By Dan Shea

“The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan. You must learn its discipline. For no one—no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts. But steel; this you can trust.”—Conan the Barbarian’s father as he points to a sword he’d made.

It’s probable that most English-speaking readers of SADJ have seen John Milius’ adaptation of the Robert E. Howard stories in “Conan the Barbarian.” Entrenched in our modern martial culture, many of us jokingly quote the movie’s lines, because on an elemental level, it speaks truths to fighting men. The Riddle of Steel—it calls us; we philosophize around it, perhaps jokingly, but there is always a truth hidden in the words. At the core, the various answers appear to be contradictory: First, steel is strong and flesh is weak; Second, the opposite—flesh that wields the steel is strong, and steel is nothing without that; Third and perhaps most important, that the will and determination to use the steel in righteous endeavor is the true strength.

In fact, the Riddle of Steel is solved if all three of those are blended into one truth.

In the United States military, we have a group called SOCOM (USSOCOM)—it is comprised of warriors, working for warriors, to enhance their fighting capabilities. At the risk of being trite, this brotherhood is dedicated to using steel in righteous endeavor, and they train hard to have the physical capabilities to wield the steel, and, of course, their weapons are almost always the best that can be found. Started in 1987 to create a unified command for US Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force special operations groups, a significant part of the mission is new equipment.

In the modern fighting arena, in that hardened place that is called “downrange,” increasing distances of engagement as well as armoring of targets are challenging the warriors. There have been many attempts to address this—not all failed, but few are chosen by the warrior leadership. Barrett Firearms has been chosen more than once …

One item of “steel” that has been chosen by SOCOM to be at the forefront for these warriors, is the newly adopted Mk22 Mod 0 “ASR” Advanced Sniper Rifle—the next evolution of Barrett Firearms Manufacturing’s MRAD rifle system. For SOCOM, where the physical strength and the righteous will are, the Mk22 very nicely completes the triad of the Riddle of Steel.

Barrett’s MRAD Concept

To understand the Barrett MRAD (Multi-Role Adaptive Design) rifle requires some background information. You can get the spec sheet story by searching “MRAD” online; our job at SADJ is to help the readers really understand the Mk22 system. Creating an accurate rifle that can interchange calibers is a unique challenge. Easy enough to change out a barrel and bolt, but to do so and maintain true precision accuracy, that is an entirely different matter. There have been many systems with interchangeable barrels, especially in machine guns; but those are area weapons, not point weapons. This has to be made in a man-portable manner as well, so steel is too heavy a choice for the chassis.

“The Riddle of Aluminum” doesn’t sound quite so interesting, but in fact that is where Barrett’s engineers went to create the MRAD/Mk22. There are eight “Thousand” series of aluminum alloys and some oddities; each has a commonality within its group. Pure aluminum is a very soft metal and requires additives (alloy) and treatments to gain strength. What are called the 7000 series aluminums are aluminum/zinc alloys with percentages of other metals that dictate the actual number. When searching for a material to CNC mill the MRAD monolithic receiver, the light weight of alloys and reasonable cost are a quick draw; but out of the hundreds of potential alloys, which one?

Starting after World War II, an alloy used by many in the aircraft industry is 7075 (a Japanese mix). It is an alloy of 90% Aluminum, 5.6% Zinc, 2.5% Magnesium, 1.6% Copper and 0.23% Chromium; some various tiny amounts of other metals are used as well. This lightweight, easily tempered and machined 7075 is ideal for use in firearms, and 6061 (6xxx—Silicon as main additive, not Zinc) and 7075 are alloys favored in the “AR” industry. Almost every written description of an AR will say “7075 T6 Aluminum” as if it was magical transition of knowledge to a reader. Actually, in the 5.56mm AR platforms, the real benefits of 7075 don’t fully show up. However, Barrett’s engineers are smart enough to know those other attributes solve almost every issue the MRAD faced, and in particular, the split collet nature of the barrel clamping. More on that later.

After cold rolling (adding about 4–6 times the strength) we get to the second part of the magical “7075 T6” invocation, the T6, which is the tempering. In the case of Temper 6 the 7075 is heated to 840ºF (450ºC) for approximately 2 hours, solution quenched, and an artificial “ageing” is physically done by resting at 250ºF (120ºC) for 24 hours (yes, this is a heat treatment). Of the many treatments that can be done, this method (called precipitation strengthening) ensures that the precipitates (tiny particles less than 0.001mm in diameter composed of aluminum and the added alloy metals) forming inside grains and on the grain boundaries produce excellent mechanical strength all through the material and add excellent surface-wear resistance. This is where the phenomenal elongation tolerance of 7075 T6 comes in. But that’s not the best thing…

“OK, Dan, so what is this about the split collet and Barrett engineers?” 7075 with a T6 temper has excellent tensile strength (74,000–78,000 psi) and yield strength of 63,000–69,000 psi. This is all great news for the 5.56mm, 6.5mm and 7.62mm AR builds, but it is the elongation tolerance before breaking of up to 11% that caught the Barrett engineers’ eyes. This is the exact right material tolerance (and heat tolerance) for heavier calibers like the Lapua and Norma Magnums.

The icing on that cake is that with changing calibers, using a split-collet-style clamp built into the upper receiver, the material must elongate and clamp, over and over, maintaining its original form on each return. 7075 T6 is ideal for this.

There are many parts to the MRAD as presented by Barrett, but the most critical is maintaining the accuracy in different barrels that are field changeable. The split collet is the key.

Why tighten to exactly 140 inch-pounds (in-lb)? We go back to the Riddle of Aluminum and that 11% maximum flex before breakage on 7075 T6. We don’t want to flex anywhere near that much, but seating a barrel in an accurate rifle must be done precisely in order to lessen barrel harmonics. Accuracy comes from tightly repeatable events in the physics of the rifle. Get rid of variables in barrel harmonics; tighten them up; shoot a tighter group. In discussion with Barrett, they indicated that when tightening up over 90 in-lb on these screws the group stabilized, and at 140 in-lb, the barrel was supported perfectly, the aluminum sides of the collet area were not overstressed, and the steel screws didn’t distort the threads in the aluminum. Thus, 3.5 inches of 360-degree-supported barrel clamped properly to rigidify it with the monolithic receiver results in the ability to have extreme accuracy from a field changeable rifle. This is the real heart of the rifle.

“The MRAD itself is a manually operated bolt-action rifle fed from a 10-round detachable magazine. It is designed to be a rugged, configurable, precision rifle system; the MRAD can quickly be converted to multiple calibers or barrel lengths. With M-LO[K] mounting slots at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock, its handguard offers a rigid, highly adaptable interface for attachment of rails, electro-optics and other accessories.”—Barrett manual description

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Magazines

Longtime readers know this author is a magazine fanatic. Feeding the weapons is often one of the hardest parts of weapon design, particularly in semi- or fully automatic firearms. In the case of a bolt action, it’s not as complex, but it still must be perfect, or you will experience misfeeds. The 10-round MRAD magazine is perfectly designed for presentation and in four basic flavors to properly present cartridges of different length/shoulder location. A properly treated flat spring is used to keep even presentation of the follower, ensuring the cartridge ramps into the chamber without cant.

The first MRAD (now called the Large Breech gun) was in .338 Lapua Magnum, and the magazine has no identification letter and zero ribs on it. After the MRAD was fully developed in different calibers, a system was needed for visual and tactile identification. The Mk22 comes with C- and D-type magazines:

A: .338 Lapua Magnum 6 ribs

B: .300 Win Mag/7mm Rem Mag/.300 PRC 4 ribs

C: .308/6.5 Creedmoor/.260 Rem 3 ribs

D: .338 Norma Magnum and .300 Norma Magnum 6 ribs

The obvious question to end users is whether A and D magazines are interchangeable—no, not reliably. The D magazine is specifically designed to accommodate the shorter shoulder location of the .338 Norma Magnum and .300 Norma Magnum cartridges; you could feed them in the A magazine but probably lose some reliability in feeding. Vice versa, if you had the .338 Lapua Magnum conversion kit for the Mk22, which is after all an MRAD, the A magazine would be needed.

The ASR Award 

Date: 03/11/2019
Issued From: HQ USSOCOM – Tampa, FL
Contract #: H9240319D0002
System: Barrett MRAD Rifle System
This is a 5-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for the Advanced Sniper Rifle and various components identified herein including three barrels in the calibers listed below, spare parts and Barrett AML338 suppressors. No optics are included.
The maximum quantity that shall be purchased is a total of 2,675 units.
The maximum contract value for all orders issued shall not exceed $49,936,299.50.
Calibers: .338 Norma Mag; .300 Norma Mag; 7.62x51mm

Mk22 Mod 0: The Changes from Other Programs

In the first place, the Mk22 does not need the large breech to small breech conversion unit—that was only on the early MRADs in .338 Lapua Magnum to smaller calibers when Barrett added them, and the Mk22 is purpose-designed from the current MRAD, using one homogenous breech for all calibers. The calibers in the Mk22 Mod 0 are the following and no others. There are other USG and DoD groups that add the .300 PRC or 6.5mm Creedmoor kit, but not for ASR. Could you add them? Yes, but it’s not currently authorized in the Mk22.

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The Mk22 rifle uses an M-LOK system as opposed to Barrett’s proprietary system on the MRAD. The Mk22 has the toggle bolt disassembly and a captive bolt pin.

