Having spent my teenage years in my dad’s commercial reloading shop, circa 1955 to1958, I learned quite a bit about reloading ammunition. Back then we loaded mostly .30-06, .30-30 Winchester, .270 Winchester, .300 Savage, 250 Savage and other old calibers that were excellent deer and elk rifles. Long before the magnum mania came about, these rifles were killing big game, and doing it quite well.
Many today find this unbelievable, but back when the silver certificates were money, and fiat currency was only a dream of the globalist bankers, you could buy a pound of DuPont 4895, a box of 100- .30 caliber JSP bullets, and a box of 100 Large rifle primers for less than $5! And the best Winchester and Remington .22 Long Rifle cartridges were 50 to 60 cents per box of 50!
But those days are long gone now, and JSP bullets of all kinds now run well over $20 a hundred, and $30 for the specialty bullets. And today the gun manufactures are under the illusion that you have to come out with a new caliber every year, just like the auto industry, to sell guns to the public. This one has a little more destructive bullet and is 30 FPS faster than the last caliber that came out, But I’ll guarantee you the deer or elk has no idea how fast the bullet was that took him down, whether is came at 1,600 FPS, or 3,500 FPS, he’s just as dead. And remember, before 1900, all bullets traveled at less than 2,000 FPS, and many were in the 1,200 to 1,500 FPS category, and they killed everything that walked the American continent.
Most people on fixed incomes are always looking for alternatives to the high prices of ammo when making other preparations for the coming collapse. Well, a bullet mold for each rifle and pistol caliber you own is a good investment. And some old advise from Elmer Keith, always get the biggest bullet that will function in the calibers you shoot! And I feel most of the time, this is very true, especially with cast bullets. But there are exceptions with mold and bullet designs. I like the Lee mold 121 grain plain base truncated cone in the 9mm, which I find also works well in the .380 ACP. But I shoot the 195-200 grain dome bullet in the .38 Special. I still have the first mold that I bought for $6.00 complete with handles, a Lyman 357446 Semi Wadcutter (SWC) 160 grain. And I wouldn’t shoot anything less than a 230 grain in the 45 ACP, I’ve seen too many failures of the lighter weight JHPs. But that’s a personal choice. In the old S&W .45 ACP revolvers (Model 1917 and 1934 Brazilian) I like the 255 grain Keith SWC with 5 grains of Unique powder, which seems to drop badly if shooting over 150 yards out of the Commander size M1911 autos.
By the way, don’t get caught up in the gun writers in the gun magazines. They are writing for the money, and get most of the things they write about from the factory for just writing an article about it. I use to get a kick out of Charles Askins, one article the revolver is much superior to the auto loader, the next month or so, the auto loader was better than the revolver! It was just a matter of who sent him what at the time, which was the better gun.
If you are just starting out with your preps, Watch the yard sales and pawn shops for bargains on reloading equipment. I suggest an old Lyman lead pot that can be used over a fire, along with their dipper. The electric pots work great, as long as you have electric power. I have an old Saeco 20 LB. electric pot that I had repaired several times over the years when the wiring got too hot and shorted out, last time I just tore it apart and now use just the pot in a wood monkey stove, as it fits good in the top front wood feed hole. And seems to heat faster than it did with electric power.
Now after years of loading ammo, I say there is no round that can’t be reloaded if you have the proper tools. I have reloaded the steel Russian 7.62×39 rounds, that they say are not reloadable, But with inflation today, you pay more per primer for the 550 mm Berdan primer package of 250 primers, than you do per loaded round for the surplus 7.62×39 ammunition! But I do keep a couple packages around just for drill! Also note that the Berdan primers come in several sizes, so you have to figure out what you’ve got before you buy a package of the wrong size. But RCBS does make a good decapping tool, that works better than filling the case with water and [hydraulically] popping them out with a stick the right size!
Getting back to the cast bullets, a friend who lives in California just told me you can’t shoot lead bullets anymore in California, because the California Condor is swallowing them when eating dead game and dying of lead poisoning. And if you believe that one, I have some beach front property near Las Vegas, Nevada I’ll sell you, real cheap! I think the liberals and bunny huggers slipped one over on the hunters and shooters of California.
