The new MyDumper 0.11.1 version, which includes many new features and bug fixes, is now available. You can download the code from here.
For this release, there are three main changes: 1) we added config file functionality which allows users to set session-level variables (one of the most requested features!), 2) we developed a better and robust import mechanism, and 3) we fixed all the filename related issues. Those changes and mostly the last one forced us to change the version number from 0.10.9 to 0.11.1 as a backup taken in 0.10.x will not work in 0.11.x and vice versa.
You see that search bar at the bottom? It’s upsetting.Photo: Victoria Song/Gizmodo
iOS 15 is officially here, and while it brings many cool new features, there’s also one we really, really dislike: the new Safari search bar.
In iOS 15, Apple redesigned Safari so that the address bar has been relocated from the top of the screen to the bottom. Theoretically, this makes Safari easier to use single-handedly. Apple did improve the search bar so it doesn’t jump around anymore like it did in early beta versions of iOS 15. However, if you find that you don’t like the search bar at the bottom, you can easily switch the address bar back to the top.
After you update to iOS 15, open the Safari app on your phone. In the bottom left-hand corner, you should see the “aA” icon in the search bar. Tap it and then select the Show Top Address Bar. And that’s it. Whoosh, it’ll go back to being up top. If you end up liking the search bar at the bottom, no worries. You can tap the “aA” icon again to send the search bar back to the bottom.
Screenshot: Victoria Song/Gizmodo
You can also change it by heading on over to the Settings app. From there, scroll down to Safari, and select the Single Tab option. Doing it this way also allows you to control some other new features in Safari. For instance, you can toggle the Landscape Tab Bar setting. If you turn it off, then the search bar will disappear whenever you view Safari in Landscape mode. There’s also the Allow Website Tinting setting, which changes the search bar’s color scheme to match the website you’re visiting.
G/O Media may get a commission
Apple first introduced the ability to revert back to the original Safari design we all know and love with the sixth iOS 15 beta. The move followed some backlash from beta users regarding the ping-ponging search bar. (You can see it in action in our iOS 15 preview.) It was a rare move from the company, which doesn’t generally change course when it comes to executive design changes—even if they’re massively unpopular. See: the notorious MacBook Butterfly switches and that time Apple nixed the headphone jack. Still, we’re not about to complain about Apple giving users more control over customizing apps. Here’s to hoping Apple continues listening to feedback and giving customers more options in the future.
Star Trek and its spin-offs have been entertaining audiences for more than 50 years. Part of what makes the shows work so well is the infusion of humor into its characters’ interactions. Looper compiled this video of some of the funniest scenes in the history of the franchise. Star Trek IV is packed with hilariousgems.
America has a long history of making its own firearms.
While the craft of gunsmithing has most certainly taken on new characteristics over the past 200 years or so, it’s seen an unprecedented resurgence within the past 20 years.
Making guns is fun!
But how has this trend moved along? What happened along the way, and what does the future of homemade firearms look like?
We’re going to examine America’s history with homemade firearms and then peek into the future to see what might impact homemade guns down the line.
If you’ve ever pondered homemade guns, read on…
Table of Contents
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The Beginning of American Gunsmithing
America was the New World, a land filled with danger and possibilities.
For many, it could prove a harrowing experience to be out in the wild where you never knew if a panther, bear, or arrow was headed your way.
As the early American colonists hacked out an existence in this new land, frontiersmen began to understand the importance of hitting fast-moving targets from long ranges.
The ability to put a deer on the table in the dead of winter and whittle down an enemy’s numbers from a distance was lifesaving.
Modern hunting has come a long way.
Unfortunately, the current rifles men used just weren’t cutting it.
American gunsmiths saw a need, and they met it, manufacturing a rifle that had greater accuracy and used less black powder.
This made an accurate and economically friendly way for our forefathers to hunt for food and fight tyranny. But there was more to it.
This was the birth of Americans crafting their own firearms.
Fast Forward Almost 200 Years
Improvements in technology and machining knowledge spread throughout the globe. As a result, making one’s own gun became easier.
For years, public education included some type of shop class.
Young Americans learned it by the thousands, whether it was machining, lathe work, carpentry, or some other manual skill.
View of boys in the Carpentry Shop at the Sherman Indian High School
Industrial students were then trained to enter the workforce and fix projects around the home. They were also given the skills to craft their own guns should they desire.