The Mk22 Mod 0 is in the above calibers only, uses the Harris 6- to 9-inch bipod with a cant dial lock and is Coyote in color. The US Navy MRAD is Flat Dark Earth in .300 PRC and also uses the Harris bipod. The Mk22 does not use a monopod, but the bag rider is included. DoD MRAD issues the Accu-Shot monopod and no bag rider. Regarding the cheek piece, the Mk22 has the positive lock with increments, and the DoD MRAD has a friction lock with free adjustment. Several other differences are that the Mk22 safety has pictograms, and the DoD MRAD is S/F red and white; the trigger for Mk22 is fixed as I mentioned, but the DoD MRAD has a fully adjustable trigger that bottoms out at 1.75 pounds; and the Mk22 barrels are fluted stainless steel, DoD MRAD barrels are not fluted and are carbon fiber constructs. There are a lot of small changes and variations between the Mk22 and the DoD MRAD, but that’s not really our subject here.

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In addition to the MRAD and manufacturer markings, the Mk22 Mod 0 has US markings on it for issue model, etc.

USSOCOM Advanced Sniper Rifle Requirements

• Must be convertible to fire 7.62mm NATO, .300 Norma Magnum and .338 Norma Magnum cartridges.
• Must not exceed 17 pounds with an empty magazine but is ideally 13 pounds or less.
• Must not exceed 50 inches when fully extended, but is ideally 40 inches.
• Must not exceed 40 inches when collapsed for transport, but is ideally 36 inches.
• Must perform with at least 1 MOA accuracy for the 7.62 NATO and .300 Norma Magnum at 300 yards. Ideally .5 MOA.
• Must perform with at least 2.5 MOA accuracy for the .338 Norma Magnum at 300 yards. Ideally 1.5 MOA.
• Must have a modular flash or sound suppressor.

Calibers

Recently, the SOF community has tried a variety of calibers. The list is dizzying, and if you imagine the testing that has been done, it has occupied a lot of procurement people and design engineers, as well as end users. Here are just a few.

• 6mm Creedmoor
• 6.5mm Creedmoor
• 6.5mm Grendel
• .260 Remington
• .264 USA
• 6.8mm SPC
• .300 PRC
• .300 Norma Magnum
• .338 Norma Magnum
• .338 Lapua Magnum
• And now, 6mm ARC

Jimmie Sloan—Changing the Course

As the rest of the military/LE community (and this author) were variously adopting .338 Lapua Magnum and .300 Win Mag and finding some issues with these calibers in field use (not reliability, other issues), a parallel development had been going on in Willis, Texas. A very devoted long-range shooter named Mr. Jimmie Sloan was working on some new long-range loads, starting about 2005.

To some, Jimmie comes off more than “a little bit country,” and his down-home euphemisms might camouflage the brilliant mind inside there. Frequently, the most interesting leaps forward in technology come from a genius working in his garage—John Browning’s barn/workshop, Gene Stoner’s designs started in his garage, and heck, Carbine Williams did the M1 Carbine in jail!

Rumor has it, a room full of school-taught mechanical engineers tried to have a bit of fun at Jimmie’s expense, and it didn’t work out the way they expected. I asked Jimmie about it; he said, “I told them I didn’t have the schooling they did, but I had 50 years of experience designing, studying and shooting every day, and that over 8 years I hand-made brass and over 190,000 rounds of what became .338 Norma Magnum and made sure of every level of performance. I then asked them how many of their college degrees concentrated on ballistics, ammunition and firearms design. You could hear the crickets.”

The hard fact is, getting a degree in mechanical engineering is not a key to being able to design firearms—many graduating students find out very quickly that the firearms world is basically OJT. You might have training in metals, materials, even heat engines (that’s what firearms basically are) and ME101, but you need to apprentice all over again to be in firearms/ammunition design. The US education system simply doesn’t have firearms design in the curriculum. You can hope to work with someone who has 50 years’ experience and is willing to share it. You have to get your hands dirty. Besides, as the late Jim Schatz used to say, “Any day at the range beats a day at the office!”

Jimmie’s original designs used 240-grain (gr) MatchKing and 230-gr Berger bullets in the .300 Norma Magnum and 230-gr Berger bullets in the .338 Norma Magnum. The performance was superb, with barrel life in the 3,000-plus rounds. These are all excellent projectiles, and Jimmie designed the cartridges for the performance he wanted. Jimmie worked with General Dynamics on their Medium Machine Gun in .338 Norma Magnum, helping get that program moving.

Rumor also has it that one of the government arsenals changed the .300 projectile to a 215-grain and opened up the chamber, with resulting loss of performance and knocking barrel life down to 700 rounds or so. Jimmie’s reply is the eternal designer’s lament: “I gave you a balanced system; you changed something and then complained about the symptoms.”

In any event, the .300 Norma Magnum adopted now has a 215-grain OTM projectile, but Barrett ensured the chamber is “right,” and they’re getting 3,000-plus rounds life. The Barrett engineers worked with JGS Precision for chamber reamers on the MRAD and Mk22 programs (jgsprecision.com).

We should note here that Jimmie worked with Dave Kiff at Pacific Tool & Gauge (PTG) for much of his chamber design/reamers during the design project (pacifictoolandgauge.com). The headspace gauges this author used in the testing were PTG also. We checked headspace after barrel changes of course, as we got used to the system.

Ammo, Ammo, Ammo!

One of the most helpful ammunition companies in the US regarding law enforcement and special operations cartridges is Black Hills Ammunition (BH ammo) (black-hills.com). Started in 1981, Black Hills is synonymous with quality and reliability. This author has known Black Hills founder Jeff Hoffman for decades and has supplied numerous government contracts with BH ammo. Jeff was an active end user, is still a shooter, knows the needs and has the commitment to the end users. The BH ammo is solid, reliable and extremely accurate, and Jeff’s company worked very hard to come up with the loads needed for many other SOCOM projects as well as the Mk22 system. (Jeff was the 2010 recipient of the GySgt. Carlos Hathcock Award from NDIA Small Arms Committee.)

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Jeff was kind enough to send us a variety of the 7.62x51mm, .300 Norma Magnum and .338 Norma Magnum rounds exactly as used for the ASR program, and that is what we used in our testing. The Black Hills 7.62x51mm is legendary, a superbly accurate 175-grain projectile that is considered even with, if not better than, the military issue M118LR cartridge. In fact, many military and OGA groups use the Black Hills ammo. The .300 Norma Magnum and .338 Norma Magnum supplied to us show the clear results of what SOCOM was looking for during development—see the target section of this article. During development of the Mk22 system, the government awarded a sole-source contract to load reference ammunition to Black Hills. Part of that ammunition contract included a “surrogate” cartridge in .338 Norma loaded with the Sierra 300-grain OTM MatchKing that rifle manufacturers could use in development of the .338 Norma barrel for the system. This was done because of the expense of the AP-loaded cartridge and the close ballistic match between the 300-grain Sierra and the Lapua AP529 projectile. So, in short, there are two different projectiles that have been loaded in .338 Norma: the AP529 and the Sierra 300-grain OTM MatchKing. Only the AP529 is designated as the projectile in XM1162 (.338 Norma Magnum cartridge for the ASR). Many end users want the non-AP round to be adopted also, for use on ranges that can’t accept the AP round.

We also used some of the RUAG 7.62x52mm SWISS P Precision ammunition; longtime readers of SADJ will remember that in 2019 this author tested their palette of 7.62 offerings—seven various tactical rounds that have different jobs, but match point of impact; a truly desirable attribute. Unfortunately, RUAG was not in the competition, but it performed as well as expected.

The ammunition contract to supply the Mk22 Mod 0 “ASR” program did not go to Black Hills; earlier this year it was awarded to Ultra Defense Corp. Ultra Defense, as contract holder, has awarded a subcontract to Capstone Precision Group for manufacturing the cartridges. Capstone will be assembling the cartridges from subcontracted components—Capstone is the US sole distributor for Berger, Lapua, SK and Vihtavuori, among others. The single-year SOCOM agreement is for approximately 1 million rounds of ammunition: 800,000 rounds of .300 Norma Magnum with 215-grain OTM Hybrid Berger projectiles and Lapua-made cases. There will be 200,000 rounds of .338 Norma Magnum and 300-grain AP529 projectiles—both projectiles and cases are from Lapua, a NAMMO company, the AP529 is a NAMMO product and is NOT an OTMHC (Open Tip Match with a Hardened Core) as in numerous publications; it is an Armor Piercing Full Metal Jacket round with Tungsten Carbide Core. Excellent choice, in this author’s opinion, and more importantly the choice of the experts at SOCOM who exhaustively studied and fired tens of thousands of rounds. You can see the results on the targets later in this article. (Ultra Defense is sending SADJ some of the issue ammo for a separate test.)

Optically Speaking

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1. Eyepiece
2. Eyepiece lock ring
3. Power throw lever
4. Power zoom ring
5. ZeroStop™ elevation adjustment
6. Contract-specific UltraMount
7. Contract-specific removable laser platform
8. Capped windage adjustment and battery compartment (Opposite side: Parallax adjustment)
9. Objective/Objective lens

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The days of putting rounds on target with open sights are long in the past. I’m not saying that no one shoots open sights; most shooters have favorite Garands or ‘03s they can ring a gong or cut an impressive group with. The fact is that in military and LE scenarios, accuracy is king, lives are on the line, and high-grade optical sights, opto-electronics and the training to use them are the way to get there. The operator pulling the trigger and the chain of command up-hill have to answer for the accuracy of the shot and where the projectile lands, among other issues in this very complicated world.

The optic for the Mk22 PVPS (Precision Variable Power Scope) was not contracted with Barrett; but this is a system, and the chosen optic is a critical part of it. The Mk22 Optic contract was awarded to Nightforce® (nightforceoptics.com).

