EMERGENCY RELOADING

by James M Dakin

copyright 2001

In any survivalist situation we can contemplate, there will be a disruption
in the supply chain. Natural disaster, civil war, nuclear war, dictatorship
or economic collapse will all bring the supply of goods to market to a
halt. It is all well and good to stockpile a supply of ammunition and food
and supplies, but plans must be made for when those supplies run out. Those
works of fiction that devastate 99% of the population leaving all the
supplies to the survivors make for a lazy way to write but hardly mirror
reality.

The worst recorded disaster in history is probably the Black Plage of the
Middle Ages, and that only wiped out one quarter to one half of the
population. Imagine if our country lost one half its population. There
would still be 130 million people fighting for the remainder of supplies.
Even in a nuclear war with 90% of the population gone we would still have
tens of millions of people to contend with. There is no such scenario where
you are left with a pick of supplies. The worst offender after Steven Kings
book "The Stand" would be the "Survivalist" pulp series where our hero
literally finds his guns and ammo just lying around ready to be picked up.
For "realism" he has a nasty sort pop up from time to time to fight for the
booty, but he is quickly foiled in his amature try.

If you would like a lesson in combat for scarce goods, just try buying
something that has been drastically reduced in price. Items that are
competitive in price day to day, not those that are priced high to begin
with so they can have their prices slashed and the store still makes 25%
profit. I'm talking about things like a $100 computer scanner that is
suddenly marked down to $39 ( below cost it is assumed ). The sales ads
come out in the paper at 8 am and when the store opens the first three
people in line buy the whole supply. These things are sold almost before
they are advertised. Now think of a pawn shop or a sporting goods store
about five minutes after disaster strikes.

When a disaster threatens there is widespread buying. I can think of very
few instances where there is no warning of things to come. Even a nuclear
war is sure to have mounting tensions prior to hostilities. Even if bombs
suddenly start falling without warning, any area not directly under an
explosion will have many people running about stealing supplies as quick as
possible before the fallout arrives. Afterwards there should be about zero
pickings for the survivors. Our market system is highly efficient, even
with the heavy burden of government trying to strangle it. There is a
constant resupply of goods to replace purchases, but few stockpiles. Most
business owners regard a large inventory as a sign of failure to plan and
to graph past purchasing patterns. Your size in pants might be delivered
every week, but the store actually only has two pairs in stock at any time.

Please do not for a second assume that there will be supplies that you can
find and use. You will need to rely on three sources of supply. One is your
own stockpiles. Two is buying or stealing anothers supplies. Three is
building your own from raw or semi-processed materials. Stockpiling your
supplies is straightforward and quite simple. This is what most survivalist
books teach. Stock up on such and such and you will live happily ever
after. To a certain extent they are correct. Our modern capitalist society
( again, even after massive government interference ) is so efficient that
we produce an ungodly amount of goods and even the low wage earners have
enough left over from living expenses to have plenty of hobbies and leisure
activities. With all this extra capital it is easy to stockpile goods for
future calamities. It is a shame that so many people squander their excess
on eating out, going to entertainment and going on vacations rather than
putting aside a small amount of cash to prepare for a rainy day. However,
as you are reading this you clearly see a need to do so and thus you
already see how easy it is to prepare. For the price of three ounces of
gold, about $1,000 in turn of the century greenbacks, you can store enough
wheat to feed ten people for a year plus arm five of them with WWII Mausers
and ammunition. Or, for one ounce you can have enough food for yourself for
four years, a rifle and ammunition.

Assuming that you only make minimum wage you should bring home at least
$600 a month full time. If you live in a small trailer in a park, after
utilities you still only spend about $250 for rent, food is $100 eating
meat every night, and even if you smoke you can roll your own for $10 a
week at one pack a day. Transportation is a second hand bicycle. That means
your monthly living expenses are only $400, leaving $200 a month for
preparations. After only six months you could have enough basics stored up
to feed and arm five people. Or, just yourself at five years food with
several back up weapons and a whole bunch of ammo along with some back up
lighting and cold weather gear. Even the most economially challenged worker
bee can prepare him/herself for any coming emergency.

