Defense Articles

In another partnership, Winchester Ammunition and Gerber Legendary Blades have teamed to produce a new line of Ranger tactical fixed and folding knives. The knives are crafted from 440A stainless steel and feature a non-reflective titanium nitride coating. They come in a choice of drop point or Tanto blade styles.

f you’re like most dealers, you experienced the buying frenzy last year. Customers, concerned with potential bans by the federal government snapped up just about everything shooting-related, including ammunition. Many dealers were caught off guard with a short inventory of this very expendable commodity, and had to watch while other dealers, who had planned ahead, made some serious sales.
Most of these first-time customers are anxious to learn more about their new sport. Much of that learning involves shooting, and the new gun owners are doing lots of it! Retailers are discovering that a well-stocked ammunition shelf, with a range of ammo from premium brands to inexpensive reloads, has paid off in repeat sales to these eager new shooters.

With most hunting seasons over, dealers look forward to ammunition sales continuing with all those new target shooters, skeet shooters and just plain plinkers. Here’s a sample of what’s available for your ammo shelves.

A-Square Company

If you think big-bore, think A-Square. How about the .700 N.E. or the .50-70? If that’s not big-bore to you, you probably need a gun carnage to wheel around what you shoot!

A-Square’s line starts with the .22 PPC - I believe the only factory loading of this caliber - and ends with the .700 N.E. with a 1,200 grain Monolithic bullet! In between is a comprehensive line loaded with their famous Monolithic Solids, Dead Tough Soft Points and Lion Load Soft Points (along with selected Nosler and Sierra bullets).
A-Square continues to offer proof ammunition in a wide variety of calibers to bona fide type 07 or 08 license holders, and they have the ability to custom manufacture cartridge cases (from .222 to .50 BMG) in lots as small as 5,000 rounds. Their in-house ballistic lab can offer a complete work-up on whatever load a customer desires.

A-Square also offers black-powder loads and cases, such as the .40-70. These are loaded to original specs, using black powder and newly manufactured brass.

Obsolete British cartridges are a specialty for A-Square, particularly double-rifle cartridges.

American Ammunition

American has, in a short time, established itself as a supplier of quality newly manufactured ammunition, from 9mm to .45 ACP. Their lead-free ammo, loaded with American’s C3 bullets, help to eliminate lead contamination in both indoor and outdoor ranges.

American’s newest innovation is Alpha Delayed Expansion ammo, a new style of hollowpoint. Available in 9mm 115 grain, 40 S&W 180 grain and .45 auto 185 grain, the ammo is packed in air-tight aluminum pull-top cans with a plastic see-thru cover.

American offers the dealer an alternative and gives the customer another choice at the ammo shelf.

Black Hills Ammunition

Black Hills reports no new products this year because the demand for its current line precluded them from adding the predicted new calibers. Their status as a “mid-level” producer is rapidly changing as they’ve added new equipment and employees, increasing their production by 50 percent.

Black Hill’s 68-grain .223 Heavy Match HP, specifically designed for the fast rifling twist in the AR-15A2 or Mini-14, has been winning high-power rifle matches since its introduction. Freedom Arms has chosen Black Hills to manufacture their specialty .454 Casull loads.

Complementing the .223 ammo is a complete line of handgun loads in both newly manufactured and reloaded variants. Black Hills assures customer satisfaction with a money-back guarantee on their products and makes it clear in their catalog that everything is American Made. Black Hills recommends placing orders now. They anticipate demands to continue at current levels through most of 1995 but said they will honor the prices in effect when orders are placed.

Blount

Known throughout the world for their Speer/CCI lines, Blount continues their legacy of producing quality premium and practice ammunition. Most shooters are familiar with the “Blazer” line of aluminum-cased, non-reloadable ammo. CCI’s Clean-Fire ammo uses a Uni-Core bullet, fully encased in a copper jacket, plus primers that contain no lead, barium or other toxic metals. As a result, it virtually eliminates lead at the firing point, yet still packs the punch of regular service loads.

