Category: Ammunition

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Ammunition

BWA 10×100: New Cartridge with 100-Year-Old Roots

BWA 10x100

Blackwater Ammunition is a company to watch. Today’s announcement is one example of why.

At SHOT Show 2020, Blackwater Ammunition announced a new caliber: the BWA 10×100.

The BWA 10×100 is a new design with some very modern technology, but it has roots that stretch back to World War I.

Before I get into the details, let me share that the initial load developed for this cartridge generates more than 11k ft-lbs of energy at the muzzle. Now, let’s talk about this new monster caliber.

Case

Case dimensions and properties are highly important aspects of cartridge design and load development.

The new 10×100 BWA cartridge has the same base diameter, rim thickness and primer pocket as a .50 BMG cartridge. Additionally, the overall length (OAL) of the 10×100 BWA is the same as the .50 BMG.

In other words, many, if not most, .50 BMG rifles can be converted to 10×100 BWA with a barrel change. The bolt, extractor and ejector all work the same with the 10×100 case.

10x100 BWA

The 10×100 BWA case is 1mm longer than the .50 BMG. That may not seem like a lot, but according to the company, it allows up to 20% more powder to be loaded in each round. But, that may not be the only thing impacting case capacity.

Case technology also plays a role in this new cartridge.

Back in 2018, Blackwater Ammunition and its parent company, Precision Ballistic Manufacturing (PBM), introduced a new case technology that used a two-piece design. According to the company, the pieces were machined from solid metal. This is different than standard brass manufacturing that starts with a small “doughnut” of brass that is drawn (stretched) multiple times.

It is likely that the machined case is stronger than a drawn case. If so, the walls of the case could be thinner and still provide the same strength. Thinner walls would allow for a greater case capacity.

Bullet

As you might expect, the BWA 10×100 sends large, heavy projectiles downrange. How big? How heavy? How fast?

Right now, Blackwater Ammunition only released data on one load, and it is a doozy.

With a 420-grain monolithic Carobronze bullet, Blackwater Ammunition is able to get 3,500 fps at the muzzle. If my math is correct, that puts the muzzle energy at more than 11,400 ft-lbs. Much like the .50 BMG, you can take out lightly armored vehicles with those kinds of numbers.

[Note: If you’re not familiar with Carobronze, it is a dense, homogeneous copper alloy that is often used in the aerospace industry. It is said to offer very low friction and a high surface hardness – 90 points on the Brinell scale.]

In a head-to-head matchup, the .50 BMG can still generate more raw power. For example, the Federal American Eagle .50 BMG pushes a 660-grain bullet to more than 2,900 fps. That’s roughly 1,000 more ft-lbs of energy.

Keep in mind that energy doesn’t dictate accuracy, nor is an established .50 BMG load vs the first load of a completely new caliber a fair comparison. It is, however, an interesting starting point for the inevitable comparisons and discussions regarding these two rounds.

I’ve reached out to Blackwater Ammunition for additional information on the cases and cartridge. As I get additional information, I will share it here.

In the meantime, I hope you chime in with your thoughts in the comments below.

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Ammunition

FBI Ammunition Test Protocol & Relevancy to Self Defense

FBI Penetration Ballistic Testing Featured Featured

Rancorous debate often accompanies the topic of selecting a self-defense cartridge. Everyone has an opinion and cites various authorities to bolster their positions.

Table Of Contents
  1. What is the FBI testing protocol?
  2. What are the specific ammunition tests?
  3. Performance Does Not Equal Effectiveness…Or Does it?
  4. Is FBI penetration testing useful for self defense?
  5. Do we need a better self defense ammunition test?
  6. Final Thoughts

Perhaps the most frequently used standard in the best caliber for self defense debate is the FBI ammunition test protocol. But, is the FBI testing method good for predicting effectiveness of ammunition? If so, does this ammo test hold the same relevancy to the general shooting public that it does for the federal law enforcement agency?

Continue reading “FBI Ammunition Test Protocol & Relevancy to Self Defense”
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Ammunition

Rob vs. Rob: A Return of the Great Caliber Wars

bullet effectiveness

I’m old enough to recall the debates of .357 Magnum vs. .45 ACP in the gun magazines. Those arguments came before the rise of the Wonder 9 pistols of the mid to late 1980s.

Once semi-automatic pistols became the norm at police departments and with shooting enthusiasts, I witnessed the arguments of 9mm vs. .40 S&W (and skirmishes over the .357 SIG, 10mm, .400 Corbon and others.)

bullet effectiveness

I thought that shooters got the ill-informed bickering out of their system during those decades and people were off to settle more important issues. Issues like what is the best technique to add an electric fan to your holster or what style of Realtree matches which caliber.

