Professor Thump Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 This is not religious nor GC nutty. I am just happy to have breeched the gap, because I was sweating bullets. I bought a house in Indy 6 years ago, when I moved back from the great fruit state. I stuck all my cash into the house that I had profited from the previous house, thinking this was the best investment and that I would not spend it. We bought a new house which was a first for me in the 10 or so houses I have bought in my 50 years of living. It had been on the market for 6 months which at the time was odd. I also negotiated the price which was unusual for a new home. Once were were in the home certain things became known that should have been buyer beware. I won't go into all the details to bore you but I probably won't buy a new house again because of all the hidden expenses. One of the issue that cropped up was the water well. We are on the outskirts of Indy in an addition that was a soybean farm field. Our well was a bucket well which is rather expensive and is basically a last ditch effort to find water IMHO. (no pun intended) The is basically a caldron which holds surface water. Once or twice a year during major construction builds it would turn to a dark brown mud. It must have been due to the construction because now that everyone upstream is done building we haven't had an issue. Some research into this area showed that there are water shortages everywhere in the county due to the lack of leaching. The water runs parallel to the ground. Every other builder had drilled one or two dry wells before hitting water. My next door neighbor drilled 5 wells before he stopped several of them were bucket wells. (mucho pesso's) I had become concerned. What if the well dried up? What was the value to this house? Zilch would be my guess. Since then the well has run pure for several years and my concerns have moved onto more mundane maintenance problems which is good. I guess. Well by now you may know that I bought a new pistol for my son and I to shoot, but to my surprised I could not find much ammo. I had cased the Wally worlds and Dick's Sport for days on end but could not find 9mm or 38 ammo for sale. Long story short the prices are triple what they were 1 year ago so I had decided to reload after my wife's suggestion. I haven't reloaded in 20 years. I use to shoot trap regularly and would reload 12 gauge every week. I started reloading at age 16 so I could shoot more on my teenage budget. Since then I had gotten busy having a family, going to school, and chasing the dollar. But I digress... Working with Andy W to get reloading supplies I found out that you couldn't even buy primers or bullets for handguns! Wow, what is going on? Well between the CCI recall, increase in demand in Africa and the scare in the USA there hasn't been much availability for primers. This week Andy got a notification of primers available from Widener. Evidently 40 million primers were shipped here by Wolf and just arrived on the US shores. I don't know how many Widener's received but in 30 hours or so they were out of stock. Now they are not even taking calls and will ship your orders with in 1 week. Do you think they were busy? Wow! Luckily we got our order placed. These primers should last us several years. So I guess I can shoot my new XD but there was a point there where I wasn't sure I was going to find water for my pump. I hope you got yours... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Was there a connection between the house well and lack of primers and I just missed it? Miscellaneous grievances[*-)] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ69 Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 I've got city water and all the primers you might need. If you are ever out this way, bring a bucket and a bag and I'll set you up! Thanx, Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Can't help you with the primers but I'm sitting on top of a 100 gallon/minute well... I'm willing to share if you're willing to drive. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Thump Posted July 18, 2009 Author Share Posted July 18, 2009 Was there a connection between the house well and lack of primers and I just missed it? Miscellaneous grievances This was my attempt at creative writing where the water was anologus to ammunition and the pump to a gun. Sorry if this didn't come accross that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 lol, it's ok P-Thump...you're an engineer [] I was failing my last English class in college until the prof found out I was an engineer...she turned my F turned into an A after she found out [] I think you'd get an A in her book too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldenough Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Prof, I guess this may say a lot about me...but I did see a connection....