Speer continues to offer the premium “Gold Dot” ammunition in their “Lawman” series. The Gold Dot bullet jackets are electrochemically bonded to help virtually eliminate core/jacket separation, the main cause of bullet failure. Gold Dots are engineered to expand at least 150 percent of their original diameter. The Gold Dot bullet is also offered in Blount’s Blazer line, which gives shooters an inexpensive way to experience the reliable stopping power of the Gold Dot bullet.

C.P. Bullets

Makers of new and reloaded production ammunition, C.P. has announced the introduction of their new 9×23 Super brass. This is a new caliber patented by C.P. Bullets and manufactured under contract by Winchester/Olin. The CP 9×23 Super casing has the overall length of a standard .38 Super, fully tapered and without the rim, similar to the 9×19. The result is a rimless casing with nearly double the wall thickness of a standard .38 Super forward of the extractor groove. There are many applications in the competition, police/military and personal protection markets where this casing will prove ideal.

Firearms and ammunition are subject to restrictions and import permits approved by The Congress of Costa Rica (”Asamblea Legislativa”) and the Ministry of Public Security (”Ministerio de Seguridad Pública.”)

Applications to import weapons may be filed by or through a licensed importer, dealer, manufacturer, or a person. Permits to import war weapons -airplanes, tanks, rifled barrel, etc.- are issued by The Congress of Costa Rica (”Asamblea Legislativa”). Permits to carry personal weapons in Costa Rica are issued by the Ministry of Public Security (”Ministerio de Seguridad Pública.”) The red tape to issue these permits may take up to three (3) months.

Weapons, ammunition, or other devices prohibited by the Costa Rican government will not be admitted into Costa Rica unless specifically authorized by the Congress of Costa Rica (”Asamblea Legislativa”) and Ministry of Public Security (”Ministerio de Seguridad Pública.”)

The Embassy of Costa Rica and the Government of Costa Rica discourage people from traveling with their personal weapons.

However, if you want to bring a handgun, a revolver, or a pistol to Costa Rica, you must follow the following procedure:

1. Inform the airline that you are traveling with a weapon.

2. Once you arrive in Costa Rica, your weapon will remain at the Customs office until you provide the following permits:

*

Weapon Entrance Permit issued by the Customs/airport authorities.
*

Weapon Circulation Permit issued by the Ministry of Public Security (”Ministerio de Seguridad Pública.”)

3. Once you have those permits, bring them to the Customs Office and your weapon will be released.

4. Then, you will be required to register your weapon at the Ministry of Public Security (”Ministerio de Seguridad Pública.”) in the Department of Firearms and Ammunitions. You may be required to show your police record authenticated by a Consulate of Costa Rica, and to take a psychological test to evaluate your personality traits.

Self Defense Ammunition Generally

American ammunition is the best in the world. Stick to Federal, Cor-Bon, Hornady, Remington, Winchester or CCI ammunition. Some foreign stuff is pretty good (PMC, IMI-Samson, Fiocci), some foreign stuff is great (Dynamit-Nobel, Norma, GECO), some foreign stuff is practice-only junk (e.g. Wolf, CDM - Mexico, military surplus), but no foreign stuff is anywhere near as good as domestic ammunition when it comes to vanquishing hostile attackers. Buy American.

Never use hand-loaded or re-loaded ammunition for self-defense! You may encounter some joker who says he can hand-load ammunition so powerful it will knock anything on two legs down for the count, but don’t buy it. This junk will either misfire or ruin your gun. Use only fresh factory-loaded cartridges, period. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this rule: use factory-loaded cartridges only.

Handguns

One should carry only hollowpoint ammunition in a defensive handgun. Hollowpoint ammunition has much better stopping power than full metal jacket or round-nose lead, and stopping power is what you need when being assaulted.

