The "A" in the "A Module"

As much as I love my firearms, the fact is; without cartridges, they are some high-priced paperweights! So, when it comes to getting prepared for scarcity, possibly sky-rocketing costs, one of the first things I prepared for was the ammunition. 

And it all started with being smart with the calibers I have guns cambered in, so I'm not trying to stock too many different types of ammunition. For handguns, it was a relatively easy choice. When you look at the factors of stopping power, common availability, cost, and a wide selection of firearms; it was pretty simply the 9 x 19, or Luger/Parabellum. That choice has allowed me to find both a "service" type weapon and a "concealed carry" option, along with a "pistol caliber carbine" that fit me. Why not the 40 S&W, which is more powerful? In my opinion, it's only marginally so, and more expensive to buy and shoot. It's also a caliber on the wane so would be more difficult to find in a pinch. Remember, the "9" is the primary caliber of both the armed services (in most of the world even) and civilian law enforcement agencies as well. 

My other main "stocking" caliber is of course ".223/5.56". It is again, an easy choice to make, being a standard of military and law enforcement. Depending on ammunition, it can be used on virtually anything ranging from small game to deer sized ammo. Now, before anybody gets all "up-in-arms"; I'm aware that it's not a legal deer hunting caliber in most states. However, in an extra-legal environment, this caliber can certainly bring down deer-sized game especially if used with heavier bullets like 77gr. I typically keep about 1500 rounds of this on-hand with three-quarters of it being the standard 55gr, but also keep 62gr "green-tip" as well and intend to have some of the heavy stuff as well. 

There is one other "standard" caliber that virtually everyone stocks (if they prep) and that's 22LR. It's cheap (right now), small and easy to keep. It's WAY quieter and easier to shoot than center-fire calibers. It can be a good bet to bring home small game and if push-comes-to-shove, it can be used for defense as well! While I try to keep around 1500 rounds in my other stocking calibers, I keep several thousand rounds of this. I keep two types; high-powered such as CCI Mini-Mags, but the majority of it is bulk/white-box stuff that's cheap to buy and store.

Then, there's the "others", stuff that I keep but don't keep a ton of around. Here they are and the reasons for their existence in my world:

Shot-shell. I have 12ga now in 00 Buck for home defense as well as some #4 shot. I also have some #6/7/8 "Birdshot" for food gathering purposes if it comes to that. I'm not a bird hunter, but anyone trying to bring home some food is more likely to hit something with a shotgun than a 22lr. If I pick up a 20ga, I'll pick up some shells for that as well. I don't keep a lot of this stuff. It's bulky (making it difficult to store) and I don't shoot it regularly, so I only have a couple of hundred round of it.

Then, there's the random center-fire. Although I've purposely kept my number of calibers to a minimum, I do have a few that aren't covered by the 9mm and 5.56. That's the 380acp and the 6.5 Grendel which I can shoot in an AR platform firearm and capable of bring down most anything in North America. Also, I keep ammo for the 300 Blackout giving me hog-hunting capabilities, it commonly runs wild throughout most of North Americas, but especially in the South. 

Along with factory-loaded ammunition, I also have the capability to reload/handload all of the above calibers with the exception of shotshells. Hopefully, this will not only be prepared for disasters of both natural, socio-economic and political. 

My Wife Thinks I'm Crazy

OK, maybe not exactly crazy, but she certainly thinks I'm paranoid. I'm not going to get into a prolong discussion about my rationale, but suffice to say that I'm increasingly concerned about a number of trends in our society in general, but I'm of the opinion that not being prepared for emergency situations in general is irresponsible. Even FEMA has very specific recommendations for citizen preparedness for emergencies. What emergencies?

Well, let's start with this...... about a month ago, Dallas suffered an EF3 tornado that was on the ground for 32 minutes. That section of town will have power out for a few days at least. Not that many years ago, our little suburb had an actual tornado strike that was less than a mile from my school. 

You don't have to suffer this kind of catastrophic damage to have problems. What if you're one of the houses down the street where the electricity and maybe even gas is going to be out for several days, if not weeks? What's your answer to that? You could do it the simple (also expensive) way by getting a hotel room......, but for how long, what about looters......., yes; there was definitely problems with that in the effected areas. So, what are the specific items that any citizen has the responsibility (and right) to answer?

So, at the very least, you have a "defend" situation as related to an emergency. Of course, that's not even discuss the famous/infamous "7 minutes" (average time for police to respond in a metropolitan area) that folks are on the hook to defend themselves if there's an issue with an intruder. And these are the least "far fetched" scenarios out there. The more remote possibilities range from frisky North Koreans executing an EMP attack, or a Cyber-attack bringing the grid to it's knees to the Trump vs. China situation getting completely out-of-hand!

