Two Letters Re: Ammunition Handloading Basics

James,
This is in reply to a couple of earlier letters, and I would like to point out some corrections.

1) Lee powder dippers are safe to use as directed. If you actually read the directions and especially the discussion about the dippers in the Lee Modern Reloading Manual you will see that Lee specifies only dippers that cannot go over the maximum weight charge if used with appropriate powders. The dipper provided with a set of dies will only be appropriate with certain powders, and those will always be a little or a lot under the max charge weight, even if the weight to volume ratio varies from that given by Lee. He builds in a margin of error to ensure you can;t go over the max amount unless you really try, or really don’t read instructions, in which case you have no business reloading ammunition.

2) There is more tribal rumor about Glock Kabooms and unsupported chambers than there is fact floating around the Internet. First, Glocks are not the only pistol with partially unsupported chambers. The Model 1911 traditionally is only partially supported. Some SIGs are as well. In fact, there are probably fewer models with fully supported chambers than there are partially. So, unsupported chambers by themselves do not cause Kabooms, otherwise most pistols would be blowing up. I suspect a good number of kabooms are from reloaders that would rather try to blame Glock than their own attempt to go over the maximum load, or their own inattentiveness. Several Kabooms I have read about turn out to be done by shooting a squib load and getting a bullet stuck in the barrel and then shooting another bullet right behind that. That is very likely to bulge or burst the barrel but has nothing to do with the chamber. Many other kabooms are reported with conjecture about the cause but no supporting evidence. I challenge any Glock Kaboom expert to provide first person evidence not hearsay from Internet forums.

There are many of us that reload the .40 S&W in our Glocks without a problem for years upon years. It is like any other cartridge in that you must check the condition of your brass upon each reload and look for signs of case head separation. Most of us that reload the .40 for the Glock find that the case necks crack (as all cartridges will eventually) long before the head separates from the case. Of course if you are always loading your ammo to the maximum loadings or beyond then you should not expect very many reloads per case before they start to fail. Common sense should tell us that if you want your cases to last longer, and you want to reduce the chance of catastrophic failure, then don’t load to the maximum or beyond. And check your cases before and after each reload session. Throw out any that are looking suspicious.

If you are really concerned about this then you can buy an aftermarket barrel for any of the Glocks with cut or button rifling and more fully supported chambers. And every reloader should read at least two reloading manuals before starting to reload. I would recommend The Lee Modern Reloading 2nd Edition, one of the Lyman manuals, or Speer #13 as good beginning manuals. Nosler is not a very good intro, especially for handguns, but is excellent for advanced rifle reloading. I have heard the Hornady and Sierra manuals are also good starters. I would actually recommend acquiring at least three manuals: one by the equipment manufacturer (Lee, Speer/RCBS, Hornady) and/or The ABCs of Reloading; a second from the powder manufacturer of your choice (Hodgdon, VV, Winchester, Alliant, Accurate) and a third from the bullet maker of your choice (Oregon Trail Laser-Cast, Lyman for cast bullets, Speer, Sierra, Hornady).

Reloading is serious business and requires much reading and paying attention to detail. But let’s not scare ourselves with rumors and hearsay.
Thanks for a fantastic blog site! – JB, Oregon

 

Mr. Rawles:
LK from West Virginia obviously doesn’t have much experience putting reloads through Glocks, and is relying on Internet hearsay. A quick perusing of such forums as Brian Enos’ and Glocktalk will shed light on the myth and render it what it is, completely untrue. USPSA and IDPA competitors feed their guns a steady stream of reloads, and many of those guys are shooting Glocks in various forms, including the dreaded “.40 caliber kaboom monster!” I have two Glocks that have yet to see a single round of factory ammo, and one of them has eaten over 30,000 reloads without a glitch. The standard caveats apply when it comes to reloading, in that you must be cautious and follow all guidelines, but if your loads are within listed tolerances from a reputable reloading manual, you should have absolutely no problems. Additionally Glock states that you should not use cast lead bullets, and only use jacketed rounds. I abide by that guideline, but others have ignored it. Your mileage may vary, of course, but nobody should fear quality reloads shot through a Glock. Respectfully, – JCL

Notes From JWR:

The winner of the most recent SurvivalBlog benefit auction was L.P., with a $280 bid for a fully tested and recently professionally calibrated U.S. government surplus Civil Defense CD V-717 fallout survey meter with remote sensing capability. The meter was donated by Ready Made Resources (one of our first and most loyal advertisers).