I should mention at first, that the Mk22 Mod 0 has a top rail slope of 10 MIL (ECP), and the DoD MRAD has a 20 MOA slope.

In that separate contract, SOCOM chose the Nightforce MIL-SPEC ATACR™ (Advanced TACtical Rifle) in two flavors, both with 34mm tubes and Horus Vision TREMOR3™ reticles in MRADs. The example sent to us for testing was the MIL-SPEC ATACR 7-35×56 F1 with custom mount. The other option SOCOM chose is the MIL-SPEC ATACR 5-25×56 F1. “MIL-SPEC” indicates these scopes are not the commercial version of the ATACR; they must meet the MIL-SPEC.

While this author found shooting at 1,000 meters with the 35x was very helpful, the real end users generally only use the 25x level for engaging and having more field of view; the 35x end is used for observation.

Nightforce is well-known for the rock solid scopes they build—they’re made to go in the field. The reticles chosen for the ASR are First Focal Plane and of course etched on glass; as magnification is used the reticle will also be magnified. (The Second Focal Plane is behind the magnification lenses and stays at one grid size no matter the magnification—useful in some scenarios, but this author prefers FFP, target adjustments at range seem much more precise.) Nightforce optics are also well-known for their light transmission capability. Looking through a Nightforce optic is almost breathtaking in clarity; clearly this was a factor in SOCOM’s choice of the optic. One bit of lore from the end users—highly trained snipers—many have told this author that at extended ranges the Nightforce scopes are decidedly better at seeing deeper “into” shadow areas compared to other scopes, a function of the NF lens treatment. This is very hard to quantify, but many end users swear by this.

The mount chosen is the Nightforce MIL-SPEC UltraMount with the RAP-I Laser Rangefinder attachment bridge; a soft case is supplied. Nightforce supplies a tool kit for the Optic system, with some additional tools not in the ASR kit supplied by Barrett: Torque tools of 100 in-lb and 25 in-lb, as well as a T15 Torx head bit.

Note: The Nightforce MIL-SPEC ATACR described here was also selected for the US DoD MRAD in .300 PRC caliber.

The optic selected for the US Army PSR version of the MRAD was the Leupold Mark 5HD 5-25×56 with MIL Grid 4 Reticle.

Nightforce ATACR 7-35×56 F1 

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Suppression

There are many considerations regarding suppressors for rifles; suppression of noise is not the only one. From the outset, SOCOM knew there would be a compromise on sound reduction for the 7.62 and .300 Norma Magnum calibers if they wanted one suppressor to use on all the calibers and barrels in the Mk22 Mod 0 system. Barrett’s engineers knew this as well; the bore had to accommodate the largest diameter projectile. The alternative would be to carry two suppressors, but for the small decibel reduction gained, the weight gain to the system would not be worth it. Thus, SOCOM chose one suppressor—the AML338. Barrett makes excellent suppressors, the AM series thread onto the outer section of the patented muzzle brake with the DC series being threaded directly to the barrel. Obviously, the AM series won out. The AML338 suppressor is on the Mk22. The DoD MRAD has the AM338. The main difference is that the AML338 has a secondary lock and of course the color; AML338 is Coyote, AM338 is FDE.

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Each of the Mk22 barrel muzzle brakes has an identical diameter threaded outer section, and the muzzle brake is actually designed with being part of the entry chamber of the suppressor in mind.

Where some loss of suppression occurs is that the AML338 has its bore diameter keyed to the .338-inch projectiles, and when the .308- or .300-inch (.300 Norma Magnum projectiles are actually a .308 diameter) projectiles are fired through, there is some blow-by that raises the decibel level. Honestly, to the ear it wasn’t very noticeable when we changed calibers. Then again, all of us who were shooting have high frequency hearing loss so the only way to really quantify it was using a proper meter like a Larson Davis 800B, which we did not have, and Dr. Philip H. “Doc” Dater wasn’t with us.

Barrett manufactures the AML338 suppressor out of a high-strength Titanium alloy. They use modern CNC machining and orbital welders to keep the hoop strength with the lowest amount of material. Precision bore alignment maintains accuracy, reduces point of impact shift and aids in flash reduction.

During our firing, we found that almost all of the groups tightened up when we fired suppressed. This phenomena is frequently observed in well-made, well-matched rifle systems. Doc Dater covers this in the Suppressor Class he teaches at Phoenix Defence, so I’m deferring to him on this:

This tightening up of a group happens the majority of the time as long as there is no misalignment. You also get a 20–50 ft/s velocity increase, not germane to this discussion. There are two factors in play. First is a change in barrel harmonics from the mass of the suppressor (and how tightly it is screwed on). Second (and probably a greater effect) is that on uncorking, the gas has approximately twice the velocity of the projectile and rushes around the bullet which then has to traverse the various shock waves that can cause a little instability. The can shears off this gas in the entrance chamber much in the way muzzle brakes do. The gas loses velocity quickly as it interacts with the air. Look at the three high-speed photos from a 20-inch barreled .223 gun.

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Per Doc Dater: “These were consecutive frames taken at 15,000 fps. The sun was just right so the lower image is a shadowgraph of the direct image above and better shows the shock waves. This series is used in my talk (with about eight other frames) as part of a flash study. The Mach disk is a high pressure, high temperature shock wave that actually ignites the carbon monoxide to make the fireball.”

Range Day 1: Intro to the Mk22

I’ve heard that government users have regularly seen groups in the sub-half minute range. Obviously, no one discusses the specifics of accuracy requirements or testing results other than what is put out publicly. Even if I knew, I would self-censor; we’re talking about national defense. I will say, that our testing confirmed the rumors.

SADJ is a firearms magazine—our writers and almost all of the staff are shooters of various levels and experience. Long-range shooting is a specific skill, and testing a rifle system like the Mk22 Mod 0 requires the person on the trigger to have the skill, not just be a “good shot.” Dennis Powell, a well-known civilian accurate shooter, joined us at the range for 3 of our days, along with long-range shooter Harry Bovie, Chuck Bolding, who is highly respected in training circles, Damon Bolding, a gunsmith at Phoenix Defence, and this author. Dennis was chosen by me to do the record shooting so I could hide my own deficiencies. We fired from bench; I did not want to get down and fire from “Rocking Horse Prone.”

Our chosen range? Boulder Rifle & Pistol Club in the high desert near Boulder City, Nevada. Excellent ranges, good people (brpc1.org).

Our first day at the range was learning the rifle. Before we started, we knew the rifle was coming in from another tester, so we had to bring it all back to zero and learn it from the start. By the end of the morning, we were hitting not-so-impressive groups at 100 yards and ringing the gong at 1,100 yards. Not time for serious shooting yet, time to study.

Range Day 2: Learning the Lessons

We went back to the shop at Phoenix Defence. We got out the manuals and filled in the blanks. This is a rifle, not a complex space station or mega-computer; it is a rifle system, however, and it takes study, trial and error to learn to make all the components perform at top level. This was a very boring day with Lessons Learned and studied out.

Range Day 3: Printing Paper 100

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After digesting the information for another week, it was back to the range. There were many sub-half-minute-of-angle groups, the best being a .300 Norma Magnum Berger 215-grain from a suppressed rifle—this was center to center under 0.3 inches. Very respectable group for Dennis. We now felt ready to take on the longer ranges.

Range Day 4: Long-Range Day

18 August 2020: Today was the day we’d been waiting for—we’d learned the system, and we were reaching out to 1,000-plus yards, for the record.

Conditions Day 4

Shooting times: 07:30-11:30
Pressure Hg: 27.66–27.71
Humidity: 22% down to 14% at 11:30
Wind: 5–8 MPH cross-range R-L
Temp: 96–110˚F
Elevation: 2,450ft

Vortex Razor Spotting Scope

Just as difficult as it is to be a sniper in the field without a spotter, it is the same at the range. Two sets of eyes work together and make the task quicker, and the feedback helps.

Vortex Optics has an excellent reputation; they gather light and give clarity that is at a top level. I’d honestly never looked through a spotting scope compared to this, too often the spotting scope is an afterthought on range day. Once you use the Razor® HD, and if you’re a serious shooter or end user, there’s no question of skimping on this essential tool again.

We had the availability of the Vortex Razor HD 27-60x85mm angled spotting scope with an MRAD reticle eyepiece. The reticle on the Vortex is MRAD, matching the MRAD system in the Mk22 optic. The Vortex has the ability to change to straight spotting with no reticle or to a reticle matching MOA if the optic being used is MOA. This is accomplished with an interchangeable eyepiece. Range can also be calculated easily with either reticle if there is an object of known dimensions in the field of view (vortexoptics.com).

MRAD vs. MOA? Without getting into a street fight like “9mm vs. .45ACP,” let’s keep it simple. SOCOM called for MRAD, and that’s what everyone is using. MOA is “Minute of Angle,” and old guys like your faithful correspondent usually use that. MOA is an angle measurement; in effect, 1 MOA at 100 yards is one inch. Take that to 1,000 yards, 1 MOA is 10 inches. MRAD stands for “Milliradians,” also a unit of measurement of angle. Lord help you if you have a scope in MRAD and other devices in MOA, you’ll be doing lots of unnecessary math in an already complex program such as long-range shooting. Both are based on the 360 degrees of a circle, and the discussed measurement is an arc that is a very small part of that circle when discussing accuracy in shooting. Without doing all the long division, at 1,000 meters, a one MOA click on your scope is 3.5 inches of adjustment on a target; and a one MRAD click on your scope is 3.9 inches. It makes a difference. Thus, if you’re using an MOA optic, make sure you have the MOA reticle eyepiece for your Razor HD spotting scope, and vice versa if you had the MRAD like we did in this test.