Making a gun out of metal is a complicated process. It requires knowledge of metallurgy, precision tooling, and other hands-on skills.
Many students gained the ability to precision mill their own weapon with tools and skills they’d accumulated in their own hobby shops.
For others, though, making a gun was a more straightforward process…thus, the zip gun came to light.
Zip guns were primarily created by kids who couldn’t get their hands on a real gun.
Zip Gun (Photo: Discott via WikiCommons)
They used common household items, such as door bolts, thick rubber bands, nails, and car radio antennas, to make a homemade version of a pistol.
While rather hideous to look at, the zip gun could send a bullet downrange. It was a crude yet workable design.
The Gun Control Act of 1968
In 1968 the Gun Control Act created perhaps the largest hurdle to homemade guns.
With the GCA, the federal government began licensing those “engaged in the business” of dealing in or distributing firearms.
This came with a wide number of other rules as well.
President Johnson signing the Gun Control Act.
But essentially, it limited Americans from making guns and selling them to their neighbors.
Now weapons had to be stamped with a serial number, and the person buying the gun had to undergo a background check.
Further, extensive record-keeping was required for those manufacturing and selling firearms.
Now there’s an entire process to buying and selling guns.
That said, nothing in the GCA prohibits Americans from making a firearm for their own personal use if they’re not already forbidden from having a firearm for other reasons (e.g., being a felon).
Provided you’re not selling it, trading it, or giving it away, you’re free to make your own firearms within the USA without registering it or needing a serial number.
80% Lowers & Parts Kits
Worth noting that under the GCA, only considers finished receivers are considered firearms.
As a result, one can buy an unfinished receiver and complete it.
So long as the gun is reserved for personal use — not sold, traded, or distributed — it does not fall under federal regulation according to the GCA.
80% Arms GST-9 Tan in Box
Dozens of gun companies throughout the States cater to this DIY market, selling 80% receivers, parts, and kits.
Sales for 80% receivers shot through the roof in 2020 and 2021, with many sellers struggling to keep items in stock.
For example, 80% Arms is so back-ordered on 80% Glock GS-9 frames that the company estimated that December orders would ship in July.
GST-9 jig and bits
(You can read more about the spike and its causes here!)
It’s important to understand that federal law regulates neither the manufacture nor the sale of every possible gun part.
Federal law regulates “firearms,” which the law defines as “a weapon which will or is designed to or may be readily converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive.”
Completed 80% project.
That definition includes the frame or receiver.
However, Congress never defined what a frame or a receiver was. The ATF did that.
And currently, the ATF is looking at redefining/broadening what they consider to be a receiver.
That means that just to buy an 80% receiver, you would undergo a background check and potentially a waiting period (depending on the state) before taking it home.
For the first time, someone didn’t need intricate machining knowledge and access to special tools to manufacture their own gun.
Now, all you needed was a quality 3D printer and the appropriate files.
Everything had changed. And less than a week later, everything changed for Wilson as well.
How? With a letter from the U.S. State Department.
The State Department claimed Wilson violated international weapons export laws by enabling people in foreign countries (where the U.S. does not sell arms) to manufacture their own weapons.
Included within that letter was a cease-and-desist, requesting the immediate removal of Liberator files from his site.
“I thought my life was over,” Wilson said.
Cody Wilson (Photo: Kamenev via WikiCommons)
He noted that his lawyers told him that even though he had complied with the cease-and-desist he would likely still face millions of dollars in fines and years in prison.
Wilson hired new lawyers experienced in First and Second Amendment law as well as export control.
It was then that Defense Distributed — a non-profit group Wilson founded — and the Second Amendment Foundation filed a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department for violations of Wilson’s First and Second Amendment rights.
The lawsuit dragged on for years. But in April 2018, the State Department quietly suggested dismissing the case altogether and settling out of court with Wilson.
But despite the federal government stepping out of the case, state governments weren’t keen to let 3D printed guns go.
On July 30, 2018, eight attorney generals filed a lawsuit to block the settlement, arguing that the Administrative Procedures Act had been violated.
Since Wilson stated he would release the files to his guns on August 1, 2018, after the settlement was publicly reached, the attorney generals moved to stop that from happening.
Wilson received the restraining order on July 31, as 13 other attorney generals joined the suit.
But it was too late.
