CGN SHOT new cartridges
Several new cartridges were displayed at SHOT 2018, some with great fanfare, others with far less promo.
From Federal Cartridge, now called Federal Premium Ammunition, and part of the Vista Outdoor group, comes the 224 Valkyrie. This round is designed to pump up the velocity of an AR type rifle significantly. Using a larger diameter case, but keeping the case length the same, allows for a larger powder charge. The parent case is the 6.8x43mm SPC. Bullet weights of 60, 75, and 90 grains are offered. They claim the 90gr Gold Medal Sierra Match King remains supersonic beyond 1300 yards.
No doubt this round is Federal’s reply to the 22 Nosler introduced last year. Nosler seems to think so...
Hornady introduced the 6.5 PRC, or Precision Rifle Cartridge. Hornady is referring to the PRC as the big brother of the 6.5 Creedmoor. The 6.5 PRC fits in short or medium actions with a standard magnum bolt face (.532”). Using a case slightly longer and noticeably wider diameter than the 6.5 Creedmoor gives nearly 28 percent more case capacity. It is based on a necked down 300 Ruger Compact Magnum case. (Hornady and Ruger have teamed up on several cartridges in recent years.) While there are several 6.5mm (.260 inch) rounds with even more bonk, they all require long or magnum length actions.
The 7.5 FK field pistol round is a real screamer! It is from FK Brno and they claim a velocity of 2000 fps for a 95gr bullet. The 7.5x27mm case is an all new design, not necked up or down from anything else. The pistol is horrendously expensive though. Like US$7000 expensive!
Although new to the North American civilian market, the Russian 9x39mm round has been in military service as a subsonic sniper round since around the 1980s. Steel cased Russian made ammo will now be imported by Wolf Performance Ammo. Naturally, this round makes a lot more sense in places that allow suppressors. Not here…
The 6.5mm Socom from PCP/Gorilla is unique among cartridges as it uses a polymer case. There have been numerous other companies that have dabbled in plastic cased ammo before, usually for pistol rounds. The internal pressure is the issue here. Low pressure shotgun shells are no problem, hence the near universal use of plastic hulls for shotgun. The new PCP round is for a rifle, and was created right from the start as a polymer cased round. I asked if it will be open source, allowing others to make brass cases for reloaders. I was concerned that if the project gets cancelled, there would be no one else making ammo in that chambering. Well, this is the interesting part. The case is the same as the 260 Remington, but the leade/freebore has been changed, so they cannot call it a 260 Rem. The guy I talked with compare it to the 223 Rem/5.56x45 situation.
They say it should be released for public sale by this March, 2018. Yet when someone asked for a sample dummy round for a cartridge collection, he was told it is still all very secret...
A recent trend is for small “boutique” companies to create big bore boomer cartridges for the AR platform. Several variations on this theme were present, or had hoped to be. However, without a huge advertising budget to announce the new creations, these could easily be missed. I did a fair bit of research prior to leaving for SHOT, reaching out to several companies by email and Facebook.
From Phoenix Weaponry (Sharing a booth with Hexmag) comes the 45-70 Auto cartridge. By removing the rim from the old black powder are 45-70 Government round, a rimless version is created. This allows it to feed from AR-10 mags into a rebarreled AR-10 rifle. For reloading, a standard 308 Win shell holder is used with a standard 45-70 die set. No need for expensive custom wildcat dies.
From Big Horn Armory (At the Ascend booth) comes the mighty 500 Auto Max. (It was originally called the 500 Auto Mag, but they felt Max better described it.) The 500 Auto Mag/Max takes the same approach as the 45-70 Auto, starting with the 500 S&W Mag and converting it to a rimless style, also using a head diameter of .473”, the same as a 308 Win or 30-06 round. So with a 308 Win. shell holder and a standard 500 S&W die set, you are GTG.
Beck Ammunition’s 510 Beck, and Wilson Tactical’s 458 Ham’r big bore rounds were also announced shortly before SHOT, but neither was at SHOT unfortunately.
Not a new cartridge by any means, but an interesting new loading was the CleanShot from Huntego. It is a 12 gauge round designed to clean out your bore in one shot. It uses a dense scrub pad in place of the shot and cup to scrub the powder and plastic residue out. I suggested they make a round for firing at dirty dishes and laundry…