Vortex describes the Razor HD as having a “sophisticated triplet apochromatic lens system” and honestly, that’s a bunch of twenty-dollar words that don’t mean much to most people. Here’s basically what is being said: Triplet means there are three pieces of glass lined up; apochromatic means there isn’t any false color, shifting red and blue light to a different plane. Multiple lenses tend to shift colors and that has to be designed out. Thus, Vortex has the “sophisticated” job of getting three lenses to line up perfectly and stay there in long-term, rugged use, while keeping true color to the viewer’s eye—no small task with lens finish and refraction. This costs money, and the Razor HD is an expensive spotting scope, listing out at around $1,900. If you’re a professional, this is short money for what you are getting. Color can make all the difference in identifying targets and non-targets.

We used the Vortex PRO GT tripod to mount the spotting scope. It has a balance weight hook to the center, strong, lightweight legs and a very steady panning head.

The Vortex Razor HD 27-60x85mm spotting scope is under testing with many special operations groups, and we know it is currently with the Scout Sniper Section of Panther Team JMRC Operations Group in Germany.

Tools and Changing Calibers

As all men-at-arms know, you need the kit for your weapons. Tools, cleaning kit, gauges, and in a soldier’s kit, what is there has to be carefully considered regarding need, bulk and, of course, weight. SOCOM specifies the TO&E (Table of Organization & Equipment) it wants. The Fix It Sticks Torque Limiters (store.fixitsticks.com) are gaining in popularity, and SOCOM as well as Barrett and Nightforce call for this product in the inch-pound (in-lb) requirements. With this system, there is no need for carrying a torque wrench, each needed setting has its own torque limiter, preset and marked. These fit into any standard ¼-inch driver, including the Fix It Sticks T-Way T-Handle that is supplied, and any standard ¼-inch bit fits into the receptor end. The torque limiter will spin once the correct torque has been reached (within +/- 6%)—no over-torquing. Torque measurement is not required in removal, so no kit is needed for that (this is a measurement-only tool and not relevant here). I have not seen the Nightforce tool kit, but the Nightforce mount requires at least two things SOCOM did not dictate for Barrett’s contract: 100 in-lb torque limiter and a T15 Torx bit—I’ve no idea if Torx or Torx PLUS. I do know there was room in the Barrett supplied kit, so I added them for our field work.

Speaking of the Torx head screws and bits in the Barrett-issue kit, these are not regular Torx bits; they are Torx PLUS, denoted by the “IP” in front of the size, “IP30” instead of “T30” on a regular Torx. You can strip the star heads out of the bolts if you don’t use the PLUS bits. The lobes of the star points are more square on the PLUS heads, stronger than standard Torx and can handle more torque IF you use the correct bit. As noted by your faithful correspondent over the decades, nothing ruins quality firearms like a large hammer and a small mind.

The Mk22 Mod 0 Tool Kit

• 140-in-lb miniature torque limiter
• 65-in-lb miniature torque limiter
• 45-in-lb miniature torque limiter
• 25-in-lb miniature torque limiter
• 15-in-lb miniature torque limiter
• T-Way T-Handle Wrench
• 8 different bits (IP30 Torx, IP27 Torx, IP25 Torx, 5/32-inch hex, 1/8-inch hex, 5/64-inch hex, 1/16-inch hex) NOTE: The “IP” Torx are Torx PLUS!
• ½-inch socket and ¼-inch bit adapter set
• Deluxe zippered pouch with 3×5-inch Velcro® and MOLLE rigging on reverse
• 3 long Tekton® punches (1/16 inch, 3/32 inch, 1/8 inch) replacement parts 66061, 66063 and 66064

The only deficiency this writer saw in the kit was no “Snap Caps.” I like to train trigger release, and it’s not the healthiest thing for the firing pin to undergo unsupported release. If SOCOM wanted it, they would have specified and Barrett certainly could have provided. However, .300 and .338 Norma Magnum are not cartridges with COTS (Commercial Off-the-Shelf) snap cap availability. I used my standard A-Zone 7.62x51mm, but the .300 and .338 Norma Magnum cartridges have significantly shorter cases than .338 Lapua Magnum, and the bullets are seated deeper as well. The Norma cartridges have less taper, a slightly sharper shoulder and a slightly longer neck—once again, no COTS availability. I contacted the originator of the high-grade snap caps, Eric Kennard, from Harbour Arms. (harbourarms.com), and we discussed at length. I sent him some of the live rounds to work from, and within a few weeks he produced two of each for our use. Perfect. The custom work cost more than the COTS products he sells for almost every sniper/precision caliber, but it’s worth it. As a side note, Harbour Arms is a Disabled-First-Responder-owned company. I forwarded his contact to Barrett and SOCOM; hopefully there’s some support there—it would be nice to see Eric and Cindy get a shot at supplying.

Headspace Gauges

There were no headspace gauges supplied. They’re not needed at the operator level according to doctrine, even with all the barrel changing inherent to the system. I used my Pacific Tool & Gauge headspace gauges, PTG worked with Jimmie Sloan on the chambers, and Barrett used JGS Precision chamber reamers and gauges. It became clear early on that the Barrett MRAD system is virtually perfect. Our confidence in properly installing barrels and bolt heads went up immediately; this is a very reliable system.

Cleaning: The Right Way

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Once the firearm is cleared, the upper receiver can be opened upward by pressing the release lever on the lower (note the silver lug). The bolt can then be removed to the rear, and the rear bolt guide and front bolt guide can be removed.

Bolt Disassembly

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The bolt pin is pushed through—it can only go one way, and it is captured so it won’t come out. When you reach the proper position, the bolt will come out forward. Reassembly is the reverse.

Changing Calibers

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Changing calibers is a simple yet precise operation. The barrels and bolt heads will be engraved with their caliber—match them up. Remove the magazine then the bolt as above, and change out the bolt head to the new caliber.

Unscrew the two barrel screws, but not completely. Remove the old barrel to the front and then slide in the new caliber barrel into the receiver; make sure the index pin at the top seats all the way. Starting with the rear screw, tighten the two barrel screws to 140 in-lb using the torque limiter marked for that and the T30 PLUS (IP30) bits. Be careful not to strip the screw heads. Assemble the firearm and ensure the bolt is properly rotating into position.

Changing Safety

The Mk22 Mod 0 has the same feature as the MRAD regarding the reversible safety selector. This is operator preference regarding safety manipulation. It’s a quick change.

With the upper and lower opened, the selector, in this case on the right, is moved to the halfway position between “safe” and “fire.” It will drop into a detent, enough to be felt. It is then pushed out to the selector side. Place it at the halfway position on the other side of the receiver and insert, then rotate to “safe.”

Forward Handguard

The Mk22 features the same M-LOK systems as the MRAD at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions, and some short Picatinny-style rails are supplied. In this case, the Harris 6–9 inch bipod can be seen with the LaRue Tactical® adapter and the rotating cant knob (not lever).

Case & Carry Bag

I’m not sure if the system hard case was chosen by Barrett or SOCOM. In any event, the Pelican™ 1770 is perfect. The system is laid out where all parts can be easily gotten to—this is a full system “Overseas Case” for deploying. Pelican paved the way on heavy-duty rolling hard cases and wasn’t afraid to work with the military. It’s heavy, but it’s not supposed to be dragged around in the field; it’s supposed to protect the equipment and nest it so it’s easy to visually ID a full system and choose needed components. The hard case is for the base camp (sorry, that’s old-speak—for the FOB). The soft case is for the field.

Armageddon™ Gear was chosen for the soft case for the Mk22 Mod 0 as well as the suppressor mirage cover. The stitching and bar-tack work are flawless. This is a very well-made case, and it is thought out for the end user, clearly by end users. The company’s advertising has some braggadocio, and I was skeptical, then I looked this case over carefully. Damn. Will Sonnett (Walter Brennan in “The Guns of Will Sonnet”) used to say “… and I’m better than both of ‘em—no brag, just fact,” referring to his sons and gunfighting. It’s pretty clear that the Mk22 case is based off of Armageddon Gear’s CSASS precision rifle case. To start with, that would be 1000D (Denier) CORDURA® fabric. Denier is the thickness of the textured nylon filaments used in the fabric. 1000D is very, very durable, for heavy duty uses—most soft cases use 500D or less. Armageddon uses a fabric that is solution-dyed which guarantees a homogenous color, and since this is a low-IR signature finish, that will be homogenous also. I spent a couple hours exploring all the ways to use the case, what I could put where, set it up for backpack with the straps and tried it as a drag bag. I carried it slung and used it rocking horse prone to keep the sharp desert pebbles from causing my delicate constitution discomfort. Seriously, this is long-time gear, versatile and well thought out. Excellent choice by SOCOM and Barrett, Armageddon Gear: “No brag, just fact” (armageddongear.com).

In Conclusion

I’ll keep it short and sweet. Barrett’s MRAD as the Mk22 Mod 0 is absolutely deserving of the award they received. We fired a significant amount of ammunition, suppressed and unsuppressed; changed calibers out numerous times and went between 100 and 1,100 yards. All of us were impressed. I don’t remember a discouraging comment, and as all shooters know, put a bunch of us together with a new system, and there will be grumping and carping. None at all with Mk22. SOCOM’s due diligence in testing is clearly optimum; without seeing the inside of their thought process, it’s clear the end results have paid off. From this humble correspondent’s view, the end users and procurement testing personnel at SOCOM have hit a clear home run with the Mk22 Mod 0 selection. I would bet that Barrett Firearms staff are proud of this (Nightforce as well!), and I would expect to see many follow-on contracts for this system by US end users, and especially the overseas SOF community taking advantage of the exhaustive testing done to adopt the Mk22. Bravo!