Wilson had released the files on July 27. They’d been downloaded 20,000 times before the restraining order reached his front door.
Since the presence of 3D-printed gun schematics online has exploded.
Aside from Defense Distributed — where one can readily download files to print an AR-15, AR-10, VZ-58, etc. — other sites have joined the fray as well.
GrabCAD and FossCAD offer hundreds of files of guns, from revolvers to semi-automatic rifles.
State Responses to 3D Printed Guns
Following the Defense Distributed case, California became the first state to outright ban ghost guns.
As of July 1, 2018, residents of the state had to apply to the state’s Department of Justice for a serial number before making their own firearm.
Other states went further.
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, in addition to the city of Los Angeles, removed access to Defense Distributed’s website.
Conclusion
Right now, it looks as if 3D printing and 80% kits are where most DIY gunsmiths turn. They’re the easiest and most cost/time-effective option.
80% AR-15 Lowers
The possibilities for 3D printed guns are only growing with time, and there’s the very real chance that the entirety of U.S. archived gun data (permitted for public use) could be released in the future.
As a result, homemade guns are here to stay…carrying on the tradition of American gun making.
What are your thoughts on homemade guns? Let us know in the comments below! Ready to make your own gun? Read up on the Best 80% Lower Receivers & Jigs.
Have you ever noticed how close Trump is to Jesus? It’s uncanny! Bizarre! We consulted over two theologians we found on YouTube, one of whom calls himself the Third Eagle of the Apocalypse, and we asked them to lay out for us all the similarities between our glorious savior Trump and Jesus Christ.
Here are the ten craziest coincidences:
1. Both used to be in construction before beginning their public careers. – Uncanny!
2. Both of them will be returning any day now. - Admittedly one of these is more likely to happen than the other.
3. Jesus made America, Trump made America great again. - Jesus created the world and founded America, and Trump brought it back from the brink of destruction.
4. They were both Republicans. - Obviously.
5. Jesus died and came back three days later—Trump went to Walter Reed with a cold and came back in glory. - The exact same thing! Uncanny!
6. A lot of Trump’s supporters denied him afterward. – Sad! Not good!
7. Both of them are well-known for their great humility. - Trump has the best humility, everyone says so.
8. Trump feeds the hungry with the excellent taco bowls at the Trump Tower Grill. - It’s just like creating food out of nothing.
9. Both were crucified, though admittedly Trump’s was just by the media. - It still hurt, ok?
10. Both of them are the mortal enemy of Democrats. - Democrats hate Trump. You know who else they hate? God. That’s right.
Any more eerie similarities? Let us know in the comments. Unless you’re poor. Then send us your thoughts via the USPS.
Think that was funny? It’s got nothing on our newest video. Check it out 👇
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers have innovated a better way to turn biomass into fuel in a single-step chemical conversion. This invention is one of many that’s available for licensing. (PNNL Photo / Andrea Starr)
Entrepreneurs with a yen for creating a business but who come up short on an innovation are welcome to take a spin through listings of technologies on offer from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
With a $1 billion budget for R&D, the government-supported facility has been generating scientific breakthroughs that are available to the public to license and commercialize for the past 55 years. In the last two decades alone, the Richland, Wash.-headquartered lab has issued 670 licenses of its intellectual property to everyone from startup founders to divisions of Fortune 500 companies.
Some of the currently available technologies include:
oil-producing super microbes for making sustainable transportation fuels
software that helps power-grid operators prevent and manage outages
a silicon-carbon composite for high-performing batteries
biomarkers for liver disease
a “Fitbit” for fish in the quest for safer hydropower dams
Beyond the discovery phase, PNNL has an infrastructure to support the technology transfer process. Seattle-based Sara Hunt is one of six commercialization managers working for the lab, launching new technologies into the wider world.
Sara Hunt, commercialization manager for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL Photo)
We caught up with Hunt for this Q&A about the role of PNNL in stoking the startup pipeline and the lab’s efforts to make it easier for companies to commercialize new tech. Answers have been edited for clarity and length.
GeekWire: What role do PNNL and the other 16 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national labs play in developing technology?
Hunt: “The research that’s being conducted at national laboratories in general is more of that high risk, high reward type of technology. We’re doing scientific discovery that is more high risk than probably what industry and certainly some entrepreneurs have the appetite for. So we’re that early catalyst in that scientific discovery process.”
