You have asked the big question. I have not found a US source that is not agenda driven. I speak a couple of languages, so I watch the Danish and German news as well. It is depressing to have to read five or six different perspectives on each story to try to distill the truth. On the recent shooting, I watched the live images from different US networks, but listened to a feed of the local police scanner. You have to learn some codes, and there is some “fog of war”, but much more detail than the TV.
1 Like
Bad time to be a Muslim in America?
5 Likes
I mis-remembered. I had to look it up, but it seems like it was a nitramide composition. Different sources say different things, but apparently he scraped the red ink off playing cards. My first thought was some kind of azo dye, but this doesn’t sound right. Too stable to break down in neutral water. Some sources say the ink used in playing cards was made of nitrocellulose derivatives, but I’d imagine adding water would damp the composition rather than lead to hydrolysis to nitramide. I can’t be sure what it was, but I find myself considering possible mechanisms.
2 Likes
Thanks everyone! 
I find myself on alJazeera’s American edition more often than not. More info than the beeb (BBC), which has slid dreadfully over the years, and often covers things the US news won’t touch with a ten foot pole, (or if they do it’s a month later).
7 Likes
2 Likes
Traditionally we go for unicorns here.
Only for certain situations. There is no way you can save money by reloading 9mm or .22, for instance, unless you don’t value your time and you have nothing to do but sit around making bullets. But for bigger stuff or specialty stuff, or if you want to load a certain charge or type of powder, bullet, brass, etc., or you have a special gun that needs a special something, then reloading is for you.
My friend was a sharpshooter, only shot .22. So, he reloaded .22 because he wanted it “just so.” Fair enough. I don’t reload because I don’t shoot that much. I’ll just buy what I need from Gander Mtn or WalMart when I need it.
Back to the OP: a “large amount of ammo” would be having more than about 5,000 rounds of any one kind on hand. 5,000 total of lots of different kinds is pretty common. But 5,000 of one calibre means that you bought 5 cases of 1000 and spent hundreds for each group of 1000. Cheap lots of 1000 9mm with small charges run about $200. So 5000 of those means you dropped $1k for it, or likely more.
So you spent upwards of $1000 on one kind of bullet that you cannot possibly shoot off very quickly. Shooting more than a few hundred in a day is a lot of wear and tear on your body. To shoot off 5000 is many days of shooting. If you are Rambo and you shoot 500 rounds every day, you’ll go through your stockpile in 10 days. Next to nobody does this. To shoot like that every day would be a $3000 to $4000 per month habit. You’d have to be really fuckin rich to shoot that much AND have shoulders and arms made of fucking IRON. Most avid shooters might shoot 2 or 3 times a week, and they aren’t firing 500 rounds. Probably one or two hundred.
The point is, having up to about 5,000 rounds on hand of different types is not a lot of ammo. That’s a mischaracterization. Having 5,000 of one single type is approaching excessive. And having anywhere near 10,000 is excessive if it’s all for just one person’s personal bullet collection.
You don’t want to keep ammo just sitting around. Moisture in the air degrades it over time, especially if you handle it cuz you’re a gun fondler and you like to stroke your bullets, or you keep it in the garage or someplace that can get ■■■■■. Bullets may still fire, but it’s not considered best practice to just keep them laying around for years. They should be in constant turnover.
Also any more than about 500 to 1000 in your car, in transit to the shooting range, is too much. That’s excessive. Nobody needs to be carting around thousands of rounds.
OK, enough of the fucking gun talk.
We need more gun laws and better methods to keep guns out of the hands of psychos and murderers. I’d be perfectly ok with it, however we want to do it.
6 Likes
On the amount of ammo they owned, point taken, a very useful thing to point out indeed.
On how much ammo they had on hand when they went on their killing spree… 1600 + bullets. That’s relevant.
That is a unicorn in spirit to me.
2 Likes
Proof that they failed. As long as we don’t overreact, that is.
