This announcement was posted on March 1st by NKON, a large supplier of batteries in the Netherlands. (Link goes to FB so you might need to login to see it there.)
Most of my lithium battery supply is from Battery Junction. I've found that they often have better deals than Amazon.
This video from Paul Harrell provides a good comparison between round balls and conicals in percussion revolvers (in this case fired from a Ruger Old Army).
A few comments:
The conicals he used appear to have been cast from a Lee mold. They are similar in form to modern round nosed bullets that have been loaded in cartridges since the late 19th Century.
Conical bullets used in cap and ball revolvers in the 1850s and 1860s were generally more pointed. This would increase penetration but reduce terminal effectiveness because the bullet would be more prone to slip through tissue rather than punching a larger diameter hole.
Nowadays, more effective conical designs are available, intended for hunting, e.g. Kaido Ojaama's design, which has a wide, flat meplat.
In his book Sixguns, Elmer Keith recounted that Civil War veterans that he knew as a boy stated that round balls were more effective for antipersonnel use than the pointed conicals of the period.
We are forecast to get up to over a foot of snow and sleet here in Southeastern Pennsylvania. I just got inside from opening the locks to my sheds so they don't freeze shut, and putting gas in my snow blower. I keep gas in military surplus jerrycans.
This battery operated pump works really well for transferring gasoline from a can into the fuel tank of a generator, snow blower, or whatever without making a mess. I bought one in October and have used it a few times now. I wish I had one years ago.
Last week I ordered 5 boxes of Hornady .454 round balls from Track of the Wolf. I got my order today, but only 1 box, with the rest cancelled, with a note that they cannot backorder balls.
So I checked out Midway. Hornady .454s are gone, no backorder. They did have Speer in stock so I ordered 10 boxes at $9.99 each.
That should keep me set for a while. I have a Lee .454 ball mold but it's either oversize or the alloy I used last time has some tin in it, because the balls dropped at .456 - .457. That's OK for my Ruger Old Army but unnecessarily hard to load in my Remingtons and Rogers & Spencer.
The online sources for black powder that I've checked have been depleted. I still have a decent supply from a bulk order from several years back.
Percussion caps have also been difficult to buy in the past couple of months. I was able to get a 2,500 count box of RWS #107+ caps last week from Midway, so I'm set for a while. Midway is now out of stock for all caps.
I'm still waiting to receive the percussion cap maker that I ordered at the start of the month from 22LRreloader.com.
I have a sneaking suspicion that more than a few preppers have added a cap and ball revolver or two to their arsenals. Although obsolete since the 19th Century, they are still deadly weapons and when setup and loaded correctly, they are a reliable for six shots. On top of that, in most states they are available legally without completing any paperwork or submitting to a background check.
Most contemporary shooters load their cap and ball revolvers with cap and ball. However, in the 19th Century, especially in the Civil War, they were commonly loaded with combustible paper cartridges. These allow you to load them a lot faster and reduce the amount of gear required for you to take to the range or the field for a shooting session.
I modified another 5 cases today in my lathe. I loaded those and the 5 I modified yesterday with 4.4 grains of Unique, a CCI LPP, and a .358 160 grain LSWC from Matt's Bullets. I also loaded another 50 in unmodified brass using Sellier & Bellot SPPs.
The round on the left is an unmodifed case. The 2 on the right are modified.
You'll note that there is still plenty of brass around the large primer.
I should be able to try them next weekend.
Today I wanted to fire up the DuroMax XP4850EH dual-fuel generator I bought in September. I ran it on propane after I bought it, and it started immediately on that try. My intention has been to mainly rely on propane, so I left the host and regulator connected to it and coiled up.
When I pulled it out of storage today and connected a full propane tank, it would turn over but not start. Much cussing ensued.
I tried another battery, in case the one that came with it had drained too much to start the engine. No dice.
I pulled the spark plug. It had a very little bit of dirt on it. I replaced the spark plug (setting the gap first). No dice.
I then decided to try it with gasoline. I used a battery-powered transfer pump to put some gas from a jerrycan into the tank.
And guess what, it started right up. I ran it for about 10 minutes. I then turned it off and used the pump to put most of the gas back in the jerrycan. Then I started it again and ran it dry, which took about an hour.
My theory is that there's something wrong with the propane regulator. It might be clogged. I'm going to see if I can blow it out, or get a replacement. I should have covered the regulator with a plastic bag and sealed it, but failed to do so. Learn from my mistake.
I'm just glad that I discovered this before I needed it.
One of the things I've preached on this blog is that when times are good, you should stock up on items that will be hard to get during a panic. One of those things is a good supply of primers if you're a reloader.
Last Fall, I bought a case of 5,000 CCI Large Pistol Primers. I use LPPs for loading .38-40, .44-40, and Magtech brass shotgun shells. If I ever get around to loading .45 Colt I'll use LPPs for them as well.
For loading .38 Special, .357 Magnum, 9mm, and .32 S&W and .32 S&W Long, and .32 H&R Magnum, I need Small Pistol Primers.
Guess who forgot to stock up on SPPs before the panic hit? Guess what is virtually impossible to find now?
<sigh>
Before the COVID-19/race riots/election year panic set in, I thought I had around 5K SPPs. In reality, I have about half that.
Shit.
So, a few weeks ago I wondered if it would be possible to convert .38 Special brass to accept LPPs. I did some research online and found that in fact, there used to be factory loaded .38 and .357 ammo which used LPPs.
Since LPPs may contain a bit more priming compound than SPPs, if you do this, reduce any maximum or near-max loads by 10% and work on up.
This page has a chart listing the minimum and maximum dimensions of both primers and primer pockets.