GW: How does the journey go from lab bench to pitching to companies?
Hunt: “We monitor the research that’s going on at the lab and also spend a lot of time engaging with industry. It’s a perfect sweet spot of working with the science side, the industry, as well as legal.
“Once we identify an invention internally, we look at what market opportunity is out there. What are the viable pathways to deploying this? Who are the key potential partners, etc. And then we put together a commercialization plan for that technology that includes marketing outreach engagement with potential end users.”
GW: You have multiple programs to facilitate tech transfer, including the $1,000 exploratory licenses. Can you explain what that is?
Hunt: “We wanted to make these lab innovations more accessible to entrepreneurs and startups and so the exploratory license creates a license to test drive the technology. During the past year we made it [essentially] no cost, so for six months they get access to the information, they get to talk to the researchers, and do their market and technical due diligence during that time, without having to sign up for hefty license fees.
“We received a lot of great feedback [on the program]. It was recognized and won an award from the federal laboratory consortia.”
GW: What kinds of support does PNNL have for companies further along in the process?
Hunt: “For the royalties we receive, as well as some of our lab-directed research budget, we reinvest in further demonstrating and developing promising technologies. If a company comes to me and says, ‘This is amazing. We did the research-use license and we’re still trying to figure out x, y, z.,’ or ‘Can you get it down to this performance or this cost?’ we can make internal investments to help de-risk those technologies towards that commercialization opportunity.
“And the DOE has a variety of programs, including the Technology Commercialization Fund. Every year DOE funds programs on the order of $20-30 million across the labs that is a direct cost share. If a company is interested in a technology, DOE will do a 50% cost match with that company to help further explore that technology.”
GW: What do you enjoy about helping launch these technologies?
Hunt: “The ultimate goal of licensing it out and seeing something that was just an idea in someone’s head — that they thought of when they were dropping their kids off on their way to work or whatever it may be — and seeing that actually deployed as a commercial product or service … is just a lot of fun.”
Most businesses today rely on simple brochure websites for their online presence. These tend to be static websites with a few pages giving core information about the business and details on products and services offered. Although these are relatively cheap and less complicated to develop than a site that offers more advanced user experiences, a business can lose out on many opportunities to better engage with their customers and close sales.
With more and more businesses coming online and creating brochure websites, shrewd organizations need to stand out from their competitors by providing fluid, memorable, and personalized user experiences on their sites. To convert potential interest in your products and services into actual sales, a business needs to foster relationships with their customers on and off their sites. By integrating CRMs with company websites, a business can substantially upgrade their customers’ experiences on their site as well as modernize their internal processes.
The acronym CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. CRM software helps you maintain information about and cultivate relationships with your customers and leads. It does this by analyzing what each customer does on your site and maintaining the data in a contact record. It provides several ways for a business to engage with them based on that behavior. It also offers various marketing and sales tools and keeps track of the interactions company representatives have had with each customer and how it’s leading to a particular goal like closing a sale.
CRMs generally help with the organization by grouping customers into lists and sales pipelines that can be used for targeted campaigns. Usually, a CRM ships with (or can later be integrated) a CMS (Content Management System). A CMS can generate a website and allows non-technical teams to create and manage pages and content. However, CMSs by themselves are limited in tracking how visitors interact with the site.
Why Should Websites Be Integrated With A CRM Platform?
By integrating a CRM and CMS, a website can enhance visitors’ experiences through personalization, marketing automation, better customer support, and streamlined internal business processes. In this article, you will learn how CRMs improve experiences not only for customers but across internal company teams. You’ll see how a CRM can provide deeper insights into customer behavior on and off your site, and how to use this information to drive sales. Lastly, you’ll get to discover how a CRM automates and abstracts crucial but work-intense business processes and workflows.
To better illustrate what a CRM and CMS can do together, the examples in this article will reference HubSpot’s platform for both functions. HubSpot’s CRM and CMS provide virtually all the features mentioned above and as such, are a prime model. Although only the base features of a CRM and CMS will be covered here, it’s important to note that HubSpot’s platform offers an extended range of features for marketing, sales, and support.
1. Seamless Digital Experience And Boost In Marketing Efforts
When a customer visits a site, they are usually looking to make a purchase or get information. They may go through several pages on your site before they land on what they’re looking for. They’ll browse through specific products and services. They may fill a form requesting contact with a sales representative, which may take a day or two. They may not find what they’re looking for and need additional help.