Next up we have trade and or theft as methods of goods procurement.
Speaking as one who has been screwed over continually financially speaking,
I find it necessary to preach on the advisability of not taking what is not
yours. Don't get me wrong, my parents did a fine job of raising me to be
hard working and honest. However, being on the receiving end does sharpen
ones displeasure at being robbed. Don't steal from others what doesn't
belong to you. I'm not talking about a pen from work here, I'm talking
about stealing from others the means by which they live. If you owe someone
$100 that is the same as asking them to starve for a month with no
groceries. If you take 25% of someones income it is the same as denying
them one quarter of their time. If you work forty hours a week, a twenty
five percent tax is the same as taking away ten hours of their life. Over
the course of working forty years that amounts to robbing them of a full
two and a half years of life. You could be shot almost three years before
you died a natural death and the effect would be the same. Or, to put it
another way, at 25% taxes, you could take one of your days off each week
and be a slave for someone else for almost half that day. This is what
institutionalized theft ( government ) accomplishes.

Having said that, however, there are instances where it is okay to steal.
Yes, there are plenty of grey areas in life. If the owner of a store is
killed by another, you could shoot the murderer and take what he had on
him, plus the owners goods. As long as you didn't stand by and let it
happen and as long as this was an end of society type scenario. The owner is
dead, what does he care? Or if you shot another in self defense you could
take what was his. If you happened on to an abandoned home, why not take
what was available? There is no one to harm by your actions. Now, say that
you killed a bandit. His wife and child were innocent but were with him
when he tried to kill you. Should you take all that was his and starve the
wife and child? I would say you inherited them as dependants along with the
bandits goods, but failing that it would be doing the right thing to allow
them to leave with all their processions. It would be a cruel thing to send
a starving child out to die. But, then, there will be plenty of those
around and you can't take them all in. Plus, you actually deprived them of
their "bread-winner" by killing the bandit, so they might starve after
their meager supplies run out anyway. Just try to do the right thing as
long as it doesn't harm others who depend on you. It is a dilemma that has
no easy answers.

What other situations legitimize theft? Perhaps you and a small group were
starting to rebuild, replant, etc. If a criminal was caught or a prisoner
of war was captured, would you not be in your right to make use of their
free labor? Of course you would. As long as the war was defensive and the
crime was not victimless. If you started a war for free slaves, that would
be wrong. If you outlawed certain crimes that hurt no one, such as drug use
and prostitution, then using involuntary servitude would be wrong as a
punishment.

Last up we have building your own supplies from raw or semi-processed
materials. Farming for new food is an obvious answer, as is using broken
down cars for material for blacksmithing. Other ways would be to process
raw materials to manufacture chemicals, primitive mining, turning crop
waste to chicken/fish feed or fuel alcohol. Anything you can think to
stockpile you should try to think of a way to also manufacture. Some will
be easy such as grain crops and domestic animals to replace food stores.
Leather to replace clothing as well as shoes. Candles or wood alcohol lamps
to replace light bulbs. Primitive Bell jar batteries to replace your deep
cycle batteries. Solar heating of water when your propane runs out. Some
items will be next to impossible to make on your own, such as plastics,
computer parts, or reloading components for your ammunition.

And that is what this article is all about. How does one keep reloading
when the supplies have run out? When all your primers and powder and
jacketed bullets are gone, what are you going to do? You can always go back
to black powder arms with flints, which would be the same as traveling back
to the 1830's and trying to conduct a military campaign with what was at
hand. Remember, the introduction of the percussion cap revolutionized war
in as far as combat could now be conducted year round in any weather.
Before, flints were rendered less effective by foul weather. And of course
the advantages of smokeless powder over black powder are obvious. By
eliminating smoke you hide the shooter, and by improving the chemistry of
the powder you increase the effective range of the weapons while at the
same time making it easier to use. This makes for even greater numbers of
marginally trained troops to be able to fight. Then the obvious advantage
of cartridges over loose components. The introduction of the industrial age
made for great advances in rifles and firearms, and it would be a shame to
regress to a condition equal to those arms before that event.

Remember that the modern bolt action rifle and machine gun were both
introduced one hundred years ago. As long as you have access to persons
with a certain knowledge of machine shops, chemistry and engineering you
should be able to produce on a more primitive and more labor intense but
still modern level a post collapse arms industry. Here we concentrate on
the individual and his need to reload after his supplies run out, but keep
in mind that it is critical that you develop that arms industry as soon as
possible. Without it you will be back to fighting with flintlocks and black
powder.

