Crazy times. Ammunition thread.

Stmar

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Daren that was funny I don't care who you are, Bambi made my day. I used up all my ammo during the Y2K zombie apocalypse and ruined all my guns shooting those critters. Had them recycled into Bud Light cans and have the evidence to prove it.
 
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armylifer

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Daren that was funny I don't care who you are, Bambi made my day. I used up all my ammo during the Y2K zombie apocalypse and ruined all my guns shooting those critters. Had them recycled into Bud Light cans and have the evidence to prove it.
Those must have been some cheap guns. If they were more expensive they would have been recycled into Foster's Lager cans. :)
 
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ccoon520

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it is widespread the shortage.. buy it when you see it
Or buy what you need and no more so that there is some for the next person. That way the shortage can come to an end quicker and the prices can come back down to a reasonable level.
 

leno1

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yeah i just buy stuff to shoot and keep my reserve in tact. I try not to pull from my reserve at all. So yeah leave some for others is a great way to do it for everyone
 

armylifer

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If you have ammo that is older and has the primers with mercury in them, that ammo will last a lot longer than the newer ammo and primers without mercury in them. I have inventoried ammo storage from WWII and the Korean war, and when we finally shot it there were zero misfires in thousands of rounds.

Something about the new primer compounds breaks down after several years in storage and we have experienced as much as 1% misfires with lots stored for more than 10 years.
 

D2Cat

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A little off topic. I was helping a neighbor load some steel for a run to the scrapper. He had some things I suggested had more then scrap value.

What is this target worth? It's 1/2" plate. 20" tall to top of back and 30" from butt to nose. I told him I'd put it on FB or CL to sell.

20210128_153602.jpg
 

armylifer

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A little off topic. I was helping a neighbor load some steel for a run to the scrapper. He had some things I suggested had more then scrap value.

What is this target worth? It's 1/2" plate. 20" tall to top of back and 30" from butt to nose. I told him I'd put it on FB or CL to sell.

View attachment 54083
I imagine that it is worth $1.00 per pound. That is what people are selling weights for out here. This may be worth a little less because it is more difficult to sell but he should be able to get at least $0.50 per pound for it.
 

RCW

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A little off topic. I was helping a neighbor load some steel for a run to the scrapper. He had some things I suggested had more then scrap value.

What is this target worth? It's 1/2" plate. 20" tall to top of back and 30" from butt to nose. I told him I'd put it on FB or CL to sell.

View attachment 54083
'Cat -

Been away from shooting a looong while, but looks like those 300m (500m?) silhouette targets popular 40 years ago?

Since I was shooting woodchucks (groundhogs) at 500m, hobby interested me.

Betting to the right shooter guy it'd bring a lot more than scrap....maybe $75, but that's a WAG.....

Some might like it just for yard decoration. Decorative stuff = $$...just ask my wife...

Add some time with a wire wheel, primer and paint....???
 

ccoon520

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A little off topic. I was helping a neighbor load some steel for a run to the scrapper. He had some things I suggested had more then scrap value.

What is this target worth? It's 1/2" plate. 20" tall to top of back and 30" from butt to nose. I told him I'd put it on FB or CL to sell.

View attachment 54083
Is it hardened steel? If it isn't it won't do much as a target most anything bigger than a .22 will go through it. If it is hardened, and you clean it up and add a layer of paint probably worth a good amount. Given 3/8" x 8" AR500 gongs are like 30 bucks new. This being larger, thicker, and animal shaped I wouldn't be surprised if you got $125.

As yard art maybe $50 as is.
 

dirtydeed

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Dcat - If its 1/2" plate, I doubt that it is AR500 steel. If it were, I'd guess in the $175 plus range as well. 1/2" AR 500 steel is tough stuff, capable of stopping large/fast rounds.

I shoot all AR500 steel targets and get them from here. https://shootingtargets7.com/

They don't have any animal silhouette but you can see that their large gongs can bring good money. I think their largest is 24" square in 3/8" AR 500 at about that same price.

I have lots of their targets. These are good folks that sell quality targets at a fair price if anyone is interested. My favorite is the IPSC Torso bullseye target. Everyone that shoots with me seems to love it too.

Incidentally, I came across a youtube video last night of a commercial (patent pending) alternative to reloading primers. There were 4 powders that came in a kit that you mix according to their instructions (using a little powder scoop that they provide). Supposedly works for rimfire and centerfire and the package was supposed to be good for approx 2000 rounds (they didn't specify what kind of round with that claim). Now, for the life of me I can't find the video or the name of the seller.

Edit: Found it. https://auctionarmory.com/shop/ammunition-reloading/reloading-supplies/prime-repriming-compound/

Youtube video:

has anyone tried it? do we have any guinea pigs here?
 
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D2Cat

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Thanks for the help. The steel was owned by a man who has a large steel business. It may be the AR steel. It has a "dimple" on one side that looks like it was shot with something powerful. Is there a test to determine the hardness of steel without shooting at it? Maybe it's just yard art, but he had 1760 # on the load and received $122, so yard art price is better!
 

Daren Todd

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Daren that was funny I don't care who you are, Bambi made my day. I used up all my ammo during the Y2K zombie apocalypse and ruined all my guns shooting those critters. Had them recycled into Bud Light cans and have the evidence to prove it.
Scary part is, we had a buck who decided to move in on a 2 acre farm lot across the street while he was getting rid of his horns.