A new benefit auction begins today, and ends November 15th. This one is for a used but very scarce autographed copy of the non-fiction book Survival Guns by Mel Tappan. Because Mel led a very private life, he made few public appearances and never sold copies of his books directly from his home address. Consequently, autographed copies of his books are very scarce! This particular copy is dated January 1976 by Mel (a first edition) and inscribed to Dane Andrews, an engineer at CCI/Speer in Lewiston, Idaho, who had provided Mel some technical input for the book. Also enclosed is a handwritten thank you note from Mel Tappan. I was very fortunate to have found this copy by chance in a bin of used gun books several years ago when I was at a gun show in Moscow, Idaho. The opening bid for the auction is just $20. Please submit your bid via e-mail.

Letter Re: An Early Snowstorm in Western New York

Well, mother nature really gave it to them this week. There were 24 inches of snow dumped on us in about 24 hours. That, and the trees still had most of their leaves still intact. That just made more surface for the snow to stick, and it was the wettest imaginable snow you have ever seen. I’m writing this on Sunday. The power has been out since about 5 P.M. on Friday, and they are saying it won’t all be back on till next weekend.
I didn’t lose my power, since I live north of the worst of it. I have lent my generator out to a friend who is trying to keep his basement from flooding.
The Buffalo Water Department is recommending that residents boil their water. Nobody has any ‘put up’, and very few have a Berky water filter. I really like mine!
The television showed people scrambling to buy generators. They are trying to go as far as Albany to get them. Gas to run them is also a sideshow, there is a two hour wait at the gas stations that do have power. I am sure they will be out soon.
Now the snow is melting, so the flooding is a problem. Some people have ‘grinder pumps’ for their sewers, which is a really bad position to be in, with no power!
I am thinking of going to the places where the trees are down the worst, with my chainsaw, and stocking up on wood for next winter, as it is green, and won’t burn this year. I am sure the places with trees down just want them gone. I saw on TV that 50% of the trees are at least damaged or down. Buffalo, Amherst, the suburbs have a lot of big silver maple trees. OK for firewood, when dry.
I didn’t hear of any looting yet, and I am surprised. Maybe it hasn’t been reported.
Buffalo people really are pretty good at helping each other out.
The phones haven’t worked right for a couple days, you have to try your call several times before you can get a two-way conversation going, and then it might quit at any moment. That is pretty frustrating.
I went to the nearest town today, that is where I saw the gas lines. The worst of the storm hit south of there, and I live north of it. All the restaurants were packed. The storm people can’t cook anything, so they went out of the affected area to get fed.
Good thing it was so localized! I guess that most of the roads are passable now, except for the water. Underpasses are flooded.
Thanks to this blog, I wasn’t in their shoes, and I was able to help my friend. I would be able to last a couple weeks, anyhow, no matter what. Now I just have to keep adding to the stores.
Thanks, Jim! – Sid, near Niagara Falls

Letter Re: Hard Red Wheat Versus Soft White Wheat for Storage and Baking

Jim,
As you know, I live near Niagara Falls. I grew up on a farm, mostly growing ‘row crops’. Wheat, oats, corn, buckwheat, and soybeans have become a big crop in the area of late. The wheat we grow around here is [soft] ‘white’ wheat, not the hard red [winter] wheat that is grown in the mid-west. I have wondered what the difference really is, and have never really found out. Can someone out there straighten me out on this? It seems most bread is made from the red, from what I hear. Can’t bread be made from the white wheat? I can get white wheat by the truckload locally. I have never even seen any red.
We used to grow several hundred acres of the stuff. Anymore, there are very few small farmers left, there are thousands of acres growing up to bushes and trees all over western New York. It is a sad sight to see, but it really is giving the land a chance to ‘rest’ after being intensely farmed for over a hundred years. Trouble is, it will eventually have to be cleared again, if it is ever to be farmed again. I wonder if it will be farmed with horses again. – Sid, near Niagara Falls

