On This Day Pre-Y2K
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May 30, 1999 Permalink
I have started shooting a few rifle matches with my AR-15 HBAR. It is good practice for longer range (200 yard) shooting, but not really helpful for closer activities. But I guess if you can hit a target at 200 yards, you can probably ht one at 50. The question is can you hit a moving target or one behind cover. Right now I am using purchased ammo, but I am saving all my brass. I have never loaded .223, and I do not even have any rifle powders on hand, but I have the dies to do so, if necessary. I guess I better develop some test loads on my single-stage press so I will be ready.
I broke out the old Dillon and loaded all the pistol brass I had lying around. I cranked out 1500 or so rounds of 9mm (200 of them with hollow points) and about 600 rounds of 38 special, all with lead bullets. I am thinking of ordering some molds and the equipment to make my own bullet heads, but at about $35 per thousand, it is hard to justify buying the equipment. I will probably just buy a few boxes of heads. I may also buy 45-caliber ammo and the dies and heads for it. That’s still a very popular caliber, even if I do not have a gun for it. You never know who will show up that needs ammo for their gun. Ideally, I would buy 500 rounds and then a few boxes of heads to reload the spent brass. The question is, how do you test a load for which you do not have a gun? Find someone who does, I guess.
All this talk about gun control as a result of the recent school shootings concerns me. Frankly, I do not care about the restrictions on gun show dealing. I think that I have only bought one gun at a show over my lifetime. And the idea of selling a gunlock with each gun just raises the price a few bucks. Neither am I concerned about raising the age to own a pistol to 21, although I think if you can let them serve in the army at 18, they out to be able to own their own firearms. But my real concern is that this is the start of something much worse. If the Democrats with these minor concessions, who know what they will ask for next. I know they want to ban guns outright, and if they win these relatively small battles, the next one will be for licenses, longer waiting periods, national registration databases, BATF inspections, mandatory gunsafes, etc.
—Jack, Diary of a Survivalist, 05/30/99
