moving
The Montgomery (AL) Advertiser wants people to know that gun makers are moving, and one of the major criteria when selecting new sites is support of the Second Amendment. Remington is building a $110 million plant in Huntsville, one of 19 states in which the company has facilities. Their largest plant is in Ilion, NY, where the SAFE Act bans the ownership of the very AR-15 rifles that are made there. Freedom Group director of public affairs Teddy Novine said there are no plans to move production from Ilion, though future expansion is planned elsewhere. Beretta USA is also expanding in gun-friendly areas, announcing the construction of a $45 million plant in Gallatin, TN in January. In case you’re searching for one, according to the article, Beretta manufactures the elusive .9mm pistol for the US military. Other companies that have moved . . .

or announced moves include Ruger of Southport, CT building a plant in Mayodan, NC (their first major expansion in 25 years), Kahr Arms of Pearl River, NY relocating their headquarters to Pennsylvania, and PTR Industries relocating their entire operation from Bristol, CT to Aynor, SC. States that have recently passed more restrictive gun legislation account for over $6 billion (NY $2.1b, CT $1.9b, MA $1.6b, MD $511m) of the $38 billion attributed to the firearms industry in 2013.

Your Lockdown of the Day™ wasn’t really a lockdown, according to Philadelphia Archdiocese spokesman Kenneth Gavin. Philadelphia police called administrators at Saints John Newmann-Maria Goretti High School around 8:30 a.m. on Friday to let them know that someone brought a gun into the school. The administration’s reaction was to instruct all students and faculty members to remain in their classrooms while the building was swept by law enforcement. Apparently that’s not a lockdown. After the preliminary search turned up no weapons, school was dismissed at noon “as a precaution,” as getting everyone out of the building would allow a “thorough investigation of the building” to happen. No arrests were made Friday, and no guns were found in the expanded search. Spokesman Gavin said that new safety procedures would be put in place starting next week, and that students shouldn’t fear going to school. “We have every reason to believe that the school is safe at this time.”

An Idaho State Police trooper is in hot water after being discovered in possession of more than 17,000 rounds of ISP ammunition in December. Some 16,080 rounds were found in cardboard boxes stacked inside a pole barn on his property during a warranted search. After police obtained an additional warrant for the seizure of the ammunition, they returned to the barn to find that most of the ammunition had been moved, and they were only able to seize 85 rounds. The next day a private investigator turned in an additional pile of ammunition to the sheriff’s office, but that pile plus the 85 rounds seized the day before still left 13,980 rounds unaccounted for and missing. As if that’s not enough trouble to be in, Trooper Howard also faces charges of forgery and grand theft for misrepresenting the sale price of a motorcycle he purchased and thus paying less taxes than he was supposed to. Howard was placed on paid leave back in December at the discovery of the ammunition, and in April that leave was modified to unpaid status. Needless to say, Howard faces termination if convicted of the charges.

Bite the Bullet, LLC out of Vegas is launching a new ammunition that they claim is cleaner, faster, and more accurate than standard ammunition. The new bullets are 6/2 lead alloy coated in a polymer powder coating and available in a variety of colors. The company claims that the bullets create less smoke and less mess than standard ammo, while moving smoothly through the bore allowing a faster, more accurate shot. As you won’t be scraping lead off down your bore when you shoot, the company says you should be able to go longer between cleanings as well. A glow-in-the-dark version is planned.

CCI Ammunition has launched a new .22LR round called Suppressor. It’s a lead hollow-point bullet that’s designed to be able to cycle your semi-automatics while staying subsonic. If you’ve never spent much time with a suppressed .22, obviously the quietest way to shoot it is with subsonic rounds, but that comes at the cost of often having to manually cycle the action. Of course, that also allows for the easy collection of your brass so you don’t leave any evidence behind, so that’s not without its benefits. Still, for those of us not involved in wet work, the ability to shoot quietly with no more fuss than we shoot loudly is a good thing.

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62 COMMENTS

  1. That Suppressor ammo looks nice, but I don’t recognize the caliber. Must be one of those extinct legacy rounds.

  2. Hey CCI, instead of coming out with new ammo, how about we ramp up production of existing .22lr? Please? My 10/22 needs more food!

  3. Instead of launching a new .22LR round CCI should concentrate on making more ammo period.

  4. “Needless to say, Howard faces termination if convicted of the charges”. How about a long prison sentence???

    • Glock needed the competition. This will be good for the market. Just waiting for Taurus to get in a budget version as well.

      • I think he was joking about the decimal point in front of the 9.
        Because, well, 0.9 mm would be a pretty small bullet, even for soldiers.

        • Yes. Originally TTAG had an article about the Glock website having a .9mm model and the news media routinely reports on .9mm.

          EDIT – I may have that sequence of events in the wrong order.

          I was piling on.

        • “Because, well, 0.9 mm would be a pretty small bullet, even for soldiers.”
          But you can put an eye out with it.

  6. I truly feel sorry for you guys in high population areas.
    I bought another 300 rounds of CCI “Choot ‘Em” last Friday.