THE FOLLOWING DESCRIPTIONS ARE MEANT TO BE USED IN EMERGENCY, LIFE AND
DEATH SITUATIONS ONLY. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RELOAD WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN
FACTORY COMPONENTS TO HELP ELIMINATE ACCIDENTS. THESE METHODS ARE TO BE
USED IN A SITUATION WERE THERE ARE NO MORE RELOADING SUPPLIES AVAILABLE. IF
YOUR ONLY OPTION IS TO BE WITHOUT AMMUNITION TO DEFEND YOURSELF, ONLY THEN
SHOULD YOU FOLLOW THIS ADVICE. THE FOLLOWING COULD BE VERY DANGEROUS.

I give this warning not only to avoid the unwelcome company of lawyers, but
also because this is sound advice I myself plan on following. I have not
tried out these procedures, nor do I plan to unless the only alternative is
to die from lack of self protection. Reloading can be dangerous as it is
with professionally manufactured modern components. You try using
jerry-rigged supplies and you could kill yourself, or worse maim yourself
and then I might have to look at your ugly crippled face. Please take this
warning seriously.

CASES

Don't think you are going to be able to manufacture your own cases. These
puppies are exact in dimension and any deviation could result in a case
that sticks in the chamber or propels a bullet on an erratic course, or
blows up. You are going to have to reuse your cases time and again. This is
not to say that it is impossible to manufacture cases, just not on an
individual bases with minimal skills. One item to think seriously on is
what type of rifle you wish to get and how it relates to reloading. A
semi-auto that spits out a case at high velocity will loose that case and
also ding it up. Also, perhaps that guns rounds are only cheap when steel
cases are used, as seems to be the case with the SKS/AK round, the 7.62X39.
Try reloading that, even without a Berdan primer. Because I feel that my
survival plans should center on a civilization collapse and not just a
dictatorship threat, I tend to think more along the lines of ammo scarcity
instead of what is the best combat gun. That is why I only use war surplus
bolt actions.

Bolt actions are a great way of saving ammo, while the best way to waste
rounds is to have a semi-auto. I don't care if you have a ten round
clip or a thirty, you will still pray and spray. With a bolt action you
will use about 10% of the ammo or less and the action of recycling a round
will not throw the case into the bush ten yards away. With a bolt, you can
collect the brass at your feet. And, no, you don't want to use a brass
catcher. It is difficult to skulk about in the woods with all that noise.
Your only choice should be war surplus, as they will handle heat build up
much better and be much sturdier than commercial hunting models. The
exception of course is if you are already proficient in another long arm.
Then, stick with that one no matter what. Skill is twenty times as useful
as equipment.

Also, if you choose to go with a portable Lee loader ( paperback book size,
all equipment included, $20 reloader ) they will only neck size a case, and
so are perfect with bolt actions. The reason most shy away from these is
that because of the neck sizing only feature, you can't use them in
autoloaders and pumps. It is claimed that this is a more accurate round
when reloaded with this tool.

If you invest in a stationary loading press, and have a variety of dies for
it, you could use this as a means of post collapse commerce, as not many
shooters reload. Also with this you will be able to de-prime live primers
to use, but more on that in its own section. If you do go with the other
more conventional press, then you will have plenty of practice with case
sizing and trimming and other such details you will need to learn unless
you go with a bolt action and a Lee Loader. This is my choice, since it
limits my learning curve and my cash outlay, but it also limits what I can
do about reloading in the future. One day I will go the full route and then
feel comfortable writing in detail about it.

With cases, it is quite simple. Until you get some bright boy that gets
your post-collapse arms industry off the ground, you will need to save all
your brass and coon and cuddle them so as you may use and reuse them over
and over again. With a Mauser action your brass will not be much abused and
I see no reason why they couldn't be used over and over again as long as
there were no slits in the metal. With an Enfield action, your brass will
take much more of a beating, and I believe that by carefully husbanding
them you might get one half to a dozen uses from them. The difference
between the two is that Enfields can take a lot of dirt and grit in their
actions and still function wonderfully, where Mausers are temperamental
about dirt. The exact same characteristics of the AK47 and M16. My choice
is lower case life verses combat situations were my weapon jams. Most
others choose to have their brass last a lot longer. Truthfully, neither
choice is the right or wrong one.

There might be several rounds that the case can be resized to turn it into
another caliber. This is a subject matter I've not followed in years and
can't recall a whole lot, but I'm sure it was mostly for wildcats, and not
applicable to standard military arms. The best way to ensure a case supply
is to make sure you save all you use, treat them well, and not wasting ammo
with careless shooting practices such as warning shots, shooting at noises
instead of people or spay and pray. Treat each round as if it were your
last and your case supply should last a long time.