[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Was there a connection between the house well and lack of primers and I just missed it? Miscellaneous grievances This was my attempt at creative writing where the water was anologus to ammunition and the pump to a gun. Sorry if this didn't come accross that way. You're much more of a creative writer than I am a creative reader[Y] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winchester21 Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Primers are gone. kaput. none to be had. A few 209 shotgun primers- an essential ingerdent for clay bird shooter/reloaders. The gun shows always have a few at the opening bell but after a mad dash by the early birds- they are gone. There was a run of bad primers that started this mess- according to rumors- which had the domino effect to wipe out ammo supplies. Once again- enjoy your posts- Let American freedom ring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMcGoo Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Primers are very tricky to manufacture. Modern requirements take the lead out of the primers so range officers do not die of lead poisoning. I have many old lead based primers from Winchester. They work reliably decades after manufacture. Reloading was one of my hobbies. People that do this are advised to do their homework or the shooter may end up wearing schrapnel. Not all data manuals have correct data in them. The powder manufacturers have the most reliable data. I can relate to Thumps water tale. Our community well didn't work well at all till it was taken over by a water district with a civil engineer running it. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted July 18, 2009 Moderators Share Posted July 18, 2009 Only one question what is..." when I moved back from the great fruit state ", I don't want to guess I could only think of two or three states. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winchester21 Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 I shot pistol matches until my eves went south.Did a bunch of reloading of .45- .40- 9MM- 44 mag-38 Spl- 357 mag- 30-06- 300 Win mag-270- 7MM-08- 308- 7MM mag-338 Win mag- 243- 22-250- 41 mag-280- 280 improved Ackley and 6 or 7 more that I have forgot about. Personally- i used both the bullet and the powder books. I like Speer- Hornady- lyman- Sierra and The Winchester ball powder data for handguns. The Nosler book was the gold standard for rifle ammo. i always found that I was not using the same book between calibers. i would pick a load that had a good muzzle velocity and decent pressure data- start 10% from the max and work up from there. You can examine your primers for signs of excessive pressure. if the primer is completely flattenned and flowing out onto the brass- back off. It will become apparent what is acceptable as you progress with your process. I tended to avoid low volume or "hot Powders" in favor of slower burning "Bulk" powders which typically have a flatter pressuer curve and are safer overall. Also- You eliminate the possibility of a double charge with bulk powders where it can happen with a hot powder such as bullseye or (red dot) when used for handgun applications. I would reccomend a Dillon progerssive press such as the 550 or the 650. not cheap but yopu can load 1000 rounds fast and be done with it. If you have to grind through the drudgery of using a single stage press- such as an RCBS rock chucker(great for rifle ammo) you will get bored and stop loading. I finally sold my stuff to make room for audio equipment- not knowing what was to come with this mess that we are now in. Please feel free to e-mail me or pm me with any questions or suggestd loads. My ammo was always first class and I had people begging me to load rifle ammo for them. My rifle ammo consistantly grouped under 1/2 " at 100 yds. i made some 400 yd plus hunting harvests which I attributre more to my ammo than my skill as a rifleman. Reloading is cool stuff- factory ammo is now as good as reloaded stuff- but there is none available. Enjoy your new hobby. I have 30 years expierence in reloading- please let me know if there is anything that can do to help you get started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy W Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 When Thump came and told me he was thinking of reloading, I said, "Good luck finding primers, I've seen two boxes in 8 months, and he wanted $60!" Ammo prices over the last several years have been so low I couldn't afford to reload... meaning I could buy 9mm on sale for $7.50/50. A few months ago the only 9mm around was $35/50. Same for .40 - I was paying <$12/50... well on the most recent batch it cost me ~$18/100 plus the time, and I wasn't buying bulk... a couple hundred at a time maybe, so I just used WWB instead. Then a couple years ago, lead and copper prices went through the roof and .40 crept up to ~$16/50... time to start reloading again. Last fall I started looking for small pistol primers again, since I was down to about 300, enough for one more batch but only 100 bullets... but I was too late. The primers were gone and the only bullets left anywhere to be found are plated and lead. The price of plated went way up, and I can't bring my self to shoot lead in my autos. (I generally load lead in my revolvers, I can't tell you why I have the hangup. It would cut my loading costs almost in half.) No way I was going to pay HazMat for a single box of primers - that would double my costs! It was pointless anyway, since they on backorder eveywhere and people were buying anything they could get their hands on. I missed my chance for couple boxes up in Lafayette, cuz I didn't want to bother my sister to go pick them up for me. Then along comes Prof. Thump... and a message that primers are in stock... hmmm... "Hey, primers are in stock! Wanna go halfies on a HazMat?" Got some powder on order too, but the pickings were slim... the ONLY choices were 2400 and American Select. So I got some 2400 and Thump got a little of both. The HazMat ended up costing me a bit over a $1 for each item, so that was tolerable. Do you think bullet prices will ever come back down to $12/100? I've got 100 .40's, a few hundred .30's and a few hundred .45 Colt bullets and then I'm out. It's a shame, I really need the practice with the .40. The .45 Colt is just for fun, and most of the .38's get used when I teach a class, but