What is the most fun weapon and caliber combination to shoot? The possibilities are limitless. Everyone has their own pet systems, loves, and opinions. Let’s take a look at options and evaluate. My keen scientific mind has concocted a very detailed system to evaluate the options that are too difficult to explain, so you will just have to trust me. The category is FUN FACTOR and we are looking to fill the podium with a winner.

My focus is on items that people can actually own, even if slightly difficult. This assumes you don’t live under the near communist regimes of some of our bluest states. Also, the Battlefield Vegas 20mm Vulcan mounted to a Toyota Prius and miniguns are a rare occurrence, so I will exclude those as ‘extraordinary’ items. I will not include any civil war or WWII artillery, that by some loophole, is legal.

My background in the industry has provided me with the opportunity to shoot a larger spectrum of cartridges and weapons than the average shooting sports enthusiast. I am told I shot my first .22 Long Rifle at age three, I have no such memory. However, knowing my father’s desire to give me all the experiences under the sun, and recall how much time we spent at the family gun range growing up, it’s probably true. I’ve shot so much that I’ve likely forgotten some of the interesting weapons I’ve fired. Therefore, I feel I’m a pretty worthy judge of what firearms might be the most fun to shoot.

BIG BORE ENTERTAINMENT

During my time in the manufacture of cartridge cases for Dakota Arms, Lazzeroni, Tubbs, Huntington’s, Old Western Scrounger, Midway, Cheytac, Federal, Holland and Holland, Dixie Gun, John Rigby & Co., Kynoch and too many others to list, I had the opportunity to shoot many of their products. You don’t want to fire too many of these at one time. For those of you that have never had the experiencing the percussion and the recoil from these large calibers — let’s just say big bore cartridges can give a headache the size of a small country.

The recoil from some of them is quite painful. I have never fired from the shoulder the round my father created, the 700 Nitro Express. I’ve only shot it from a pressure barrel. The rifle itself weighs more than 40 pounds; another reason to avoid shooting it. I’ve fired its younger brothers in the Nitro Express arena and I have done it enough to know it’s painful… painful enough to not want to shoot it all that much. But, boys will be boys, and if the opportunity presents itself to shoot something unique, damn the torpedoes – we’re gonna shoot it. In testing some 50-70 or 50-90 or 50-110 ammo in a Sharps rifle, I gained a scar above my right eye, along with a memory that’ll last forever. This is the rifle that was used by Tom Selleck in “Quigley Down Under” in the 1980s. The peep sight requires you get rather close to it to aim. Then there is the front locking trigger and the rear hair trigger. I took a last breath before intentionally getting my finger near the hair-trigger and accidentally touching it. It went off and blood ran down my face. The large size of the weapon, cartridge, and the boom all make it a blast to shoot. Channeling Tom Selleck’s character shooting a moving bucket at 1200 yards adds to the experience (now you have to stream the movie). So, in my book the large African or Black powder calibers are not at the top of the list for fun due to recoil, first, percussion, second, and weight of weapons, third.

The ability to decimate targets at 1000 yards is pretty awesome. Many shooters only dream of making a near-world record shot at over a mile. Nearly all of these have a muzzle brake which dramatically reduces recoil when fired from the shoulder.

Some of the long-range calibers like 50 BMG, 408 Cheytac, 338 Lapua, 338 Norma Mag, 300 Norma Mag, Lazzeroni 7.82 Warbird, and 12.04 BiBaMuFu (Big Bad Mother*ucker) and are very similar in their percussive effects. The ability to decimate targets at 1000 yards is pretty awesome. Many shooters only dream of making a near-world record shot at over a mile. Nearly all of these have a muzzle brake which dramatically reduces recoil when fired from the shoulder. The muzzle brake can wreak havoc on any instrumentation placed alongside the weapon, though. The sniper calibers are not at the top of the list for percussion, first and recoil, second.

I have less experience in handgun calibers. As a teenager, I was sucked into the frenzy calibers of the day. Most of the larger calibers like 44 Magnum, which according to Clint Eastwood’s character in “Dirty Harry” is, “the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?” Feel free to stream this movie as well! The 44 Mag does kick like a mule and only seems to transfer the pain from your shoulder to your wrist (and arms, and shoulders). It also has some serious percussion. Now, there are many large pistol calibers, including some rifle calibers, being shot from pistols. The stories and videos online make those look painful to shoot. Therefore, the large pistol calibers are not on the top of the list for fun guns to shoot.