JWR Replies: Soft white wheat has less nutritive value (protein) than hard red winter wheat. Although they are both categorized as “hard grains”, the hard wheat varieties store better than the soft wheats. (30+ years versus 15 to 20 years for soft white wheat.) For both of these reasons, hard red winter wheat is preferred for home food storage programs. The following is a quote from the excellent wheat article at the Walton Feed web site: “The hard wheats generally contain smaller kernels and are harder than soft wheat kernels. They contain high protein and gluten levels primarily designed for making bread flours. Depending on variety and growing conditions, hard wheats can have vastly different protein levels. For bread making, your wheat should have a minimum of 12% protein. The hard varieties of wheat can have protein levels up to 15 or 16%. Generally speaking for bread making, the higher the protein content the better. The two main types of hard wheat are the hard red and the hard white varieties. Hard white wheat is a relative new-comer that tends to produce a lighter colored, more spongy loaf of bread and because of this, it is gaining quick popularity among home bread makers. However, we have talked with bread makers who prefer the hard red wheat for it’s more robust flavor and more traditional textured loaf of bread it makes.
The soft wheats are just that – not quite so hard. If you want to roll your own wheat, you should buy soft wheat. The hard wheats tend to crack and break in the flaking machine. Containing less protein and gluten, soft wheat flour is ideally suited for making biscuits, pastries and quick breads. Typical protein levels for the soft wheats are 9-11%. Flour made from the soft wheats can also be used for cake flours. If you want a really low gluten cake flour, mix your soft wheat flour with other low gluten flours such as oat flour, barley flour of buckwheat flour.
Durum wheat is a botanically separate species from the hard and soft wheat varieties. It’s kernels are a little larger and are shaped a bit differently than the other wheats. Durum wheat has very hard, high protein kernels but it’s the wrong kind of protein to form a strong gluten. Durum has been used for centuries to make pasta; whether it’s macaroni, egg noodles or spaghetti noodles.”

Odds ‘n Sods:

The 2007 Farm Bill will be coming up in Congress soon. Please write your representatives in the Senate and the House and ask them to oppose the USDA‘s unconstitutional, tax-wasting, draconian National Animal Identification System (NAIS). See this post at NoNAIS.org, and Dr. Mary Zanoni’s comments on it. We have not lost yet. Keep up the fight!

   o o o

Reader P.C.K. mentioned this USA Today article: U.S. Cities’ Disaster Plans are Lacking

   o o o

Movie deal will make millionaires of the three Mexican fishermen who spent nine months adrift.

 

Notes From JWR:

The high bid is currently at $250. in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction that ends at midnight tonight. This auction is for a fully tested and recently professionally calibrated U.S. government surplus Civil Defense CD V-717 fallout survey meter with remote sensing capability. The meter was donated by Ready Made Resources (one of our first and most loyal advertisers).Please submit your bid via e-mail.

Today we welcome our newest advertiser, Mountain Brook Foods of Tracy, California. As previously mentioned, they are currently offering the following discounts to SurvivalBlog readers only, for in-stock items:
20% off Orders of $100 to $249
30% off Orders of $250 to $499.99
40% off Orders over $500, not to exceed $2,500.
To place your order go to www.mountainbrookfoods.com. There you will see there full line of storage foods and books. Note, however, that their web site lists only their standard pricing. To get the SurvivalBlog October special pricing, enter “SurvivalBlog” as the coupon discount code. If you have any questions about this special offer or any their products you can contact Mountain Brook at: support@mountainbrookfoods.com or call toll free: (877) 668-6826.

Letter Re: Advice on Ammunition and Precious Metals for Barter?