One more word on round conservation. If you are truly worried about a
future were ammunition could run out and leave you unarmed, were
civilization totally ceases to exist, were what you stockpile is going to
be pretty much all you have until you die, consider the following. H&R
Handi rifle is a $200 rifle ( or less if you get a dealer instead of a
retailer ) that is a break-open single shot in .223 caliber. Put a good
scope on this thing and for about $500 you have a 1/4 or with lesser ammo ½
inch 100 yard groups. You will undoubtable NOT waste ammunition with this
rifle, it serves nicely as a medium range sniper rifle, it is not overly
expensive and best of all it uses the M16 ammo. I had their $90 shotgun and
would not hesitate to buy this rifle. In fact, I have considered this a
time or two, but as is my way I will procrastinate on it long and hard.

BULLETS

Bullets will more than likely prove to be your least problematic component.
With a bullet mold you can use salvaged metal, pulled bullets from other
rounds, even improvised material. If you can build a camp fire, you can
cast bullets. Source for lead can be ingots, wheel weights, or salvaged
shooting range lead. If you have no excess stock on hand, you can pull the
bullets off other rounds ( they have a tool for this ). The best would be
.22 since they are lead without a jacket. Even so, if you must, use
whatever bullet you can scavenge. If nothing else you can use the lead
inside the jacket. Just beware of the following: Shiny wheel weights
contain zinc, avoid these. When melting lead, provide ventilation. Inhale
lead fumes and it can screw you up. Do not attempt to salvage lead from
batteries. They are too toxic and not the lead you need. A single Lee mold
is $20 but try to get a double mold, to cut the work in half. Other than
that, I can't think of any problems with casting bullets. Easy as pie.

PRIMERS

Primers are the most technologically advanced component in reloading.
Smokeless powder was introduced before the turn of the century but it took
thirty more years before a primer was introduced that was not damaging to a
gun's metal. It was not until around the middle of the twentieth century
that we got todays benign primer. These things were tricky to perfect, but
remember that a primitive primer was introduced in the 1840s using mercury
fulminate. I'm sure any high school chemistry student will be able to
produce a primer with this material. The downside is that your brass will
become brittle with this method. Potassium chlorate is better and the only
side effect is corrosion of the gun if not cleaned soon after cleaning.
This is dealt with by black powder shooters and those using old military
surplus ammo using corrosive primers. Use soap and water or ammonia, as
outlined in the article Surplus Arms and Ammo. The gist of it is to swab
with a wet but not dripping patch with store bought ammonia at half
strength ( clean as normal right after ). This negates the corrosive
effects.

You can reload a primer by peeling back the sides of the cup and putting
primer material back in. Please forget about using the white part of strike
anywhere matches, as was previously recommended. They are getting near
impossible to find because of government restrictions on shipping, and some
feel that they are even reduced in strength. Of course, this might be the
ravings of conspiracy nuts, but it might be true given the fears of
litigation today. You can use the material from toy gun caps at about 1/4
the cost of store bought primers, but I would only use as a last resort. Of
course you will want to stock up on primers at only $25 per thousand. I
imagine even those seriously screwed financially can get a few boxes.
None-the-less, this is about making do without.

You can pry apart other size primers and take out the primer material using
a little rubbing alcohol, then while wet place in the proper size primer,
and allow to dry. With the toy gun caps use the same method, but be sure to
test before using a whole packet. Some brands are very weak. Keep in mind
with salvaged primers that you have several sizes, none interchangeable.
Small pistol, large pistol, small rifle, large rifle, shotgun. Usually if
you are reloading military rifle ammo you will only run across large rifle
and thus are saved the trouble of dissecting and operating on primers to
get the material. To get a live primer from another round, do the
following:

After pulling the bullet and draining the powder ( we will discuss if
powder is useable later ) you can take the case and extract the primer with
a tool made for this chore. A Universal Depriming Die. This assumes you
have a press and not a Lee Loader. Just for this feature alone however, it
should be worth your while to get at least a beginner loader, around the
$30-$50 range. Of course wear leather gloves and eye protection, as well as
get as much distance as possible but really it is quite simple to extract a
live primer. Use slow steady pressure. The chance of detonation occurs when
you strike the primer suddenly with force. If you slam the punch down hard
then it's possible to explode the primer, but with easy steady pressure
this will happen rarely. So, if you have a 303 you can take "captured" 223
rounds, extract the primers and have bullet material and a primer (
although a 223 uses a small rifle primer so you would need to change over
the compound to the other primer cup ), with perhaps even the powder. The
only thing you will need to provide is your own brass.