The point is not to wound or kill the adversary: the point is to stop him in his tracks and make him cease attacking you. “Stopping power” (sometimes called “knock-down power”) refers to a particular bullet’s ability to incapacitate an attacker - the greater that ability, the less chance that your attacker will be able to continue shooting, stabbing, or beating you after you have shot him.

Handguns are not death-rays; despite what you see in the movies, the vast majority of people shot with handguns survive (over 80%). Handguns are weak compared to rifles and shotguns, and thus you want every edge you can get. Great ammunition is no more expensive than mediocre ammunition, so carry the best. Rifles and shotguns have stopping power to spare; handguns do not. Thus you must select your handgun load very carefully, and the detail of the handgun ammunition section reflects this.

Hollowpoint ammunition is NOT more lethal than ball (full metal jacket) ammunition. You may have seen media hype about “killer dum-dum bullets” but this is nonsense. Hollowpoint bullets usually expand and stop in the human body, and thus the attacker absorbs much more of the bullet’s kinetic energy than if the bullet had merely zipped through him and left two small holes. Hollowpoint ammunition is also safer for all parties concerned.

* You are safer because your attacker is more likely to be incapacitated after one or two shots and thus unable to fire back, stab you, or whatever. The decreased likelihood of your attacker dying from hollowpoint bullets saves you the moral and legal complications and expense you will experience from killing a man.
* Innocent bystanders are safer because hollowpoint bullets are less likely to exit the attacker’s body and go on to injure anyone else. The ricochet danger is also much lower than that of ball ammunition, and hollowpoint bullets are less likely to penetrate walls or doors and strike uninvolved third parties. Furthermore, if your foe is incapacitated quickly he won’t be spraying wild bullets around, endangering uninvolved third parties.
* Lastly, your attacker is safer because he is far less likely to die from one or two hollowpoint bullets than the five or six round-nose slugs you would have had to fire to put him down. Most gunshot deaths occur from shock and loss of blood, and ball rounds tend to make entry and exit wounds, whereas hollowpoints go in and stay put. An attacker shot twice with ball ammo will probably have four holes in him rather than two, and is thus in far greater danger of death from blood loss. If you can avoid killing your attacker you should, for both moral and legal reasons.

There are some exceptions to the “carry only hollowpoints in a handgun” rule. Some older or cheaper automatic pistols, will jam with hollowpoint rounds. With these guns one must use ball rounds (or “full metal jacket” rounds - the terms are synonymous), and I specify “reliable with ball only” models by caliber. It is crucial for you to test your pistol to make certain it is reliable with specific loads - don’t rely on my advice. My life will never depend on the reliability of your handgun. Your life may.

Rifles

Generally speaking, fast expanding bullets are the best choice for rifles. Hollow point and plastic tipped bullets usually expand rapidly. Some soft-point designs are recommended, and these will be specified.

Shotguns

Use buckshot. Slugs and birdshot are useful in some limited and uncommon situations.

A Note On Exotic Ammunition

There are several exotic ammunition designs on the market today, such as the Glaser Safety Slug, Mag-Safe, GECO BAT 9mm, Thunderzap, et cetera. Generally speaking, I recommend that you avoid them. Exotic ammunition is expensive, inaccurate, and often unreliable. These rounds cost so much ($2-$4 each) that you will never practice with them and thus will not be certain of their reliability and accuracy in your gun. This is a big mistake: you should not carry a particular type of ammunition until you have fired at least 150 rounds through your semi-automatic gun to ensure reliable feeding (this doesn’t really apply to revolvers, but you should still fire the ammunition you intend to carry to assure yourself of its accuracy).

‘Glaser Safety Slugs’ are one exotic round I can fully recommend, but only for revolvers in a few scenarios. The Glaser is a proven man-stopper and has very good quality control, but may not feed or cycle reliably in your automatic pistol. Because you cannot afford to fire enough Glasers to establish that it feeds reliably in your pistol (i.e. 100 test-fire rounds will cost $300), I cannot recommend them for pistol owners (if you insist on Glasers, carry one in the chamber and load the magazine with a proven hollowpoint. Be aware, however, that the Glaser may not have the power to cycle your slide, and thus you may be carrying a single-shot gun. You can always cycle the slide manually, of course, but this takes time and both hands; two things you may not be able to spare when fighting for your life. The Walther PPK, H&K P7 series and SIG P230 are notorious for this failure-to-cycle problem with Glaser Safety Slugs).