FULL AUTO PLAY

Smaller pistol calibers can be a lot of fun. Shooting .22 LR in pistol or rifle is great because it can be fired indoors and, therefore, year-round. It has low recoil and is not terribly loud. The biggest negative I can think of is the time spend reloading and the sore fingers you get from feeding those finicky magazines. Since 22 LR is such a popular, mainstream cartridge, it reduces the reduces the wow/fun factor. But, when the right gun comes along, the caliber is moot. For example, my father is working on a homemade 22 LR Gatling gun. I can’t wait to fire that!

Fully automatic, magazine-fed machine guns are the next category that turns a corner in our story. Someone rarely fires these weapons without a big smile on their face. Most of these are in 22 LR, .223/5.56mm, 7.62x39mm, and .308/7.62x51mm, which have reasonable percussion and recoil. The .308/7.62x51mm, after enough rounds, can give you a headache. As a pre-teen, I shot a lot of 22 LR in a Ruger 10/22. We tried all the high-capacity magazines of the late 1970s & 1980s. The short version of the story, anything over 30 rounds did not work. The biggest negative in this category is the cost of the ammo. Of course, this is reduced with 22 LR, however, it doesn’t have the wow factor of the larger calibers. A second negative is the paperwork on a fully automatic weapon. A third negative is the limited number of ranges where you are allowed to fire these weapons. I give this platform a bronze medal for the FUN FACTOR.

BELT-FED ENTERTAINMENT

One step up from the above is fully automatic, belt-fed machine guns. This mainly ends up being 5.56mm, 7.62x51mm, or .50 BMG. The M2 is a blast to shoot, and I highly recommend it on an outdoor range with tracers or Mk211 semi-HE ammo. In some of my work events, I get to shoot the M2 for free, which only amplifies the fun. To boot, most times I have shot belt feed I did not have to link the ammo myself, which is even better. At the 2021 NDIA Armaments conference at Ft. Benning, I got to shoot a suppressed M2 with an MGRS Optic. Now we are cooking with gas! An M249 SAW or Minimi is a blast and everyone should have one. The most fun I have personally had with belt-fed is dual 7.62x51mm M60’s mounted on a shoulder-high tripod. It had motorcycle handlebar lever-style triggers, one for each. The range allowed tracers, and walking rounds in on a target was unbelievably fun. It reminded me of WWII fighter pilots walking in a stream of rounds on a target. On the downside, paying for all the ammo you run in a belt-fed is no fun, and that’s doubly so when talking about a twin M60. I’m sure if I had to link the rounds every time I shot, it might swap positions… But, a solid effort for this group gives belt-feds the FUN FACTOR silver medal.

40mm WINNING FUN

The reason 40mm Low Velocity rounds are the most fun to shoot are numerous. First, due to the low velocity, you can see the round from the muzzle all the way to the target. Next, the recoil is very minimal. Third, the sound and percussion are almost non-existent. It does make a cool, hollow “ploop” sound when fired. The orange dye is cool to see, and most rounds don’t have this kind of clear hit signature. Next is hitting things downrange with nearly a 2,700-grain projectile makes interesting things happen. Wood railroad ties, metal frames, concrete barricades, and whatever else you are shooting at really takes a beating. If you can shoot at a car or old truck, you are really moving metal. If you’ve never been in a competition to put a 40mm round in a 55-gallon drum at 300 meters, it should be on your to-do list. Add other options in 40mm that include parachute flares, smoke rounds, and non-lethal rounds and you have a fiesta.

On the weapon side, there are numerous options. You can go old school with an M79 Launcher. You can mount M203 under an AR-style rifle. A stand-alone, rail-mounted M203 is highly recommended and can be had for around $3000, new. A Milkor M32A1-MSGL 6-shot launcher is the pinnacle of the bunch, however they’re extremely difficult to obtain and cost around $15,000.

To be fair, there are negatives. The cost of the rounds is prohibitive. Reloading the rounds can be accomplished for around $2 to $3 each if you reuse the zinc body, 38 S&W blank, and the M212 base case. There are some paperwork restrictions on owning a 40mm weapon. The cost of some of the more exotic weapons is a challenge — however, a used M203 can be had for under $1000. Despite all this, the 40mm wins the gold medal as the most fun thing to shoot.