At the end of the day, there are any number of reasons to be prepared for an emergency. So, let's take a look at the elements that have to be accounted for in that area. Above are the 3 basic elements, but let's look more deeply within the concept and discuss them. I have them divided up into modules and define them:

• Module A (Armament): Self-explanatory need to be able to defend yourself and your family whether that's for the "7 minute" gap, or more to the point; what if law enforcement isn't coming?
• Module B (Basic Needs): Literally meaning the things that we need to help us survive on a daily basis (with the exception of food which is it's own separate category). This would include clothing, tech to help us live, such as tools.
• Module C (Communications): This if an often overlooked area that's incredibly important. The assumption is that routine communications systems (cell and landlines) will go down in short order, so how do we maintain comms? These are necessary for not only any access to outside information, but also situational/tactical communications.
• Module D (Medical): If the 24hr pharmacy isn't going to refill your meds any time soon and the you can't get through on 911..... then what?
• Module E (Energy): In any even of an emergency event, one of the first things that we'll lose is power delivery. Look at your life: how will you live for the next week or so, if electricity is down for more than a few hours.
• Module F (Food): How are you going to survive when the stores run out of stock? There'll be no Amazon deliveries in a natural disaster. How does your family survive, even if it's only for a few day, or a week? 

These modules aren't in order. I simply used the letters conveniently to represent the major groups of items needed to help anyone to survive after a major catastrophy. The fact is that they are all necessary and work as a system. 

Here's the issue: we're not buddies with Bill Gates, and not going to just contact people to have it done. So, we'll have to get ourselves ready in the old fashion way. Meaning; do what we can, when we can, when we can afford it. Over the course of the next few weeks (hopefully), or months (more probably), I'm going to discuss the necessary "preps" to be able to feel secure if any number of "unforeseen" disaster scenarios occurs. 

 

This isn't the goal. I have what I feel to be a well-grounded faith that nothing serious will occur over the course of the rest of my life, but that being said, I'm going to say that there's not going to be some possibility that one of a number of issues happening. ........ That'd be stupid and irresponsible. 

 

Summer Fun With Guns

After a week of grading Advance Placement essays followed by several weeks of prepping for, then actual painting our house, summer break finally arrived for me! So, this week, along with some little "honey-dos", I finally got around to doing some projects of my own. Much of today was devoted to working on my ARs (yes, I said AR(s), which I'll write a separate post on), I got to spend some time with my favorite gun; the Walther PPQ.

The first order of business is to replace factory sights with some TruGlo "Nightsights"! 

This gives my main 9mm the same sights as my conceal carry piece, the PPS/M1. I really like consistency and having identical sight pictures is a good thing. At some point, I'll probably do the same to the Magnum Research MR9 "back-up" handgun as well.

 

In this image you can see a depiction of the M1 (aka Classic) magazine on the right vs. the M2 or the button (American) style release mag on the left. This is one of the reasons I use the MR9 as my backup gun. It's basically a Walther P99 and therefore uses the same mags. All that is awesome and fits my plan (personal obsession) well. However, it leaves one nagging issue that I wish was different.

Here's an image of the Kel-tec Sub 2000 like the one I picked up a couple of years ago. I really like it and it shoots well. I could wax eloquent about it for some time, but I'm going to go a different direction here. I bought it because it shares the 9mm that most of my guns uses. It's pretty much everything I want except for one thing. It doesn't take the Walther mags. The Sub2K actually comes in a wide variety of versions, ranging from S&W M&P, to Sig P226, to CZ75, to the Beretta 92/96 (which is the one I have) and of course the ubiquitous Glock 17 as well as the shorter gripped 19 version as well. No Walther. This is the price you pay when you choose based on what fits the best versus what's most popular! Currently, Kel-tec even makes a mag catch kit for the Canik TP9, so what gives? The M&P is easily the second most popular 9mm, and both the Beretta 92 and Sig have been around so long that they are considered standards. 

Surely the Walther is more popular than the CZ75 and Canik? There's actually a perfectly logical explanation as to not only why there's not a Walther version, but will likely never be one. 

So, here's the deal. There are actually 3 versions of the Sub 2000/9mm in production; a Glock 17 (the original) version and a Glock 19 version with a shorter grip to accommodate the shorter magazine for the "compact" and most popular Glock. Of course they are going to not only make something to match the most popular striker-fired of the most popular caliber (9mm) on the market! Then they make one other version for all the other 9mm handguns out there since pretty much everyone else's (non-Glock) mags are the same with the only difference being the shape and location of the magazine catch. One catch! All these magazines are roughly the same length; that of the old "full-sized" handgun along the lines of the Sig P226 and Beretta 92/M9. So, the issue for the Walther is that not only is that not the weird (really high) catch slot, but is too short for the grip of the gun since the PPQ is a compact along the lines of the Glock 19! So, what now, give up and just use the Beretta mags?