With revolvers feeding is not an issue, of course, but there are other factors to consider. The Glaser is designed for easy break-up and minimal penetration, which is great for cutting down ricochet and over-penetration dangers but drastically limits its ability to penetrate light cover between you and your foe. A car window, hollow-core door, or even thick winter clothing between you and your assailant can cause the Glaser to disintegrate and leave him unharmed. Bad news for you….great news for him.

There are some situations where the Glaser is a good choice, however. I keep my bedside .357 revolver loaded with .38 Special+P Glasers because I live in a thin-walled apartment building and want to be able to put down an intruder rapidly without worrying about injuring my neighbors. I chose .38 over .357 Magnums because I am likely to be in a just-awakened daze and would rather not be blinded and disoriented by the flash, kick and blast of firing a .357 Magnum in a (probably darkened) room. You may have a similar situation (e.g. retail store defense) where injury to third parties is of concern, and you’ll likely be facing an assailant at extremely close range where the Glaser’s inaccuracy and inability to penetrate cover will not be drawbacks. In these narrowly defined scenarios, the Glaser is a good choice, but keep a couple of speedloaders of hollowpoints handy, just in case. I do.

Glaser Safety Slugs are available in “Blue” or “Silver” versions. The latter are a little heavier for better penetration, but performance is similar. I would be happy with either, but Sanow prefers the Silver. It’s up to you.

Mag-Safes are imitations of Glasers, and I cannot recommend them due to poor quality control. Reliability is the number one requirement of a self-defense handgun, and Mag-Safes don’t make the grade.

GECO “Blitz Action Trauma” or BAT 9mm rounds from Germany are a proven design. Called the “GECO Action Safety” in Europe, this is a high velocity (1400 feet per second) lightweight (86 grain) hollow bullet that has proven itself to be very reliable and successful on the street. I recommend them, but they are very tough to find. Save yourself the trouble and use a good American-made hollowpoint.

Other exotics are best avoided. You may occasionally encounter “Thunderzaps,” “Omni-Shocks,” “Terminators,” “Annihilators,” “Kaswer Law Grabbers,” and other such marginalia in gun shops. Stay away. If you want to gamble, go to an Indian reservation. Don’t gamble with your life, or the lives of others. Glasers and GECO 9mm BATs are the only proven exotics.

Terminology

I have tried to keep specialized technical jargon to a minimum, but it will be helpful for you to understand a few terms and acronyms:

- ‘Ball’ is round-nosed metal jacketed ammunition. It is used for self-loading firearms like pistols. All military pistol and rifle ammunition uses full metal jacket bullets. Synonyms for ball include FMJ (”full metal jacket”), MC (”metal case”) and TMJ (”totally metal jacketed,” a term used only by the ammunition maker CCI). Ball rounds do not expand and are always the worst choice in a defensive round. The military uses ball because it feeds well (i.e. rarely jams), penetrates far, and the military is required to use ball under the Geneva Convention. Fortunately, you are free to choose better ammunition, and should use ball for practice only.

- ‘Wadcutters’ and ’semi-wadcutters’ are sharp-shouldered revolver bullets with an odd cylindrical appearance. True wadcutters are very weak rounds used for target shooting only. Unless you own a .38 or .357 revolver, forget about these.

- ‘Jacketed soft-points’ are jacketed bullets with exposed lead at the tip. These make poor defensive rounds for handguns but may be effective for rifles, due to the latter’s high velocity. Never use JSP rounds in a handgun for self-defense. Never.

