I used to order online in bulk but that has about dried up. Now we visit the local gun/knife shows and flea markets, been picking up .22 LR and .38/.357.
Take her out and get her shooting. The excess will, um, diminish and she might send you to the LGS on
Okay DW, Please school us a bit on the science of loading wax bullets. Primer only? light powder charge? Sounds like fun.
This is what you need. The casings are specific for wax rounds. 209 shotgun primers, and the bag of red balls is the wax rounds. For the record, the red ones suck. Gunk up the gun something awful and in the winter it gets brittle. I had a lot of rounds shatter on firing and a few completely bust up and jam in the barrel. We use the white now. This is all it is. Casing, wax bullet, and primer. Moves about 600 fps I'm told so if you get hit with it, it's like being shot with a paintball. They are also VERY dirty so expect to clean that gun, your hands, and everything you touched after target practice. I have a number of steampunk cowgirl outfits for matches and it didn't take long to realize white was a very bad idea. Just stick each in the appropriate end and load up. So easy I did this with my left hand.
I like that! Looks like great fun. Thank you for the video tutorial. I can make those and will figure out a wax mix that'll work. That women won't even have to share her kitchen. I can cook some wax on a Coleman stove, outside.
Re: HotDigity #25. Please take care with hot wax. Melted parafin burns like gasoline and runs everywhere. I have a few thou of primers, but has anyone found any still available?
Primer availability has been an issue for my local Class VI reloader. He's sending all his brass off to be processed. It comes back cleaned, sized and primed. Hardly gives the Camdex machines anything to do, but it's the only way he's been able to get primers. We've been through this over and over since Y2K. Boston's Gun Bible is just over 20 years old. It's a little late to read it now.
There are links, that I'm "FORBIDDEN" from sharing that show pretty thorough tests with .38 Special wax bullets using unaltered and altered brass with standard and magnum pistol primers. I like the idea of using unaltered brass for wax bullets, because you can use it for standard loads later. Sounds like a subsonic round through a suppressor. I'm a tool guy and often reload at the firing line, so needing a hand press to decap and prime brass isn't an issue.
I've found that primers are unobtainium. well unless you go on gunbroker and pay like 100USD per K (or more). Serious price gouging. EDIT -- it looks more like $150/K is now the going price. most decent size LGS that carry reloading supplies are out and have been for months. I was able to pick up some SPP at a really small one man operation. He had 900, I picked up a few hundred and left the rest for the next guy that finds him. I'll check back in a month or so, if they are still there, then I'll grab the rest. Projectiles are the next biggest issue unless you are running cast. Again, available on gunbroker but you'll pay the late to the party premium. At least powder and brass is still available.
Primers are out except .50 cal and 209's (spotty) or musket caps. Haven't had an issue with bullets yet and powder is spotty. LGS has zip.
Well stocked on factory stuff but always buying cases, powder primers and bullets when ever i find them.
It's gotten so bad at the shop, that I've had to bring in factory ammo from home just so we can have ammo to sell with the firearm. We limit it to one box of 9mm FMJ (50 or 100 round box at $19.95 and $39.95) with the purchase of a 9mm handgun, three 20 round boxes of .223/5.56 per purchase of those caliber rifles (enough to fill two 30 round mags). I've pretty much run out of cheap (FMJ and LRN) factory 9mm, .380, and .38spl to bring in, but I handload those calibers and have plenty of components. We still have plenty of .40S&W, .45ACP, and .38spl+P hollow points left though, and more cases of 7.62x39 and .308 than I care to think about. Still have plenty of pistols in every major caliber (9mm, .380, .45acp, 40s&w, .22lr) Mostly we ran out of the cheaper FMJ and LRN "practice" ammo. Some customers get pissy about us not selling them 9mm, .380, .223 etc.. ammo then they buy a firearm not in that caliber. Some feel they are entitled to every last round, even after bragging to us about the thousands of rounds they already have stashed at home. More of the "I got mine, too bad for you" mentality.
People are going full retard. I found 5.7x28 once fired, dirty, fresh of the ground brass selling for over 30 cents a shell on gun broker. Hell at that price I should sell mine instead of reloading it. That buys about 2/3 of a loaded round when stuff isn't stupid. Ooh SS198LF that's the "restricted for military and law enforcement only" which is a marketing ploy to the mall ninjas, going for at least a buck fidy a round. For every one round of that I sell I can buy 3 rounds of the regular stuff when shit goes back to normal.
What if things NEVER go back to normal? Someday it's gonna happen! Better get the guns, ammo, gold, silver, food, etc. while you can...whatever the price! The competition isn't about getting a deal! Hell, the real competition doesn't even start until the SHTF!