After this goes to print, I typically post the article on my LinkedIn account. Please check in there and let me know if you agree or disagree with my extremely scientific analysis of the most FUN FACTOR medal winners. If you have a more deserving candidate, please let me know.

In ammunition manufacturing, daring is rare. The ammunition industry in the U.S. is staid. Many popular cartridges and weapon designs are more than 100 years old: look at the .50 BMG, .30-06, and .45 ACP cartridges and the M2 machine gun, Garand rifle, and 1911 pistol. Therefore, when you see something novel, you are taken a little off guard. I had the opportunity to visit with a group of ammunition component-making dynamos at First Breach of Hagerstown, MD. They definitely caught me off guard.

What Makes First Breach Different

First Breach is cupping from brass and copper strip to make their 9mm and 5.56/.223 cartridge cases and bullet jackets. Second, they are molding their lead ingots. Third, they are extruding their lead wire.

For the layman, this means they’re starting with raw materials that are common across all manufacturing industries, so they are not beholden to anyone that is part of the ammunition industry base. In addition, making their own cups allows them to control quality. It also prevents them from being stuck with so-so-quality cups. Multiple times in my days manufacturing brass cartridges, I received cups that did not match the engineering drawing. We had the choice of accepting the product or waiting another six months for a reworked part. Unfortunately, we were often forced to take the poorly made product and fight it all the way through the manufacturing process.

I’m going back in the mental file cabinet to try to remember the last time something so bold was undertaken in ammunition. I can’t think of anything in the last 50 to 60 years. The nearest effort is SIG Sauer’s venture into ammunition in the 2014 timeframe. However, that started as a partnership with another company and expanded slowly. It took around three years to break off into their own facility in Arkansas. On the other hand, this venture getting off the ground and jumping into so many areas at once is quite bold. Cupping is a difficult and challenging operation and makes some of the other manufacturing aspects seem simplistic. One can make a mistake in the cupping process and not understand the full implication of the mistake until it’s on the ammunition testing range days later. The good news is they seem to have the right equipment designs, tooling designs, fabrication equipment, gaging, and support staff to successfully pull off this massive endeavor.

But Wait – There’s More

They are also going to make primers! They will make these from the strip and other basic raw materials. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no one in the last 50 years that has started with this level of commitment or investment in small-caliber ammunition. This facility is so impressive that I’m certain it will be here for decades to come. It’s almost too big to fail. All the other names in the industry that have become industry mainstays (ex. Hornady, Barnes, Sierra) have started much smaller and slowly grew their business over time. I had the opportunity to visit Barnes bullet in the early 1980s when it was a very small operation in an outbuilding on the Brooks family farm. It grew slowly over time. First Breach is trailblazing a path an ammunition manufacturing path in the U.S.

Modern Machines

To make things even more interesting and rare, they are doing it all with brand-new equipment made in Turkey. They have partnered with Atesci, a 20-year-old company with a great reputation and a long history of success. I have been aware of this company for the better part of those 20 years; however, I have never seen their equipment stateside. I can now say that I have seen their equipment firsthand and it is impressive. The equipment appeared to be well-made and designed. The presses are very stout and with excellent fit and finish. First Breach is so new that their cupping, 9mm case, 9mm bullet, lead ingot, and lead wire lines were all set in place but were idle during my visit as they waited on an electrical transformer to power up the machines. Apparently, supply chain issues affecting us at the retail level also have an impact on industrial power transformers, as well. As I am wrapping up this article, my point of contact informs me that the machines are running, and product is flowing.

The lines saw many of the modern items one would expect to see in modern manufacturing. They have Siemens LCD touchscreen control panels and individual fault detection sensors on each tooling station on the 9mm case machine to instantly stop the machine should a part not transfer. When a part does not transfer, it means that it most likely is stuck in the die and/or the tooling has broken. If the machine continues to run, it will insert the next part on top of another part and cause even more tooling damage. These types of crashes are typically catastrophic. It’s an important consideration when each of the 16 tooling stations cost over $2000 each.

The equipment stations also had an array of gages to measure the parts coming off the machine. This is also a world class thing First Breach and Atesci are bringing to the table. The operator can inspect parts coming off the machine, as they are built. This will ensure that they will not make scrap. It will also help identify when tooling is wearing or in need of adjustment. When this is done correctly, product quality is assured. They are also planning an underground ballistics lab to test the products in-house, even though finished ammunition is not on the radar at the moment.