- ‘Jacketed hollowpoints’ are the best choice for handguns and most rifles. JHP rounds have a hollow cavity in the nose and usually expand (and stop) in the body of your attacker, transferring all their kinetic energy for maximum stopping power. They are the safest and best bullets available. JHP bullets are always best for self-defense.

-’Round-nose lead’ (or RNL) are generally revolver bullets without any metal jacket around the bullet. These are worthless for self-defense, and I don’t even use them at the range. If you come upon a bargain lot of RNL ammo, feel free to buy it for target practice. You will be scrubbing out your barel until the wee hours, however, as all-lead bullets scum up barrels something fierce. Use ‘Flitz’ metal polish to scour out the grimy residue.

WOLF Performance Ammunition is your source for high quality, affordable ammunition. The following calibers now have a polymer coating instead of the lacquer: 40 S&W, .45 Auto, 9mm Luger, 9×18 Makarov, 7.62×39. .223 REM, .308 WIN, .30 Carbine. WOLF exceptional shotshell loads for hunting and sporting clays .FREE Catalog www.wolfammo.com 1-888-757-WOLF

Black Hills Ammunition specializes in .223 and .308 ammunition. It’s the choice of the US Army, USMC, USAF and the US Navy Rifle Teams. We also have 14 different calibers in our Cowboy Ammunition Line, 10 calibers–26 different loadings in our Black Hills Gold[TM] Hunting Line and superb but economical manufactured ammunition in many calibers. $2.00.

Many inventions of modern warfare were born in the boiling cauldron of the American Civil War. Perhaps none were more important than the development of the metallic cartridge and the repeating rifle. During that great struggle, the North used a stupefying list of oddball rifles and strange cartridges from the Sharps linen cartridge to the Burnside and its odd cone-shaped front loading gas-seal cartridge, to the Maynard with its giant, wide, flat, rimmed cartridge still ignited by the patented tape primer or percussion cap. Let’s not forget the most modern of rounds–the .56-56 Spencer and .44 Henry rimfire, Other guns checkered the landscape from conventional .58 Springfield musket to .44 and .56 caliber Colt Revolving rifle, all using paper cartridge ammunition. These myriad rounds were supplied by the Union Quartermaster Corp on a company-wide basis, an astounding task by today’s standards let alone those of 1860.

To document this in a thorough manner has Ken Dean S. Thomas three volumes entitled Roundball to Rimfire, Parts 1, 2 and 3. Thomas includes excellent black & white photos of the various munitions, the packets and crates in which they were wrapped and the methods of production. Part 1 concerns primary Union paper ammunition for the muzzleloading muskets from .58 caliber to .69 caliber smoothbores including Minie and Buck-’n'-Ball rounds. The text is well documented with original correspondence that covers development of the ammunition, problems in the field and corrective actions. Part 2 covers the odd federal breechloading carbines and rifles. Many patent drawings and documents are provided as well as brief discussions of the firearms.

Part 3 covers pistol ammunition and development including rimfire, pinfire and paper cartridges as well as some of the guns. Lastly, some of the odder guns such as the Requa Battery, Dimick target rifle and Pickett bullets used by sharpshooters of the day are discussed and pictured. All three volumes cover the quantity of ammunition produced by whom and where. Thomas Publications specializes in the American Civil War and publishes many other intriguing titles. Soon to be published is Roundball to Rimfire Part 4 on Confederate cartridges.

Round Ball to Rimfire, A History of Civil War Small Arms Ammunition Part 1, Federal Ordnance Dept., Arsenals, Smoothbores & Rifle Muskets $40, ISBN 1-57747015-X, Hardcover, 8.5x 11,344 pages

Part 2, Federal Breechloading Rifles & Carbines, $49.95 ISBN 1-57747020-6 Hardcover, 8.5x 11,528 pages

Part 3, Federal Pistols, Revolvers & Miscellaneous Essays, $49.95, ISBN 1-57747020-6, Hardcover, 8,5×11,528 pages

Contact: Thomas Publications, P.O. Box 303, Gettysburg, PA 17325 (717) 642-6600, www.thomaspublications.com.

