The last time I stocked up on 5.56, I paid 150.00 for a battle pack of 420 rounds, already loaded on stripper clips and ready to fill a bandoleer. No idea what it's going for now. I'm afraid to look. When I got my 9mm pistol, I stocked up on ammo at 18.00/ 50 rounds. The last time I checked, it was 60.00 for the exact same box of ammo, same manufacturer. I probably should have got into reloading while the getting was good, but I didn't.
With Betsy, my black powder revolver, I just make everything from scratch. Primer cups I make out of empty beer cans, and I'm not short on supply for those. The bullets are molded out of molten lead, 126 grains each. There are 7000 grains in a pound, so 55 bullets per pound, give or take a bit. The last time I checked, lead on the open market was selling for just under 1.00 a pound, but retail it was going for 10.00 a pound - 1000% markup. So, what I SHOULD be able to mold for 1.8 cents a round, I have to pay 18 cents for. Store-bought powder runs around 30.00 a pound, and at 17 grain charges (for a .36 cal. Colt pattern revolver), there are about 412 charges in a pound, or 7.28 cents a round. Push comes to shove, the chemicals to make the powder at home run around 25 bucks total for 9 pounds of powder, plus you can get everything you need to make it at a gardening supply store, or make your own chemicals if you have to.. So, Betsy can eat for around 25 cents a round, figure 27 cents a round for the chemicals to make the 'splodey powder for the caps and the coffee filters to make the casing for the rounds out of.
That's for store-bought powder and retail lead ingots. That price drops considerably for full DIY from the ground up - 0.007 cents for the home made powder per round, so around 2 1/2 or 3 cents per shot total
So, when the rest of my guns are decorating the wall, Betsy will still be ticking along. The entire reason I got her and got into rolling my own cartridges for her was a looming ammo shortage, and it looks like that may have paid off now. I reckon I was not the only guy with that idea. Go shopping for a black powder revolver, even today. They're out of stock just about everywhere, STILL, and get bought up as fast as they come in.
Fuck 'em with their bullshit "disarmament" crap. Push comes to shove, I can make my own guns out of water pipe, my own powder for them, and my own caps to fire the powder. I'll only need one clear shot to suddenly own THEIR guns if they come for me, so it's all good. That'll put me back to being armed, state of the art, again.
With that one captured gun, I can capture several more. With every newly captured gun, each one of THOSE can capture several more. It goes up exponentially. Soon, you can have a big enough armed force to start heisting supply line convoys for even more. Don't even try to tell me it can't be done - Special Forces has been doing it for decades, as have guerrillas and insurgents the world 'round. I knew a guy in Bosnia who started out as 3 guys with bad intent and NO firearms, and within two weeks, they had a force strong enough to start knocking over weapons depots.
So fuck 'em.
.
With Betsy, my black powder revolver, I just make everything from scratch. Primer cups I make out of empty beer cans, and I'm not short on supply for those. The bullets are molded out of molten lead, 126 grains each. There are 7000 grains in a pound, so 55 bullets per pound, give or take a bit. The last time I checked, lead on the open market was selling for just under 1.00 a pound, but retail it was going for 10.00 a pound - 1000% markup. So, what I SHOULD be able to mold for 1.8 cents a round, I have to pay 18 cents for. Store-bought powder runs around 30.00 a pound, and at 17 grain charges (for a .36 cal. Colt pattern revolver), there are about 412 charges in a pound, or 7.28 cents a round. Push comes to shove, the chemicals to make the powder at home run around 25 bucks total for 9 pounds of powder, plus you can get everything you need to make it at a gardening supply store, or make your own chemicals if you have to.. So, Betsy can eat for around 25 cents a round, figure 27 cents a round for the chemicals to make the 'splodey powder for the caps and the coffee filters to make the casing for the rounds out of.
That's for store-bought powder and retail lead ingots. That price drops considerably for full DIY from the ground up - 0.007 cents for the home made powder per round, so around 2 1/2 or 3 cents per shot total
So, when the rest of my guns are decorating the wall, Betsy will still be ticking along. The entire reason I got her and got into rolling my own cartridges for her was a looming ammo shortage, and it looks like that may have paid off now. I reckon I was not the only guy with that idea. Go shopping for a black powder revolver, even today. They're out of stock just about everywhere, STILL, and get bought up as fast as they come in.
Fuck 'em with their bullshit "disarmament" crap. Push comes to shove, I can make my own guns out of water pipe, my own powder for them, and my own caps to fire the powder. I'll only need one clear shot to suddenly own THEIR guns if they come for me, so it's all good. That'll put me back to being armed, state of the art, again.
With that one captured gun, I can capture several more. With every newly captured gun, each one of THOSE can capture several more. It goes up exponentially. Soon, you can have a big enough armed force to start heisting supply line convoys for even more. Don't even try to tell me it can't be done - Special Forces has been doing it for decades, as have guerrillas and insurgents the world 'round. I knew a guy in Bosnia who started out as 3 guys with bad intent and NO firearms, and within two weeks, they had a force strong enough to start knocking over weapons depots.
So fuck 'em.
.