Jonnin

Ive been at it about a year now and still havent needed a bullet puller. Im sure they are handy, but from my experience its low priority unless you totally mess up a mass production effort. I botch a round here and there, toss it in the misfire bucket. Shell trays: I just grab the plastic holders from commercial ammo for free. Not that the official ones are pricy, but free and easily available is a winner. Let me recommend a turret press: those can function as a single stage press, so its a win-win. I can make a box of 50 handgun rounds in about 10-15 min with it, for 9mm or 45 or other simple (tube case, no neck etc) ammo types. To go that fast you want to have an automatic powder device and prime in the press. Speed is not the ultimate goal however, as you learn it focus on getting it right each time first, speed comes with practice and over time. At first a box took me an hour. Choose what you buy carefully. Slick salesmen can sell you a lot of stuff you won't need, the basic setup can be quite small. You may want a case trimmer for that 556 round. The handheld one that works with a drill is what I use, and its is more than fine.

+1Its not always affordable either, but their brass is reloadable at least. They have a nice niche market to feed obsolete guns, and the ammo is at the very least better than the original stuff that was shot in many of those guns.

I do think that any business with a facebook page wants you to friend it, this is free market research for them. Companies are pushing more and more to get their hooks into your info so they can get this data free, as getting it the old way is costly.

44 is one of the biggest savers, $7-9 for a box of 50 depending on what you are making. I havent messed with 357 but it is going to be about the same as 9mm for components, just double or so the powder cost, and much cheaper than factory ammo.

Then what are the six shooter that only shoot 5? This isnt a new idea, its just an uglier approach to the 10 shot 22 than most.

yea evaporate it, condense it, and then add the bleach is what I would do if I could. If not, bleach will kill most anything. Boiling it, if nothing else, will kill almost all the baddies, if you have no bleach either.

They buy you a new safe. Use the old one to store ammo or something if you can get it to open.

Every semi auto is different, and ammo matters too. Hot ammo will be thrown out more in any gun, while lighter loads will often just fall at your feet. Some of my guns throw them at a sharp angle, amost back onto me, others throw it nearly 90 degrees to the gun, which will smack your neighbor if there is nothing between you. All I can say is the first few shots, watch your cases to see where they go, you can then take a step forward or back maybe to reduce the problem, or whatever. You can also invest in a brass catcher (or try to make one with a big fishing net), for $50 or so you can find a decent one.

In that case, just have 6 months of pay saved up, and save the space in your fridge. Ive always tried to keep 3 months pay saved but ATM I do not, thanks to a variety of problems this past year =(

I can vouch for some of this. No one ever checks my wife who is armed 24/7 same as me. The cops/security folks just do not expect women to be armed, and in her favor, she does not look like a thug so is even less likely to be checked. Recently they did check her purse at an event (there was no posting on the buildiing to say no guns allowed -- I think they were looking for dope/cameras/whatever) and STILL MISSED the gun in it (security, not cops). A bit later, same place, we both had a gun in our pockets and nothing... though those security guys were still up there checking purses. Good thing we are honest and not thugs..! I carried for years without a holster and still do sometimes. Its plenty effective, the mindset of many is that this is somehow "wrong" or "dangerous" but I can assure you that it works just as well if you practice it and figure out how to manage it. 23 sessions a year? Thats 2 a month and they imply this is a lot of practice. I average 2 a week, you would *think* cops and others in the line of fire could keep up with 30 min twice a week, but they don't. Esp if the ammo is on the taxpayer's dime. I recently talked to an officer about this at the range and he said the department had to go out of its way to help officers qualify, that many could just barely pass the qualifications and that only after one on one sessions for a few weeks. The rest of it is outside what I deal with, I have avoided the rougher areas since I got out of college. Down at ga-tech, before the olympics razed some of the bad areas, we had a wall to record the gunshots we heard from our dorm and had bullet proof windows.

This is huge, but I consider the 10 or so "may issue" states to be a serious problem as many of those are actually "right denied" states for all but the very wealthy or members of certain occupations such as security guards, etc. I also consider the "low cap only" states/towns to have serious issues as well. One at a time, though, and this is a win for today, good news!

Lefty for handguns. For a while I tried to go RH because nearly all the guns are set up that way, but it just never worked out. I shoot rifle with the right, its my dominate eye.

But an interesting concept. The will to fight... how do you measure that, and what does it take to remove it -- the implication is that a 9mm or whatever can remove it but a 380 cannot?! I think that discussion will lead to that funny picture that for some reason does not have .22 shorts or .25s or 44 mags yet "proves" that all calibers are the same =) Probably best saved for another thread, as *that* discussion never ends and never really goes anywhere either.I carry a 380 because it meets all my needs... invisible to carry, is comfortable when sitting down all day, I can work the SAO trigger (there are about zero good, *small* SAO 9s or 10s or 40s) easily, and so forth. It fits my needs well, and if a bit underpowered, its easy enough to empty the whole mag in short order without missing as the recoil doesnt pull you off target even if fired one handed. Show me a 9mm SAO in the LC9 sized frame and I will upgrade, but for now, the 380 is my best option on a lot of days.