Police discovering ammunition on a suspect at a Terry stop have established probable cause to expand the investigation, said the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The court rejected the argument of James Shoals that Fort Wayne, Ind., police detained him without reasonable suspicion or probable cause.

The court said the officers’ conduct during their investigation of Shoals transformed a permissible investigatory stop based on reasonable suspicion to a custodial arrest based on probable cause.

Police received a 911 call from a person known to several of the investigating officers about gunfire. The caller gave a description of the suspect who was carrying a long rifle, and the address. Officers were in front of the caller’s house as the phone conversation continued.

The officers knocked on the door of the identified home of a couple, who answered the door. The officers noticed a third person, Shoals, who matched the description of the 911 alert, appearing to be trying to hide in the kitchen.

Eventually, the officers convinced Shoals to come outside the house and conducted a patdown for a weapon and discovered shotgun shells in his pocket. The officers later found a shotgun in Shoals’ car and arrested Shoals as a felon in possession.

“The question is whether the police reasonably believed he was armed with any weapon, not only with the weapon described in the 911 call,” said the court. “The officers acted reasonably when they patted Shoals down for their own safety once he finally came outside.”

Inf.: U.S. v. Shoals, 06-3335, 7th Circ., March 9. The circuit consists of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

TUCKED away in the middle of the rolling hills of eastern Oklahoma is McAlester Army Ammunition Plant–the Defense Department’s premier producer of bombs and the nation’s largest facility for storing and shipping munitions.

Many of the ammunition plant’s 1,300 civilian employees are former or retired military members, and many have children or grandchildren serving in the military. Their support of today’ s warfighters could not be any more enthusiastic.

“I’ve been in combat, and have turned around to pick up ordnance and found there’s nothing there. That’s not a good feeling,” said 61-year-old Vietnam veteran Bob Dean, a forklift operator at MCAAP.

“It’s good to know that someone is 100-percent behind you, and that’s what I want the Soldiers to know about the employees at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant,” he said.

“The ammunition plant exists solely for the benefit of the warfighters,” said plant commander COL Gary B. Carney. “Everything we do is focused on quality. We want to reassure the warfighters that if ordnance comes from McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, they’ve got the best-quality munitions America can produce.”

Army veteran Joe Morrison, an explosive operator at the plant, said his work at the production line now has even more meaning.

“My work is not only for the warfighter, but for something much more personal,” he said. “My son Tim is assigned to the 1st Infantry Division and recently deployed to Iraq.”

MCAAP produces bombs weighing 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 21,000 pounds. Of those bombs, the 2,000 and 5,000 pounders also come as “bunker-buster” penetrators. In addition to the explosive-filled bombs, the plant also produces inert practice bombs.

As of September 2006 the Air Force had dropped 18,737 bombs in support of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

While the Air Force was making good use of the ammunition plant’ s products, McAlester actively replenished its stockpile in fiscal 2005 with almost 24,000 explosive bombs and more than 74,000 inert bombs.

MCAAP also produces other munitions, ranging from the 5-inch 54-cal. cartridge case to the Joint Stand Off Weapon. The MCAAP mission also includes ammunition and missile renovation, maintenance and demilitarization.

In 1999 the plant teamed up with the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center in Picatinny, N.J., to perfect a process that melts out TNT from obsolete 105mm and 8-inch projectiles. The result is that MCAAP has melted out and reused more than 18 million pounds of TNT in new bombs, not only protecting the environment by recycling, but also saving taxpayers’ money. A similar process was developed to reclaim specification-grade tritonal, which is a mix of TNT and aluminum powder. More than 4 million pounds of tritonal have been reclaimed since 1999.

To ensure quality, MCAAP employees use state-of-the-art digital X-ray technology and chemical laboratory equipment.

“We X-ray bombs to verify that the explosive fill has no quality defects that would prevent the bomb from functioning as designed,” said quality-assurance specialist Lisa Everett. “The last thing we want is for one of our products to malfunction in combat.”

