provided at the point of sale by the retailer. The manual that comes with the equipment has a section on safely using this equipment. In comparing it with instruction manuals that come with shop equipment, the emphasis on safety is no greater than that one might find with a table saw, perhaps even less. For reloaders who seek more information, more detailed instruction manuals and videos may be purchased separately.

One of the powders demonstrated was Alliant Red Dot, which has a small percentage of red colored particles in it to identify the product. When asked whether this was not a type of taggant, the response was that those particles were in fact active powder with a small amount of dye on the surface.

There was also a discussion of rimfire ammunition such as .22 caliber longrifle ammunition. Rimfire ammunition does not have a separate primer component like centerfire ammunition, but instead has primer material in the rim of the cartridge case base. The firing pin strikes the base of the cartridge at the rim, crushing the primer mix between the cartridge case wall and rim, thus igniting it, and in succession, the smokeless powder. Because the rim of the cartridge case is permanently deformed by firing, it is not reusable. Some primer compositions have a small amount of very fine ground glass added to increase the sensitivity and improve reliability of ignition. The presence of ground glass reportedly increases barrel erosion and reduces barrel life. Because of its simplicity, rimfire ammunition is considerably lower in cost than centerfire ammunition, and is used solely for .22 caliber.

Shooting demonstrations were carried out with a muzzle-loading rifle, a semiautomatic centerfire rifle (M-1A), and a Glock semiautomatic centerfire pistol.

The NRA reported that they do carry out some instrumental measurements in the firing range, measuring for velocity and accuracy. Ammunition manufacturers normally carry out such measurements and chamber pressure measurements to ensure that they are meeting the specifications of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI).

Following the subcommittee site visit to the National Rifle Association headquarters, the committee received information from SAAMI and the National Reloading Manufacturers' Association regarding reloading.⁴ The following points were made regarding the advantages of reloading of smokeless and black powders over purchasing factory-loaded ammunition.