If a customer is not able to get immediate or relatively fast help when on your site, they may not make a purchase.
If there is no customer support to help them handle site issues or sales representatives to guide them to complete a purchase, that is a lost opportunity. Those customers are falling through the cracks.
A CRM can enhance a user’s experience by providing help when they need it. Is something not working for them on the site? They could launch a chat window and immediately get in contact with a support agent. Do they need to consult with a sales representative who could give recommendations based on their unique needs? No problem. They just have to leave their contact information in a form. This information is collected by the CRM, a contact is created, and a sales rep is assigned. The rep is notified immediately, views all the customer’s activity, and immediately starts corresponding with them through the CRM.
With a CRM, customers who seek information can get help almost instantaneously and have the support they receive tailored to them based on their history. The CRM can also automate actions based on the customer’s activity like receiving a promotional discount code in a marketing email after they chat with a rep.
Let’s say, for example, a visitor to a motor brand site wants to purchase a car. The customer wants to find out what cars would be a good pick for them. This website was built on HubSpot’s CMS and is natively integrated with HubSpot’s CRM tooling. They see that a chat-with-a-sales-rep option is available.
When they click on it, they provide some contact information and immediately begin chatting with a rep. The rep can make recommendations based on the information the customer gives. A contact is created for the customer on the CRM. The rep can add notes to the contact. The rep can see what other pages the customer has visited. Once they are done with their chat session, the rep can send an email with more information about vehicles they may like based on the conversation they had and what the customer looked at on the site.
All of this is done through the CRM. The customer leaves the site having had an engaging experience and getting the information they needed. The rep and marketing team can then continue staying in contact with the customer through the CRM untill they make a purchase.
2. Advanced Personalization
Without a CRM, website owners tend to miss essential information about how customers use their sites on an individual basis. The information and experience they offer on their site is generic and is usually one size fits all. All customers receive the same information and treatment despite having different needs and interests in the business. If a customer’s specific need is not met by the site, they may turn to a competitor’s site that’s more engaging and useful. Losing customers and sales is bad for business.
CRMs maintain complete profiles for each customer. They contain customer preferences, history, activities, contact details, and other information. You can use it to personalize each customer’s experience on your website to better meet their needs. This can include dynamically changing the messaging and content on a website based on the needs of a specific contact, as well as a range of other things. Marketers can accommodate customer preferences in the marketing material. Salespeople can check customer activity on the site and adapt their pitches to match it. Some personalized outreach can also be automated. Based on what customers do on a site, they can go through automated conditional workflows and sequences behind the scenes, and receive helpful information about what they seek.
For example, a customer visits a magazine subscription site that uses HubSpot CMS. Because the CRM knows they work in the software industry based on a form they filled out on a previous visit, the messaging on the site is dynamically tailored to their interests. Before they continue browsing, they set their language preference to French. As part of an automatic workflow, the customer is added to a mailing list for the French version of the newsletter. Further, when they seek help through support, it is automatically offered to them in French. When marketing creates ads, the customer is served the French versions of the ads.
3. Dynamic Site Pages Are Generated Based On CRM Data
Imagine creating many similar pages for user profiles, company branches, or any other application where page layouts are the same, but the data is different. Doing this manually can be time-intensive and frustrating for both developers and marketers. But with a CMS and CRM integration, the process can be greatly simplified. Developers can create a template for the overall page structure, then data can be pulled from the CRM to dynamically generate all of the pages that are needed. Non-technical users can generate additional pages by simply adding additional records to the CRM.
For example, a real estate company has many property listings in an area. This company has a website built on HubSpot’s CMS and they create records in the CRM for each property they are selling. With this, the company can import listing data and generate individual pages for each property. They’d do this by selecting a template or building a custom one, picking what data to populate it with from the CRM, generating the pages, previewing them, and scheduling when they will go live. Using this data and the CRM, generating individual pages for each listing can be a breeze.
4. Workflows Between Developers And Marketers Are Streamlined
As touched on in the previous point, marketers rely on developers to create websites and other digital assets. If a marketer is running a campaign, they may need developers to create additional pages for it. This usually involves a lot of back and forth as they plan, build, test, and preview the site and assets before launching a campaign. A significant amount of time and effort is spent creating them. Developers sometimes have to code the individual pages and if several of them are needed, work can pile up.
