If the s ever hits the fan, then you won't care what kind of bullet style you have - you will just want your gun to go bang when you pull the trigger. Anyone who has been on a two way firing range will tell you that when your gun goes "click" or when you feel that "lockback", all you will care about at that moment is finding another magazine in a mag pouch somewhere. Trust me on that one ......
Due to the possibility of a misfire, and a bullet being lodged in the barrel I plan on having steel ramrods for each weapon.
One aspect of post SHTF is the lack of medical back up in which case, no matter what your hit with can become septic, even if it is a lead ball from a sling shot. during WWII japanese troops running out of lead started using wood bullets and adding Real S to it made any injury with them lethal. The reasons I choose the 17 HMR is @ 2550 FPS zeroed @ 200 yards with a 3" pattern 1/5th the volume of .223 , ao I can carry far more 17 HMR ammo than comparable center fire ammo. the report of a .22 can throw off the enemy misdiagnosing it's capability. almost no recoil. The bullet frags on impact, making more difficult to treat the wound, If there is some one treating wounds. Post SHTF I would build a silencer for my Marlin If I had to abandon every thing including all my other weaponry the .17 HMR is the one gun that goes with me.
How can anyone identify the make of those balls? I can get cal. but make? And front loaders make great sense in that those balls can be recovered, melted and recast to use again.
At one point I owned a Ruger Old Army black powder pistol and a 45/70 single shot. Both can shoot the same ball or conical bullet. Both can use black powder. At the time, it made sense to me. Both are gone. For where I live now, it wouldn't make any sense at all....
