Sedalia, MO – Sierra Bullets is excited to announce the launch of their line of loaded ammunition. Sierra™ Ammunition™ is currently available in eight popular hunting calibers, all topped with the new GameChanger™ Tipped GameKing bullet.

“This is the next step for Sierra,” says President Pat Daly. “The way we make ammunition is simply an extension of the way we make bullets. We begin with highly engineered loads which utilize the best components on the market. Assembly of these loads is done to the industry’s strictest tolerances and the results are proven before they ever leave our facility. It’s rewarding to know that Sierra shooters now have the option of loaded ammunition.

Sierra™ Ammunition™ is the perfect combination of unparalleled accuracy and bone-punching terminal performance all packed in a precisely-tuned cartridge… ammunition with the same dedication to perfection the Bulletsmiths at Sierra are famous for. For more information, visit www.sierrabullets.com/ammo. Read more

By Glen Wunderlich

Last week, the .450 Bushmaster cartridge, which is fast becoming a favorite among Michigan deer hunters, was highlighted in terms of bullet design. Two major ammunition manufacturers, Hornady and Federal, have developed loads that claim proprietary bullet technology meant to be tough in weight retention and overall performance. This week, we learn the truth about their claims in a head-to-head test.

The .245-grain Hornady Interlock and the 260-grain Federal Fusion factory ammunition were compared in an unscientific experiment in which both rounds were shot through a whitetail deer’s shoulder blades and into water-soaked bundles of phone books and magazines. The rounds were also chronographed for velocity.

Before beginning, a certain understanding of why the test was conducted is in order. For me, the ideal round will not only be accurate, but the bullet will expand and not disintegrate to any degree. To be clear, a bullet that fragments and sends pieces of its jacket into the animal are not desirable. While explosiveness is desirable in varmint hunting, it’s not necessarily a good thing in big game hunting, because it destroys too much meat, if the bullet placement is not ideal.

When the .450 Bushmaster came onto the deer-hunting scene, Hornady’s Flex Tip bullet offering was about the only factory load available. I found it to be extremely accurate, but its destructiveness was too severe. In a similar test with this bullet last year, weight retention was far less than optimal, and therefore, other options in factory ammo were sought.

By recycling a road-killed deer’s shoulder blades and placing them in front of wet expansion medium, I would be able to recover the bullets and weigh them for comparison. This method of testing was meant to simulate what happens to particular bullets under extreme conditions to offer a relative comparison of toughness. A video of the test is available on YouTube by entering “.450 Bushmaster Bullet Integrity Test #2” in the search bar.

First up was the Hornady 245-grain Interlock ammo. Advertised at 2200 feet-per-second (fps), the bullet passed through the sensors at 2156 fps out of a Ruger American rifle with its relatively short barrel of 16 inches. The bullet created an excessive wound channel that could only be described as overkill. Sorting through the wet pages, pieces of the bullet’s jacket were found along with only 55.1 percent of the bullet’s core.

Damage from Hornady’s 245-Grain Interlock

Next came the Federal Fusion load with a slightly heavier bullet weighing 260 grains. It was clocked at 2029 fps and was found to retain 86.5 percent of its original weight. Of the four bullets tested in this manner to date, it was by far the most intact projectile of the group; both penetration and expansion were substantial, as well. Upon close inspection of the mushroomed bullet, the jacket could be seen totally enveloped by the lead core. It did not blow up!

The Federal Fusion ammo will get the nod this hunting season for me, because it really lives up to the claims of integrity. And, if shots hit bone, as they typically will, the bullet can be relied upon to stand up to even the most demanding conditions, and that’s what I was looking for.

Sedalia, MO – Lapua, world-renowned for producing the finest rimfire cartridges, is proud to announce our second USA Lapua Rimfire Test Center at the Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, Ohio. The new Lapua Rimfire Test Center will offer competitive shooters and consumers alike the opportunity to match individual lots of Lapua ammunition to their match rifles and pistols. The new East Location will officially open in late Fall of 2019. All of the capabilities of the new test center will replicate our current Lapua Rimfire Test Center in Mesa, AZ.

“We’re excited to partner with Lapua and bring this facility and test capabilities to our current and potential customers,” stated Jim Henderson, Director of Competitions at the Cardinal Shooting Facility, “We feel this will help many consumers, as well as junior and collegiate teams elevate their competitive advantage.”

The new location will feature testing at 100 meters, with electronic target readouts at both 50 meters and 100 meters for each test conducted. Customers have the option to send their rifles in for testing or schedule an onsite appointment to participate and view the test process. Read more

Mesa, AZ – Berger Bullets is shipping the new 6.5mm 156gr EOL Elite Hunter projectiles to exclusive retailers now.

The long-awaited 6.5mm 156gr EOL Elite Hunter bullets are purpose-built for hunters demanding a heavy-bullet solution for their Creedmoor, PRC, 26 Nosler and other 6.5 caliber long-range hunting platforms. EOL Elite Hunter bullets are “heaviest-in-class” and designed to break the common trend-line for today’s heavy hunting offerings. The sleek profile features an ultra-high ballistic coefficient (B.C.) and increased sectional density, delivering the highest energy retention upon impact.