Keep in mind that although I mention the 223 I would not recommend that you
equip yourself with an AR15 just so you can steal soldiers ammunition. The
M16 weapons system is in my opinion a piece of crap. Although it shoots
quite accurate, it is light to carry, has almost no recoil and has a
million after market accessaries, plus can have supplies refurnished from
military and police stocks, the fact of the matter is that in combat
conditions a gun that can easily be rendered inoperable by normal dirt and
excessive use is not what you want to risk your life on. An AK47 may have a
problem of inaccuracy, but you can literally pour dirt into the innards and
it will still work. More importantly for our discussion here is that theft
is only one of your options, not the sole one. Theft, improvised material,
and stockpiling all play a role, as does conservation of ammunition so you
need fewer reloading supplies in the first place. Assuming you can steal
all your needed ammo is dangerous.

So, for primers you haven several options. Your own stockpile. Purchasing
or stealing more. Depriming from other rounds. Rearming with toy gun cap
chemicals. Rearming with older less technically advanced chemicals. Taken
together these should see you through an ammo drought until you can
establish your own arms industry, as long as you conserve your ammo. I
imagine that it would not be an insurmountable problem to have a modest
cottage industry turn out steel cased ammo using primitive primers (
mercury fulminate ) and smokeless powder. If worse came to worse, use black
powder. This posses a significant tactical drawback, but is better than
resorting to swords and arrows. Again, if you have a competent chemist,
making a smokeless powder is possible, if dangerous. The first of its type
was guncotton, or nitrocellulose. I mention the primitive forms of primers
and smokeless powder not to imply they are your best option, but to point
out that if someone without an advanced education could manufacture these
in the early to mid 1800s, I'm sure you can find someone with enough
education in the field to duplicate the results.

POWDER

THE FOLLOWING DESCRIPTIONS ARE MEANT TO BE USED IN EMERGENCY, LIFE AND
DEATH SITUATIONS ONLY. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RELOAD WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN
FACTORY COMPONENTS TO HELP ELIMINATE ACCIDENTS. THESE METHODS ARE TO BE
USED IN A SITUATION WERE THERE ARE NO MORE RELOADING SUPPLIES AVAILABLE. IF
YOUR ONLY OPTION IS TO BE WITHOUT AMMUNITION TO DEFEND YOURSELF, ONLY THEN
SHOULD YOU FOLLOW THIS ADVICE. THE FOLLOWING COULD BE VERY DANGEROUS.

Again, this warning. This is serious stuff, people. The section on powder
is were you are going to run into the most problems. Explode a primer
reloading and at most get a minor injury. Screw up on powder and your gun
explodes and takes you with it. Powder jerry rigging is dangerous, pure and
simple. Use common sense and take every precaution. This is only to be used
in an emergency.

To get a round of one caliber and use its powder in another is generally
safe if you follow the three guidelines:

1) if cases are generally the same size

2) if the "new" bullet you are firing is the same weight or LIGHTER

3) if you go from a smaller bore to a larger bore

So, you could use the powder interchangeably in 30-40
Krag/303/7.62x54R/308/8mm/7.65x54/ 30-06/ 223. A 223 bore is smaller than a
303, which is good, but a 22 has a much smaller bullet so you could not use
the powder from a 22 in a 303.

Another guideline is fast/slow powder burn. A 50 BMG has slow powder and
could be used in just about anything simply because you couldn't stuff
enough powder into another case to be dangerous. However, powder from a 223
is fast burning and if you filled that 50 cal case with it it would blow up
on you. Based on this, I would avoid using pistol ammo powder in rifles
since the case size is different, and avoid shotgun powder since you are
going to a smaller bore. Avoid putting 9mm in a 45 since the bullet weight
is greater in the 45. Just remember the three guidelines and you should be
okay. But remember, the general consensus is that substituting powders is a
stupid thing to do. You will only want to do this if it is your only
option.

Another idea is to use black powder although I would be uncertain which is
the better idea. Using a substitute smokeless power might blow you up,
using black powder will get you spotted and killed by the enemy. If you do
use black powder which should be simpler to make than guncotton, keep in
mind that it will corrode your firearm if you don't clean it a few hours
after use. You can use black powder in a smokeless powder gun, but not vise
versa.

Use another rounds powder, make your own primitive powder, or use black
powder. These are your options to reload after civilization crumples. As is
the rest of life, all choices involve sacrifice to some degree. I would say
it's not fair, but fair is where you go to sell your pig.

END






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