Content management systems provide tools to simplify web page generation. Marketers do not need to rely on developers. If any changes need to be made to a site, marketers can do it using user-friendly drag-and-drop design tools. This leaves developers free to handle more complicated development tasks. These systems can also offer developer tools like bug trackers and alerts, theme builders, CLI support, and more to make development easier.
A marketing department for a clothing brand is planning several campaigns at one time. Their website integrates with HubSpot’s platform. They need some web pages created for each of the campaigns. Instead of having to talk to developers, they can just log onto the CRM, create the page templates using drag-and-drop designers, select the data to use in the templates, preview them, and schedule when it will go live. They did not involve developers. This frees up developers to work on other crucial business tasks and saves everyone time and effort.
Conclusion
Neglecting to cater your business website to your customers is not only detrimental to your sales but can also hurt your team’s productivity and operations. When customers are given a generic experience on your site, they won’t engage with it. Seeking information and help about your products and services will be frustrating.
Without adequate information and proper tools about customers, sales and marketing departments have a harder time doing their job.
Dissatisfaction festers, productivity declines and employee churn may occur. Without a CRM, repetitive and manual tasks have to be done painstakingly one at a time. This type of work takes up valuable time and effort from support, marketing, sales, and engineering teams.
Integrating a CRM with your business website has numerous benefits. For one, you can build a comprehensive profile of your customers and use that to personalize and improve their experiences on your site. You equip various departments within your company with tools to organize and automate work and improve efficiency. CRMs create great experiences for both customers and people in the company that serve them. Most importantly, it allows a business to foster and grow stronger relationships with its customers.
If you’re interested in learning more about the CMS and CRM featured in this article, you’re always welcome to visit the HubSpot website.
Ammunition as stored at 5809 Taft Street in Middleton, Wisconsin
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- How long can ammunition be stored before it degrades? Much depends on the storage conditions. With reasonable care, ammunition has a shelf life of many decades, as verified by tests done with military centerfire cartridges.
But how long does .22 rimfire last before it starts to degrade? There has not been much systematic long-term storage testing of .22 rimfire. It tends to be used as an expendable item. Some people have found an old box or two of ammunition and checked it for viability.
This correspondent was able to obtain a large cache of 65+-year-old .22 rimfire ammunition with a good pedigree. The bulk of the ammunition was Remington Standard Velocity .22 Long Rifle ammunition made before 1956.
I met the owner at the University of Wisconsin in 1970. We started a friendship that lasted 48 years, to his death in 2018. The friend was Don Cowling from Middleton, Wisconsin. He is the world record rat hunter who this correspondent wrote about in 2016, when I became aware of the provenance and extent of the ammunition cache.
From that article:
The .22 ammunition has been in the jars for over 60 years. He allowed me to crack the seal on a mason jar that had been filled before I entered first grade. I anticipated an odor of acetone, as you often find in old smokeless powder. I could not detect any, nor could my friend. There was a faint hint of old wax, barely noticeable.
My friend gave me an even two dozen rounds to test to see if it had been degraded. I shot the ammunition out of a Mossberg target rifle of similar age. I fired the rounds at my brothers long established range behind the garage on family land in Northern Wisconsin. Every round fired as though it were new. I fired four five-shot groups at 50 feet from a rest. The first was the largest at .56 inches, center to center. The rest were .32, .31 and .31 inches. Not enough to win matches, perhaps, but perfectly good for hunting. My brother fired the last four shots offhand.
Don treasured his privacy, so his name was not mentioned in the 2016 article. The ammunition was mentioned, with a picture. Don knew I would reveal his name after he died, and did not object.
Don was a star handgun competitor at the University of Wisconsin. A top handgun competitor can easily run through 50,000 to 100,000 rounds a year. Don told me the ammunition was put in the quart jars before or during 1956. Don was on the University of Wisconsin Varsity ROTC pistol team when they won the regional championships in 1955. Don always paid for things in cash, or in trade or barter. I suspect the ammo was obtained in a special deal.
Placing the ammunition in quart jars sealed it from the atmosphere. It likely helped keep the bullet lubrication from oxidizing.
Ammunition obtained later was so noted in his records. His records showed the pre-1956 ammunition to be Remington Standard Velocity. His records match the ammunition headstamps.