EOL Elite Hunter Bullets utilize Berger’s industry-leading hybrid ogive design, which blends tangent and secant designs to optimize efficiency, reduce wind-drift, and minimize sensitivity to seating depth. EOL’s are easy to load and shoot, and provide the unmatched accuracy and performance that long-range enthusiasts expect from Berger Bullets. Read more

For more than a century, hunters have relied on Norma® for accuracy, reliability and unsurpassed terminal performance. In 2019, Norma is proud to deliver this same standard of quality and reliability to even more shooters with the release of its new Tactical line, which debuts with the highly anticipated 223 Norma Tactical.

The all-purpose addition to Norma’s 223 line is topped with a 55-grain full metal jacket bullet designed for reliable feeding in a wide variety of rifles and pistols. The brass-cased ammunition is manufactured to exacting specifications to ensure effortless extraction in the most trying of conditions. The consistency offered by the new 223 Norma Tactical will set a new standard for performance. Read more

By Glen Wunderlich

Ammunition manufacturers seem to tout their brand of load offerings as the best in overall performance compared to their completion. However, the truth about the matter cannot be found by punching paper targets, unless accuracy is to be the only factor. Although bullet placement is always the most critical component in taking a whitetail deer, factors such as bullet expansion and penetration play a vital role – especially if shots are not perfectly positioned.

Independence Day provided an opportunity to test two relatively new ammunition offerings from top-brand manufacturers in .450 Bushmaster: Hornady and Federal.

The .450 Bushmaster was designed by the Hornady Manufacturing Company for Bushmaster Firearms International producing a .45 caliber cartridge that would function in the short AR-15 action. The result of this collaboration is the increasingly popular .450 Bushmaster. Initially, ammunition choices were quite limited, but as the cartridge has gained popularity in what was once labeled as shotgun zones, so has the options in firearms and ammunition.

Hornady’s 250-grain FTX bullet has been the popular choice and by all accounts is very accurate. In my limited experience in recent years, it has done its job in the field. However, my unscientific testing found that the bullet’s weight retention is less than ideal, even though it is reported that Hornady has made this bullet tougher than normal. I sure don’t know what that means in specific terms, but other manufacturers claim similar results. I’m about to find out.

If a firearm and ammunition combination cannot produce acceptable accuracy, bullet integrity is a moot point. Since the Hornady FTX load is extremely accurate, it will take a good competitor to replace it as the go-to hunting load. At the shooting range, my testing with a Ruger American rifle, the Hornady Interlock 245-grain bullet offering (not the FTX load) put three shots in the bull’s eye at 100 yards with absolutely no adjustments in the scope from last season’s setting with the FTX ammo.

Hornady explains the Interlock ammo this way: InterLock^® bullets feature exposed lead tips for controlled expansion and hard-hitting terminal performance. Bullets used in American Whitetail^® ammunition feature our pioneering secant ogive design and exclusive InterLock^® ring — a raised ring inside the jacket that is embedded in the bullet’s core that keeps the core and jacket locked together during expansion to retain mass and energy.

Next up for accuracy testing was a new load by Federal with a slightly heavier bullet in 260 grains. Dubbed the Fusion line, Federal puts it this way: Fusion® was the first rifle ammunition specifically built for deer hunting—and it’s still the best, offering the largest expansion and highest weight retention in head-to-head comparisons against the competition. With a molecularly fused jacket and a pressure-formed core, Fusion transfers maximum energy on target.

Again, without so much as a one-click adjustment, the Federal Fusion ammo with its 260-grain bullet was on the mark at 100 yards with a 3-shot group of less than 1.5 inches – plenty good for minute-of-deer accuracy. Interestingly, the advertised velocity is 2200 feet-per-second – the same as the lighter Hornady bullet loads. This means more energy and that’s a good thing.

However, there’s more to effectiveness than mathematics and it’s the transfer of energy. A bullet must not only penetrate, it must expand, as well. The more the bullet penetrates and expands without disintegrating to any degree, the better.

Now that we know all of three types of ammo are more than acceptable in the accuracy department, it’s time to measure a most important aspect of performance. Next week, we’ll do just that.

GW: The original CCI Quiet Ammo is great around the homefront, where noise is unwanted. At a mere 710 fps, it has taken out many ground squirrels, red squirrels and other pests and is accurate. Having a similar round that will cycle a semi-auto makes a lot of sense and the noise level should still be acceptable.  I also note that the new ammo uses a 45-grain bullet instead of the 40-grain offering.

LEWISTON, Idaho – – CCI Ammunition is excited to announce new Quiet-22 Semi-Auto, which is incredibly quiet yet ultra-reliable in autoloading rimfires. Shipments of these 22 LR loads have been delivered to dealers.

Quiet-22 Semi-Auto drastically reduces the volume of standard 22 LR rounds while cycling flawlessly through semi-automatic rifles and handguns. The accurate, low-velocity loads provide the sensation of shooting through a suppressor—without the suppressor—and are perfect for new shooters, and shooters looking for a reduction in noise.

Features & Benefits

• Flawless cycling through semi-automatic rifles and handguns
• Significant reduction in perceived noise
• Excellent accuracy
• Low velocity at 835 feet per second

Part No. / Description / MSRP

975CC / 22 LR, 45 grain LRN, 835 fps, 50-count / $5.95 Read more