I’m afraid I was wrong.

Recently, Springfield Armory announced a Mod.2 version of the XD-S pistol. Like the original XD-S, Springfield Armory introduced the first guns in .45 ACP. I would expect the company will follow its existing pattern of introducing the follow up gun in 9mm.

It seems that the choice to introduce the gun first in .45 caused some small dust up in social media. At about the same time, competition shooter Rob Leatham, a Springfield Armory representative, put out a video about his preference for the .45 ACP.

In Leatham’s video, he talks about the .45 ACP being “more powerful” than the 9mm. He seems to imply that because the .45 ACP cartridge tends to have more momentum than the 9mm, that it is a better choice for self-defense. Leatham could have demonstrated this with a paper shooting target but opted instead to knock down some steel targets to better illustrate his point. (Ed. note: Leatham’s original video appears to have been taken down.)

In the video, he specifically mentions trainer and author Rob Pincus. Pincus holds a  preference for the 9mm cartridge as a self-defense round.

In response, Pincus posted a bit of a tongue in cheek article that offers evidence to the 9mm cartridge’s usefulness in actual self defense encounters. You can read that article here.

I should note that Leatham and Pincus have worked together in the past, and I believe they are friends. I have no reason to believe there is any animosity between them.

I have a great deal of respect for both Leatham and Pincus. Both have accomplished a great deal in their respective careers. In this video they talk about the calibers and “controversy” here:

https://youtu.be/7LL2-HiE8j4

Leatham is an accomplished competition shooter. However, in the original video – which has been removed – Leatham appears to make an argument that the .45 offers better “stopping power” than the 9mm based on the concept of momentum. I haven’t heard a serious argument made for momentum being an indicator of load effectiveness against an attacker since the early 90s. I was a bit stunned by his emphatic assertion that momentum as being something of significant note.

However, Leatham appears to suggest in the above video that he wasn’t making any references to the effectiveness of the cartridges in stopping a violent attacker. He said the video was made while he was in his “annoyed mood” and that he might have “snapped” during a conversation off camera about the differences in the two cartridges. Leatham even admits that he was being a “smart ass” with his comment about 9mm being adequate for people that can’t handle .45 ACP.

People rarely make good decisions when they are angry, and the original video may be an example of that.

During the last 30 years, we’ve seen significant advances in both bullet technology and lab testing of defensive loads. Additionally, emergency medical personnel have been interviewed and surveyed to get their insight into the effectiveness of various bullet wounds.

By and large, what is most likely to stop a violent attacker is multiple gunshot wounds delivered quickly into vital areas. That could be from a 9mm, .38 Special, .45 ACP or virtually anything else that can penetrate deeply enough to cause massive bleeding by hitting the heart, lungs or other areas. Barring a hit to the central nervous system (brain and spine), rapid blood loss is what will shut down an attacker.

A quality 9mm hollow point will do the job as effectively as a quality .45 ACP round. Some might argue that extra width gives the .45 a slight advantage in wounding capacity, while others will say that the decreased recoil of the 9mm allows for more rounds to be delivered into the attacker.

My opinion: both will get the job done. Carry what you like and treat everyone’s opinion with a healthy degree of skepticism.

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Ammunition

Winchester Hybrid-X: New Defensive Ammo

Winchester Hybrid-X new ammo

Winchester Ammunition announced a new defensive ammo called the Hybrid-X. The Winchester Hybrid-X ammo merges multiple bullet technologies to provide rapid incapacitation of a violent attacker.

Table Of Contents
  1. The Basics
  2. Quik-Shok: Inspiration from the past?
  3. Range Testing
  4. Final Thoughts

But, is the new design an improved manstopper or just a gimmick? Although the ammo has a long way to go to prove itself, I think the line has some merit. Let’s take a look at what it is, where it may have drawn some inspiration and what it actually does in a testing medium.

The Basics

The new bullet design combines a polymer tip, a copper jacket and a segmenting lead core. As the bullet strikes the target the core is designed to break into smaller projectiles and, according to Winchester, “deliver massive energy transfer.”

Winchester Hybrid-X

Looking at the illustrations of the bullet, it would appear that the polymer tip makes up the majority of the rounded cone on the leading end. The segmenting core appears to have something akin to a wadcutter profile.

Initially, the new ammo will be offered only in 9mm. However, the company is likely to expand the line based on consumer feedback and request. The 9mm load uses a 124 grain bullet and is loaded to +P pressures. At the muzzle, the bullet’s measured velocity is 1,225 fps. Although the design is uncommon, the bullet’s weight and velocity are in line with other conventional loads.

Quik-Shok: Inspiration from the past?

