survival reloading
- Thread starter Venado
- Start date
Once you run out of powder and primers ... time to break out the Bear Polar LTD and quiver of arrows .
I have a Lee hand press and everything I need to reload ammo in a range bag ...
and have a good supply (hoard) of powder primers cast bullets and bullet moulds , so I would be set for awhile ... but when the powder is gone ...the reloading show is over!
Wait a Minute ... with the current ammo , powder , primer, all things reloading shortage we are in right now ...This is SURVIVAL RELOADING if I've ever seen it ... Reloaders Will Survive !
Geaux LSU Tigers
Hurricane and Football seasons ...who could ask for anything more !
Gary
I have a Lee hand press and everything I need to reload ammo in a range bag ...
and have a good supply (hoard) of powder primers cast bullets and bullet moulds , so I would be set for awhile ... but when the powder is gone ...the reloading show is over!
Wait a Minute ... with the current ammo , powder , primer, all things reloading shortage we are in right now ...This is SURVIVAL RELOADING if I've ever seen it ... Reloaders Will Survive !
Geaux LSU Tigers
Hurricane and Football seasons ...who could ask for anything more !
Gary
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while movies often get a lot wrong (and sometimes intentionally) one of the things they usually get right is how jammed and useless roads out of major cities will be once the evacuation begins.
Doesn't matte what the looming disaster is, once the panic starts, only the very first few to leave will actually be able to get away, other than on foot.
Unless, of course, you're wealthy (or works for someone who is) and you can fly. This can get you away, but then, you have to land, somewhere...
One of the things most commonly ignored about "survival" guns, ammo, and reloading is that the only thing you can count on is what you already HAVE and have with you when things turn bad.
And that includes tools as well. All of the "you can make this out of that" is good to know, but you can't make "this" if you don't even have "that" to begin with.
I also don't think its realistic to indulge in the fantasy that you'll be able to find "useful" things in the "rubble". First off, you're competing with everyone else who "survived" for resources and the odds are good you aren't going to be the first one there looking...
The difference between looters and scroungers is looters get shot or shot at.
Point here is, if you don't already have it, you aren't likely to be able to get it, even if civilization doesn't completely collapse. We've had a taste (and a sour one) in just the last few years with shortages of goods with just a partial collapse of our system.
For me, "survival" reloading is something you do at your retreat, where you ALREADY have stockpiled supplies and tools. Nothing electric is going to be useful for long, once the power goes off things that run off line power are about useless and things that run off batteries are little better unless you have a lifetime supply of the right batteries. So, forget about digital anything, have balance beam scales, and things written down on paper (like you load data) cause there isn't going to be an internet to look things up on, etc.
the ultimate "survival" gun when you are out of premade components is a flintlock but you do need a few accessories (a mold is vital, and a few spare springs are a very good idea). The rest of what you need, you can make, though the effort involved is not a trivial task.
As for the situation where you find a box of .40 but you have a 9mm, I wouldn't bother with the work to try and salvage or adapt what you could to fit your 9, I'd keep the 40 ammo stashed in hopes of finding someone to trade with in the future.
Short form of an old story about bad times...
Guy puts his money in gold/gems, knowing cash will be useless...
times are bad but not the absolute worst, trade still happens a little bit...
He's hungry, famer has chickens, he wants to trade, farmer says what you got to trade? I got gold!!is the reply.
Farmer can't eat or use gold/gems, but agrees to part with A chicken for a handful of gold coins. Guy is outraged, this is gold! Farmer says "just consider it an epensive chicken!"
different guy, same farmer, wants to trade, farmer asks, what you got to trade?
Guy says I got half a box of shells that fit your .30-30 (or .22LR). Farmer says, "how many chickens do you want for them??"
point here is that value is situational, and when things go really bad, the only things you are going to be able to count on getting is stuff you already have.
So, get (and keep) what you think you'll need, NOW, if you haven't already. Its not likely to get easier soon, and it may never get any cheaper....
In recent years, my thoughts on survival related to gun supplies has changed dramatically.
First, better to have loaded ammo rather than reloading supplies. Reloading takes time which will likely be better used building or maintaining your circumstances. If you have a reloading hobby, it's just that: a hobby. You're not going to load yourself an armory when the SHTF. If you have loading supplies and some pet rounds, load up everything you have now and keep your loaded ammo.
Next, having a lot of ammo is not useful unless you live in a bunker that can withstand a significant assault by foot soldiery (or gangs). You're not likely to load up 100,000 rounds in a pickup and leave your home for parts yonder. The weight alone will break your truck in half. All the guns you'll use with that ammo is also heavy and cumbersome takes up a lot of space better used for food and water (also heavy). If you have a lot of ammo, you'll have to protect it so you really need to armor up your home to keep it all safe. If you're just one guy, you won't last long enough to shoot up more than a couple of thousand rounds, really.
