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Federal Premium has introduced the Gold Medal Grand, a shotshell line geared toward clay-target competitors. It boasts a two-piece wad updated with new Soft-Cell technology that compresses slightly as the shot fires. Doing so lessens shot deformation, resulting in rounder pellets that produce consistent patterns. The cushioning effect also reduces felt recoil. Grand loads are the first shotshells utilizing Federal’s proprietary Catalyst primer, which contains no lead styphnate, but instead incorporates an aluminum component that produces a hotter firing temperature, thus promoting more efficient ignition of the propellant charge. Available in No. 7½ and 8 loadings, white-hulled Gold Medal Grands promise to become a fixture on trap, skeet and sporting clays fields. federalpremium.com
Great powers have often used smaller conflicts as test beds for new weapon systems, and also as dumping grounds for obsolete machinery. The Spanish Civil War was one such conflict.