In the world of high quality military ammunition, the name Black Hills Ammunition is on top of the list. Not for building standard issue ammunition but for the specialized ammunition used by Special Forces and SEAL units. Jeff Hoffman is the one on the speed dial for the U.S. Special Operations Command when they need a custom load for a specific purpose.

Small Arms Defense Journal was granted an interview with Jeff Hoffman, the man behind the highest quality ammunition in the U.S. arsenal. His story is of an industry practitioner who worked his way up by his bootstraps from working a Dillon press as an employee to him and his wife Kristie owning one of the most successful munitions manufacturing companies in the U.S.

SADJ: What was your first experience with firearms?

Hoffman: The first one that I remember, specifically firearms as in burning gun powder and not with things like BB guns was my grandfather and father taking me to the range and teaching me to shoot a .22 rifle that was a Winchester Model 74. And I remember it being just magic to be able to be in one spot and create an effect in another spot with that rifle. I was hooked right there.

SADJ: You have a background in law enforcement, can you tell us a little bit about that?

Hoffman: I made friends with the local cops when I was in high school and it was interesting. I was more interested in walking uptown and hopping in a patrol car and going on patrol then I was on going out to drink beer. I spent a lot of time in a patrol car and thought that this was fun. I didn’t know what to do for a profession so for lack of something better I thought I really enjoyed what I had seen of law enforcement, so when it came time to go to college by default I took up criminal justice. I graduated with a degree in criminal justice and got hired by the Rapid City Police Department in 1979. Actually, prior to that, I had interned in my home town when I was 19 years old.

I believe I was the youngest cop in the history of South Dakota. I had to get a special dispensation from the Standards Commission to be a cop at 19. I wasn’t even old enough to be in a bar except by wearing the uniform. It was kind of funny when I went in front of the Standards Commission the Chief of Police from my hometown went with me and vouched for me so that I could get hired with him. His recommendation said “Jeff’s good in a bar fight.” That was a long time ago and I don’t think that same recommendation would get you hired as a cop now, but at the time my primary recommendation was that I was good in a bar fight.

As a Deputy Sheriff sniper, Hoffman trains with various weapons depending on the conditions. Here he uses a telescopic stock version of the Mk12, Mod1 he designed his Mk262, Mod1 ammunition around.

But after interning and getting my degree I came to Rapid City. I was hired by Rapid City Police Department and worked for them from ’79 to ’82 and then had an opportunity to get into business – the predecessor to this business. And so then I switched to the Rapid City Police Department Reserves, because once you’re a cop it’s hard to quit being a cop, so I stayed on as a reserve. And then a year later I switched to the Sheriffs Reserves. I served in that capacity until earlier this year when they made me a regular deputy. So basically I’ve been doing law enforcement for something like 35 years.

SADJ: Did you have any particular specialty in law enforcement?

Hoffman: Yup, I’m a sniper. I’ve been on the Special Response Team since 1989 as a sniper. For the past eight years or so I’ve been the sniper element leader for the Special Response Team. In 1989 my sergeant on the Sheriff’s Department stopped down to work and said – when I say “work” I mean Black Hills Shooter Supply, which was the company that was a predecessor to this. It started as Black Hills Shooter Supply. He stopped down to the work and said, “Hey Jeff, we’re starting up the warrant service team, do you want to be a part of it?” And I said, “Certainly, that sounds like fun. I’ll do anything. I’ll carry gear or whatever you need me to do. I spent my life on the phone negotiating things, I could be a negotiator.”

At the time I was a competitive pistol shooter and I said “I could be an entry guy. I’m pretty good with a handgun.” And my sergeant looked me in the eye and said, “You’re not listening to me. I want you to be a sniper and you’re gonna be my sniper.” And I said “okay.” And at that point I dedicated myself to studying sniping, becoming a real student of sniping in the martial arts sense, you never master it you’re always a student. So that’s what I’ve done for the past 25 years.

SADJ: When did you enter the gun business?

Hoffman: Black Hills Shooter Supply started in September of 1981. Kristi and I bought in to that company in March of 1982.

When I had joined the police department they found out in pretty good order that I could shoot pretty well – my grandfather taught me to shoot – and I could shoot a pistol pretty well and never had any problems qualifying. They asked if I wanted to join the pistol team and I said “sure”. I hate losing, so since I was then on the pistol team I had to win, and to win you had to practice, and to practice you had to buy ammo.

And so, I was buying ammo from our local range master who was making it on a progressive machine in his basement. And this range master one day in 1981 said, “I’m tired of police work. Do you think I could make a living making ammo full time?” I said “No.” He didn’t listen to me, fortunately, and he started the company that became Black Hills Shooter Supply. And I started working for him immediately cranking a Dillon. That was my third job. I was a police officer, also I was working security at the Hilton Hotel, and my third job was making ammunition. And as much as I cranked that Dillon along with all the other part-time officers that were doing it, we could never catch up.

I would make ammunition during the day and at night I would ship ammunition, and I realized that I was wrong and there is a big market for this. And I remember clearly thinking that I wished I had a piece of this and then later on like most businesses, that business needed some additional cash flow, so Tom, the principal owner of Black Hills shooters Supply, offered to let Kristi and I to buy into the business. To make a long story short, in March of ’82 we bought into Black Hills Shooter Supply, and we ran along in that business until October of 1988. At that point the business had two primary product lines: we sold components, brass, bullets and powder and we also sold loaded ammo. At that point a business decision was made to split the sheets. Kristi and I took the manufacture of ammunition and our former partner took the sales of components and we split the companies, and now we became Black Hills Ammunition.

SADJ: When did Black Hills Ammunition open their door?

Hoffman: Black Hills Ammunition was formed in October of `88. And since then we’re still sole owners and we’ve grown and done pretty well.

SADJ: What was your first major contract?

Hoffman: That would be the Army Marksmanship Unit in 1996. We had a gentleman by the name of Mike Harris call up and suggest that we bid on this bid. I said “I don’t know anything about military business.” And he said “I do. I’m a retired Lieutenant Colonel. I know all about this and I can help you win the bid.” And I said, “Well what do you want out of it?” He said, “I want 3%.” And I thought that was a pretty good deal, 3% of some business that we didn’t already have. And so we bid on it and surprised ourselves by winning the bid. By winning the bid it wasn’t just saying that you could do it, but you also had to provide samples. They tested our stuff. They had impossible specifications.

Jeff Hoffman is not your typical business executive. He is a master of his craft and can be seen any day on his 1,400 yard range in South Dakota honing his long range shooting skills.

The specifications, ballistically, were impossible to meet, and I told them that. We provided the samples and I explained to them that you can’t get that kind of velocity with that bullet in this cartridge without exceeding pressures. This ammunition meets your specifications for performance but it’s over the specified pressure. And they said “Yeah, we know but we wanted to see what we could get.” And we were able to save them 10,000 pounds of pressure plus provide a very accurate round that was designed for 600 round target shooting.

We provided the round that gave them the desired accuracy at an acceptable price to them and that was our first contract with the U.S. Government, the Army Marksmanship Unit in 1996. From that we didn’t realize how significant that was but we later learned that the rest of the world, all of the military units, watch the AMU to see what they do because they’re the best funded and they have very good shooters. So about three years after that all of the other Marksmanship Units have come to us and said “You do the Army stuff, would you also do stuff for us?” So by ’99 we had the Navy, Army and Marine Corps were all buying from us, and I believe also the Air Force was also buying from us.

SADJ: At the time that you did this how many people did you have working for your company?

Hoffman: Probably 25 or 28.

SADJ: Can you tell our readers about the development of the Mark 262?

Hoffman: We can. In about 1999 the Navy came to us and said “We’re designing a new 5.56mm precision rifle. It’s basically an M16A1, accurized, scope sighted, suppressed, and we need ammunition that’s accurate and effective at 600 yards.” And I said “We could do that. I know that we can meet your accuracy requirements because we’re already doing that for AMU. I don’t know anything about the performance levels – the combat effectiveness of 5.56mm at 600 yards, but I know that we meet the accuracy requirement. So we started working with them.

We submitted the ammunition that we’d been making for the AMU and then we set about making it a combat hardened cartridge, instead of .223 Rem brass we went to 5.56mm brass. We increased the charge. We modified the propellant. We’ve also modified the projectile. The brass has been modified to make it better. And ultimately, the result of that is what we have now the Mark 262 Mod 1. I’ve greatly condensed a decade of development and refinement in the cartridge in that short recital. But we went from AMU ammunition to Mark 262 Mod 1.

SADJ: Can you explain the differences between the Mark 262 mod 0 and the Mark 262 mod 1?

Hoffman: The primary difference is the addition of the cannelure, that’s what distinguished mod 0 from mod 1. We also, along the way, have gone through several generations of propellant, and mod 0 has a different propellant than mod 1 does.

SADJ: With the amazing popularity and success that the Mark 262 has had, can you tell our readers about how you were able to bridge the gap between combat reliability and match accuracy in a combat rifle round?