the .40 is what I like to shoot... who knows maybe I should switch to 9mm and get some use out of that conversion barrel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Thump Posted July 19, 2009 Author Share Posted July 19, 2009 Thanks for the offer Winchester. I will certainly want to consult with the expert. It has been a long time since I was reloading so I am looking forward to it. Andy has been a big help in finding the right stuff to keep shooting. I have had some random luck at Wally's World finding ammo which is as good as prices are gonna get but my luck is about 10% of the time I can find 38's or 9mm available. I feel fortunate that Andy found small pistol primers. He also bird dogged 9mm Blazer ammo. I paid $14 a box and bought a case. It seems awful high for aluminum casings but I was down to my last 100 rounds which wasn't going to last long in my XD. It is too easy to shoot a clip, then a box then...well you get the idea. I would love to find a place to compete in combat targets or some form of knockdowns. Of course speed rounds are expensive now to compete in, since ammo has tripled in price, but some training in speed shooting techniques are essential for real life simulations. My biggest challenge that I am noticing compared to my earlier days of trap shooting is my declining eyesight. I am using progressive lenses so I need to lift my head higher than normal to focus on the sights. Maybe I should just focus on the target and ignore my blurry sights. I did notice that the XD9m I shot had bigger brighter sights which seemed to help me sight. I need to work on that but I know there isn't much that I can do at my age. As long as I can work on my body memory for nearfield targeting everything else is cake. I say this because any intruder situation would be 10 feet or so. In another thread I think I will talk about CCW tactics. Where does the gun go when you need to leave it in the car? etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winchester21 Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 I throw the HK USP 40 in the fromt boot of my porsche when I leave the vehicle. I carry the S&W 357 titanium snubbie in my pocket regardless of what the signs say. If i would feel compelled to use it the carry violation penalties would pale in comparison to the options. A hiding place rigged ito the bottom of the seat general works because you are dealing with lower life forms of low IQ who generally break into cars. Most pistol thefts from cars involve leaving the piece loose under the seats or in a glove box. NEVER NEVER hide you gun in a glove box. Inviting disaster. Declining eyesight is an issue for target work but not for instinct combat shooting(the top of your front sight is your best friend). I shoot a SCO Perazzi for clay targets. i hesitate to put on of those ugly @ssed green sights on the front of such a beautiful pirce but the handwriting is on the wall. Can't hit the tagrets if you cant see the front of the barrel along with a clay bird traveling 60 MPH. As for combat target games here's my drill- set up . I set up 9 standard paper Police type man sized paper targets. one othe right- one on the letf and one in the center. The shooter walks from station to sattion with 3 targets per station. A second person walks behind calls a number for one of the 3 targets-(or 2 of the 3 targets) in a certain order with a predetermined nimber of rounds. Shots are fired at the called targets. Shoter never knows which target willl be called, the targets are scored at the end. bragging rites and trash talk follows. Loser buys the beer or cokes after the match. this can be done from weapon at the side or holstered depending on skill levels. All this takes is a bunch of bullets- several shooters- a place to shoot and some targets. Real skill and confidence builder. Or a vehicle to humilation. FUN!! i do this with my 2 sons and friends. There is also IPSC- Bowling pin matches if you want to take it a step further which involves joining a gun club. This type of shooting is a great family activity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winchester21 Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 hey - Just for grins- put this site in your routine- ammoman.com. we have scored some cases of 9mm and 45. hit and miss like every where else.Midway has pretty much been out of stock on everything except 500 Linebaugh lately. For some reason 22 mag has been available. Thinking about buying one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ69 Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 As Winchester says, keep the front sight in focus, everything else is blurry. You can use a blinder with a pin hole, that will increase the depth of field. Good shootin'. Thanx, Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 so this is NOT about water then? [:^)], are you saying that without bullets our country is worth zilch or that if your shells get muddy you can't stay home? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Thump Posted July 19, 2009 Author Share Posted July 19, 2009 so this is NOT about water then? , are you saying that without bullets our country is worth zilch or that if your shells get muddy you can't stay home? You hit that nail right on the head Michael with a pump shotgun at short range. Without ammo it is hard to tell if you hit your target. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winchester21 Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 I quit college to sell water wells - my first sales job- small world Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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