    • I saw about ten 1400 round Bucket o’ Bullets sitting at my LGS today. Canada FTW. I have never gone without .22s.

    • I wish I were back in Oregon. I found a bunch of .22 when I was there and my dad, cousin and I went plinking one afternoon.

      • most of the places I’ve actually found .22 limited customers to 3 boxes per visit… although oddly enough ammo is fairly easy to come by here in the People’s Republic of Hawaii.

  9. I can pick up 200 rds. Once a day, every day, in Tucson, Az. Keep on shooting. P.s. it’s pretty bad we have to shoot 22lrs, because of the cost, it’s all BS, just like gas prices, need to get our country back, but quick.

    • Gas prices…

      Gas is about four times the price it was when I was in high school, whereas the minimum wage is about twice what it was.

      Hmmm…

      • Gas prices rise due to speculation, and to line the pockets of those doing the speculating.

        As for minimum wage, it’s a whole other debate. One I’m prepared to enter, don’t get me wrong. But it’s unsuitable for a gun forum.

        • Gas prices are generally unrelated to firearms as well, except insofar as the Ay-rabs likely find ’em useful when they demand more than $6.50 a barrel for crude.

          I only mentioned the minimum wage as it’s the other economic thing I remember from way back when I first started to care about gas prices.

          Be well, fueled and paid. And armed!

    • @Lfshtr
      You can’t complain about gas in AZ! I was visiting AZ a month ago checking out potential places to move and gas was $1.10 less than it was in ca. Unfortunately the area I visited had just as bad of a .22 shortage as there is in ca.

    • I call shenanigans on finding .22 ammo in Tucson on a daily basis, unless paying $65-$80 for 550 round bulk pack Federal at a gun show or Backpage counts as finding ammo.

  10. Plinkster messed up doing the back-2-back demo on a pistol. The vast majority of .22 LR is subsonic from a pistol anyway, and he proved that Mini-Mag is. Maybe that last shot went supersonic for a very short period of time but this was not a good demo. Nice to see the CCI suppressor is subsonic out of a rifle, because that’s the trick.

    Want to hear the difference between subsonic and supersonic .22 LR? Click here.

    BUT… I’m still going to give a big nod to the American Eagle Suppressor ammo that I reviewed, because the bullets are completely copper plated. Reducing lead buildup in your can is a big deal, and the AE stuff delivers there. It’s also supposed to have clean-burning powders.

    • Yeah. Love 22Plinkster and all but he F’d that one up.

      Most .22 LR is subsonic from a pistol and Mini-Mags damn sure are according to that video. You have to get the hyper velocity varmint stuff to consistently break the sound barrier from a pistol in most cases. (see my comment above, and the link to a video showing the clear, legit difference between sub- and supersonic in .22 LR. The difference is even louder with larger bullets like 9mm and .300BLK, etc)

  12. So, the cops in Idaho found the ammo, then came back the next day, and only 85 rounds were left. What the hell did this guy SAY?! “Dunno, guess they just walked off…” That’s some cajones to pull that stunt. And then the whole “paid leave for months” thing is so stereotypically lame.

    • After they got a warrant, not the next day. And it could have been cocaine, y’know! And the article didn’t even mention who supposedly owned the ammunition. Was it stolen, or did he just own more than allowed? Poorly written!

  14. Aw, all the good “22lr is extinct” jokes have been used already. I’ve got to start showing up earlier to this threads.

  15. Moving to non-union states so they can avoid paying a living wage – that those states appear to be ‘pro-gun’ is merely a publicity side-benefit.

    • Yeah, that must be it. Enjoy the downhill slide, and keep on voting for free stuff!

      • That *is* the downhill slide. Olin is closing the Alton plant because their workers had the temerity to expect to make a whopping $15-18 per hour plus low-grader benes. Wow, they wanted to live large. Instead, they’re shifting production to bumble-f**k Mississippi where they can get more semi-skilled clowns desperate enough to work for $10 per hour.

        What could possibly go wrong with people making ammo who have sub-fast food skill sets and get paid what a Subway kid does in a better state?

        You know the real problem with underpaying people? It shifts the burden from the employer to the taxpayer. Who do you think funds the safety net for the working poor?

        • Having lived in”bumble-f**k Mississippi” for the last 50 years I have reason to believe that $10 an hour here will allow you to live a lot better than $25 an hour in most union utopias. It may have something to do with not having worked at minimum wage since I was washing dishes in high school. How much do you think it is worth to sweep the parking lot or collect shopping carts at Walmart?

        • The carmakers have been moving factories to less-expensive, non-union states for years, and their employees don’t seem to be too upset about the wages and benefits they’re receiving. The UAW keeps trying to get in the door at those southern car factories, and keeps losing when it’s put to a vote of the workers.

          And they’re turning out better quality cars than the union plants ever did. So those mouth-breathing southerners must be doing something right, even though they’re not as advanced as the folks in your “better” states.

          • Good comment, and the best part was the last sentence of the first paragraph. You can point the finger at the “greedy corporations” all you want, but when the actual workers vote, time and again, against organizing, that’s the telling point.

