Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Busy

So I have been quite the industrious little prepper. Yesterday I went for a drive up to Kittery Trading Post up in Maine. Was such a beautiful day yesterday with clear skies and a mild 40 degrees. I ordered a few items from amazon and they came in today. I stocked up on more food, and even got in the surgical stapler kit from Cabelas I mentioned a while ago.

So up in Kittery I bought a few things. I picked up additional reloading supplies for my .308 Winchester, including case neck brushes and a sweet primer pocket cleaner from Lee. A $1.89
very well spent as that little tool does an awesome job. I picked up some bulk primers and some 168gr. ballistic tip bullets. Although $30 for 50 bullets, these are supposed to be the cat's meow for hunting. I was disappointed they didn't have the new Nosler 168gr. ballistic tip, but oh well.

I finally got some broadheads for my cedar arrows too. I didn't get carbon shafts because they are two separate models for the compound and recurve bow. I would buy the tougher ones for the recurve and use them in my compound, but they were out of stock.

I also picked up everything I need to start hand loading .45ACP. I got primers, powder and 230gr lead round nose bullets. I've been shopping for JHP's so I can make my own combat ammo, but so far no luck. Guess I need to shop online, although the LRN round would make a mess of anyone dumb enough to come in the house and attack me.

I tried to pick up the supplies for making my own buckshot, but sorry to say, I failed. The wads needed for me to turn my skeet hulls into buckshot are not available. Now I'm going to look into buying all the components: hulls, wads, and shot, and making it myself that way. I'll keep everyone posted. In the meantime I have ~500 .45ACP bass I scavenged to keep my occupied. I have 15 rounds loaded at the minimum load to see how that shoots, then work my way up to the maximum. I am using Unique powder. I know it's dirty as a whore's ass or a sailor's mouth, but it's cheap and it works. My Sig is so easy to clean it's not that big of a deal.

I'm still leaning to a slow slide so that's why I'm focused on the .45 ammo. There is a much higher chance of my carrying around a pistol to protect myself than my shotgun. I can walk the streets and draw minimal attention to myself with a pistol, but I'd be an obvious target with the shotty.

So I also got the regular mason jar sealing attachment thingy for my Foodsaver. I did find some 1 pint jars, and I'm going to put spices in some of them, then vacuum them up to keep the spices fresh. I also bought more bags, since they were on sale. I love my foodsaver, and if you want one cheap then go to survivalblog and look at the bottom of each post, he has the link and code you need there.

I also bought two books. The first, "The Encylopedia of Country Living" is just too handy not to have. I know squat about a lot of things, and this will help me fill in the gaps. I also broke down and bought Rawles book "Patriots!" I'll read it next and let you know what I think.

Tomorrow is new years eve, and I hope everyone will have a safe and happy new year. Don't forget tomorrow, along with St. Patrick's Day, is amature night. All the idiots who don't know how to drink go out and go wild. I'll probably be home, unless I score a ticket for the Mighty Mighty Bosstone's Hometown Throwdown.

2 comments:

Shy Wolf said...

Happy New Year to you, too, Nat.
Shy

Western Mass. Man said...

Natog,
have you compared the price for reloading vs. new ammo?
I did very little research into it and what I found was, it's too expensive to reload .308.
I think I remembered 168 gr. ballistic tips were almost 1.00 per bullet at Midway.com.
How did you make out?