Hoffman: When the military came to us to produce this the primary requirement was an accuracy round, and we knew how to make accuracy. Primarily you get accuracy by careful selection of components well suited to the task. In this case the bullet that we ultimately ended up with was a Sierra 77 Matchking, a very accurate bullet. And then you assemble those carefully selected components with extreme care. For example, in Mark 262 mod 1 it has one lot of brass – for every ammo lot it’s composed of component lots that are single lot of product. One lot of primers, in one lot of brass, with one lot of propellant and one lot of bullets assembled on a single line machine in one continuous run. What we’re doing there is eliminating variables, and by eliminating variables you end up with very uniform ammunition, and carefully tested at every stage of production. So if you’re using good components, good accurate bullets, assembling them with extreme care, that’s what will give you the accuracy and the
uniformity required.

And then along the way we’ve had to do things to combat harden it like we had the brass specially produced, we had to modify the brass to do what it does from the original Winchester brass to the brass that we later went to. We had to have the brass modified. We had to have a cannelure added to the bullet, which Sierra was reluctant to do. We went through several generations of powder, ultimately ending up with a propellant that was designed specifically for this application. Those things combat hardened a
marksmanship round.

SADJ: Can you tell our readers the difference between a boat tail match hollow point and an open tip match?

Hoffman: Primarily it’s terminology, but it’s terminology that means something. Most people, when they look at a boat tail hollow point they say that you can’t use that, it violates the Geneva Convention. First it’s not the Geneva Convention that they mean to be talking about, it’s the Hague Convention. Secondly, the U.S. is not a signatory to the Hague Convention; however, we abide by its terms in accordance with the U.S. Government’s interpretations of it.

The Hague Convention basically says that you cannot use a bullet which unnecessarily deforms or is intended to cause unnecessary harm or suffering. The U.S. Judge Advocate General (JAG) has addressed these concerns specifically with this bullet and with some prior open tip match bullets to answer those concerns. Basically open tip match is the U.S. Military terminology for a boat tail hollow point that’s designed for accuracy purposes. The hollow point is not there in any way to cause the bullet to deform, fragment or do anything.

The bullet is designed specifically for accuracy, and the design of it is there only because that’s the most accurate way to produce an accurate bullet. In the case of the Mark 262, that hollow point does nothing to enhance terminal effect. When you recover any bullet fragments from a gelatin test you can find that little nose, which some people would call a hollow point, still perfectly closed shut in the recovered gelatin, which demonstrates the JAG ruling in this regard is absolutely correct. The “hollow point” does nothing towards terminal performance. Rather than argue about types of “hollow points,” JAG uses the term OTM, Open Tip Match to denote a bullet that has the core inserted from the front and the tip then formed to create a superior bullet from the
accuracy standpoint.

SADJ: Do you manufacture a civilian version of the Mark 262? And, if so, what are the differences between the commercial Mark 262 and the military version?

Hoffman: After word got out about us making the Mark 262 there was an extreme civilian demand for it. It was incredible. But the only way that it was available to the civilian market was the ammunition that we would pull from our military runs. We have a very detailed inspection process; every round of ammunition is hand inspected. And we would pull off ammunition that had the slightest cosmetic defect, and it would not go to the military. That ammunition was functionally perfect, would perform exactly the same in every performance category but it just wasn’t quite as pretty because it might have a very slight scratch or a very slight dent on it. We would sell those as cosmetic seconds.

Black Hills Ammunition produces ammunition of the highest quality for the nation’s most elite warriors. Shown is 5.56mm Mk262, Mod1 ammunition being manufactured and then off to the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana where it will get deployed to Special Forces anywhere in the world.

There was always an incredible demand for those. People would call up and say, “When are you going to run more seconds?” Well, we don’t run seconds; it’s a byproduct of production and inspection. But there was such a demand for it that we cleared it with the military, talked to them and they said “Jeff, this is your product that you designed and you can sell it if you want.” And I said, “We won’t use the Mark 262 name but we’ll sell it.” That’s the reason why our commercial ammunition doesn’t say Mark 262. Legally, we would be entitled to because we produced the ammunition but I didn’t think it was right. I considered it a military term. So we sold it as 556-77 and we started offering the exact same product. The only difference is it’s not subjected to all of the military acceptance testing, because it’s not going to the military, but all the same care in production is there.

Just recently we’ve had to make one other slight change because there’s an international powder shortage going on right now – a propellant shortage. Part of it is due to the extreme demand in the industry, and part of it’s because one of the overseas plants had a minor explosion. Nobody was hurt but that plant happened to be our Mark 262 propellant. We had to give priority at that point to the military so we had to use a substitute propellant recently for the commercial 5.56mm. It gives the same performance but we believe in being absolute transparent. The current production commercial ammunition does not use the standard military Mark 262 propellant, but it gives the same performance levels.

SADJ: Can you tell the readers about your involvement with the M118 LR PIP program?

Hoffman: Some years ago a military unit came to us and said, “Jeff, we want you to improve the M118LR.” And I said, “What do you mean improve?” And they said, “You know, make it better.” At that time I didn’t have a specific task on how to improve it, so I started looking at it and seeing how you could improve it. Could you give it a longer range, higher velocity, better BC bullet, push it faster? And in our testing with the weapons supplied with that unit, I really honestly couldn’t find a way to make it better at that time. It was shooting minute of angle out of a semiautomatic weapon. It was performing very well. I couldn’t find a way to make it better.

Every time that we tried to improve the performance by shooting it faster or using heavier bullets we would run into some sort of a problem. And one thing I learned is there are some semiautomatic weapons out there that will drop primers even with ammunition perfectly within proper pressures, so there was a limitation there. You couldn’t simply increase the pressure and have it work. And so, I told them at the time that I don’t see a way to improve it. This is good ammunition.

And then a civilian trainer working with one of the top military units came to me and said, “Jeff, you need to know where to look. You need to improve temperature insensitivity, because at difference ambient temperatures the current M118LR provides too much variation and velocity, and at long distance that’s a problem for the snipers.” And he said also that lot to lot uniformity needs to be improved. So I did some testing and confirmed what he said. I learned that the propellant really could be better, and I submitted a letter to that effect to Naval Service Warfare, Crane, Indiana, and they started on a program to improve it.

And that program ultimately resulted in AB39, which is produced by Federal and it’s a much better product than the original M118LR. We competed on that contract. We didn’t win that one and that’s okay. We feel a certain amount of satisfaction in being a part of a program that improved the performance of the ammunition for our warfighters. We don’t have to win all of them. We’re happy just to be able to contribute. And if we win them then we’ll take that too.

SADJ: As of 2014, who would you say is your biggest customer?

Hoffman: The U.S. government.

SADJ: What sets Black Hills Ammunition apart from the rest of the manufacturers? What makes you guys shine above the rest?

Hoffman: We are responsive, agile in responding, very precision oriented, willing to take on R&D projects for things that, frankly, other people look at and think it’s a real pain in the ass. We’ll take those programs. At last count we have something over ten different national stock number items where we’ve developed them for the U.S. Military, because the DOD came to us and said we need something that will do this. So we set about trying to do that particular task. I think that and the absolute dedication to quality.

One thing we like about military businesses is the military has high standards and they don’t care whether you make a profit on something as long as it’s the best value for the government, as long as you’re providing them something that is better than anybody else would give them and it’s a fair price. They don’t begrudge you making a profit on it. You contrast that with law enforcement – you know I come from a law enforcement background and I love cops, but frankly most law enforcement agencies don’t have good specifications but they buy on low bid. What that means is they constantly get the cheapest thing that’s offered to them, and that’s why we’re not real strong in law enforcement. But that’s why we are real strong in the military. The military has very high standards and we don’t have to compete against the cheapest thing that anybody can make.

SADJ: How does Black Hills diversify its product line?

Hoffman: We sell direct to gun shops. We have avoided the distributor dealer marketing simply because ammunition is a competitive market. We find it works best for us to sell direct to the dealer so we sell direct to the various gun shops. We also sell direct to law enforcement agencies. We sell a lot of ammunition to the U.S. gun manufacturers and some of the foreign gun manufacturers for their function test ammunition and for their proof test ammunition, which some readers may not know what proof is. Proof is ammunition that is intentionally overloaded by a certain amount, and the gun manufacturers will fire one of these rounds through every weapon with the thought that if there’s a flaw in the weapon then it will be discovered early before that weapon is shipped from the plant.

It’s very high specification and it falls in the category of one of the niches that I enjoy, stuff that other people think is too much of a pain in the ass. It’s very high specification. It has to be done right. We’ve adopted that market and we make a large amount of the proof ammunition that the gun manufacturers in this country use. So we have those three categories: the dealers, the law enforcement agencies, the gun manufacturers, and then finally the U.S. Military.

SADJ: For your commercial line you have hunting ammunition and you have cowboy action ammunition. So you have other types of ammunition as well rather than just standard, military and law enforcement type ammunition?

Hoffman: Right. We try to provide something that in any of the categories there is significant demand for. We have training ammunition, self-defense ammunition, long range precision ammunition, premium ammunition for the big game hunter, marksmanship unit ammunition for the military and combat ammunition.

SADJ: Do you do much international business?

Hoffman: Some. Our exports are handled by APEX – Austin Sheraton and he does handle some export business for us. It’s not huge but that’s okay, because we’re extremely busy doing the U.S. business. Frankly, a lot of our export business goes to friendly foreign nations where our special forces will go train with those units and those units look and say, “What do you have there? I need some of that. How do I get that?” And then those units will come to us. A lot of advertising for export sales is actually through U.S. Special Forces contacts.

SADJ: Does Black Hills manufacture any of their own components?

