Survivalist Anthologies Volume 1

by George Shepherd

  The absolute FIRST thing I tell every single person who wants to learn to reload to do is go to their local library and get: Lee Precision’s MODERN RELOADING 2nd ed, Lyman’s #49 reloading manual (which just replaced the #48, which is a fine book as well, and I actually prefer it a bit better), and DBI’s METALLIC CARTRIDGE RELOADING 3rd ed, out of print now. If your local library doesn’t have them, request them through the inter-library loan system and then read all three of them cover to cover. All three cover reloading, or handloading if you prefer, but all three look at it from completely different points of view, with a completely different how, what and why.

  Lee, naturally, considers all Lee equipment to be the best, and in many cases I agree that much of it is excellent, after all there is a reason so many reloading companies copy Lee equipment, but Lee has brought out it’s share of flops as well. Lyman, of course, only talks about Lyman equipment and considers Lyman to be the best, and again, much of it is truly is excellent. METALLIC CARTRIDGE RELOADING isn’t put out by any one company and looks at everyone’s equipment, such as RCBS, Dillon, Forster, Hornady, Redding, C-H, etc., and tells you accurately and honestly what is good, what is hype and what is, and what is not, worth owning. All three use Lyman load data, so there is no problem with the supplied data in any of them either. There are no bad reloading manuals anymore, but I consider these to be the “top three” for the beginner to start learning with, and you will learn a lot.

  OK, now that you have some idea what we are talking about, know the proper terms for everything and what they all do, we can get down to brass tacks, or in this case, metallic reloading presses. So what press do you buy? Well again, it isn’t that easy, but then it never is, is it? First you need to decide how much money you want to spend, how fast you want to reload, how much space you can devote to it, so on and so forth. Sure it is easy for me to say “Buy a Dillon 5050B, which will reload everything” and leave it at that, but that would be a serious disservice, because while the Dillon 550B is an excellent press, and one of my favorites, there are some things that other presses can do better (yes, I know, heresy, please bear with me) and might be a better fit for you.

  To start, the most basic reloading equipment you can buy is the Lee Loader. This is a simple die body that you place over the cartridge case and use a rubber or rawhide mallet (here after called a hammer) to beat the die over the case to resize it. Then you take a rod and beat the case back out of the die. Depriming the case and seating the new primer are basically more of the same, taking a rod and knocking the old primer out, and putting the new primer in the holder and tapping the case down over it. A powder scoop to dump the recommended amount of the proper powder, and you put the case back in the die and seat the bullet with another rod. This is as basic as you can get and works just fine, in fact it can load world class ammunition which has set records. The problem is it is S-L-O-W, and if you want to load with a powder other than the listed powders and weights, you need either other powder scoops or a powder measure.

  Next up the line is the Lyman 310 tong tool. This has been around for better than a 100 years, so it must have something going for it. Back when I started reloading, (and air mail came cross country by pony), the 310 was made of nickel plated steel, but now it’s aluminum. it also used to be made for just about every cartridge that you could hope to use, but now the selection of dies Lyman offers is rather limited. The name tells you what the tools look like - tongs or pliers that you squeeze together to resize the case neck, deprime, reprime and seat bullets. You still need a powder scoop or another way of putting in the proper amount of powder, however. When the 310 came out, that was not a problem, you just filled the case with black powder, seated a bullet and were done, and for some cartridges, that still works fine.

  If you want to be a bit more advanced in your reloading and use a set of reloading dies to full length resize your cases - which also requires the use of a set of shell holders as well - you will need a press of some kind. The next step up are the various hand-held reloading presses that use mechanical linkage for leverage, rather than a hammer or grip pressure, to do most of the work. These would be the now unfortunately discontinued Lyman Accupress and Lee Hand Press. There are also various other high quality, and high priced, precision hand presses for the bench rest crowd that we don’t need to worry about at this time. Personally I liked the Lyman Accupress much better than the Lee, as it could be either used as a hand held press, or bolted or clamped down to a bench or other surface for reloading. Either would get the job done at the range or other than at the reloading bench, although resizing larger, especially magnum sized riflecases, can be an adventure.