Jim:
Some thoughts with regards to the following [from JWR]: “If and when you want to buy (via barter) a gallon of kerosene, a box of ammunition, or a can of beans, then gold is inappropriate. How would someone make “change” for a transaction that is priced at 1/100th of the value of a one ounce American Eagle or one ounce Krugerrand gold coin? With a cold chisel?”
While I feel that the advice given, namely to use pre-1965 silver dimes, is sound, I want to comment on the above, since it is grossly misleading. For starters, everyone seems fixated upon the “one-ounce”
coin, and completely lost is the fact that smaller weights are quite possible. Folks, it’s a metal! You can make it any darn size or weight you want! The US Eagle, for example, also comes in 1/2, 1/4, and 1/10
ounce sizes. Other gold coin issues often have similar denominations. Historically, even denominations as small as *25 cents* have existed, though they are not very practical, being tiny things about the size of a fish’s scale both in terms of diameter and thickness (the example I saw was in the Numismatics museum in Colorado Springs). Why people continually focus solely on the 1 ounce coins and ignore utterly the well established fact of the existence of smaller denominations is something I have never really comprehended.
Another way of looking at it is that each “class” of coin has its intended purpose. In the old days before fiat money one used copper pennies for very small transactions, silver coins for small to medium
transactions, and reserved gold for large purchases. I would no more buy a single box of ammo with a gold coin then I would buy a house with a dump truck full of pennies or a few wheel barrels full of silver dimes and quarters. It is therefore more than a little disingenuous to proclaim the inappropriateness of gold by stating that you can’t buy a gallon of kerosene with it… While literally correct, it is hardly the
whole story.
It is also worth mentioning that not every transaction is going to be for a single can of beans. Does no one here buy in bulk? Do you all literally go to the store and buy one (1) can of beans only? I
sincerely doubt it. Most typical grocery runs are in the 50-100+ FRN range, which is within the realm of the 1/10 and 1/4 oz. gold coins (though I imagine smaller silver and even copper coins would be needed to get the exact amount). While the point made is a valid one, it is often (as in this instance) stretched to unreasonableness and becomes nothing more than a straw man argument, and a fairly absurd one at that.
Finally, with regards to the comment about making change with a cold chisel, I ask “Why not?” Historically, that is precisely what has been done to make change. Consider the famous Spanish “piece of eight” which was actually intended to be divided into halves or even 1/8 “bits” to make change. One of the things forgotten in our modern era of “miracle” fiat currency was that back in the day money was valued for the weight of precious (or sorta precious in the case of copper) metal contained within it, not the arbitrary stamp of value (i.e. $1, $5, etc.) placed upon it. Thus, one could take a $1 silver coin, and conceivably cut it in half to make 50 cents (of course, given that we had smaller denominations, this
was unnecessary. But the point is since it was the silver that was valued, one could realistically do that and retain the full value of the weight of the silver). Try doing that with a fiat $1 bill – you
can’t, can you? Of course, that is because you are playing with a paper token that possesses only shared hallucinatory value, rather than real worth. Anyone serious about participating in a post-TEOTWAWKI/post-fiat currency economy had better muy pronto get used to thinking in terms of metal weight, rather than arbitrary fiat currency value stamp. – G.F.L.

JWR Replies: First, I am well aware of 1/10th ounce gold coins. Up until quite recently, I owned several of them, including 1/10th ounce Krugerrand,1/10th ounce Maple Leaf, and 1/10th ounce American Eagle issues. I have heard that the Maple Leaf and the Chinese Panda are even made in a 1/20th ounce size. I wasn’t trying to keep SurvivalBlog readers ignorant of their availability. I might recommend these coins for barter, but these coins carry a hefty purchase premium but typically no corresponding resale premium. I recently saw 1/10th ounce American Eagles selling for $74 each! (The equivalent of $740 per ounce! This was when gold was around $610 per ounce.) Most dealers charge more to sell fractional gold, but they only pay the same price per ounce (or just over) that they do for full ounce coins when they buy it back. In essence, it costs a national mint the same amount to mint, package, and distribute a 1/10th ounce coin as it does for them to do so for a one ounce coin. These minting costs are passed along to the retail buyer.

The other major problem with using gold coins for survival barter, regardless of their weight, is that they will be immediately suspect as counterfeit by the individual on the other side of the table. Most Americans have never even seen a Canadian Maple Leaf or a Krugerrand, much less have any mean to determine its weight, water displacement weight, or otherwise test its authenticity. (Touchstone or acid test.) In contrast, small denomination circulated 90% U.S. silver dimes, quarters, and half dollars are almost immediately recognizable by most Americans, and will not be suspect beyond perhaps a passing glance.

Second, we were discussing a survival barter situation, when at some point in the future ordinary storefront commerce has been disrupted. In these circumstances, you probably won’t have the opportunity to walk into a retail grocery store an buy large quantities of anything. I predict that the commerce that will transpire will be very small scale–perhaps something similar to the Barter Faire that I portrayed in the “For and Ounce of Gold” chapter of my novel “Patriots.” Under these circumstances you won’t be buying case lots. It will be “onesees and twosees” transactions. Here, silver coins will be a practical medium of exchange.

Again, as I mentioned in my original post, I prefer common caliber ammunition for this sort of barter. A 50 cartridge box of .22 Long Rifle cartridges is just about ideal: recognizable, expendable, practical, almost universally used, and easily divisible. I strongly recommend that SurvivalBlog readers stock far more ammunition than precious metals, if their goal is survival bartering.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"If the public judges the movie people by some of the interviews that appear in print, they must wonder how they ever kept out of the asylum." – Will Rogers

Note From JWR:

The bidding in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction ends at midnight tomorrow night. This auction is for a fully tested and recently professionally calibrated U.S. government surplus Civil Defense CD V-717 fallout survey meter with remote sensing capability. The meter was donated by Ready Made Resources (one of our first and most loyal advertisers). The high bid is currently at $225. Please submit your bid via e-mail.