Hoffman: No, we’re an assembly plant. We don’t manufacture any of the components. We don’t make brass, primers, powders or bullets; but we have very good relationships. We’ve got relationships that go back two and three decades with companies. It’s interesting in this business because so many people look at it and say, “How can you be good friends and industry partners with other people that should be your competitors?” This is a very close-knit industry. We’ve got relationships going back with Hornady all the way to 1981, personal relationships. We’ve got relationships with Sierra that almost go back that far, with Hodgdon, with Ramshot Powder Company. We have relationships that are decades old and there’s a lot of trust there. And those companies will work with us.

We have no engineers on staff. We know how to make ammunition. But when we need something special, a change in projectile, for example the Mark 262, when we needed a different brass, we went to Winchester and told them we needed a brass that will put up with this, and they went to work on it, and gave us that brass. When we needed a special propellant we went to Ramshot Powders and they went to their manufacturer and had that manufacturer specifically manufacture a powder that would do exactly what we needed done.

When we needed a cannelured Sierra MatchKing bullet, they didn’t cannelure MatchKing bullets. MatchKings were thought of as a perfect accuracy bullet, and by adding a cannelure the fear was they would damage the accuracy of it. We convinced them to put a cannelure on it. We didn’t lose any accuracy. The actual specs are not releasable to the public, but I can tell you that we shoot 300 yard groups of ten shots that are always sub-minute angle. You can’t damage accuracy very much and maintain that kind of an accuracy standard. We’re not talking three shot groups, we’re talking ten shot groups; and I’m not talking a hundred yards, this is at 300 yards. I think we’ve eliminated that concern that you’re going to damage the accuracy by adding a cannelure to the bullet.

SADJ: You’ve spoken previously about your quality control process. Can you explain what your quality control process is and how it exceeds what you would find in the industry?

Hoffman: Our quality control is a process. It’s not one step. At every point in production, as you saw earlier in your tour, we have an inspection process at every step. When we order product it’s from someone that we trust in the industry. We don’t shop around and jump around to what’s cheapest in the market. We’ve got long term suppliers who have standards, and we receive certifications from them with our shipments showing that the product meet those standards. And then when it shows up at the door, we pull samples. We have inspectors that start sampling it. As soon as the pallet shows up they start tearing stuff apart, sit down with their calipers and gauges checking stuff, because even the best vendor can make a mistake, so we check it there. And as you saw when the operators are running the machine they’re constantly inspecting the product that’s going in, as well as inspecting the ammunition that’s going out. And then everything that we shoot and produce is shot every day for pressure and velocity. And then in addition to that it goes to a hand inspection process where every round is hand inspected. We have a lot number system. Here’s one more example, the lot numbering system will allow us to track what machine produced it, what operator was running the machine, who the inspector was, and the date. And from that we can go back and see who set the machine up, who double checked it, how often was it checked during the run, what were the components used, what was the pressure and velocity of that ammunition and were there any changes made during the run.

So at any time if someone calls up and says, “Jeff, I have a round that didn’t perform the way I expected it to,” I can go back and access all of our records right down to the day that it was produced and tell you everything about that ammunition. That degree of quality control and responsibility leads to quality. Everybody that touches that along the way knows that their signature is on that box of ammo because of that lot number. It allows us to go back to who inspected it, who produced it, who set the machine up. Everybody shoulders the responsibility for making sure that the ammunition is as good as it can be.

SADJ: How many people do you have working for you today?

Hoffman: 76 I believe.

SADJ: Where do you see Black Hills Ammunition in the next decade? What are your future goals?

Hoffman: We will continue producing ammunition that is good as we can make it, and selling as much as the market wants to the extent that we can. Ever since 9/11 of 2001 we’ve been in a backorder situation except for one year. So it’s hard to meet the market demand but we’re doing the job as best we can.

SADJ: Thank you very much.

There are many manufacturers making ammunition as well as remanufacturing it.  Few have a reputation of being precision ammunition manufacturers let alone manufacturing military grade ammunition.  But consider ammunition that is match grade loaded to military specifications?  Trying to bridge match grade accuracy and ability to produce military reliability is very difficult.  Loading any precision round is difficult in mass production.  But there is one company out there that has done it, and that is Black Hills Ammunition owned by Jeff Hoffman and his wife Kristi, who is a co-owner and an integral, indispensable part of Black Hills Ammunition.  This “little big company” has produced the most precise and sought after military ammunition in the industry.  Not only have they produced it, they designed the specifications as well.

Jeff Hoffman was a police officer in 1979 and has served as a police sniper since 1989.  Financially strained, he worked two other part time jobs and Kristi worked a full time job.  In late 1982, the Hoffman’s had an opportunity to buy into Black Hills Shooter’s Supply (established in 1981).  They borrowed $12,000 and bought into the new company.  The company did well selling ammunition and reloading supplies.  In 1988 the Hoffman’s broke off of the Black Hills Shooting Supplies and opened Black Hills Ammunition.  The same ammunition, machines and people; the Hoffman’s took that part of the company and their then partner continued with Black Hills Shooter Supplies.  Working this end alone, the Hoffman’s were financially strapped in this new venture.  But one phone call was a game changer for Black Hills Ammunition.  They had sent the Illinois State Police some sample ammo and they called and said that they wanted to place an order for 700,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition and needed it now!  Jeff was very excited about the order but very nervous about being able to manufacture it in a timely fashion.  One range master, Master Sgt. Norm Higgerson, said he did not care and that he was sending money and Jeff would make the ammo for him.  Jeff did not want to take the money upfront feeling that was a lot of trust on the Department’s part.  Jeff was then assured by the officer that that was no trust at all – if he messed the order up he would get down to Black Hills Ammunition and personally break Jeff’s legs!  Jeff saluted and said “Yes, sir.” and delivered.  That solved the temporary cash flow problem.

Black Hills President Jeff Hoffman training at Asymmetric Warfare Group School in May of 2013. He is shooting a MK12 Mod1 rifle with his Mk262 Mod1 ammunition. (Jeff Hoffman)

Nearly 30 years later, Black Hills Ammunition recently moved into a new 60,000 square foot facility plus a 7,200 square foot warehouse on 10 acres of land.  Black Hills Ammunition has 75 full-time employees and nearly half of them are in the inspection side of the business alone.  They are the only manufacturer in the country that meets all the military safety requirements without waiver for military ammunition manufacturing.  Their reputation is based on quality and precision.  Black Hills is an assembler of ammunition.  They do not manufacture components.  They rely on tight relationships with vendors of projectiles, primers and propellants.  When components arrive at Black Hills, every projectile and cartridge case is checked for uniformity and quality.  These are all checked before any component reaches a loading machine.  The ammunition is assembled with extreme care by employees with years of experience manufacturing premium quality ammunition.  Once the ammunition is manufactured, each round is handled and inspected by a well trained inspector searching for any anomaly (dent, scratch, blemish, crack…) that may cause rejection.  The last step in inspection in loading military contract ammunition is to weigh the completed box of ammunition.  If this weight is off it is an indication that a projectile could have been incompletely manufactured or any other possible deformity.  The key is catching the anomaly before the box of ammunition goes out the door.  In the early days, Black Hills Ammunition was known for remanufactured ammunition.  There were many companies offering reloaded ammunition and he found he was competing at a price point.  However his competition lacked the quality and consistency of the ammunition.  This is where Black Hills truly shined.  Once this was seen in the market place, Black Hills no longer played the low bid game.  Educated customers wanted quality ammunition and they were willing to pay for it.

Military packaging for Black Hills’ famous and in high demand MK262 Mod 1 ammunition.

In 1996, a monumental year for Black Hills Ammunition, they were awarded their first military contract for the Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU).  At the request of LTC Mike Harris (ret), Black Hills bid on a contract for producing V8 load, which was an 80 grain OTM cartridge intended for single loading and shooting 600 yards during slow-fire competition.  This cartridge was hand loaded by the AMU using Vitavouri powder.  There was a catch; the load had to maintain velocity without exceeding SAAMI pressure.  The actual specs for this round were impossible, there was no way to attain that velocity and keep the pressures within SAAMI specifications.  Black Hills loaded the ammunition to the velocity specification using the best possible powders available at the time.  They informed the Army who already knew of the situation and knew of this problem.  However, the Army was happy Black Hills saved them 10,000 psi over the AMU hand loaded ammunition plus it gave them the required accuracy, resulting in Black Hills Ammunition’s first military contract.  The AMU was very impressed with the quality of Black Hills Ammunition and they began to order additional loads including 73 grain Berger and Sierra 69 grain Match King bullets specifically designed for the AMU.  Eventually, Black Hills manufactured ammunition for the USMC Rifle Team and ultimately the Air Force and Navy teams as well.  The ordnance community watches to see what the AMU does because they have such a great competitive team.

Black Hills works very closely with their suppliers; particularly powder manufacturers to get powder blends to perform the specific task of each round.  Over the years Black Hills has loaded 5.56x45mm/.223 Rem ammunition with 69 grain Sierra Match King, 73 grain Berger, 75 grain Hornady A-MAX, 77 grain Sierra Match King and 80 grain Sierra Match King bullets for a variety of marksmanship teams.  Black Hills also loaded 6mm Benchrest, 9x19mm and .45 Auto match ammunition for the US Military.

