American Gun Ownership Highest In 18 Years

[Berkut]

So I just got done reading that alt-history 1632 book about a bunch of guys who go back in time from modern day West Virginia.

They all have a reasonable number of modern rifles/pistols and such, but of course they can't run out and buy more ammo for them.

They can all do the reload thing however.

Assuming they always save their brass, can/could they simply keep on reloading their ammo over and over again? Maybe they are not going to have access to modern higher quality propellant, but assuming they could get the 1630s equivalent, could they just load that shitty black powder into the rounds?

And assuming they could perhaps make better powder than that, how many times can you reload the same cartridge anyway? I would assume at some point the brass just wears out, right?

[derspiess]

Performance-wise, you would suffer, but I'm guessing it might still work.  You'd have to clean the shit out of the gun after relatively few rounds, and clean well-- black powder is highly corrosive.  But for most ARs I don't think it would work too well.  The gas tube would probably clog up (as it did in Vietnam when the wrong powder was used by a contractor who made the ammo) and you'd probably have to manually cycle the bolt for each round after a few shots.

I'm guessing AKs would do better than ARs with sub-optimal ammo.

[Berkut]

I think they are mostly looking at non-military firearms. Rifles and such, plenty semi-auto, but no assault rifles for the most part.

They did have an M60 though with a few thousand rounds of ammo...

[Berkut]

Ignoring the powder waulity issue for the moment, is there a life to the actual shell itself? Can it be reloading indefinitely?

[CountDeMoney]

So I just got done reading that alt-history 1632 book about a bunch of guys who go back in time from modern day West Virginia.

Funny, you always struck me as being too intelligent to do something like that.

[ulmont]

Ignoring the powder waulity issue for the moment, is there a life to the actual shell itself? Can it be reloading indefinitely?

A google search for "how many times can I reload brass" seems to indicate that at some point the brass will split and be unusable, and that this typically happens somewhere < 50 reloads, often < 20 reloads, with a lot of people using "reload 5 times and toss" as a rule of thumb.

[derspiess]

I think they are mostly looking at non-military firearms. Rifles and such, plenty semi-auto, but no assault rifles for the most part.

I imagine you'd have to tinker with the load a little, and be prepared to get less range, velocity, etc. but I'm guessing bolt action rifles would fare the best.

They did have an M60 though with a few thousand rounds of ammo...

That would be a nightmare to shoot and maintain after you run out of good ammo. 

Ignoring the powder waulity issue for the moment, is there a life to the actual shell itself? Can it be reloading indefinitely?

Not indefinitely, but close.  I've seen tests where they reloaded 5.56/.223 brass 30 times..  A few of the cases eventually ruptured, but most kept going.  But since the cases expand after each firing to the point where you have to re-form them with dies and trim the excess, the metal does thin out.  You'd eventually have a point where it would get too thin.

[Ed Anger]

I'm too lazy to reload my rounds.

[Malthus]

So I just got done reading that alt-history 1632 book about a bunch of guys who go back in time from modern day West Virginia.

They all have a reasonable number of modern rifles/pistols and such, but of course they can't run out and buy more ammo for them.

They can all do the reload thing however.

Assuming they always save their brass, can/could they simply keep on reloading their ammo over and over again? Maybe they are not going to have access to modern higher quality propellant, but assuming they could get the 1630s equivalent, could they just load that shitty black powder into the rounds?

And assuming they could perhaps make better powder than that, how many times can you reload the same cartridge anyway? I would assume at some point the brass just wears out, right?

Where do these 1700s reloaders get new primers from?

[ulmont]

So I just got done reading that alt-history 1632 book about a bunch of guys who go back in time from modern day West Virginia.

They all have a reasonable number of modern rifles/pistols and such, but of course they can't run out and buy more ammo for them.

They can all do the reload thing however.

Assuming they always save their brass, can/could they simply keep on reloading their ammo over and over again? Maybe they are not going to have access to modern higher quality propellant, but assuming they could get the 1630s equivalent, could they just load that shitty black powder into the rounds?

And assuming they could perhaps make better powder than that, how many times can you reload the same cartridge anyway? I would assume at some point the brass just wears out, right?

Where do these 1700s reloaders get new primers from?

The 1632 books actually go into this in some detail, at least in the offshoot Grantville Gazettes.  For primers I believe they ended up with potassium chlorate and some unsafe mercury fulminates.

[The Brain]

I only fire original military rounds.

[Malthus]

The 1632 books actually go into this in some detail, at least in the offshoot Grantville Gazettes.  For primers I believe they ended up with potassium chlorate and some unsafe mercury fulminates.

Hey, if they can make primers, maybe they can set up a smokeless powder factory. 

[The Brain]

So I just got done reading that alt-history 1632 book about a bunch of guys who go back in time from modern day West Virginia.

How did they tell?

[DGuller]

So I just got done reading that alt-history 1632 book about a bunch of guys who go back in time from modern day West Virginia.

How did they tell?

[DGuller]

If I were in place of those couple of guys, I would employ a system much like the one used in German concentration camps to control a large number of people with few numbers of your own.  After establishing such a fiefdom, I would put the highest priority on firearm R&D, to help along the firearm technology to the point where the natives cold produce the bullets for you.  Hopefully me and the fellow modern gun nuts would remember enough of modern technology to really give the captive natives a good head start.