  At one time, one of the most common reloading presses was the single stage “C” press, which looked, (amazingly enough), like a ‘C’, open at the front with a rod, called a ram, coming up from the bottom with a simple lever to power it. The problem with C presses was generally two-fold:

  The press could “spring”, or give, when pressure was applied, and the simple lever had no real leverage to resize or pull the cases out of the die. All this changed when RCBS founder Fred Huntington patented the compound leverage linkage that just about every press uses today. Various methods were tried to keep the C press from springing, such as metal straps across the front, but this simply lead to the “O” press, which is a fully enclosed circle or square. The most common O press is the justly famous RCBS Rock Chucker press, which has been widely copied by just about everyone now, and still is one of the best single stage reloading presses available. Hornady, Lyman also make excellent single stage presses.

  For faster reloading, the turret press is next. Unlike the single stage C and O press, which used one die at a time, that had to be screwed in and then adjusted to use, and when you were done with that die, unscrewed and a new die screwed in and adjusted to do the next step, turret presses have a top plate, or turret, that holds from three to seven dies at one time. You place a cartridge case in the shell holder and run it up into the first die, lower the case, turn the turret and repeat until you have a finished (fully loaded) case. Examples of excellent turret presses are the Lyman T-Mag and the Redding turret. Lee has a Cast Classic Turret, which I have not used myself, but have heard enough good things about that it bears looking into. I was not impressed with the other, aluminum framed, Lee turret press that I tried however.

  Progressives are basically turret presses that moves several cases around to the various dies, instead of loading only one case at a time. Since they process several cases at one time, once the shell plates are filled with cases, they produce a loaded case with each pull of the handle if all goes as planned. Currently, the top of the line is the Dillon 550B, followed by the faster, and more expensive, Dillon 650 and commercial grade Dillon 1050. The Dillon Square Deal press (DSD) is a “handgun only” press, but well thought of by those who only load handgun cartridges, and uses special DSD set of dies. The Dillon 550B MSRP is no more expensive than some low quality “progressives” that don’t work (or nearly as well anyway if they do work) and are pushed by price alone, being wildly discounted normally, which I mistakenly bought before buying a Dillon. The Dillon 550B can load most common handgun and rifle cartridges, has an interchangeable tool head and interchangeable shell plates, plus a “No B.S.” warranty which they stand behind, unlike some others. The Hornady Lock’N’Load progressive presses also are popular, although I have not actually used one. There are, of course, other presses that for one reason or another, are not as popular as the above listed presses, such as straight line presses, H frame presses, and so on, which we generally don’t need to worry about here, but are mentioned for completeness.

  With so many presses available, how do you decide what press, or which type of press, to buy? That, as they say, is the $64,000 question. What, exactly, do you want to do? If you intend to only load for handgun cartridges, then most any press will work, but the Dillon Square Deal is the near universal choice of experienced reloaders who load in volum
e. If you intend to do bullet swaging (the cold forming of lead), case forming (forming of cases of one shape into another), or load extremely large cases, such as the .50 Browning Machinegun (BMG) cartridge, then a C press is obviously out, and the various turret and progressives won’t work either, leaving O frame presses, such as the Lyman Orange Crusher, RCBS Rock Chucker (or newer Rock Crusher Supreme), and other heavy duty iron framed presses.

  If you need speed, turrets might be what you are looking for, since once the dies are screwed in and adjusted, they don’t need to be removed and a new die put into place. If the turret press has interchangeable turrets, you can have several turrets with all your dies already adjusted and ready to go for each cartridge. Faster still are the various progressive and semi-progressive presses. The Dillon 550B, possibly the most popular progressive of all time, is actually a “semi-progressive” as the operator needs to turn the shell plate to the next die station, rather than the press automaticly doing it for you as the other Dillon presses do. Since the US Army Palma Team loads their match ammunition, for 600, 800 and 1000 yard shooting, on the Dillon 550B, producing accurate ammunition should not be a problem. Also Dillon presses are the near universal choice of top USPSA/IPSC (U.S. Practical Shooting Assn/International Practical Shooting Confederation) and IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Assn) shooters as well, where a bad load can cost the shooter thousands of dollars at a match.