Rounds like the Hybrid-X have been made in the past. For example, legendary defensive bullet designer Tom Burczynski designed a projectile called the Quik-Shok. This bullet technology was licensed by the defunct Triton ammunition company that sold the rounds in a wide variety of calibers.

According to an article written by Burczynski in the book Street Stoppers, the Quik-Shok bullet fragmented into three parts upon impact. Compared to typical fragmenting self-defense loads of the time, the Quik-Shok round delivered deeper penetration (about 10″.) Burczynski wrote he designed the load “primarily for law enforcement use in hostage situations or special situations where extremely rapid incapacitation is paramount.”

Winchester Hybrid-X new ammo

The Winchester Hybrid-X appears to be a different animal, though the concept is appears to be similar to that of the Quik-Shok. It is likely the company engineered this round to penetrate to the arbitrary 12″ minimum depth of the FBI testing protocols. If so, this load may offer a significant alternative to both citizens and law enforcement agencies deciding on what to carry.

Range Testing

Recently, Rob Pincus became the first person outside of Winchester Ammunition to test the Hybrid-X ammo. Pincus is the director of the Personal Defense Network and a firearms trainer.

According to Pincus, the Hybrid-X ammunition “ran flawlessly” in multiple compact and full-size self-defense handguns. Pincus also said that accuracy with the round was “solid.”

Winchester Hybrid-X penteration testing

Pincus shot a number of these new rounds into Clear Ballistics testing medium. Clear Ballistics makes a synthetic alternative to ballistics gelatin that is used for FBI testing. While it is not identical to the “official” testing medium, it does offer an early look at potential performance.

All shots into the Clear Ballistics blocks were made at 12′ and with two layers of cotton clothing over the facing side of the block.

From the photos Pincus provided me, it appears the 9mm load penetrated to about 7-8″ before it broke into its designed shards. These pieces continued to penetrate deeper into the block. It appears in the photo above that two of the pieces penetrated to about 12″ and a third went to about 13″.

Winchester Hybrid-X ammo review

I’m still a fan of the modern bonded hollowpoint,” said Pincus. “Rounds like the Defender round or the from Winchester’s Train & Defend line are my primary choice for self defense. However, the Hybrid-X is an impressive option for a non-traditional approach. The design offers the feeding characteristics of a ball round but with far greater wounding capacity.

Pincus said that a video of his testing will be posted at the Personal Defense Network in the near future.

Last Update: October 23, 2022

Final Thoughts

I’ve always liked the idea of this kind of bullet. None of the segmented bullet designs to date, however, have ever managed to convince me to move away from traditional hollowpoint designs.

The testing information and photos provided by Pincus are suggestive that Winchester Ammunition has a product that offers better performance than older fragmenting bullet designs. Additional testing through barriers and with traditional ballistics gelatin will likely be instructive on how far the company has moved the design forward.

I look forward to seeing testing of this ammunition, and expect Winchester will have demos run at the 2018 SHOT Show.

Note: This article has been updated to include first hand testing information from Rob Pincus. Thanks to Pincus for giving me permission to use his photos in this article.

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Ammunition

New Cartridge: 6.5 SOCOM

6.5 SOCOM Ammunition

6.5 SOCOM Ammunition

PCP Ammunition will show its new 6.5 SOCOM cartridge at the 2018 SHOT Show according to information released by the company.

Although details about the new cartridge are scant, it would appear that the cartridge was designed for the new sniper rifle system that the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is exploring. Earlier this year, SOCOM indicated it was looking at 6.5mm cartridges for use in a semi-automatic snipe rifle platform.

Although the .260 Rem and 6.5 Creedmoor were mentioned in this Military Times article, a new cartridge that offered substantial benefits over existing ones could draw the attention of SOCOM. Those benefits would have to outweigh the known performance of the existing rounds, however. But weight may be one of the key factors in the search.

6.5 SOCOM CartridgeIn the same Military Times article, Major Aron Hauquitz said that SOCOM was also looking at developing polymer ammunition to reduce the weight carried by soldiers in the field. Since PCP Ammunition manufactures polymer cased ammo, it seems the company may be ideally suited to make a run at the sniper cartridge need.

Based on the limited information released by the company, the 6.5 SOCOM will indeed use a polymer case. So far, one load has been mentioned by the company, and it uses a 130 grain Berger Hybrid Tactical bullet. No information on velocity or other measurables was available at the time of this writing.

The cartridge will be paired with a new semi-automatic rifle called the GF-10 at launch. The rifle will be manufactured by Gorilla Firearms, a sister company to PCP Ammunition and Gorilla Ammunition. The GF-10 is designed as a lightweight AR-10 style rifle.

As additional information on the new cartridge and rifle come out, I will update this page. Thoughts on the 6.5 SOCOM are welcomed in the comments section below.