Mothers, tell your children…

…not to do what I have done.

I snuck off and spent a quiet hour alone in the reloading shack this morning…


Really just stocking up on practice ammo since the gun I need to be practicing with is still in two pieces in a pistol rug.

Still, empty ammo boxes make Uncle Joel sad.

…and while I worked, I contemplated the penalties of poor economic choices.

I mean, we’re well into the third year of the latest Great Ammo Panic and I imagine that for a lot of people things have pretty much returned to normal, if probably at higher prices than completely desirable. Even out here 9mm is available, 5.56 is available. 12 gauge is available in bird, buck and slug. But revolver ammo is not to be found at any price. And .44 Special, my particular flavor, was becoming a unicorn caliber years before the panic. It might never come back.

I’m literally down to depending entirely on reloads for my everyday pistol, having completely expended my once-admirable stash of commercial ammo. Didn’t see that coming.

Would it have killed me to buy some sort of 9mm, back when I was in a position to buy guns? Just for a rainy day? Huh? Would it? But no. I never even considered it.

You can bet I’ve still got a shot-out wreck of a .45 1911, though. Because somewhere along the line I became a dinosaur.

Speaking of the reloading shack…


I’m in a battle of wits with at least one mouse with nothing better to do than crap all over my stuff. Meant to buy some new traps when I was in town last week, and they’re definitely on the list for Monday. He can steal the bait from my one remaining trap – and almost as an insult he stole yesterday’s pepperoni and then left it uneaten on the bench. If he could hold a pen I imagine he’d have left a taunting note.

About Joel

You shouldn't ask these questions of a paranoid recluse, you know.
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11 Responses to Mothers, tell your children…

  1. AZ144 says:

    Ruger combo revolvers – if you can find one. 357/38/9mm or 45C/45ACP (and the 22/22mag I guess). Like hen’s teeth and I’m still looking too, but options are good. Seems like a market they could definitely tap at times like these.

  2. makerofgames says:

    .357, .38, .44 and 10mm are still unobtanium around here, too. 9mm and .223 are plentiful. Shotgun shells have always been available. It’s a real mixed bag still.

  3. Old Trainer says:

    Ok, ouch – the .44 special is around but really spendy from what I see:
    https://ammoseek.com/ammo/44-special
    https://www.luckygunner.com/handgun/44-s-w-special-ammo

    Maybe we can do a “support the desert curmudgeon” and chip in for some pew-pew seeds?

  4. malatrope says:

    Be careful to get him, because he will taunt you a second time.

  5. malatrope says:

    Ammo.com has .44 special, but it’s not cheap: about $1.50 a round.

  6. The Neon Madman says:

    Ammo is available, but prices are ridiculous. Small rifle primers are on the shelf now too, but at $90 a brick. Haven’t seen small pistol primers for two years.

  7. winston smith says:

    These work. Just place a dog treat in the center.

    https://www.walmart.com/ip/1-Tin-Cat-style-LIVE-Mouse-Trap-with-window-Multi-Catch-MiceMouse-Trap-NEW-SALE/655847630

    I paid like $10 at Tractor Supply a couple of years ago. You just drown the night’s catch by putting the whole thing in a bucket the next morning.

  8. Clyde says:

    Have a case trimmer? 44 Rem Mag cases are 1.285″, 44 Special cases are .125″ shorter at 1.160″, and mag brass is not hard to find.

    There are multiple trimmers available, the hand crank Lymans are $105-$130 at Amazon, and Lyman has a “power converter kit” available to run it with a cordless drill. I still use my RCBS copy of the Lyman that I bought over 40 years ago. Trimming 357 cases to 38 Special length (same .125″) is a chore, and requires a Wilson deburring tool inside and out, but it works, and using a case trimmer with a cam-lock case holder and pilot arbor leaves a near-perfectly square case mouth, where “some other methods” do not.

    IIRC, your two revolvers are chambered in 44 Rem Mag, and if you’re reloading tailoring loads in magnum cases to 44 Special pressures is easy, so what am I not understanding about the 44 Special case availability issue?

  9. B says:

    I was gonna say exactly what Clyde said.
    44 mag cases are available and (relatively) inexpensive. Trimming, while time consuming, is doable.

  10. You telling me Gun Jesus doesnt have a dozen various 9mm’s laying around that he’d be willing to sell you at a Good Buddy discount?

  11. Dean says:

    I’m with Clyde. Special level loads can usually be loaded in Mag cases using a grain or two of the same powder you’d have loaded in the .44 Special.

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