SHOT Show: Maker Bullets

SHOT is filled with numerous events, parties, and shindigs. Technically, the whole show starts on Monday morning with Media Industry Day at the Range, but the festivities got under way a bit earlier for the TTAG crew at a private events put on by Team Never Quit Ammunition at the Strip Gun Club on Sunday afternoon. I joined Jon Wayne Taylor and Nick Leghorn for a demo of TNW’s ammo, which I’ve used in past reviews and found to be throughly likable stuff. On the way in, bags of perfectly expanded copper projectiles caught our eye. Said bags belonged to Maker Bullets . . .

We met with Paul Hendrixson, founder and head honcho at Maker. He explained that his extensive background in medical devices had led him to think that he could create a solid copper projectile that would meet his needs. I’ll let the blurb for their website take over from here.

Maker Ammo, LLC and the Maker Bullets brand was launched in November  2014 by Paul Hendrixson and Constant Laubscher.  Prior to the creation of the Maker brand, in 2012  Paul and Constant began manufacturing a 220 grain solid copper for 300 blackout because there was limited availability of subsonic bullets at that time.

Shortly after, they developed a fracturing and then expanding line for use in subsonic hog hunting.  As the designs, progressed, patents were filed on the fracturing ammo. Friends who were launching a new ammo line agreed to private label the projectiles. As production grew, the expanding and fracturing product lines expanded to include over 100 different caliber and grain weight configurations.  

In early 2015, the Maker Bullets brand was launched to introduce a full line of match, expanding and fracturing projectiles with and without polymer tips.  Focusing solely on precision cnc machined lead free, solid copper projectiles Maker now has over  250 grain and caliber configurations.  

As Paul explains it, Maker can create a custom bullet for any shooting situation based on your specific needs. Of interest to me, and part of the reason Paul went down this path was a 220 gr. subsonic .300 BLK loading for home defense. I recently put together my first .300 BLK SBR and with a can on the end it sure does love those subsonic loads. The issue is that I worry about poor energy transfer with those bit fat subbies. Worse yet, I’m unsure of how they’ll do in the case of an over penetration or a miss, as I’m not interested in killing my neighbor’s dog.

Paul assures me that his subsonic specific 200 gr .30 cal bullet will expand fully, dumping all of its energy into whatever it hits. Naturally, I’m curious, and we’ve asked for some to test in the coming months. Watch this space.