Monday, October 16, 2017

revisiting rimfire


REVISITING RIMFIRE
*
note: I noticed my reader numbers suddenly jumped again.  I want to try an experiment to answer my theory.  Ready?  PEAK OIL.  PEAK OIL IS REAL.  We Are Running Out!  EROI!!!!  We are all going to die from energy contraction! Danger, danger Will Robinson!!!  If I'm right, the mere mention of Peak Oil will drive away all the Princess Pussy Preppers and my numbers will drop.  Let's see, shall we?
*
Second in an informal series.

Ah, the fury minions hath wrought.  I love my minions.  Because, first, they are mine.  And second,  where else can one find less asshatery or douchebagness than right here?  And, most importantly, they force me to think and not remain resting upon my laurels.  Which as we all know are many and varied.  If my minions insist the rimfire was too easily dismissed than who am I to disagree ( even though I have no problem disagreeing with the common love of the AR, MRE’s, freeze dried and other assorted tomfoolery.  Okay, not disagreeing with their possession but their common usage.  I simply urge restraint and common sense application, not complete and utter avoidance )?

*

You all thought I was done with rambling sentences and long asides, after I switched over to shorter articles and shorter paragraphs, didn’t you?  HA!  Anyway, I’ve never been opposed to the rimfire as a survival weapon, just the lack of affordable ammunition during the last near decade.  It made absolutely no sense to use a small 22 when for less price you could use the 9mm.  However, for now at least, it seems rimfire is back to being affordable.  It could last a month, it could last the next two years.  No one knows.  If you are going to consider rimfire for either a Forever Gun or even your Primary Post-Apocalypse Gun, you are a Gott Damn Fool if you do not buy all your rimfire Right Friggin Now.

*

At this moment, as we speak, rimfire is one nickel.  That is 5 cents compared to 3 cents for a center fire primer.  If you do not buy now, a minimum of five thousand rounds at a time, everything I say about rimfires is null and void.  Rimfire is completely worthless without cheap, affordable and well stocked ammunition.  I can guess why rimfire is now cheap, and it has nothing to do with Trump being elected.  Building and manufacturing in China, as well as most other places, has come to a screaming halt ( well, that would be relative ) and finally there is no more high demand for copper as there was ( high demand mated to Peak Copper some time ago, with a three-some including high oil prices ).  Brass is now cheaper ( lead and primer chemicals as well as powder isn’t/wasn’t as expensive or as subject to shortages as the copper ).

*

But the fact that rimfire is now cheap doesn’t mean it will stay cheap.  Every swinging dingus minion out there wants to ignore Peak PetroDollar.  I know you’all do so don’t bother denying it.  Don’t deny being in denial.  The simple fact is, in a globalized trade paradigm, in an instant anything can cease being imported.  Everything is cheap because our colonies accept worthless paper to send us real goods.  Once that agreement stops, all affordable goods end.  If they are even shipped here in the first place.  You either stock deep now or you forever hold your peace ( the same applies to steel case ammunition ).

*

Why am I being such a tightwad cheap frugal bastard?  Because without dirt cheap rimfire you can’t practice and if you can’t practice you can’t hit a fly in the ass at long distances.  And shot placement is critical with a low power rimfire.  Now, I’m NOT talking about plinking.  Plinking is just wasting a bunch of ammo sending lead down range for the sheer joy of it.  Something we all used to be able to do.  I’m talking about actual practice hitting your target with every shot.  NOT shooting the crap out of the target.  If you are going to do that, just go back to the shotgun.

*

You don’t have to waste a hundred rounds a weekend.  You might be trying to justify the long drive out to the boonies to shoot, but if you take your time and treat each round as the expensive luxury it just was, you can go shoot twenty rounds and keep in shape with your skills.  But that dollar isn’t why you are so concerned with the cost of the ammunition.  It certainly helps that shooting every weekend costs less than a Starbucks coffee, but also as important is the fact you are shooting MORE expensive rounds each weekend.  You just bought ten or fifteen or twenty thousand rounds.  That is your stockpile.  You go buy retail for your weekly range sessions.

*

You NEVER shoot your apocalypse stockpile for practice ( you can rotate, just don’t deplete ).  What if the supply suddenly dries up again, or it cost fifteen cents a round again?  But since the cost is so drastically reduced now, you can go a long time practicing at incrementally increasing retail costs without being forced to stop.  That has to be your mental outlook.  Just as you don’t buy an SUV just because the gas price is cheap this year, you don’t assume rimfire will stay cheap.  But since it is, now, you can plan around its eventual return to being problematic.  And, yes, you could do this with another weapon system.  But your initial mastery and follow-up practice will suffer since the cost of practice is so much higher.