Items that can be inspected by the X-ray range in size from a small primer up to a 5,000-pound penetrator bomb.

“The X-ray facility ensures the bombs are properly filled, while the explosives lab checks to ensure the explosive material meets specifications in composition, hardness, density and percentage of moisture,” said Brad Black, chief of the Non-destructive Test Division.

The plant has a near-perfect record when it comes to meeting required delivery dates. MCAAP stores and delivers just about any ammunition a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine requires; from 5.56mm rifle rounds to various projectiles, mortars, grenades, rockets, missiles and bombs.

And the Oklahoma plant has shipped more than 41,702 tons of assorted munitions in direct support of operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

When the munitions and bombs arrive downrange, they usually arrive in containers called “milvans,” each of which can hold up to 16 tons of ammunition. Inside the milvans, munitions are banded to wooden pallets and braced by wood.

Wood pallets are used to ship everything except bombs, according to James Franks, director of the Logistics Operations Division. MCAAP also produces the wooden pallets.

Cecil Sanders, a MCAAP shipping supervisor, said the pallets are not just for internal use–up to 60,000 are made each year for other customers.

In order to ship wooden pallets overseas, the ammunition plant is required to heat treat the pallets for 30 minutes, to destroy insects that may inhabit the wood. The Defense Department only owns four such heat chambers, two of which are located at MCAAP.

The plant also fabricates about 6,000 metal pallets a year, which are specially designed to hold bombs of all shapes and sizes.

Philip M. Cole, DaCapo Press, Cambridge, MA, 2002, 320 pages, $35.00.

Although slightly repetitive, awkwardly written, and probably mistitled, Philip M. Cole’s much-needed book of 19th-century artillery is ostensibly about artillery at Gettysburg. However, only about 25 pages are actually devoted to the battle; Cole examines the artillery arm for the entire Civil War. Rather than being a dull treatise, Artillery at Gettysburg: Organization, Equipment, Ammunition, and Tactics proves to be an engaging book. Cole describes the development, procurement, and organization of each army’s artillery branch, noting similarities and differences.

Cole explains the benefits and liabilities of each piece of artillery used during the Civil War and describes the variety of rifled guns, from cast iron to bronze, as well as a variety of rifled guns including the 2.9-inch Parrot and the exotic Whitworth breechloading rifles used by the Confederacy. Complementing the discussion of the actual cannon, Cole includes chapters on logistics, training, various types of ammunition, and the support structure. His use of photographs, diagrams, and maps are excellent and integrate seamlessly into the text.

One of the most important segments of the book is the organization of the artillery for the both armies. Although each army had a chief of artillery (Confederate General William Pendleton and Union General Henry Hunt), the opposing forces organized their artillery in subtle but different ways. While each army had an artillery reserve, the Confederate Army parceled out its reserve into three infantry corps, which made communication and concentration difficult. The Union Army concentrated its reserve in one solid mass.

Hunt was nominally in command of all artillery at Gettysburg even though each corps had its own allocation of batteries. This difference allowed Hunt to rapidly shift batteries around the battlefield to threatened areas.

Hunt wanted to conserve ammunition until General Robert E. Lee began his charge, then devastate the enemy as it crossed the killing ground. Second Corps commander General Winfield Hancock wanted his artillery to respond to Lee’s cannonade to keep up the morale of his troops. Hunt was thinking of effectiveness and killing power while Hancock was thinking of morale.

The book has a few minor weaknesses. Cole spends too much time discussing the British Whitworth guns. The Confederates had only two Whitworth guns on the battlefield, and their effectiveness was negligible. Also, Cole’s analysis focuses more on the technology, organization, and support of the artillery and less on the actual performance of the artillery during the battle. Despite such flaws, the book is interesting and informative. Not only does it explain why events unfolded the way they did, it helps explain how they unfolded.

SHERRILL - The latest happenings in the Oneida Ltd. bankruptcy case include the formation of an equity committee, which will likely contest the bankruptcy and the implementation of stock-trading restrictions.