        • Sometimes, non-union workers in right to work states make more than unionized workers. The advantages to the company include relief from stupid union work rules, flexibility to hire temporary workers when needed and the ability to promote based on merit and not seniority, to note just a few.

          Moreover, in manufacturing at least, labor costs can be a small portion of overall cost. Which is why every manufacturing job in America hasn’t been shipped out to Mexico.

          It’s not 1930 anymore, and the traditional “greedy capitalist v. poor oppressed worker” stereotype just won’t play.

        • Brainwashing writ large…

          You can “live well” for $10 an hour (propagandist tripe, they live like 3rd worlders relative to the rest of the US) only because nobody with any desirable skills or talents wants to live in that sh!thole. Google and every cap mgmt firm on Sand Hill Road are just itching to move to MS. Or not. By every measure MS is either dead-last, or second from the bottom in every educational study. It’s got a lousy climate, nothing much to see, nothing much to do, and it has a tiny pool of skilled labor. I’m sure it’s great for you though.

          $20/per (let alone $25) will afford a very decent standard of living in the MW – far better than the plantation serfs have in the Deep South wasteland with their Subway Sandwich Artist wages.

          The important point is this – 90% of all jobs can be done by almost anyone who can fog glass. So, are those people deserving of a living wage, or shall they just work for the current poverty level minimum? Fed minimum would be north of $11.50 per just to keep pace with inflation. Back in the 70s and 80s they could at least pay their bills on a 40 hour week. They now need to do 60+.

          Is that what you think America is about?

          As to carmakers moving to non-union states, that’s another shallow stinking pile. They pay the same (or better) hourly rates as the union plants, they just have more flexible work rules. Like I’ve said a dozen times, there are instances of unions getting ridiculous, and some of the old work rules are insane. But let’s not forget mgmt signed off on those work rules. Folks are getting the benefit of what the unions made happen 70+ years ago, without paying the price.

          The part of all this that amuses me most is that I’m not a ‘working man’. I’ve always made more than Fed Min even as a HS kid back in the 80s. I have always paid my people well, and have gotten what I’ve paid for in return. The thought that everyone who isn’t in some 2% specialty is now not entitled to a living wage is beyond obscene – it’s unAmerican.

      • DET is it’s own problem. But seriously, I do really wonder about the zeitgeist around here at times.

        So, this move to having 2 classes of Americans – rich and working poor is just fine? Who needs a middle-class? Sure, there were ridiculous union abuses over the years, and frankly, I’m not a big fan of unions. But the US middle class is evaporating faster than water in CA, and if people can’t understand that 10 families at $100K per year generate waaaayyy more economic activity than one family at $1MM per year we really are doomed.

        • Take your pick…

          a) Have un/semi-skilled Americans working for $10/hour and becoming skilled in something other than running the register at a convenience store, or

          b) Ship the job to a China, Malaysia or wherever, or

          c) Have the company in question simply terminate unprofitable / non-competitive operations.

        • Running a register is no more complicated than being an insurance agent, an apprentice plumber/electrician, or any one of 50 professions I can rattle off.

          Entry level is entry level. But that shouldn’t mean “starve to death until you’re promoted”. It never did before, and it sure as eff shouldn’t now.

    • One other thing: why do you assume that the companies in question are only motivated by immediate profits? They have an very strong interest in seeing that anti-gun policies don’t proliferate from the anti-2A states to the more pro-2A states, and making it clear that they won’t support these laws with tax money and jobs sends a very powerful message to other states that stupidity has consequences.

  16. Everything I’ve yet fired out of my suppressed .22 pistol has been subsonic regardless of advertised muzzle velocity. My 16″ barrel rifle will also shoot CCI Standard Velocity subsonic as well. I see no reason to purchase this new “suppressor” offering (at a premium too, likely) over CCI SV.

  17. Personally I couldn’t care less about the new .22 ammo. I’m interested in this new ammo from Bite the Bullet. Cheaper, faster, and cleaner sure gets my attention, especially the “cheaper” part. Regular practice is murder on my bank account. I really hope this stuff will live up to the claims.

  18. So you mean to tell me that they found thousands of rounds of stolen ammo on this guy’s property, and they just left it there unattended while they went to get a separate warrant?

    Is this the same country where the police routinely break down people’s doors and hold them at gunpoint just to avoid the destruction of purely hypothetical drugs?

    • they just left it there unattended while they went to get a separate warrant?

      Actually, no. They just left the ammo there while they went to get their personal station wagons and a few hand trucks.

  19. Let’s try this one; The POLICE called the SCHOOL to tell them a student had brought a gun to school? WTF is up with that, besides the fact they were apparently wrong? I’d like to know how that happens.

  20. I found out last week that James River Armory is moving from Maryland to South Carolina in 2015.

  21. The lovely combination of .22LR’s non-availability and high cost has really slowed down my shooting over the last 2 years. It’s a shame because .22 is my favorite caliber to shoot, I recently inherited three .22 rifles, and I bought a S&W 617 last year. What a tease.

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