*

Initial stockpiling is just as important as practice, obviously.  I know few people, not running in those rarified circles, who could easily stock ten thousand rounds of 223.  Plus shoot more every weekend.  Is the round anemic?  Of course.  Granted, steers and Mafia victims fall to the rimfire every day.  At point blank range, sure, you have a very lethal round.  At a hundred yards out, not so much.  But then we return to shot placement.  You hit the right spot, it is a kill shot even if it isn’t an immediately incapacitating one.  And, remember, you chose this over a shotgun to get better range.  A hundred yards out, you can flee and avoid your still reeling target.  Let him bleed out in good time.

*

Every scenario others envision where the rimfire sucks is where you are acting defensively rather than offensively.  No one should be firing from a building with a rimfire if the return fire shreds the wall with higher powered rounds and kills you.  It isn’t a gun to bring to a gunfight when you two face down on the street.  It is a guerrilla and ambush weapon.  A mobile weapon, and to be used offensively.  Tomorrow, we’ll continue with how and what to use in a rimfire arsenal.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2yb2Ien )
 
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )
*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me a buck and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184
*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.***   Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

 

20 comments:

  1. I'm talking about the highest rated CCI .22 rds in 1000 rd chunks at this link: https://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/cci-rimfire-22lr-mini-mag-40-grain-1000-rounds?a=1592305

    The advertised price is $76.99 per 1000 rds (8 cents per rd) for non-members like me, but add on tax of $5.39 plus shipping of $13.99 and you get up to $97.35 or 10 cents per round.

    There's cheaper stuff but lower rated.

    My Marline model 66 (the purty one with black stock and silver metal) is semi-auto tube feed and will hold 16 rds and it jas a 10x Simmons silver scope. Put a sand bag under the barrel and it can pierce ears at 100 yds all day long, and as fast as you can pull the trigger. Downside? Tube feeds take a long time to load. Gonna git me a Ruger 10/20 and a big box full os spare mags. Maybe even a couple of them 100 rd drums.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomorrow I talk about my displeasure with high cap mags. Takeaway: you waste ammo because it is cheaper, why even go with a rimfire in the first place?

      Delete
    2. As you shoot a gun more and more you become more and more comfortable and you control it rather than it controlling you. Simple fact. The more you do stuff the better you get. For some reason you don't like to shoot guns and prefer being a novice. Your choice.

      I realize that guns may some day save my life and I take them seriously. I practice with them frequently and I shoot them pretty good. Frankly, even in the novice period of my youth and in several circumstances where nerves of steel were required I never seen any of this *panic shooting* you keep lamenting. Is it just made up, or spurred by too much Hollywood exposure?

      Delete
    3. Thoughts on lever action .22?

      The Henry is roughly the same price as a bolt action.

      Delete
    4. My preference is bolts, but I can't say one way or another if they are better than levers.

      Delete
    5. GS-the panic shooting is based on police and military reports, as well as studies on brain chemicals and stress. You'll recall the minions just mentioned both the police investigator reports on shooting incidences and the Oz gator shooting video. Yes, I choose to stay a novice shooter. My limited funds go to other preparedness choices. I also know for every one of you, I'll be facing 99 other novices.

      Delete
  2. Since you mention guerilla, I'm pretty convinced the next trend in what people will do to survive (which is something different from "survivalism") will see a resurgence of DIY weapons.

    I read somewhere that Hubert Selby Jr (who wrote "Reqiuem for a Dream" and "Last Exit to Brooklyn") mentionned that poor urban people would jury-rig firearms with whatever tubes and parts they could find or afford.

    Right now the firearms retail business is not doing that great. People have less money, and those who have money already have all the guns they could possibly want. Once the crisis hits, hard, the best-case scenario is that there is a store somewhere in the capital city that still sells guns. The worst-case is that there will not be any stores still open in an extremley wide radius because of the catastrophic crash of solvent demand.

    That would mean you would not find anything at any normal price (if you are still solvent). If you still find a seller, (black market) then prepare for extreme price gouging.

    It would then make sense for a lot of people to build up their own weapons with bits of pipe. And .22LR is the most forgiving round there is for such risky adventures (pen guns etc.). This is also a good backup solution if your firearm is destroyed, stolen etc. (as an example, remember what Elisabeth Shue did to the shotgun in the movie "The Trigger Effect").

    If you have to jury-rig a weapon for which you still have ammo, .22LR is the way to go (also because the bullet has the same diameter as the case). Much harder to do with 7,62x39 or .223 (chamber dimensions, pressure etc.), somewhat feasible with shotshells (slam fire etc.) but then with much less control.

    Still in a guerilla perspective where everybody else is your enemy, .22LR is a very hideable round.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True, the 22 is a much more forgiving round in makeshift weapons. I haven't thought about that for many years-somehow got the Kurt Saxon SlamBang stuck in my mind. But all the improvised weapons book talk about 22 zipguns. Given the cost of the 410 shotshells-ouch!-the 22 is far more ideal.