Scarsdale-based Jordan Capital L.P. started the equity-commit tee fight soon after Oneida Ltd. filed for Chapter 11 on March 19 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. The district covers Bronx, Dutchess, New York, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, and Westchester counties.

The plan calls for a $100-million Tranche B loan to be eliminated in exchange for 100 percent of the equity of the newly reorganized company.

But Paul Davner, a managing partner with Jordan Capital, argued at the time that Oneida filed that there were other options for the company to improve its finances besides bankruptcy, which would wipe out all shares of common stock. Davner suggested the company look at divesting itself of non-profitable divisions as one alternative to bankruptcy.

Jordan Capital held about 1.3 million shares of the stock last December, but has since sold most of its shares. Davner declined to comment on the formation of the equity committee, referring questions to Robert Stark, an attomey in the New York City office of the Brown Rudnick law firm. Stark represented the ad hoc equity committee as it made its arguments in bankruptcy court.

Stark says the formation of that committee is a positive step for shareholders as the committee will now fight the bankruptcy in hopes of preserving equity.

“The equity holders think this is a terrible plan, and they’re going to fight it,” Stark says. The committee was authorized in a May 4 ruling by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan L. Gropper.

The decision was reached after about nine hours of trial where both sides presented evidence for and against the formation of the committee.

While there was no evidence of any wrongdoing by the company, in his ruling Gropper says “a due regard for appearances also warrants the appointment of an equity committee, if only to dispel any implication that, here, a group of creditors took control of the Board of Directors in the first stage of a two-stage restructuring, neutralized the general unsecured creditors, and then took for itself the value of the remaining equity.”

The company’s creditors became the largest shareholders of the company in a 2004 deal that relieved $30 million worth of bank debt in exchange for 62 percent of the common stock and six of the nine seats on the company’s board.

Next step

The next step will be the actual formation of the equity committee, Stark says. The court-appointed trustee has been ordered to handle the task.

Company spokesman Richard Mahony, who is with the New York City public-relations firm Gavin Anderson & Co., Inc., didn’t comment specifically on the equity committee, but says the bankruptcy process remains on course.

“We remain optimistic that Oneida’s plan will be confirmed in midJuly, but setting an exact date is ultimately up to the court,” he says.

Gropper has also recently approved an interim, trading-procedures order for the company’s stock. The order requires that a notice be filed with the bankruptcy court and provided to the company for any acquisition or disposition by any person or entity that is or would become an owner of at least 4.5 per-cent of the stock.

According to the order, which was approved on May 2, the company has the opportunity to object to those transfers.

The order is designed to preserve the company’s net losses.

Oneida Ltd. (OTC BB ticker symbol: ONEIE.OB) reported a net loss of $16.1 million so far for the fiscal year that ended January 2006. Fourth-quarter and year-end figures have yet to be released. The company lost $62.1 million for the fiscal year ended January 2005.

The move is not an uncommon one, says Shawn Riley, an attomey with the Ohio-based McDonald Hopkins Co. law firm. Riley heads up the firm’s businessrestructuring department.

If too much of the company’s stock changes hands or is acquired by one group, “there would be a change of control,” he says. And that would nullify any tax benefits the company could get with its net losses.

As long as ownership stays intact, the company can use those losses once it emerges from bankruptcy - to either get tax refunds for previous years or use them to offset taxes in the future, Riley says.

Mahony says the order is a common occurrence in bankruptcy cases and “is designed to preserve certain tax benefits for the company.”

Imposing trading procedures allows the company some measure of control over how much stock changes hands during the bankruptcy proceedings.

“It’s not unusual,” Riley says. “It is kind of aggressive and somewhat controversial.”

The move could be in response to the equity committee fight, Riley says.

“What that tells me is somebody’s making a play for the stock,” he says. “Somebody out there is saying, ‘Hey, something’s not right. The stock is worth something, and I’m going to fight for it.”‘