The Loadout Room
Professional Gear Reviews
When the .300 Blackout (a standardized offspring of the wildcat .300 Whisper) was introduced a few years back, it immediately garnered a lot of attention. Despite its similarity with regards to the ballistic trajectory to the well-known 7.62×39, this was a round that promised improved terminal performance through more modern bullet design. This made a […]
Black Talon ammunition was created by Winchester in 1991. It’s a handgun round that took on a mythology of its own. Winchester stopped producing the Black Talon round in 2000, and that kind of fed into its mythology and mystique. You may have heard that it was produced with a Teflon coating but in all […]
This Rational Preps video uses the data from Greg Ellifritz’s 10-year stopping power study of real-world gun fights to shed the light of actual data on several common beliefs about handgun calibers. The results may surprise you. Here is the link to the original data and study by Ellifritz: http://www.activeresponsetraining.net…
Recently I started a two-part review of Liberty ammunition’s Civil Defense round. Part 1 can be read here. A +P defensive load zipping out around 2150 FPS, this diminutive 50gr bullet looks impressive. I had some doubts during my first range day as my chronograph was recording high variability in the velocity. This manifested […]
“Elite Performance Ammunition” is a presumptuous name. How does it perform? Sig Sauer’s 168gr .308 ammunition is competitively priced and performs well. With a couple boxes for testing we recently had the chance to run it through our 26″ Marlin X7VH. The X7VH has a preference for 168gr so we knew it would be a match. […]
The FBI has selected Glock Gen 5 handguns in 9mm as their service weapon. There has been much speculation about the reasons for their caliber change. There is a short answer, science. The did the research and they did the math. Spoiler Alert: “While some law enforcement agencies have transitioned to larger calibers from the […]
There is enough difference in performance between the 5.56 and .223 to warrant some consideration if looking at the two for a specific purpose. In some cases, you will want to be very picky about the type of round you are shooting based on your desired external and terminal ballistic performance. You may find that you need a certain type […]
L-Tech Ammunition and Shell Shock Technologies have recently produced perhaps the best ammunition you’ve never heard of. Accurate, consistent and reliable is about all one can ask for in the ammunition world and yet it is sometimes so hard to find. This particular load combines a solid-copper 124gr projectile with the latest two-piece shell design […]
The HotShot line of ammunition from Century Arms has been part of a revival for the company. Once simply a source of surplus firearms, Century is moving into becoming a strong brand. Not a lot is known about their ammo line aside from partially incorrect assumption that it is merely inexpensive Russian-made plinking ammo. The […]
Can you shoot a stack of dimes from a shotgun? If you did, would it be lethal? According to gunfighter mythology and Hollywood History, Billy the Kid shot Deputy Marshal “Pecos Bob” Olinger during a jail break in Lincoln New Mexico in 1881. The weapon? Olinger’s own double-barreled shotgun. As the story goes, that shotgun […]