Article from Wisconsin State Journal, March 21, 1953.
Don kept meticulous records. After he died in 2018, this correspondent had access to his lifelong records and journals.
I was able to purchase his .22 ammunition cache of tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition from his estate. Over 20 thousand rounds of the cache was Remington standard velocity ammunition obtained in or prior to 1956, transferred to quart jars from boxes by 1956. It was stored for 15-17 years in an attic in Madison, Wisconsin, then underground from 1970-72 to 2018 in a basement in Middleton, Wisconsin. After the ammunition was purchased from the estate, it was moved across the country, then stored in a secure underground location.
The ammunition was purchased to conduct rigorous long-term storage testing of .22 rimfire ammunition. If there are other caches containing significant amounts of 65+-year-old .22 rimfire ammunition, they are unknown to this author.
The initial test procedure used a control of 500 rounds of CCI Standard Velocity 22LR Ammunition, lot H05S, manufactured on August, 5th 2012. The ammunition was tested in a Mossberg 702 semi-automatic Rifle with factory 10 round magazines. The rifle is expected to be used throughout the long-term test. The rifle was purchased new in anticipation of the ammunition test.
A few hundred rounds were expended through the rifle before the test, from various manufacturers. The same rifle was used with the old Remington ammunition, to limit test variables. Accuracy testing was done at 25 yards. Velocity testing was done with a Caldwell Chronograph G2 eight feet from the muzzle.
10 fouling shots were fired, followed by 5 five-shot groups from a rest at 25 yards. The rifle was equipped with an inexpensive Simmons 4×32 .22 Mag scope.
After accuracy testing, 50 shots were fired to register on the chronograph to obtain average velocity, standard deviation, and extreme spread.
The rest of the 500 rounds was fired for reliability. The manufacturer recommends the rifle be cleaned after firing 200 rounds. The rifle was cleaned at the beginning of the test, and every 250 rounds after that, so test conditions would be the same for both sources of ammunition. Most shots were fired with a few seconds between shots. Nearly all shots were fired from magazines loaded with 10 rounds.
The test is for the ammunition, not the rifle. A semi-automatic rifle was used for uniformity of action. A semi-automatic is considered a bit more ammunition sensitive than single-shot rifles or manual repeaters. If the ammunition will cycle a semi-automatic action, it should work in manually operated repeaters or single-shot firearms.
The same procedure was used to test 500 rounds of the 65+-year-old Remington Standard Velocity ammunition.
65 Year Old .22 Rimfire Ammunition Test Results:
Accuracy, an average of 5 five-shot groups at 25 yards, measured center to center:
CCI Standard Velocity: .502 inches
Old Remington Standard Velocity .565 inches
Velocity measurements for 50 rounds, average velocity, Standard Deviation, extreme spread in feet per second (fps).
CCI Standard Velocity: Average 1072.3 fps, SD 17.5, extreme spread 84 fps, 1035 to 1119.
Old Remington Standard Velocity: Average 1098.9 fps, SD 19.8, Extreme spread 101 fps, 1041 to 1142.
Reliability for 500 rounds fired:
CCI Standard Velocity: 1 failure to fire, round 102, strong firing pin strike, rotated the round, it fired on the second strike.
Old Remington Standard Velocity: 1 failure to fire, round 252, second round after cleaning. Very light primer strike (probably a mechanical rather than ammunition failure). The round was rotated. It fired normally with a second strike.
Light firing pin strike before rotation and firing with the second strike.
For practical uses of .22 rimfire ammunition, there is no significant difference between the nine-year-old CCI ammunition and the 65+-year-old Remington ammunition.
This correspondent intends to make this testing a regular event. Data will be collected about the storage life of .22 ammunition, to the point of finding significant degradation, or of running out of ammunition.
There is enough ammunition to extend the test to over 100 years of storage if 500 rounds are fired each year. Alternatively, 500 rounds could be tested every two years, or five years, extending the test even longer!?
Enormous quantities of .22 rimfire ammunition have been purchased in the last two years. Much of it has been stored. If stored at reasonable temperatures in airtight containers, it should be useful for at least 65+ years. As no degradation has been detected in the stored Remington ammunition, the upper limit of storage life is unknown.
The author expects the test project to extend beyond his lifetime. The intention is to find viable candidates to continue testing to at least 2056.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
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