester has announced their new rimfire round, the .17WSM (Winchester Super Magnum), an extended case that pushes a 20 or 25 grain projectile at a stupid-fast speed of 3,000 or 2,600fps respecively.  That means the 20gr. bullet actually has more muzzle energy than a 115gr 9x19mm...

If the price is right, I think it could be a very interested longer range plinker.  The claim is that it'll withstand wind drift better than other rimfire magnums, so it could be fun to stretch its legs out and see what kind of groups it'd do at 200+ yards (I've done some fun stuff in the past with a friend's .17HMR at 100.)

The Smell of Cordite

Guest post by Cro

Back in my high school literature days  I remember reading about “the smell of cordite”  and wondering what is cordite?  The main character in the Dayof the Jackal book even ate a piece of cordite to make himself seem older and sick when getting through security.  I had been reloading pistol back then and could not think of any piece from a cartridge that you could eat.  I always imagined all metallic cartridges as having powder inside.  I happened to pick up an excellent No4 Mk 2 Fazakerly.  That’s right I said Mk2.  It’s a 1950 example of the final refinement of the Enfield rifle. 

This particular example is in very good condition with very little wear on the metal and wood.  Those familiar with the Enfield No 1 Mk 3 can see that the major difference is the rear sight is moved to the rear of the receiver.  The particular rear sight on this model has a large aperture battle sight and a flip up ladder sight for long range. 

The particular rear sight has a smaller aperture for the long range, and a screw adjusted ladder that is regulated by audible clicks.  In my opinion this is far superior to sights like the 1903 that has no means to measure your rear sight height except by eyeballing it.  Granted the NM 1903 competitors often had a micrometer to adjust their rear sight height, but I have a hard enough time remembering my range gear as it is.  I guess I am just spoiled by being used to click sights like the M1.  My Savage Enfield has a simple flip sight with only a 300, or a 600 meter option.  Not exactly the best sight for marksmanship, but a great sight to mass produce for a weapon starved Britain.  The front sight is a simple drift adjustment.

The rifle did away with the Enfield knife bayonet and went with a spike/blade bayonet that did not have a handle.  Kind of a useless bayo in my opinion as I follow old Teddy Roosevelt’s opinion that the bayonet should double as a knife.  I would personally hate to carry an extra piece of kit that could only serve a second purpose as a tent peg. 

I had 3 types of 303 on hand.  Privi, Wolf, and Surplus 1952 Kynoch.

The Wolf is packaged the same as the Prvi, and even has Prvi head stamp on the rounds. So I guess it’s an example of buying brand name.  The Prvi was 174Gr FMJBT, and the Wolf was 150Gr Soft Point.  

But on to the Cordite.  The Kynoch is an old surplus round I picked up a few years ago on the cheap.  I pulled the pullets and dug the cordite out of the case to find it filled with 36.2 grains of the spaghetti like propellant.  The sticks are packed very tight inside the case and would only come out after much persuasion.  I wonder how they measured and loaded the stuff in the brass case.  It seems like it would be much more difficult than standard powder shaped propellant.    The bullet is a flat based FMJ projectile of 175gr.  The neck sealant was a black tar like sealant that did not want to let the bullet go.

So on to the Range Report.  I took the ole’ Brit to my local range to see how this piece shoots.  The 200 and 300 yd ranges were closed for maintenance that day so I was relegated to the 100yd test.  I started with the Brit surplus.  All the rounds went bang, although not always right away.  Some of the rounds had slight hang-fires, not terrible, but I could feel the firing pin strike and then feel the discharge as a separate action.  This was not the norm.  I was actually surprised by the accuracy of the surplus rounds.  The best 5 shot group I got was 3.5 “  not great, but not bad considering my rest was not the most stable.  The Privi and Wolf had the same accuracy.

This is not the best group, but typical of what I saw that day.  One thing I liked about this rifle was that all the ammo was zeroed with at least 2 clicks up on the rear sight.  Its often annoying when your Mil Surp shoots 7 inches high at the lowest setting.

Overall I Liked this rifle.  The bolt is easy to operate, but the trigger has a bit to be desired. It had some creep and did not break clean.  I was happy with the accuracy, and I think with the proper loads this rifle has good potential.  Of all my Enfields I would pick this one as my favorite.  

On a side note I stopped at a local gun show on my way to the range and found a gem of a rifle for a price that would be silly to pass up.  Stay tuned for that review, but here is a teaser.  

(Don't give away the surprise if you know what it is!  I'll be "out of the office" for a while, but rest assured, there'll be new content when I get back!  And thanks again to Cro for sharing some of his cool stuff with us.)

Check Your Ammo!

A good reminder and a bunch of examples at WEVO.

Plastic Shell

Found this at the range yesterday.

Anybody know more about this beast?  I'm curious.  Headstamp simply says "HERTER'S" and "12" and "PAT."

ETA: Should specify, definitely not a snap cap, it's hollow and smells of burned powder.

Guest Post: 8mm Turk Ammo Tear-Down

Hey there Guns & Coffee fans!!  This is CRO.  So since the winter weather has hit the great northern state of Wisconsin I have decided to clean out the corner of the basement where my reloading bench lives.  The first can I grabbed was a .50 cal can that had my 8mm Turk inside.  My brother had recently picked up a Syrian Mauser and wanted some food for it.  I pulled the first bandoleer out of the can and removed 2 full clips of ammo.  I saw some cracked necks on a few of the cases and gave the bullets a wiggle.  The bullet pulled clean out of the case with just my hand strength.  Out of the 10 rounds I checked I was able to pull 3 of the bullets clean out of the case.  Now I could not give my brother some crap ammo to fire out of his Mauser as he is not too familiar with old surplus and does not know what to look for in selecting safe ammo to fire.  I decided to go through all my Turk and sort out the good stuff from the bad and all the bad I would pull for the bullets and powder.  Now for those of you who have been doing the surplus thing in the last ten years you are sure to have run across the 8mm Turk, and many of you are fully aware of the “quality” that this ammo has made for its reputation.  I decided that even though the supply of Turk is now drier than a Baghdad rooftop in July, and trust me that’s dry, I thought it might entertain many of you that know this ammo too well to know your not the only one who had “well worn” ammo.