He hung out there for a few weeks. Saw him hanging with the goats every night while walking the dog.

He left about a week after he lost his horns.

One night I saw him out there, then shined the light across my yard. Thats when I realized his girlfriend was in my back yard. 😂🤣😂🤣

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SidecarFlip

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So long as you can accept, 1. Exceptionally slow rate of manufacture and 2. Extremely high failure to ignite reliably, I guess all is good.

For me, I don't want to 'pull the trigger' and have a dud. That don't work for me at all.

There is a 3rd quantity at work and that is... I have more than enough commercial primers to last me the rest of my days here on earth and I don't feel the current shortage will be infinite anyway.
 

Nicfin36

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Things may be a bit different, but the shortages will ease. Although, I think there are more hurtles this time. Eventually supply will catch up with demand. Like SidecarFlip, I have enough shooting supplies to last the rest of my days. Anything I might want to buy now would be more an annoyance than a need.

But, the secret to all of this is to keep your cool. Don't panic buy. Let everyone else pay the inflated prices. When they all run out of money, supplies will return. prices will go down and then you can stock up.
 

ccoon520

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Thanks for the help. The steel was owned by a man who has a large steel business. It may be the AR steel. It has a "dimple" on one side that looks like it was shot with something powerful. Is there a test to determine the hardness of steel without shooting at it? Maybe it's just yard art, but he had 1760 # on the load and received $122, so yard art price is better!
You can do a hardness test on it. If you feel so inclined there are hardness testers on amazon that range from $75 for scratch testers to probably 30 grand.

You could also call a fab shop to see if they have a hardness tester and if they'd be willing to use it to check the hardness of the metal.

AR 500 has a Brinell Hardness of about 477-534
AR 450 has a Brinell Hardness of about 420-470
Grade 50 Steel has a Brinell Hardness of about 135
Mild steel sits at like 126

The scratch testers will usually have picks that follow the Mohs hardness scale up to maybe 7 or 8. You run the picks back and forth across the material starting at the lowest number. You move up in hardness until scratches start appearing on the surface. Once they do you know that the hardness is between those two values of Mohs hardness. There are conversion tables that will tell you what range of brinell you fall into from that but since Mohs is a range of 1-10 there will be quite a breadth that it will cover.

I doubt a fab shop would even charge you to check the hardness on the steel if it is a one time deal because it will take like 30 seconds. If they have a hardness tester usually it is an analog or digital dimple tester and it measures the hardness based on how much force is required to push a carbide (or harder) ball a certain depth into a piece of material. Which I believe outputs in Rockwell hardness if I remember right.

There are conversion tables for all of the scales and there are a bunch of different scales because hardness spans such a vast area that there isn't one testing method that will work across all of them.

Easiest way to tell if it is AR or not is to take a .45 APC and shoot it from 15-20 yards away. AR plate will just shatter the bullet, mild steel will fail in some way. I suggest if you are going to try and sell it aim for like the bottom of the foot or something just in case.
 

WFM

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I do business with a Maine Game Warden. Last fall before the election he told me the 2nd amendment gives us the right to keep and bear arms BUT says nothing about Ammunition. This is from a person in law enforcement that I respect. He said folks worry about gun control but fail to see the real issue and that the Ammunition. Wither being bought by the government or paid to not manufacture much like tabacco farmers get federal money to No plant those other 200 hundred acres in tabacco but plant something else. Its nothing he said that will ever be publicized but will just happen over time and I think the reality is setting in for many of us at least it is for me.
As far as scrap steel prices, here in Maine where I take scrap carbon steel is $.06 cents a pound and stainless is $.30 cents a pound. I just got in 15 sheets of stainless yesterday. Back in October 15 sheets cost me $1200. , yesterday the order was $1661. for the same order. I called the salesman to b@#$%h and cry and he said everything had gone up copper $.80 cents a pound in one month brass $.90 cents ect ect. Welcome to 2021.
 
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jabloomf1230

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I thought I'd follow up on my daughter's ammo dilemma. I hadn't heard from her about this in a while, so I texted her and asked her what she ended up doing because she shoots on a regular basis. She told me that she bartered boxes of Schwans chicken tenders and fries for 100 rounds of .22LR ammo.
 

armylifer

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I do business with a Maine Game Warden. Last fall before the election he told me the 2nd amendment gives us the right to keep and bear arms BUT says nothing about Ammunition. This is from a person in law enforcement that I respect. He said folks worry about gun control but fail to see the real issue and that the Ammunition. Wither being bought by the government or paid to not manufacture much like tabacco farmers get federal money to No plant those other 200 hundred acres in tabacco but plant something else. Its nothing he said that will ever be publicized but will just happen over time and I think the reality is setting in for many of us at least it is for me.
As far as scrap steel prices, here in Maine where I take scrap carbon steel is $.06 cents a pound and stainless is $.30 cents a pound. I just got in 15 sheets of stainless yesterday. Back in October 15 sheets cost me $1200. , yesterday the order was $1661. for the same order. I called the salesman to b@#$%h and cry and he said everything had gone up copper $.80 cents a pound in one month brass $.90 cents ect ect. Welcome to 2021.
Look at this court case from last April. In essence, being able to buy ammo is a right tied to the 2nd amendment. There are other case that have been decided around the country but I figure the California case is most relevant because it came from the most liberal state in the Union.