To modify the primer pockets I used a .210" chucking reamer with a stop collar on it to set the depth. The stop collar was made from 1/2" 6061 aluminum rod. It's held in place with an M4 screw I had in one of my miscellaneous parts bins.
To use it, I chucked deprimed a .38 Special case in the lathe and held the reamer in a drill chuck in the lathe's tailstock.
Note that because in a lathe the workpiece rotates, not the cutting tool, I don't need to be concerned about the stop collar being unbalanced due to the set screw sticking out.
I found that because of the small clearances, brass chips built up between the head of the case and the collar. I had to withdraw in several times per case to clear the chips with a brush and pick. It was slow going.
But eventually, I converted five cases to accept large pistol primers. To test, I seated CCI LPPs. They seated easily, maybe a little too easily. It might be better to use a .209" diameter reamer because .210" is the maximum for large primers.
I plan to do another 5 cases tomorrow and then load them will mild charges so I can test them on my next trip to the range.
During the Obama-era panic, some of the primer shortfall was made up by imported primers. I'm hoping that the same will happen this time around.
And you can be damn sure I won't be caught short again.
Last weekend I primed 25 Magtech brass 12 gauge shotgun shells and on my lunch break today I finished loading them. The details:
Magtech hulls require the use of oversized components because the case walls are thinner than 12 gauge plastic or paper hulls.
The felt wads were punched out of 1/8" thick wool felt with a .75" punch, then soaked in a mixture of 50/50 beeswax/mutton tallow. This is to help keep powder fouling soft.
The shot is a mix of plated that I bought from Rotometals, along with some unplated shot scavenged from miscellaneous promo loads. No. 7.5 shot is primarily for clay busting but it will work on doves, as well. Otherwise I'd load No. 5s for small game hunting.
I'll let the Duco cement cure overnight before boxing them up.
These will be good for informal clay target shooting. They shoot well in my Russian-made Baikal MP-310 over/under. Cleanup in a chrome-lined smoothbore isn't bad.
The week before Labor Day, my electrician finally completed installation of a generator transfer switch in my house. Afterwards, he saw the Champion generator that I'd bought on sale at Cabela's several years ago and pointed out that I needed one that outputs 240V, so that I can power both legs of my home's wiring. The Champion puts out 120V only.
<sigh>
I will be donating the Champion to a friend's Civil Air Patrol squadron, which can use it for a mobile communications center they are building.
So, last week I ordered a DuroMax XP4850EH dual fuel (gasoline/propane) generator from Amazon. A friend has this model, has used it during power failures, and recommended it. It was about $707 on Prime and came on Saturday.
For anyone in CA, it's CARB-compliant, BTW.
It arrived damaged. One corner of the box had been smashed in then taped up. Upon inspecting the generator, a sheet metal cover was dented and the frame was scuffed. Nothing major appeared to be broken, so I went ahead and installed the wheels and feet.
Yesterday I added 20 oz. of 10W30 motor oil, connected the battery, and connected a propane tank for a test run. It fired right up. At least on propane, it seems a little quieter than my old Champion, which is nice.
Afterwards, I was able to get ahold of a human at Amazon, explained the situation, and asked for a credit since it was a scratch and dent. I did not ask for a specific amount. After waiting a few minutes on hold, the CSR came back and offered me a credit of $262.55, with the option of an Amazon gift card or putting it back on VISA. Heck yeah! I told her to put it back on my VISA.
My plan is to primarily rely on propane to fuel the generator. I can keep a few propane tanks around easily. Propane has an indefinite storage life and isn't as messy as gas. It doesn't pack as many BTUs as an equivalent amount of gasoline and the generator's output is lower with it, but if I know a hurricane is coming I can also go out and fill a couple of five gallon jerrycans with gas. The longest power outage that we've had that I can recall was about two days. <knock wood>
But I have an even better story from a friend. About 5 or 6 years ago, he bought a generator from Amazon. When it arrived, it did not work. This was during the holiday shopping season. He contacted Amazon to do an exchange and they told him to just keep it, and then they sent him a replacement.
He did some googling, figured out what part he needed to fix the bad generator, and got it up and running for $12.
He wound up with two generators for the price of one + $12.
Last Saturday when I got up to our campsite in Tioga County my two friends who I met onsite smelled antifreeze from my 2007 Nissan Xterra after I pulled into camp. My sense of smell sucks, to put it mildly, and I didn't smell anything. We popped the hood and after the engine cooled down, checked the antifreeze level. Sure enough it was low. One of my friends had a gallon of premix so we topped it off. (Given the age of the vehicle I should have been carrying some.)
We also noticed that a hose going from air cleaner to the engine was cracked. I'm now carrying some Rescue Tape (self-fusing silicone tape) in my truck toolkit in case any other hoses crack.
The joys of owning an older vehicle. 😐
Yesterday, I brought the truck to a local mechanic who confirmed that it has a leak, so I had him replace the radiator. It must have been a very small leak since the truck didn't overheat either way on the trip (about 240 miles each way).
I've actually been thinking of getting this done to prevent the Xterra Strawberry Milkshake of Death from happening, anyway. The Xterras were designed with an automatic transmission fluid cooler integrated with the radiator. Unfortunately, sometimes there's a failure which allow cross-contamination between antifreeze and ATF fluid, causing the SMOD, which kills the transmission. It's both a clever and dumb design.
Although my truck is 13 years old it only has 110,000 miles on it, so I'd like to keep it for several more years, therefore replacing the radiator is worth it to me.
Lately I've recently been paying more attention to my M1 Carbines and so watched this nice video on the Forgotten Weapons YouTube channel with Ken Hackathorn discussing the M1 Carbine:
Today I loaded up 25 rounds of 20 gauge shells for potential use as short range deer hunting loads. They consist of:
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