That’s right, I’m not embaressed to let you see my messy bench top… I told you it needed cleaning.  But you can see the Turk bandoleer in its complete form.  And bottom center is the 50 cal can it has been stored in for a few years.

The clips were held one up, and one down inside each pocket.  The buttons are the thinnest stamped metal buttons I have ever seen, they do not have any edge to grab a hold of so getting a pocket open through the small buttonhole is very difficult.  I would not want to have to open one of these under stress!!  The ends of the bandoleer are just one foot of thin cloth one inch wide.  There are no buckles so the ends have to be tied together.

  

This is just the full clips on top of the bandoleer. So far so good right?  Well lets take a closer look-

1947. Yep.

So here are 3 very typical cracked necks seen on the ammo.  The bullet is very loose.  I was able to push the bullet inside of the case with only finger pressure.  No pliers or bullet puller needed here!   Now can you shoot these?  Yes,  Should you… probably not.  Have I shot bullets like this??  Yes.  Why?  I don’t know,  I was young and didn’t know better.  Do the vent hole work in my Yugo Mauser?  Yes.  Thankfully.

This was the worst cracked case I had.  The brass was just brittle.

Pulled bullet,  I would not exactly call that a cannalure.  More like a really, really tight crimp.

Fill er to the top!!  The powder would be just under the bottom of the bullet.  I have a suspicion that these were compressed loads.

No the pliers were not used for the bullet pulling.  The electrical tape covered jaws work great for holding surplus 30-06 rounds when reaming out the primer pocket,  why is it in the photo??  I told you I need to clean up.

I wanted to keep the powder to load some cases eventually.  Because I am not aware of and current load data for using surplus 1940 Turk powder I measured 20 cases of powder to get an average weight.  Surprisingly the loads were consistent.  The average was 48.2 the variance was only a few tenths of a grain.  There was the occasional case that varied as much as a grain but I think there were only 2 of them.  The powder is a flake type powder.  Reminded me of shotgun powder.  It was very different than the IMR 4895 I am used to dealing with.  I do not currently own a 8mm Die for the RCBS otherwise I would load a few and give a report.  Guess I’ll save that one for later.

I've shot plenty of this stuff over the years, and as many of the MilSurp shooters out there know, this stuff is hot, and it's not surprising the powder is jammed in the case.  Dad and I used to joke they simply filled the case with powder, jammed the bullet on top, and called it a day; and it looks like we may not have been that far off. "Powder measures are for pussies!"


As Cro mentioned, it'll work in a bolt-action Mauser fine, since it's a strong action, and has gas channels to redirect wayward pressure, but I strongly suggest you DO NOT use Turkish 8mm Mauser ammo in any Semi-Automatic rifle! Blown cases happen quite regularly with Turkish 8mm ammo.

Ammo Day Score

National Ammo Day

Is right around the corner!

What I've Said for Years

"Get a 9mm. Civilians are not limited by the Geneva Conventions and can carry hollowpoints.  A 9mm hollowpoint is devastating.  Plus 9mm is cheaper and you can practice more."

I generally don't get too deep into the caliber wars, but that's pretty much how I've explained my feelings for the better part of a decade now.

Polymer Cased Pistol Rounds Coming

TFB reports Extreme Polymer Research is planning to bring polymer cased rounds for .380, 9mm, .40s&w, and .45acp to market next year.

Unlike other polymer cased projects, these are not metallic based, but full polymer.  The major advantage is a lower price than traditional brass (6 - 8 cents per case.)

Gun Show Results...

Aside from dealers apparently smoking crack when pricing things (at least one honestly was marking things up $1-200 more than they have the same gun in the shop...) I decided to pass on some really nice classic S&W Chief's Specials simply because I didn't want to drive halfway across the state in a couple days to actually take possession of the guns.

On a positive note, we picked up a significant amount of ammo for relatively good prices, especially factoring in not paying shipping.  Also snagged a couple AR parts for a current build.  Overall, actually a pretty successful show.

20ga Buck

Managed to find some boxes of Remington No. 3 buck for the little Remington yesterday.  20 pellets per round with poly fill to keep them from getting too beat up in flight.

Hopefully get out to the range in a few days and see how they pattern in "across the room" distances.

20GA Buckshot?

I need some... any suggestions?  Cannot find any local sources...

They Do Exist

And at $6 a box, I had to snag some.

At least it's for a good cause...

Shooters can now blast clay pigeons for a cause. Federal® Ammunition’s special edition Top Gun® Target loads support finding a cure for breast cancer. These distinctive pink hulls are an effective hunting and shooting practice option or a solid load for shooting competitions. A portion of the sales of this product will go directly to the search for a cure. The new 12-gauge 2-3/4-inch #8 shotshells deliver consistent performance for all types of clay target shooting.

I might have to keep an eye out for some, just for the hell of it.

Cufflinks

And other bits of cool jewelry.

I actually have been wanting to get something like those to go with my tux, but the only ones I found were horribly expensive.  These are easily affordable, and come in a much larger variety of calibers.

This post is really of a reminder to myself this coming payday...