I cast a Lyman .311041 179 grain gas check bullet, for use in the .30-30, also shoots well in the .308 Winchester, .30-06, 7.7 Jap, 7.65 Argentine, and .303 British. It has a flat nose and feeds without danger in Winchester and Marlin tube feed magazines. I prefer the old Lyman .311314 -180 grain gas check bullet In the military rifles as it’s a spitzer shape and doesn’t drop as fast as the flat nose for longer shots. But my favorite bullet for .30-06 is the Lyman .311224- 220 grain gas check bullet which comes out of my mold at about 225 grains. For the newcomers, a gas check is a small copper jacket that goes on the base of a cast bullet, if there is a recess for a gas check. It seals the gases that might blow by on a plain base bullet. I use beeswax for fluxing the lead pot, keeps the metal melted so the tin or hard metals don’t float to the top and get skimmed off as slag. or candles work well too if you can find them cheap, but will catch fire if pot gets too hot. in fact I make all my own bullet lube, melt bee’s wax in a coffee can, add graphite, and a wax toilet seal ring found in most plumbing shops, Wal-Mart, or Home Depot. And pore it into the bullet sizer hot. The only bullet lube I buy today is SPG Black powder bullet lube and TC Bore Butter from Dixie Gun Works in Union City, Tennessee. They also have many other black powder shooting supplies.
Now for the survivalist, the one powder that can be used in any rifle, pistol, or shotgun is Unique. You can come up with a shootable loading for any rifle, pistol or shotgun using Unique. Incidentally, I use Bullseye in the small pistol calibers .25 ACP (a totally worthless caliber) the .32 ACP, and the .380 ACP. And in case this nation gets into civil war, after the fiat dollar collapse, Bullseye pistol powder has a very high burning rate. You really have to be careful when using this powder, I’ve seen lots of good S&W and Colt revolvers over the years, missing the top half of the cylinder and the top strap folded up, from people starting out reloading, and thinking 3.0 grains of Bullseye couldn’t possibly be enough powder, like the book says, and triple charge it. I believe you can get something like 15 grains of Bullseye in a .357 mag case and still set the bullet on it, but if you do, you have just turned your favorite handgun into a hand grenade! (Very dangerous!) So don’t exceed what the reloading manuals says as a maximum charge with any powder. That brings up another good point, get a good reloading manual, I’ve got dozens I’ve bought over the years, but always seem to go back to the Lyman Reloading Handbook as it seems to cover a lot more than most.
I have made many of my own powder dippers, as in survival reloading you can’t take along a powder scale and measure if you have to bug out. I use to keep a Lee hand press and set of dies with dipper and powder, bullets, and primers in a .50 caliber ammo can, with a hundred cases and bullets, (my grab and run box) when I worked nights at the sheriff’s office as dispatcher. On a quiet night I could load a hundred rounds of .38s or 9mms and sometimes .45 ACP. It sure beat watching television!
To make my dippers, I take a fired cartridge case close to the size powder charge I need, pound a 5 inch piece of brazing rod flat on one end and solder it on the base of the case, then take an old piece of antler, preferably a contoured tip, cut it off, and drill a hole in the cut off end, and epoxy the rod into the antler. Then start dipping powder, and using your scale weigh it, and file off the opening until it gets down to the powder charge you want, then run the burr remover around the inside and out side of the case mouth to remove the burrs. I find this is just as accurate as using a mechanical powder measure, once you get the hang of dipping powder. Lee also make a kit full of plastic dippers, but I prefer to use my own, in case I don’t have a pair of glasses handy to read what’s on the plastic dippers, to make sure I have the right dipper.
Paper patching – This never took hold in our military, but was quite common in all of Europe back in the 1800s. Our Buffalo hunters did get into the paper patch bullets from the Sharps rifle company. To paper patch, you use an under sized bullet and cutting a parallelogram out of cotton bond paper, dampen it then starting half way down the bullet wrap the paper, the cuts should come out together, meaning the first wrap should have a wrap of paper over it, but have it come out to where the last wrap butts against the first with no overlap, Then twist the paper hanging over the bottom to where its flat against the base of the bullet,then trim off the excess. It will tear when you stick it into the case if the cuts overlap on the sides and cause a bump. I have several molds I’ve had made for paper patching, but never used them yet, other than the 460 grain 45/70 bullet, over a charge of 58 grains of FFFG [black powder] with a felt wad soaked with Bore Butter. Loading black powder is a whole different science, and if you get into it, you’ll find some very accurate ammo can be made up with black powder loadings.
The art of paper patching can be a benefit in survival conditions as you can patch up a .243 bullet to shoot in the 6.5 mm, the 6.5 mm up to 7mm, the .270 bullet to shoot in a 30 caliber, or the .30 caliber to shoot in the 8mm Mauser, and it’s all in cutting the right [thickness] wrap out of cotton bond paper. That is if you don’t have the right bullets for the right caliber!