Room to Grow

First Breach is doing nothing small and simple. They are leasing space in an old Fairchild aircraft manufacturing complex. Space is massively abundant the company’s existing lines talking up about a quarter of the building’s total 882,575 available square feet. I believe they used to manufacture the A-10 Warthog in this complex. For a size comparison, the entire building’s comparable to 15 football fields. I don’t think I have ever been in buildings so large in terms of square feet or so tall with an amazing amount of ceiling clearance – 46 ft! Needless to say, the production lines were spaced out and the company has plenty of room to grow.

More to Come

There are many more great things to come from the First Breach team. The team I met with included First Breach CEO Jeffrey Low, COO Jordan Low, Director of Operations Ben Donivan, and Senior VP of Business Development CJ Dugan. All are all professionals that can, and will, do great things. I’m excited about this company’s prospects. Standby for more on First Breach, as I intend to write a follow-up article once their primer lines are running.

The .338 Lapua Magnum (LM) has been the next greatest “mainstream” sniper caliber for the last 30-plus years. It was designed to be the ideal “in-between” round. That is, in between 7.62×51 and .50 caliber. It was supposed to be a versatile sniper caliber or a lightweight machine gun back in the 1980s. It has had its successes and favor in certain communities around the world for almost 40 years. Some might say that it has had more success overseas than in the United States.

However, the recent adaptation of the .338 Norma Magnum by the U.S. Army for the new Precision Sniper Rifle program (PSR) and SOCOM/USMC with the Multi-Role Adaptive Design Rifle (MRAD) as Mk22 Mod 0 ASR Advanced Precision Rifle is a true paradigm shift for the industry. The change means the .338 LM is no longer up and coming; it is perceived as old and outdated. The punches keep coming with the upcoming SOCOM .338 Norma Magnum for the Lightweight Medium Machine Gun (LWMMG) program. The use in a machine gun will dramatically increase the amount of ammunition being built, and it will reduce the cost of the ammunition for all takers. All of these combined factors seem to be the final nail in the coffin for .338 LM.

The .338 LM will not now or ever be adopted by the U.S. Army or SOCOM—period. It will never be the clear winner as the sniper or precision long-range caliber of choice. It came close to being the “great caliber” many times. Its ship has now officially sailed. After the U.S. Army and SOCOM have used the .338 Norma Magnum for a while, then other countries will follow suit. The commercial market also will shift away from .338 LM and towards the .338 Norma Magnum. This will mean more bullet offerings, more custom weapons, more machine guns and the like in .338 Norma Magnum. The popularity of the .338 Norma Magnum is pretty intense, as it has come a very long way since its introduction around 2008.

These new “systems” (ASR, MRAD, PSR, LWMMG) come on the heels of a major systems failure. The Modular Sniper Rifle (MSR) was awarded to Remington in 2013 after the original Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) competitions. This nearly $80 million contract for over 5,000 rifles and over 4.6 million rounds of ammo seems to have died. There were numerous issues, and it is not clear what happened. The MSR was chambered in 7.62×51 NATO, .300 Winchester Magnum and .338 Lapua Magnum. The program has not been officially canceled, though it appears to be dead for all intent and purposes. Some are saying the MSR (Remington) has been completely swapped for the ASR (Barrett’s MRAD) and the .338 LM for the .338 Norma Magnum.

History

Ironically, Lapua is a Finnish company making the round with U.S. origins. The .338 LM caliber owes its origin to the U.S. Army. Back in the 1980s, the Army awarded a contract to Research Armaments Industries (RAI)  to develop a new sniper weapon and caliber. RAI Enterprises got the contract. They were working with barrel legend Boots Obermeyer (Obermeyer Rifled Barrels) and Jim Bell (Brass Extrusion Labs Ltd.). These two characters created the .338×416, based on the .416 Rigby cartridge case. My father, Jim, fondly describes why they did what they did on a bar napkin at a Wisconsin restaurant/tavern:

• That .580 base diameter cartridge would fit in standard large actions.
• The large base diameter would allow all the powder you would need for any ballistic solution.
• The heavy taper would be ideal for future potential machine gun use and easy extraction.
• .338 diameter was the largest caliber with a wide range of projectile types and enough payload for armor-piercing applications.