The Black Hills Ammunition manufacturing facility located in Rapid City, South Dakota. (Black Hills Ammunition)

With the variety of offerings Black Hills had, one particular load became the most popular and was destined to be the most sought after military load in SOCOM.  In 1999, SOCOM requested that Black Hills to work with them jointly to develop the MK12 Special Purpose Rifle (SPR) weapon system.  SOCOM was to develop the rifle and Black Hills Ammunition was to develop the ammunition the new rifle would shoot.  This rifle was to be accurate out to 600 yards.  The load would use the proven Sierra 77 grain open tip match projectile of the AMU.  To meet the requirements, the cartridge must be “militarized.”  This included switching from .223 Rem to 5.56mm cartridge cases, loading to the increased 5.56mm pressures, crimping and sealing the primers and adding flash retardant to the powder blend.  Black Hills Ammunition developed the first 5.56mm sniper cartridge, the MK262 Mod0 cartridge adopted in 2002.

Like every piece of equipment ever developed within the small arms community, the MK262 round went through a development process.  During evaluation of the new round, issues came up with reliability when the temperatures dropped and the guns got dirty (external dirt, not ammunition).  Issues with short stroking when the rifles were in these conditions without sound suppressors were encountered in the cold with the SPR, which uses a 2 inch shorter barrel than the original 20 inch M16A2 gas system the SPR was built on.  Black Hills got right on the problems and through switching to a slower burning powder with a pressure curve tweaked for the 18 inch SPR barrel, the MK262 Mod 1 was born.  Later during extremely rigorous function testing at Black Hills, when the weapons were fired at rates greatly exceeding the 12 to 15 round spec rate of fire for the M16/M4 weapon system, it was found that the new propellant was more sensitive to heat from the chambers of hot weapons.  This resulted in the increased pressure and increase incidences of failure to extract.  Black Hills notified NSWC-Crane and set out to work again to improve the load.  By working on a powder blend with higher heat tolerance and improving the brass, these issues were overcome.  Another issue that needed to be addressed during the product improvement stage was Black Hills’ desire to have Sierra manufacture a cannelure on the 77 grain OTM projectile.  Sierra feared this would affect the accuracy of the projectile.  Black Hills knew that this round was being used in an auto-loading rifle and wanted to avoid the possibility that a rough feed could cause the bullet to push back or telescope back into the case, resulting in a malfunction.  Sierra agreed to produce the cannelured version of the projectile.  The new and final round was named the MK262 Mod1 in 2003 and with the correction of the temperature sensitive powder the specification changed but remained the Mod1.

On the left is the first MK262 Mod0 – notice the 77 grain projectile has no cannelure. On the right is the current MK262 Mod1 which has the cannelure on the projectile.

The effectiveness of this round was not just seen in the MK12 but by the M4A1 and the MK 18 short barrel as well.  Due to the dynamics of this round it offered match accuracy and an increased terminal performance over the M855 ball.  When tested in 10% ordnance gel with the M4A1, the initial yaw of the projectile began 2.125 inches.  The temporary cavity length is 10.125 inches with a temporary cavity diameter of 5.75 inches.  The round performed consistently regardless of the depth of the target whether it is a thin malnourished Taliban or a heavy set adversary.  The M855 round developed a poor reputation; the bullet would pass right through the thin malnourished Taliban not disrupting much tissue at all.  The MK262 Mod1 would take down the target regardless of width.  Even with the short 10.5 inch MK18 carbine, this ammunition had readily been the preferred ammunition for this carbine.  The MK262 Mod1 has become the 1st choice of SOCOM for all of their 5.56mm caliber rifles and carbines and is the cartridge our warfighters use to engage targets well out of the range of the AKs used by the enemy insurgents.  The ammunition provides unquestioned stopping power to the adversary.  Black Hills Ammunition is and has been the sole source for this incredible round.  This author has used this ammunition for a base line cartridge for accuracy for more than 5 years on every 5.56mm rifle tested.

A box of MK248 Mod1 ammunition, which is a .300 Win Mag caliber cartridge firing a 220 grain projectile. Black Hills was instrumental in the development of this round.

Black Hills was at the forefront of the M118LR AB39 PIP (Product Improvement Program) round.  Hoffman was asked by elements of the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Bragg to see if he could look into improving their existing 7.62x51mm M118LR cartridge, which was loaded with a 175gr Sierra MatchKing projectile.  Initial testing showed Hoffman that he could not improve on velocity or accuracy.  Accuracy was consistently 1 MOA with the MK11 Mod0 rifle.  Later Hoffman was contacted by a civilian trainer working with the army who advised that an area that needed to be addressed on the M118LR round was temperature stability.  Hoffman immediately began environmental testing and found the M118LR conditioned to -40 deg F, +70 deg F and +140 deg F.  Results showed the total spread on velocity was 227 feet per second and the pressure spread was 1,8120 psi.  To put that into a real world situation, a 227 fps change would indicate an elevation correction of 6.3 MOA, which is 58 inches and the difference with a 10 mph full value crosswind (90 deg to path) effect is 10 inches.  Black Hills’ input to the Navy resulted in the solicitation for the improved performance round that became the AB39.  Black Hills competed on this solicitation, meeting the solicitation’s higher required performance levels.  The contract was ultimately awarded to Federal based on price but Black Hills was pleased its efforts resulted in another improvement to the U.S. Military sniping capability.  Black Hills produces a 7.62mm load they sell for export that is 100% compatible and equivalent to the M118LR AB39 PIP load.  They have in fact sold this improved load to foreign governments.

A box of Black Hills match grade .338 Lapua Magnum ammunition loaded with a 300 grain Sierra MatchKing projectile.

The main improvements of the new AB39-PIP M118LR are that the cartridge is loaded with a propellant that is much more temperature stable.  The second change is the specifications were written differently, increasing the required uniformity of the lots.  What this meant was that a sniper did not have to try to hoard lots of M118LR from the same lot so he did not have to re-zero and change his “dope” when he switched to a different lot of ammunition.  The new specification made it so the consistency of the ammunition was improved enough so he would not have to change his “dope” when switching from lot to lot.

Another of the Black Hills manufactured (A191) MK248 Mod 1 .300 Win Mag 220 grain Sierra OTM is used in the SOCOM MK13 Mod5 sniper rifles.  An early requirement for the .300 Win Mag cartridge was a 190 grain Sierra Match King projectile with an effective range of 1,200 yards (A190/MK248 Mod0).  Black Hills Ammunition provided some small quantities to the U.S. Government.  Hoffman had sent communication to Crane regarding his belief that the 190 grain Sierra projectile could be improved by the heavier 220 grain projectile.  With Hoffman’s suggestions of improvement possibilities, the .300 Win Mag cartridge got a new requirement established for a 1,500 yard maximum effective range.  Two other objectives were to decrease the effect of wind drift and flash reduced and increase temperature stability as tested in ranges from -25 F to +165 F.  Results of testing concluded that there is comparable velocity retention between 250 grain .338 Lapua Mag and the 210/220 grain .300 Win Mag.  The muzzle velocity of the 220 grain Sierra OTM .300 Win Mag is 2,768 feet per second.  It was also found that there was only a .5 moa difference in the 190 and 220 grain projectiles when compared at 1,000 yards: this is less than typical fine tuning necessary for each rifle/shooter/load combination.  The 220 grain .300 Win Mag met all objectives, could be fired in existing weapons, was less sensitive than the 210 grain VLD, had comparable accuracy and velocity retention to the 250 grain .338 Lapua Mag round and the .300 Win Mag is a significant cost savings over the .338 Lapua Mag ammunition.  There were two areas in which the (A191) MK248 Mod1 was an improvement over its predecessor.  These areas are temperature stability (less pressure and velocity change in internal ballistics as a result of ambient temperature) as well as a reduction of muzzle flash.  Black Hills met these requirements with a new powder blend that included flash retardant.  The work Black Hills did on the advancement of this cartridge was done at no cost to the U.S. government.  This cartridge is devastating when seen in 10% ordnance gel.  The initial yaw is in just .5 inches with a temporary cavity length of 14 inches.  The temporary cavity diameter 7.75 inches with a temporary cavity diameter locations length of 5 inches.  The projectile fragments into many pieces creating significant tissue damage.

Black Hills 7.62x51mm 175 grain Match Hollow Point, which is equivalent to the M118 LR PIP cartridge.

The U.S. Military contract was ultimately won by Federal, but Black Hills efforts again led to improved capability of the U.S. sniper.  Black Hills Ammunition does continue to supply the U.S. military with .300 Win Mag ammunition on other contracts.

Black Hills Ammunition has also done significant testing and development on the .338 Lapua Magnum cartridge.  The quality of this ammunition gets them continuous contracts from the U.S. government as well as foreign military units.  They produce a 250 and 300 grain Sierra Open Tip Match projectiles.

Another very important niche filled by Black Hills Ammunition is their manufacturing of factory proof loads for the gun manufacturers.  These specially designed high pressure loads insure the weapon is manufactured properly.  In mil-standard testing, both barrels and bolts are shot with a proof round and then magnetic particle tested to ensure against stress fractures.  These loads are made in virtually all centerfire cartridges and Black Hills Ammunition sells more than 24 OEMs of this proof ammunition.  Black Hills also provides approximately 30 OEMs with test ammunition so they may function test and test accuracy in their firearms before they are shipped out of the factory.

Manufacturing ammunition for commercial and hunting use is certainly one thing.  Manufacturing military and law enforcement ammunition is another.  At the end of the day, if you miss that deer or bear, the hunting trip is a loss but you go again next year and try again.  If military ammunition fails, that is the soldier’s life on the line.  There is no second chance.  There is a significant amount of pressure and responsibility put on manufacturers such as Black Hills to make our war-fighter the best ammunition possible not to just win the battle but to come home alive.  Hoffman and Black Hills Ammunition continue to work with our warfighter to insure they have the best ammunition available with the ever improving technology of manufacturing of propellants, projectiles and other components.