Mmm I know several people who reload 9mm and make it for about 60-50% less than factory ammo, depending on components. And they can tweak the powder load to be a bit lighter for competition. Yes it would take for ever using the small hand loaders, but they have progressive machines that allow one to reload in larger batches quickly.
By .22 do you mean .22lr or like .223 Remington? From what I understand reloading .22lr is a… process, because you have to make this primer paste for the rimfire and it is a big mess usually. I have never met someone who has done it, but I have seen kits for it.
.223 rem, lots of people reload and there are plethora of different kinds of loads from target to hunting and a ton of style and weights of bullets.
My friend (a former co-worker) never showed me his rig. It was .22lr, not .223 or anything like that. As for reloading 9mm, the margin is so small that it’s mostly not worth it unless you are doing something different, such as special bullets or larger loads or something like that. Reloading saves, for sure, but more savings are to be had on the big bores not on the smaller cheap stuff that’s mass-produced. Of course, there are nutters who’ll reload everything because they feel they need to. Whatever, go ahead. I have a lot of other stuff to do with my time.
You’re right larger rifle rounds have an even greater cost savings (especially when you factor in things like “reduced recoil” factory loads are $5 more a box, when they actually have less components.) Especially the exotic stuff.
But still, 100 rnds of 9mm s $20 on a good day for factory. I now people who can make it for $8-10 bucks. Not bad savings in my book. The really, really good guys I shoot with in USPSA go through a ton of ammo and they all reload. But like I said, it depends on the reloading rig too. The progressive systems let you do like 300-400 rounds an hour. They can cut cost too using say powder coated lead vs copper plated FMJ.
Rather fascinated if your friend reloads .22lr. I mean cheap .22 is just that - super cheap. The high end Eley stuff must be what he is chasing after? His results are good?
1 Like
Doesn’t sound very sensationalist. We all know from Hollywood that would be less than 5 minutes supply. What would it be anyway, like 3 clips for your snub-nose assault pistol?
1 Like
It was years ago, and I can’t remember what he said he had. It was something like this, if not one of these:
He was definitely an ammosexual of a completely different breed. He hated “gun culture” and all the claptrap about this and that that we’ve been discussing. All he liked to do was shoot far away targets with his little expensive pea popper that he made special peas for.
As far as weird co-workers, I was way more worried about the quiet guy who never bathed or talked to anybody. My marksman friend was as harmless as they come. He wrote great code, too.
@Mister44 I think you are a well thought out, considerate, and reasonable person. I disagree with your position on guns.
12 Likes
Tuesday I went ammo shopping for the weekend. I bought a 555 round box of .22LR (seriously, that’s how Winchester sells it, 555 rounds), 50 shells for a 28 gauge shotgun and another 50 shells of 20 gauge, that’s just enough for me and my girlfriend to shoot a round of Sporting Clays this weekend. So all in total 655 “bullets”. That’s just what was in my car for the drive home. At home I don’t even know how many rounds of .22LR, .30-30 Winchester, .270 Winchester, 12 gauge slugs #4 shot, and target shells I have not to mention actual .45 caliber round ball bullets for my flintlock and .54 caliber round ball bullets for my caplock muzzleloader. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was at least 1500 “bullets” all told.
When the shooting started a lot of people were assuming yet another angry white guy, now it’s turned into non-white guy, maybe Muslim extremist, but the fact still remains: guns, ammo, mass shooting.
Conservatives will use this as justification for keeping Syrian refugees out, or other more draconian Islamopohbic measures, but if a white guy does it they just shrug their shoulders and say “hey, price of freedom.” It’s the same goddamn crime – keeping out Syrians won’t stop angry white guys from shooting up a school.
3 Likes
is what you’re saying, in essence, that the news delivered here, to you, for free, which you read, is not relevant or in true fact news?
Keep punching up. Thanks for the mansplain about how common the horror is!
3 Likes