      Delete
    2. Many years ago when we were teenagers, my brother machined a .22LR from my father’s lathe. It was a little thicker than a ball point pin if I recall, but not quite as long. The back unscrewed to load/reload, and it had a small pull bolt and a button trigger. No safety on this one, but you could add one easily enough. He remote test fired it and it worked well. Really, quite an impressive feat of engineering for a kid.

      I didn’t inherit this mechanical talent from my father, though I did just recently receive the home made guns/ammo book that you suggested, and will be thumbing through it fairly soon here. The ammo will eventually be the bottle neck, so home made ammo knowledge will be important too, and creativity will need to make a comeback. For example, if you just happened to have a bunch of C02’s sitting around, you can make the simple gun (fires the entire C02) in the video link below (Very short, less than 3 minute video).

      How To Make A Home Defence Single Shot Gun , CO2 Rocket

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2pXPRIFI7M

      Delete
  3. A 22 rim fire can be suppressed making it a better ambush weapon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yet even if you don't suppress, regular report is reduced to a level than at least somewhat helps mask easy detection.

      Delete
    2. Instead of (or supplmenting) moderators, a supply of CCI Quiet sub sonic ammunition would be wise to buy as well. No sonic crack and very quiet in longer barrels, about as quiet as a pellet gun. Not a long range round, but for close up shots that won't disturb or attract the attention of neighbors, worth thinking about.

      About 710 fps in velocity (or so advertised), its off-the-shelf item worth having.

      Delete
    3. Uh, okay, that sounds good in theory. You have the balls to be THAT close? Except by accident? I doubt I do. Just saying.

      Delete
    4. Solvent trap adapter. Keep your barrel clean in a non-polluting way. You do use copper solvent in the bore, right?

      Delete
  4. First off, you can tell me that I was right about the 22 coming down in price and then getting widely available. :)

    Second, you did the peak oil thing in the "fine print"

    Third, I like these on a 22:

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00457SRBI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    Fourth, now that 22 is available and cheap, tell us how much shooting you are doing each month???

    YKW
    MM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1. WHY did you think that about the 22? I'm calling it a short reprieve due to global economic collapse.
      2. Dammit, I hope you're wrong on the fine print deal. I hate experiments gone awry.
      3. Damn! That is one affordable site ( I know, I'm supposed to say "sight" ).
      4. Zero. Donations are down, and I'm helping out on more rent as an apt. isn't renting. The economy here is slowing way down. I know, I know. A hole in my preps. I do have a bore sight and can get up and running with few rounds. I've always been pretty good picking rimfire back up after little to no practice. The only one I'm half decent on, actually. I just used the last of my surplus prep money stocking deep on rechargeable batteries and charger plus updated LED's. Felt that was more important than more rimfire. Time will tell.

      Delete
  5. I strongly agree with Mr. Ghost regarding the CCI Mini-Mags. I would purchase those and ignore the others except for specialty rounds that may be needed, or if you have a limited selection. I would lean towards upgrading to the match grade Eley-primed rounds rather than drop down to a lower grade .22 manufacturer if you can't get Mini-Mags.

    If your .22 has a 24" barrel, any subsonic will be close enough to suppressed that your target won't hear it at maybe 50+ yards out.

    Back around the 1900's, .22 short pistols used to be feared by those who imagined they may be shot by one, mainly because they knew they'd die from an infection. A couple weeks after a grid down event, when people are getting hungry, thirsty, and they've run out of alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and street drugs to numb their pain, and modern medical care no longer exists, the .22 will be a lot more traumatic and a quicker stopper than it is now.
    Peace out

    ReplyDelete
  6. As gold is quite cheap in US Dollars, and as expensive as the last peak (2011, $1900 gold) in major foreign currencies, I believe that we are on a path covered in low-traction rounded pea gravel above a sheer cliff face above a nice beach. .22LR is not only priced just fine, but it is AVAILABLE. I'm gonna have to cut into the other budgets to get some more thousands of rounds to feed the 10/22 takedown folder, Ruger MkIII pistol, various bolties and revolvers and allow for rotation of the 1990's cases of .22lr.

    Oh no, it's an ARSENAL of THOUSANDS of rounds of "cop killer" cartridges!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love rimfire firearms, about the most inexpensive NON RELOADING gun there is. My 1st rifle was the simple Marlin 81, a bolt rifle that shoots long rifle / longs / shorts in any order from the tube magazine. Long barrel (24"?) means its pretty quiet, especially shooting CCI Quiet or other subsonic rounds. Just the thing for the woods when chasing tasty critters to eat.

    ReplyDelete

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED