1 Year Post SHTF Event, Now What With Reloading With No Supplies

[East_TN_Patriot]

Although it's a very interesting and pertinent question, I would suggest that if your supply of ammo, powder, bullets, and primers would only last you a year, you are either 1) not being especially conservative with your supply and/or 2) you don't have enough on hand.  I would think that bartering ammo and reloading components would be some of the last stuff I'd get rid of.  

[runco]

Although it's a very interesting and pertinent question, I would suggest that if your supply of ammo, powder, bullets, and primers would only last you a year, you are either 1) not being especially conservative with your supply and/or 2) you don't have enough on hand.  I would think that bartering ammo and reloading components would be some of the last stuff I'd get rid of.  

I used +1 year for a reference point, maybe its +10 years, or +20 years, I don't know, maybe I had to barter 30K rounds of 22LR (yes I said 30K rounds) to have a doctor to save the life of one of my children in a post era of SHTF event, I just wanted to know what are the alternatives for reloading supplies if I ever ran out.  Truth be known, the likelyhood of me or my family (I should say heirs) running out of supplies, assuming we survived any distance of time from the SHTF event, is very slim.  Like the OP stated, I had a dream, and that is the way it went.  I believe ammo and reloading components may be of high value and may be to some the only real bartering there is outside of food, medicine, and other neccessaties of life in a new era of mankind.  I doubt gold would be valuable early on.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I think that in the pioneer days, and most likely many places the same period of history in Europe, they would collect saltpeter from the bottom of (animal) manure piles. Rain over the months supposed leaches the saltpeter down to the bottom of the heap. Charcoal would be easy. Maybe there is a "smart" way to get sulpher out of some common plant or mineral, dunno.

[RED333]

Come on guys, if you run out of ammo, dont waste time making powder, or primers.

At that time it will be everyman for Him self, find the ammo

you need and take it from who has it, because some else is gona take yours if they can.

[dlm37015]

i have 60,000 rounds of 556 at least that much 22lr  i always keep 100,000 of each primer might never need it but  i dont want to run out

[Murgatroy]

As kids we made prodigious amounts of home made gunpowder from charcoal, sulphur, and saltpeter. I'm thinking it might be a wise move to own a black powder rifle.

A flintlock would be just about perfect.

[Murgatroy]

Thanks, do you have any diagrams or resources to illustate this, I am not sure I am following or know your nomlenclature. Yea, I failed to mention powder, but I assume I would have to find the classic materials saltpeter (potassium nitrate), sulpher and make my own charcoal.   I understand East Tenn. use to be mined for the saltpeter, so I know its around here some where.

 

 

We used to make black powder too. Pretty crude stuff though, and we were buying the ingrediants. Gathering them in the wild would add a whole new level of trouble. I believe the saltpeter mined in the south came from bat guonno in caves. Don't know where they got sulphur.

The Lost Sea was a favorite place for salt peter, and yes, from bat guano.

 

The Tellico Iron and Manufacturing Company used the salt peter from the Lost Sea (which wasn't called that back then) to produce gun powder for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Edited February 3, 2013 by Murgatroy

[Wingshooter]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x0jxpLH8FtY

[Guest sL1k]

i have 60,000 rounds of 556 at least that much 22lr i always keep 100,000 of each primer might never need it but i dont want to run out

I've got my adoption papers drawn up for you to sign

[1gewehr]

Answers:

1)  Stock more ammo.  Save ALL materials!

2)  If you don't know basic chemistry yourself, make VERY good friends with someone who does.  You will have to scavenge for materials, but nitro-cellulose gunpowder is really not very difficult to make.  What IS difficult is to make it safely if you don't know what you're doing.

3)  Fulminated mercury is not hard to make either.  Safety is again the harder part.  Much more important for this than for the powder!

4)  Make friends with a machinist and a GOOD blacksmith.  If you can make new firearms and repair old ones, you will be set for life!

5)  Forget the 'lone survivalist' crap.  One person or family sitting on a pile of supplies is called a 'target'.  When folks are desperate, they do desperate things.  Communities which come closer together with useful skills will find ways to become self-sufficient and defend themselves.

6)  Learn from this current ammo shortage.  Our supply chain only has a couple of days or weeks of inventory.  In a run on supplies, it will disappear faster than snow in July.  This applies to ALL critical items.  One of the smartest things that the Mormons do is require a new family to have a year's food on hand.  I would suggest that EVERY family do this.  With a bit of thought, it is not out of the budget for anyone who actually has a job.

7)  If you do not know the chemistry to make basic materials (acids, refined metals, etc), LEARN!  All of the knowledge necessary is on the 'net.  Read, experiment, and learn to become indispensable to any community.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Answers:

1)  Stock more ammo.  Save ALL materials!

2)  If you don't know basic chemistry yourself, make VERY good friends with someone who does.  You will have to scavenge for materials, but nitro-cellulose gunpowder is really not very difficult to make.  What IS difficult is to make it safely if you don't know what you're doing.

3)  Fulminated mercury is not hard to make either.  Safety is again the harder part.  Much more important for this than for the powder!

4)  Make friends with a machinist and a GOOD blacksmith.  If you can make new firearms and repair old ones, you will be set for life!

5)  Forget the 'lone survivalist' crap.  One person or family sitting on a pile of supplies is called a 'target'.  When folks are desperate, they do desperate things.  Communities which come closer together with useful skills will find ways to become self-sufficient and defend themselves.

6)  Learn from this current ammo shortage.  Our supply chain only has a couple of days or weeks of inventory.  In a run on supplies, it will disappear faster than snow in July.  This applies to ALL critical items.  One of the smartest things that the Mormons do is require a new family to have a year's food on hand.  I would suggest that EVERY family do this.  With a bit of thought, it is not out of the budget for anyone who actually has a job.

7)  If you do not know the chemistry to make basic materials (acids, refined metals, etc), LEARN!  All of the knowledge necessary is on the 'net.  Read, experiment, and learn to become indispensable to any community.

 

Excellent ideas. One hurdle well into a societal crash-and-burn might be strong pure acids. The usual method of manufacture are heavy industrial processes rather than backyard operations. They've made em big batch in large factories so long, might be true "scientific archaeology" to find out how nerds did it in the 1700's.

[Worriedman]

have enough i do

 

This is the correct answer.