Last, like 44Amp said, ammo is best served as currency and there are all kinds of other currency that will become very valuable as barter. Ammo is just one. Water is highly valuable as is, food, medicines, recreational drugs, salt, coffee and tea, spices such as pepper, et al. Gold and silver aren't all that valuable. Gasoline may be but it won't last long. The value of a hand-operated pump to get gas out of storage tanks may be valuable for a while until THAT runs out.
Priority while you have opportunity now is to store water and the means to purify it. Food is next (freeze-dried), a couple thousand rounds of ammo of which a significant amount should be 22 LR (although 10,000 rounds is probably decent currency). If you're going to spend your hard-won cash now, use it for those essentials.
And don't tell anyone you have it.
--Wag--
Oh, and books will be valuable too!
First, better to have loaded ammo rather than reloading supplies. Reloading takes time which will likely be better used building or maintaining your circumstances. If you have a reloading hobby, it's just that: a hobby. You're not going to load yourself an armory when the SHTF. If you have loading supplies and some pet rounds, load up everything you have now and keep your loaded ammo.
Next, having a lot of ammo is not useful unless you live in a bunker that can withstand a significant assault by foot soldiery (or gangs). You're not likely to load up 100,000 rounds in a pickup and leave your home for parts yonder. The weight alone will break your truck in half. All the guns you'll use with that ammo is also heavy and cumbersome takes up a lot of space better used for food and water (also heavy). If you have a lot of ammo, you'll have to protect it so you really need to armor up your home to keep it all safe. If you're just one guy, you won't last long enough to shoot up more than a couple of thousand rounds, really.
Last, like 44Amp said, ammo is best served as currency and there are all kinds of other currency that will become very valuable as barter. Ammo is just one. Water is highly valuable as is, food, medicines, recreational drugs, salt, coffee and tea, spices such as pepper, et al. Gold and silver aren't all that valuable. Gasoline may be but it won't last long. The value of a hand-operated pump to get gas out of storage tanks may be valuable for a while until THAT runs out.
Priority while you have opportunity now is to store water and the means to purify it. Food is next (freeze-dried), a couple thousand rounds of ammo of which a significant amount should be 22 LR (although 10,000 rounds is probably decent currency). If you're going to spend your hard-won cash now, use it for those essentials.
And don't tell anyone you have it.
--Wag--
Oh, and books will be valuable too!
Hahahaha, same here"Survival reloading" to me means reloading a magazine.
Yeah man, geez, use a bow and arrow at that point.
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You can often find saltpeter crystals formed naturally on old manure, horse or cattle, primarily but not exclusively. Also found in the "village midden" (the garbage/septic pit)
If you're in an area with old stockyards or such, I'd go looking long before I tried making....but that's just me.
If you're in an area with old stockyards or such, I'd go looking long before I tried making....but that's just me.
Saltpeter is potassium nitrate. If you look up "Spectracide stump remover" you will find it a Home Depot or any garden supply. If you look at the MSDS (now called the SDS) for it, it is nominally 100% potassium nitrate.
You can get all the ingredients for black powder at the garden store - stump remover, dusting sulfur, and charcoal (but sub-optimal charcoal).
There is a long thread on the cast bullets forum about home made black powder. It is very informative.
I was born with 10 fingers, 2 eyes, and 2 ears (that never worked very well, but still...) and I want to keep them as intact as possible, so I've never actually tried making black powder. But people do it, safely, all the time - just like we reload smokeless powder cartridges, with care and good judgement.
If you want saltpeter you can buy plastic jugs of it and stash it for the smokeless-less end of conventional reloading; unless you are a purist and want to make black powder from scratch, just like the old days.
You can get all the ingredients for black powder at the garden store - stump remover, dusting sulfur, and charcoal (but sub-optimal charcoal).
There is a long thread on the cast bullets forum about home made black powder. It is very informative.
I was born with 10 fingers, 2 eyes, and 2 ears (that never worked very well, but still...) and I want to keep them as intact as possible, so I've never actually tried making black powder. But people do it, safely, all the time - just like we reload smokeless powder cartridges, with care and good judgement.
If you want saltpeter you can buy plastic jugs of it and stash it for the smokeless-less end of conventional reloading; unless you are a purist and want to make black powder from scratch, just like the old days.
In the past, public outhouses in Europe were elevated and had tile terraces behind and below them. When the human waste at the bottom of the outhouse pit had a year or two to ferment and break down, they would tap the bottom of the pit and let the ferment flow into a filter full of wood ash, which is rich in potassium, and it would from there flow out onto the terrace where it would dry and leave potassium nitrate crystals on the surface to be scraped up for gunpowder making. It sounds gross, but in an era when most folks were accustomed to mucking out stables and walking through muck in the streets, it probably wasn't as remarkably awful as we view it today. And if you lived in a country without natural saltpeter resources and still needed to keep the King's cannons fed, it might almost seem ingenious.