Handgun purchased in Chicago Same Day as St. Valentine's Day Massacre

[G-ManBart]

My deduction is that since we are pulling out of Afghanistan, the ammo manufacturers now have more capacity.

Completely unrelated. U.S. military ammo is almost entirely made in facilities that are owned and controlled by the U.S. government and don't produce commercial ammunition.

Like every ammo or reloading component shortage there is a rebound and that's just starting to happen now. Last year people who normally buy 500 rounds a year bought everything they could get their hands on, and now those folks aren't buying anything so availability is getting better. I've been watching this happen for decades and it always follows the same path.

I got caught short in the early 90s and vowed to never have that happen again. I sold 100K primers to a handful of friends the last time there was a shortage and told every one of them "they won't get cheaper, so when they're available, buy more so this won't happen again" and luckily most listened to me. One actually sent me a thank you e-mail last year!

 

[wrmiller]

I didn't decide to get back into reloading until this last Spring. It was getting hard to find components then. I still can't find large pistol primers unless I want to take a chance on GB and hope to not get taken by scammers. If this country does ever get back to normal, I will stock up as best I can.

 

[Papa Charlie]

I kicked myself for not stocking up when all this started. I shoot competition High Power. We were completely shut down for over a year when all this madness started. I thought I had plenty of powder and primers, only to find out when competition started back up, my stock was not what I remembered. Since we had no place to shoot for that time, I never thought to go and check.

Won't make this mistake twice. It is costly to run out during normal times. Supplies from different lots require starting over on load development. That means a lot of resources down range to fine tune the combination.

Am told that there will be Varget available towards the end of the summer. I plan to buy several 8lb jugs, all same lot of course. Same with CCI BR-2 primers come on. I have plenty of Berger Juggernauts, but will probably buy a few thousand more of those as well.

 

[wrmiller]

Heck, I'm not that fussy.

I just want to shoot my 10mm and .45 pistols and maybe try reloading some of this 7.62 brass I I have for my rifles.

If I can continually hit a 2' rectangle at 400 yds (max on my local range) with the rifles, and a 6" hanger at 100 yds. with my 10mm pistols I figure I'm good.

 

[Papa Charlie]

At 500 yards, the goal in F-Class is to put 20 scoring rounds into the X ring (counts for 10 points each) which is a 2.5" circle. That is a perfect score of 200-20X's. The 10 ring (also 10 points each) is a 5" circle. The guys I try to compete against are National Champions. Too often, over 3 relays of 20 scoring rounds each they will score 200 for each for a total of 600. The determining factors are the number of X's.

So far, my best relay score was 200-19X, I wish I had done as well in the other two relays. But I still scored a respectable 598-48X out of 600-60X.

I spend close to 20 hours reloading 100 rounds. Ensuring that each round is as close to exactly the same. It sounds boring but I love the reloading process as much as the shooting. When I can have the neck diameter come out to within 0.0005" across 100 rounds that is a win. Likewise I bump back the shoulder 0.002" and that has to be within 0.0005". The powder is measured out to 100th of a grain. There are a total of 15 steps to reload a round. I am constantly testing testing and refining.

My reloading guarantees nothing without being able to read the slightest wind movement over that distance which can switch back and forth. Then add the heat waves from the sun on the earth and the rotation of the earth as well. I am still learning. Those champions that I mentioned describe a bullets travel through the air like it was traveling through jello. Moving left, right, up and down over its travel. Frustrating but I love it.

I also shoot my 1911 (45 ACP), Ruger 10/22 (22LR), Win 94 (.30-30) and my M1 Garand (.30-06). Those are just for fun.

 

[wrmiller]

Sounds like you're having fun. I was a USMC scout back in the 70s and I took my shooting serious back then. Even shot a perfect score in bootcamp.

Now I'm more interested in just being able to stay within One Minute of Bad Guy at medium distances (old eyes), and that is what I practice towards.

 

[Papa Charlie]

Thank you for your service.

I do love this sport. I believe I have mastered the technical details of reloading and the mechanics of the rifle, which is opposite of what I learned for hunting. I really need to learn how to read the environment around me and to adjust for it. That, in my opinion is the most difficult part of this sport.