Heck no! I've got one more trick up my sleeve. If you'll look at the bottom of the grip, you'll see the finger cut-out to allow for a stuck mag to be pulled out. By comparing, it looks to me if I opened that area up more, maybe with a Dremel, I'll be able to get the shorter Walther mag up high enough to feed rounds to the bolt. But what about the PPQ/M1 mags with the "too high" catch slot?

I might have a solution for that as well. It appears that the Beretta have the "lowest" slot of all the ones that Kel-tec makes catch kits for......., and that if I turn it upside-down, it'll be in roughly the right location for the Walther mags! Now, it's going to require me to do some filing and maybe some "Southern Engineering", but what the heck? Ordering a catch kit is only $15! Stay Tuned!

Summer Time In A Shooter's World

So, it's about to be summer time and in the world of a teacher/coach that means time to get things done! Now, what that means in the world of a teacher in Texas is; there's time to do things in the morning before 11, when it gets too hot! After that, it's an inside proposition. For me, nothing much has changed. I absolutely have to do some work on my ARs. Although, I've finally had some time this spring after swim season finished, it's been the rainiest spring around here in many years making outdoor ranges all but unusable. 

I've had my Aero Precision M4 built for some time, but haven't even gotten the scope sighted in! Actually, I've had the carbine and the pistol both finished for some time and the only thing I've gotten done is to shoot them with the CMMG 22LR conversion bolt due to being relegated to an indoor range. 

I actually did make it to a range with my friend Sean, but they prohibit the use of full metal jacketed rounds, so...... yeah. The first order of business this summer is to get out to the range on a dry day and sight in my ARs. Then I can start on a my next build. 

Start another build!?! Yup.... I'd really like to have a .30 caliber gun. And for me, the 300 AAC "Blackout" is the one. In the image above, you can see (left to right), the typical 223/5.56 which the majority of ARs are chambered for, then the 300 Blackout and the .308 Winchester, which is also known as the 7.62 x 51 "NATO". The Blackout is essentially a 30 caliber (.308) bullet in a cut down 223 cartridge case. If you're wondering about the purpose of this little cartridge with the big bullet; here's the concept.

Originally, there was the 30-06 cartridge which was the standard of the U.S. military back when engagements were fought at 600-1000 yards. By the 1950's the army decided that it didn't need to be quite so big, and was able to accomplish essentially the same thing with a shorter casing which gave us the 308 or 7.62 NATO. 

Within the next 10-20 years, it was found that wars were fought differently and the 223 or 5.56 NATO was created to fit in the new M16/AR15. OK, history lesson over. Here's the deal. The 5.56 was designed to kill or mame a human and the 55 to 62 grain bullets it typically fires is simply too light to consistently bring down larger game. In fact, in many states, the 223 isn't a legal hunting caliber for deer-sized or large game. What does that mean? Am I going to start hunting? Well.... maybe......

Here in Texas (and also in most other states), the feral hog is an increasing problem. I have a number of friends with or have access to property, so chances are pretty good that I could be invited out to do a little "hog shootin'". These things are not really "big", but they are built heavy and are difficult to bring down. So, the order of the day is a heavier bullet. Something along the lines of a 150 or 180 grain 30 cal would be much more suitable than the 223. Then, why not the 308? Well; one vitually never get a shot of longer than 150 yards at most. Also, there are two other factors. One is that my eyes aren't much good beyond 100 yards anymore anyway and two, The 300 Blackout is designed to run in the M4/AR15 chassis and therefore, I don't have to get involved in learning and acquiring parts for another, bigger, more expensive platform. Therefore, the use of the much smaller converted 223/5.56 case is not relevant. The limited, sub-300 yard range of the Blackout works out just fine.

In fact, the 300 BLK shares (or can share) everything with it's AR15 5.56 brother except for the barrel. In fact, all I really need to do is to build another upper that has a 300 Blackout barrell attached. No need to even change magazines! However, it's my intention to build mine as a pistol like the one pictured above, but with a 10" barrel vs. the 7.5". Based on what I've been able to find on ballistics of this round says that you don't lose much velocity until the barrel gets into the sub-8" range. Why build a 3rd gun? 

That's rather more complicated. One, I caught a sale on a lower for $30. Two, I have some random parts for it laying around. Three, it'll keep me from having to take guns apart to shoot different calibers, and potentially the most important reason is, four, who knows what's going to happen politically with the "scary black guns"! Since I can do this pretty cheap and quick, it sure doesn't hurt anything to have another AR in the closet. 