Something I might mention for survivalists is chamber adapters. I have adapters for most of my .30 caliber rifles that will shoot .32 ACP ammo from a .30 caliber rifle. This is legal, but very quiet, as you fire a .32 ACP out of a .30-06, as the bullet travels down the barrel some of the gas bleeds around the chamber adaptor, lessening the report, plus the fact that the 32 doesn’t break the sound barrier, you don’t have the loud supersonic crack that is normal for the .30-06. Good for shooting rabbits while deer hunting. I’m loading a Lee Mold 100 grain cast round nose in the .32 ACP over 2.0 grains of Bullseye, and I think I might be a little hesitant about shooting the 71 grain FMJ down the .30 caliber barrel, as most are .312 to .314 Diameter. I have a confession to make here, a while back a guy gave me a hand full of very old .32 ACP ammo, with steel jackets. I wanted the brass but was to lazy to use the puller, and took an old Mark 4 British .303 out with the chamber adaptor and started shooting up the .32 ammo, about the 5th or 6th shot, shooting at a 6″ rock about 75 yards out, I didn’t see any impact, so I shot 2 more rounds and then the lights came on after seeing no impact, maybe I should pull the bolt and check the bore. Well I had about three of these stuck in the barrel about 4″ from the muzzle. I tried in vain to knock them out with a rod and mallet, no dice. so I took the rifle over to our local gunsmith to see if he could get them out. No way, so I now have [shortened it to become] a British .303 carbine with no flash hider! A lesson learned the hard way, no Jacketed bullet use in the adaptors, from then on!
Accuracy – No question in my mind after years of shooting cast rifle bullets, if you use the right bullet material combination, lead, tin, antimony, and good bullet lube, the right powder charge, you’ll find cast bullets can be just as accurate as any of the expensive jacketed bullets on the market. Most shooters know every rifle barrel has it’s own vibration, and finding the vibration of your barrel can be tricky. I had an old 1903 Springfield sporter with an old 4X Weaver scope on it, and the Government ammo would shoot a 3″ group at 100 yards, I started loading a 165 grain JSP-BT (Jacketed soft point boat tail) and pulled that down to 2″ I started backing down the powder charge 1/2 grain at a time, and got down to 45 Grains of IMR 4895 and it was breaking one hole! This is an impossibility for most old military Springfield’s. But at 45 grains I found the rifle barrels vibration point.
I experimented with cast bullets in a Ruger Mini-14 .223, all I had was a 44 grain gas check round nose mold so I started experimenting with powders and loads. When I got it up to where it would cycle the action, I was shooting about a two foot group at 100 yards, and the barrel was leading something fierce. So I started backing it down to where I was shooting a 6″ group and working it like a bolt action! I gave up. So I found an old Rockchucker .224 bullet forming die and press, at a very good price, so I bought it, including about 1400 .224 copper jackets. Well, having a metal lathe, I took a 7/8×14 hardened bolt annealed it and bored it .225, and made a .217by 4″ post with a shell holder base, re-hardened the bolt and base, and now I make .224 jackets from .22 Long rifle brass. It’s a long, slow process to make bullets this way, but it will function the autos, and it’s very accurate. You have to find clean 22 brass, anneal it in the oven for 3 hours on “Broil”, CCI stinger nickel plated brass makes pretty bullets. About another hour in the oven, but you have to check them close for cracked and overlapped tips. those shoot okay in a .22 Hornet or .223 at lower velocities, but not in full house loads. Then you have to cast the cores, I cut the core mold into the back side of an old .50 caliber ball mold that was rusted I found at a yard sale. I take the cores slip them into the .22 LR jacket, tap them with a rubber mallet to set them into the bottom of the jacket, then run them into the die to form the .224 bullet. Then after you make up 500 or so, put them in the brass tumbler for a couple hours to clean them up. they come out 62 grain, the Stinger brass come out a little heaver, almost a hollow point. The home made bullets from .22 LR brass seem just as accurate out of the AR, Mini-14 and .223 bolt rifles and shot out of the .22-250 at around 3,400 FPS–very accurate.
Now I’m working on developing a similar die set for .30 caliber. One more thing worth mentioning is the small rifle and small pistol primers are the same size cups, same as the large rifle and large pistol primers are the same size. The cups on the pistol primers are a little thinner than the rifle, for obvious reasons, most rifle firing pins hit a lot harder than pistols do. I have used rifle primers in pistol rounds, and they seem to work fine. You might run into problems on S&W revolvers, using rifle primers, if you have the spring tension screw backed off to get a lighter trigger pull, but this could also happen with pistol primers, if backed off too far. Men sometime do this for wives who have trouble shooting double action, don’t! Your taking a chance on a misfire when you do this. And never use a pistol primer in a rifle round, the cup is too thin and if the firing pin penetrates the primer, you will get gas back in your face.