Bell says they based the original prototype cases on the .416 Rigby low-pressure African caliber. There was no science behind the choice of this base diameter. It was a common diameter, and it was on the shelf. Back in that day, new calibers were not being developed and released a couple of times a year. This caliber was originally designed in 1911 by John Rigby & Company. Since it was for an African caliber, it was not designed for high pressure. Therefore, the original samples were too soft in the case head and were difficult to extract from when shot for a high-performance load. The cases needed to be headed with more force and/or with slight tooling changes to get the diamond point hardness (DPH) in the head so they would still easily extract from the rifle. Since time was of the essence and Bell Labs was not able to move fast enough on these changes, the circus moved on, and the RAI program did not go anywhere; however, the .338×416 lived on.

The .338×416 was later picked up by Lapua in Finland, adjusted slightly and renamed the .338 Lapua Magnum. It has had better success in Europe than in the U.S. Lapua and Nammo have offered up to a dozen different bullet loads to include multiple armor-piercing varieties. The most current version (2018) of the Nammo Handbook has six different flavored categories for a total of 10 types:

• Lock Base: 250-grain FMJ
• Scenar: 250- and 300-grain OTM
• Solid: 231-grain
• Armor Piercing: 248- and 300-grain tungsten carbide core
• Armor Piercing Incendiary: 253-grain
• Proof, Drill & Blank

In the late 1990s, the U.S. manufacture of chambers in .338 was a common trend. I can fondly remember the SHOT Show in the early 2000s when Savage finally chambered in it. I was sure the price under $1,500 would be a rocket seller and quickly make .338 LM mainstream. It did not. Today at least a dozen U.S. manufacturers offer a standard, off-the-shelf version of .338 Lapua Magnum.

In a recent conversation with a long-time industry expert, we joked about how a typical 5-million round RFQ (request for quotation) for .338 Lapua Magnum really means 5,000 rounds will be procured. My days as a brass manufacturer of .338 Lapua Magnum caliber involved many multi-million-round RFQs that ended in an order of maybe 30,000 rounds, at best. This number has been echoed by other producers as the typical “large” run for .338 LM brass here in the U.S. The typical assumption was that the XYZ government was considering the expanded use of the caliber and wanted to know what the ammo would cost in volume. This seems to make sense as there were many RFQs, and no one was ever awarded numbers in those quantities.

The caliber has had considerable notoriety over the last decades. Of the current top 20 sniper kill shots, the .338 LM currently holds 3rd at 2,475m from 2009. It also holds positions at 10 and 11. The .50 BMG is the record holder at 3,540m and holds 10 of the top 20 spots. It is impressive that the .338 can go toe to toe with the .50 BMG when the .50 weapons weigh 26 to 30 pounds and the .338 rifles weigh +/-14 pounds. I’m not sure that the .300 or .338 Norma Magnum will ever have records of this magnitude; beating out the .50 BMG is unlikely. However, if the U.S. government is right, the future of warfare is in urban areas, not the Middle East desert, which will provide less opportunity for extreme long-range shots.

Norma vs. Lapua

Reasons why the .338 Norma Magnum has won out over the .338 Lapua Magnum:

• Current propellants can accomplish all the velocity needed with less powder capacity; therefore the extra volume of .338 LM is overkill.
• The shorter length of the Norma calibers is easier to manipulate in standard rifle actions and machine guns.
• The “short magnum” craze of the early 2000s has popularized the use of and familiarity with short magnum calibers.
• There is better powder burn uniformity to give better accuracy in shorter cases.
• The .338 Norma Magnum has less weight—the U.S. Army is always on the hunt to save a few pounds.

Of course, the only thing for sure with the U.S. government is … nothing. They could change their minds before this article goes to print. The ASR ammo contract was recently awarded to UDC USA; however, it is not in production yet. It does have the makings of success. The ASR is a “Program of Record.” Barrett was awarded $50 million in rifles chambered in the .338 Norma Magnum for the ASR.

It appears that General Dynamics and SIG Sauer are the early favorites for the LWMMG contract. The GD design on the LWMMG is 10 years old or more. It’s so old that they took it out of their trade show booth because they thought it was a dead program. Then all of a sudden, the LWMMG became all the rage, and it was back in the booth. These are exciting times in the gun and ammunition world. Things are changing quickly—faster than the U.S. government can support. In the meantime, enjoy the show.