The NGO Security Blog

The NGO Security blog has a few manuals that may be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The ICRC Staying Alive Manual has a good explanation for your readers who do not have military training on the effects of military weapons and how to protect yourself from them. Plus it is interesting to read the incidents happening in the rest of the world. That is how society will be should TEOTWAWKI happen in the developed world. Incidentally, I was the dot on your global SurvivalBlog hit map that you saw in Khartoum a few months back. I work for an International Humanitarian Agency as a Security Officer. Hope it is useful to you and your readers. – PJH

Two Letters Re: Storing Coal for Home Heating at Your Retreat

Jim:
As a retired firefighter I want to mention that stored coal must be kept dry. I you do not, is will start an internal combustion fire deep in the center. To put it out, you must dig down to where it is hot. Regards, – G.C.P.

James:
You brought out some very important points about the differences between eastern (anthracite) and western coal.

Most coal stove manufacturers recommend using only anthracite coal. A few go so far as to void the warranty on their stoves if you burn anything but anthracite.

My pantry is located in an outbuilding and even though it is double-insulated and heated with 220 volt baseboard heaters with a propane-fired furnace as a backup, I believe in redundancy and installed a wood/coal burning stove “just in case”. I bought the unit from a friend who was demolishing an older home in the area. The stove is heavy welded steel plate and carries a manufacturers tag stating it is rated for wood and coal.

Even though I have easy access to an almost unlimited amount of seasoned wood, I purchased a ton of (western) coal from a local mom and pop mine for $20. (“You-Load”). While the stove burns effortlessly with wood, it is a nightmare with coal: dirty, smelly, hard to regulate. The only real use I can see for coal is to damper the stove down at night, toss in a few lumps of coal and let it smolder overnight. The fact is, my stove was just not designed to burn coal, the firebox and flue are simply not up to par with that of a stove designed from the ground up to use coal.

The second problem I have with coal is deterioration. I put my coal outdoors on a plastic tarp. Within a year, the lumps and chunks of coal had been reduced by weathering to a coarse, almost sand-like consistency. I’ve found that even if I fill a couple lunch bags with this material and toss it in, it burns much faster than solid chunks and is not suitable for overnight use.

If I were seriously interested in burning coal, I’d do two things: 1.) purchase a genuine “coal-stove” and 2.) construct a weatherproof coal-bin. – Hawgtax

Two Letters Re: Ammunition Handloading Basics

Jim
Much great information being shared in these posts, but reading the reload posts made me feel the need to point out one thing.
While reloading ammunition for revolvers and most conventional handguns is easy and fun, it is a different story for Glocks.The Glock is designed with an “Unsupported chamber” barrel which makes firing untested reloaded ammunition a dangerous affair. If the specs on the reloads are off even just a little, the result could be a nasty problem.

The ammo could cause the gun to self destruct, especially if it is a 40 caliber model. If you don’t believe me, do a Google search for the term “Glock Kaboom.”

Read it carefully, and pay close attention, it has happened many times with reloads.

I should note that I own two 9mm Glocks and fire some really well done reloads from a commercial reloading company. The ammo I shoot is specially made to be tolerated by Glocks and I’ve never had a problem with any of it. The rub is, I have nearly 2K rounds of it left from an initial lot of 4K rounds and the company where I purchased the ammo seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.

Well done reloads work fine in most 1911s, CZ-75s, SIGs, and other modern semi auto handguns. If you carry the Glock, like me, then you are obligated to do a little more research. – LK from WV

 

Jim,
In defense of what I said in my first letter about the simplicity of this system, I cannot understand how one could possibly have a near-disastrous KaBoom, if the directions were followed. There are always ways to succeed in screwing up, and I have done so myself in the past, but not with a disaster like that. Possibly if you had several different lee loader sets, and got the scoop from two sets mixed, I could see this happening.
AVL is correct in that semi-autos will feed more reliably with cases that are full length sized, you should go one step further, and get what are called ‘small base’ dies, so they will feed. At the same time, with a semi-auto, it can be very difficult to find your cases to re-load in the first place, and, the hand loader is really slow, a semi-auto will burn through ammo faster than you can get your kids to reload it!
For bolt-action rifles, especially if you are shooting the cartridges in the same rifle they were originally fired, there should be no problem closing the bolt, till the cases have stretched to the point where they need trimming. To not do this could also result in a catastrophic event. RCBS has dies that they claim prevent case stretching, and I have some, but have not used them enough to know if it is so.
The bullet supplier that I mentioned is a fledgling outfit that puts out good product, and might expand operations to rifle calibers, too, if things get rolling. Thanks, – Sid Near Niagara Falls