I'm not trying to get here, but I like to have choices.
 

Casting New Light On My Reloading

This is about where I am these days with my reloading. A separate bench with 2 presses (more on this), and just about all the tools that I need. So, I'm pretty much a serious reloader/handloader with the ability to create any ammunition that I need, and make it in bulk if necessary. So, this is where the math begins to take over.

With my 9mm mainstay caliber, I can put together rounds at around .10 per, which is roughly half the "all-in" cost of off-the-shelf bulk or "white-box" ammunition. I can also save around the same .10 each on .223/5.56 too as long as I'm good at picking components. 

That's all the stuff, in this picture; powders, primers, and bullets. As it turns out, I can almost always find decent primers between $20 and $25 per 1000, which makes them about .02 ea. Pistol powder starts at about .01 per charge and tops out somewhere around .02 per, obviously not a real issue. Commercially purchased bullets range anywhere from .07 to .10 cents each. This basically adds up to anywhere from 10 cents to 14/15 cents per round for my 9mm loads. For .223/5.56, the powder charge is generally between 7 and 10 cents a round with the bullets starting at 11 up to around 15 cents ea. 

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell that the bulk of the cost of reloading is in the bullets themselves. Sure, you'll cut off around 10 cents per round off of any reloaded ammunition, but in order to change the supplies figure much at all, you'll have to do something about the cost of bullets! How does one do that? There are actually more than one way:

• Buy them is big bulk lots of 5000 or more. This isn't much of an option for me since the is a hobby oriented toward to low end.
• Buy "pulls". These are literally what the name implies; where actual bullets are pulled from completed cartridges that either failed inspection or are contract over-runs etc. I might go this route as I learn more about them.
• Casting my own from lead. And this is obviously where this post is going....

 

I've always been interested in this off-shoot of an off-shoot part of the hobby. There is something about taking scrap and turning it into something useful that appeals to me. And that it's another kind of a "throw-back" skill interest me as well. Unfortunately, the downside is that at this point, it's a little late in the game to get into the process..... however, let me apply some history and analytics to the issue and show what I've learned.

 

Let me start here. At one time, aspiring bullet casters started by going to the friendly local tire shop and asking them for their buckets of scrap lead wheel weights. Then, they go home and get out an old cast iron pot, melt them down, skim off the dross (crud) and pour them out into ingots, which eventually ended up in a casting pot to be molded into bullets. Simple enough and all for about $0! Then this happened.

By executive order, then President Obama pretty much did away with the use of lead in virtually all aspects of the U.S., ......including the rather prosaic wheel weight. 

These days, chasing down lead is something akin to some sort of post-apocalyptic scavenging. Anyway; enough on that rant. How does an aspiring bullet caster set about gathering some precious grey booty?

.....Uhhhh, eBay of course!!! Or even Etsy, but yeah. There are folks out there who have the time to go chase down the many tons of lead that's still out there and are happy to sell it to those of us who don't.

Let's look at the economics of it then. I did some calculations yesterday and here's what I found using a price of $1.50 per pound which I can find pretty easily (both locally and through the Internet)...

• Typical 115gr bullets used for 9mm Lugers like I shoot cost about .02 each to make.
• Typical 55gr bullets used for .223/5.56 "NATO" like my AR shoots are about .01 each.
• That's a savings of anywhere from 5 to 10 cents per round, which is like taking the savings from reloading (which is roughly half of commercial) and halving it again!

Wow! Why wouldn't ya! OK, there's equipment involved such as a pot, molds and a few other incidentals, but still..... My pot was bought second hand for about $40, my one 9mm mold was about $15. I'm going to get a 6-cavity mold for 9mm as well as one for 223 which will run about $50 apiece. I'll need to pick up some powder coating materials and a toaster oven from Goodwill ($10), but that won't cast much at all. I'll get into the casting and powder coating in a future post.

Is all this going to turn me into a crazed shooter, out every weekend doing mag-dumps in the woods? No, not really my style. However, when I do go shooting, the cost will be about as far down as I can make them. Sure, the current cost of ammunition is at an all-time low (inflation adjusted), but how long do you figure that's going to last? Till the next election maybe? For me, I'm going to be ready.

  

The two images above show the current state of my reloading bench. With the Lee Classic Turret press up and running and the Inline Fabrication's Case Ejector system installed, I can now easily crank out around 100 rounds in an hour. That's not anywhere close to the speed of "progressive" presses, but it's "cranking it out" in my world. What it really does though is shift the bottle-neck from speed of production to cost of components. Hopefully, that's something that bullet casting will resolve for me. I'll keep you posted.