Heh I saw that "AR" and was wondering if the crook had like 20 holes in him.

I don't think you CAN over-penetrate with a 380. The issue is that the weak round barely has enough penetration in ball ammo. Do anything else, like JHP, and the greater diameter of the expanded bullet, jagged edges, and so on create more friction, require more material to be pushed aside, etc and the low energy and velocity of the round make these types of ammo less likely to get good penetration. In the hottest of hot loads a JHP is still risky due to loss of penetration, it may or may not do the job, depending on the mass of the individual it is used upon, their clothing (thick coat? t-shirt?) and so forth. Time and time again you will see it recommended to either just use non-expanding ammo or to alternate it with JHP in 380s. I am not knocking the caliber nor trying to start any caliber nonsense (wouldnt make sense, I carry a 380 often). Its just basic physics, the 380 slug has a ton less momentum/energy than a 9mm, and any penetration test will show it --- making the use of ammo that further decreases penetration a questionable decision. If you want to use JHP, google around or do some testing to see what YOU think about this issue. Other users have tested the buffalo bore ammo and concluded that it matches the provided velocity and energy levels. It apparently lives up to the stated claims, and as others said, it certainly feels stout when you shoot it. I love the critical defense ammo design, just not in 380, its fine in 9mm and other calibers that can punch an expanded slug on thru. If they beefed up the 380 powder charge, I would strongly consider it.

cleveland runs one, CHRPC, but it was this past weekend so you got a month's wait now. 3GUN At CHRPC It is not sanctioned/scored outside the local club, but its fun.

Storage space is the answer. 6 months of food for a family of 4 is a fair amount of space.

Looks ok to me. I would bolt a sheet of plywood over the table top before installing your press, if you plan to do any large calibers. I broke my first table pretty fast when I moved from pistols to rifle calibers. Looks are not everything, but from that picture, it may not take the stress over time of the harder to size rounds.

They don't have a gun/ammo in their supply list. Instead they try to guess at how much food you should store... nothing wrong with a few days supply of food, but what then? Otherwise pretty good, just found that omission very odd given the looting that took place after the tornados and the possible need for hunting.

exactly! I do reload 9, because its better quality for lower cost (even if not much lower). But if economics were the only reason, IE if the cheap 9mm were great quality, I would just buy it. The time spent for the money saved in 9mm isnt worth it and I would be better off, if money were the only issue, to reload the other stuff and buy the 9.

Oh, and not all federal is small primer. Some is, some is not. Blazer is often small primer, and I have not seen any of it that was large (but it may exist?). The federal large primer cases that are brass (not nickel or silver plated whatever) reload very well for me, I like them. I just throw away (well, into the recycle brass bucket) the small primer brass but I only get 1/100 or so of them.

5.50 + $3 is 8.50. The ad at the top of this page (off and on as they are random, but you will see it today if you look) says a box of 50 for $8.95 or something.... and I have seen bulk steel cased junk 9mm for as low as $8 a box (7.99, whatever) as of this year. Now, if you get everything for free like caster does, sure its a huge savings, you can't argue with THAT. Well done! If you buy the slugs, its hard to save more than $1-3 a box, as I said. Compare to buying the materials for a 45 or 380, which are harder to find range-brass for free (45 is tolerable, but a lot of the cases are sorry quality). Doing the exact same thing, the savings are much, much greater for other calibers than 9. If you make the slugs and pick up the cases, all ammo for any caliber is basically free, of course, though some rifle loads eat up more than a few cents of powder.

A blind 10 year old kid can pass the shooting portion and as stated an average vegtable can pass the written part. Which should tell you something: the class is not too helpful. After taking it, if you paid attention, you can now carry a gun legally and have a pretty good chance of not shooting yourself with it while being able to hit an unmoving, man sized target at point blank range with aimed shots, taking your time to shoot. You also have sense of where you can and cannot go with your gun. You will want to take some "continuing education" classes to train a bit more as you have time and money to do so, and you want to practice a LOT on your own as well, if you are serious about defending yourself.

The mag drop is still on the wrong side, but its a start.

I carry a beretta px4 subcompact, mine is .40 but it comes in 9mm. It will fit in a large pocket, but its not quite a pocket gun and larger than the kel-tec and similar DAO guns (its DA). Never had any trouble out of it, accurate and feels good to me, heavy with lighter recoil than the plastic stuff.