Well reloading in my case is a necessity, being on Social Security I can’t afford to buy anything but .22 Long Rifle ammo. But I think over the years I have loaded enough ammo to keep my grandkids shooting for life. Keep a good supply of powder and primers, and bullets if you can afford to buy them in bulk. My main powders are IMR 4895, 3031, Unique, 2400, and Bullseye, yeah, I’m old school. Bullseye is good for .38 Specials, using the 200 grain cast dome bullet with 3.5 grains of Bullseye I get 2,000 loads from a pound of powder. I have tried most of the new powders, but always go back to my old mainstays. (I hope I didn’t insult anybody by saying the .25 ACP was worthless!) I load 0.7 grain of Bullseye with the 50 grain FMJ for my daughter in law, she has an old Colt Junior that her dad gave her, and she loves it. But in most cases the .22 Long Rifle is a much better choice than the .25, and lots cheaper! Incidentally, loading that .25 ACP with 0.7 grains that comes out to 10,000 rounds from a pound of Bullseye. And about 3500 rounds of .32 ACP from a pound of Bullseye. And if you buy these powders in the 4 or 8 pound containers that’s a lot of reloading! I just wish the 4895 would stretch that far, but I get something like 145 rounds of .308 from a pound, depending on which bullet I use. I really like the Sierra 168 grain JHP-BT, that’s about as close as I’ve come to the 173 grain FMJ military match bullet.
One main thing about reloading, keep in mind that alcohol and gunpowder is a bad mixture, and pay attention to all the operations, if somebody comes in and wants to talk, quit loading and talk. And over load is bad, but a round loaded with no powder is much worse, the primer, most of the time has enough power to put the bullet into the rifling just far enough to chamber another round! And if you don’t catch the mistake and fire the following round you blow the barrel, and possibly ruin the action! Not to mention part of your face! So pay attention, and follow the manual closely, and don’t use a load from memory, always look it up and make sure it’s right! And never shoot somebody’s reloads that you don’t know, better to pull them down and reload them yourself than take a chance on blowing up a gun!
Survival reloading may come sooner than we’d like. I have Lyman 310 [hand reloading press] tools for several calibers but I don’t care for the neck sizing only, and the load aren’t interchangeable from one rifle to another of the same caliber. I much prefer the Lee Hand Press that will take your regular die sets. the only problem I’ve had with the Lee was there is no hole for the primers to fall out of the ram, and If you don’t dump it regular it gets so many primers, that you can’t pull the shell holder out of the ram. I drilled a hole in the front of the ram, and that solved the problem. Then I pulled one apart removing a sized .30-06 case from the die, the hand press is engineered for push action, and not pulling. When I got the replacement part I poured fiberglass resin with patches of aluminum screen in the hollow, and so far haven’t pulled it apart again!
I’ve seen some reloaders mount a reloading press on the back bumper of their pickup, this is okay out in the country, but It wouldn’t fly in the big cities where the anti-gun crowd lives, and driving on dirt roads doesn’t do the press parts any good, plus they have to unscrew the handle every time it’s not in use! Just watch the yard sales, pawn shops and junk stores and mainly estate sales, relatives that aren’t into shooting usually have no idea what the dead uncle had invested and what everything is that he had in his shop! Many times you can buy a fortune in ammo brass and loading equipment for pennies on the dollar at these sales! And I have picked up loads of reloading stuff at sales from people who have no idea what the stuff was used for, and when you tell them it’s for making bullets, they don’t really want it around for fear the kids might get into it and get hurt.
One final note on cast bullets and killing game. I brain tan deer and elk hides. And if the animal is shot with a cast bullet, there is no blood saturation or fragment holes on the hide. Just a small size hole through both sides. When people offer me a hide, I ask what the animal was shot with, and if they say a .300 Magnum or 7mm magnum, I tell them no thanks, too much bullet damage, I’ve tried to save some that had about a 12″ circle of small fragment holes and blood saturation around the exit hole, and I end up losing most of the bullet exit side of the hide! So when the dollar fails and you were too late to buy more ammo, I hope you were wise enough to buy the dies and molds for the guns you have. Plus the pot and dipper. And the dozens of other tools that expand you capabilities in reloading.