  So what do I have? My first press was a RCBS Rock Chucker, which I still have, a Lyman Accupress, several Lee Compact presses, and four Dillon 450B presses and a Dillon 550B. OK, the Dillon 450B was not listed above as it is out of production now, having being replaced by the more advanced 550B, which I bought first, and liked so much that I bought the used 450s at very reasonable prices to use too. Unfortunately, Dillon no longer has parts for the 450B, but as it uses the same shell holders as the 550B, loading different cartridges on them is not a problem. The RCBS Rock Chucker can handle swaging, case forming, and the .50 BMG case, while the Lyman Accupress and Lee Compacts are used for depriming cases, and other light duty work. The Dillon 450B presses lack the interchangeable tool heads of the 550B, so are set up for “single cartridges”, mostly handgun reloading, and the 550B handles everything else.

  Once you have your press, you need shell holders and dies. Fortunately most dies are now a standard 7/8” x 14 thread so most current dies will work with most current presses. The Lyman Tong Tool and some older presses, such as the Lyman All-American turret press use, or used, specially threaded dies that only fit that press. Most current presses of the C, O, H, and turret style also use so called “universal” shell holders, because they will work in most brands of single stage or turret presses. Most progressives have a shell plate (multi-case holder) rather than a single shell holder that are unique to that make and model of press. More on dies, shell holders and other items next time. (View example Images on Next Page)

  Douglas Bell was born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa. He has been a reloader for 40 years and a professional gunsmith for 30. His work has been featured in such publications as: Gun Week, American Handgunner, Live Free DIRECTIONS, Kurt Saxon’s U.S. Militia, The Independent American, Dark Knight SURVIVOR, NSA Newletter, Region 5 Report and many others.

  Metallurgy: Post 2012

  by Corcceigh Green

  (Example Images at End of Article)

  It’s December 22, 2012. You and your little family group have marched up to your base camp. The day and night before was one wild ride. Cities are smoking piles of cinder and toxic clouds cling to the valleys. From the height of your base camp you survey the situation. Looks like it is up to your little group and others like you to rebuild. You may be prepared to live a stone-age existence, but you know that life is much easier when you have metal tools for everything from agriculture and construction to woodworking and zoology. While you have your survival kits and some tools with you to rebuild, you are going to need to work metal.

  Packing a full-blown machine shop up to your base camp was not practical. You will need to rebuild from the ground up. Fortunately, between the small hand tools you were able to bring, natural resources and the wreckage of civilization, metal working remains in your grasp. Metal working began with very rudimentary tools and skills. You will not have to worry about mining and smelting metal as the first metal workers did. You will need a way, however, to bend and shape scrap metal into useful items. This was traditionally done by blacksmiths in a forge and is the best way to re-start a metal working program. Thus, we will begin rebuilding by building the forge.

  Your first stage in this operation came long before December of 2012. As survivalists, we know that disaster can strike at anytime and a large enough disaster can warrant the need for a rebuild of civilization. Thinking ahead, we survivalists make preparations for the scenarios that may take place. Therefore, you put together a little tool box that you were capable of carrying with you to your base camp. This tool box consists of one cross peen hammer, one pair of blacksmith’s flat jaw tongs, one cheap (Chinese-made) pair of locking grip pliers, one cheap (again; Chinese-made) monkey wrench, at least one each; well-made (not Chinese) large flat file, medium flat file, small flat file, medium round file, small round file and several needle files, one small and one large wire brush, one cheap cold chisel, one cheap hole punch around a quarter inch diameter, one hacksaw with dozens of blades and a well-made pair of heavy tin snips. This kit increased your weight significantly, but was well worth the haul to your base camp.

  To shape any scrap metal that you will glean, you will heat it red hot to make it more plastic in consistency, then shape it with hammer, anvil and tongs. The equipment you will need to heat the metal is a fire box to hold fuel and fire and a blower or bellows to force air into the fire box. Collectively, fire box and blower are known as a forge. Fortunately, nature will provide the material to build your fire box. In my area there are many basalt formations that provide wonderful material to hold a fire. River rock works well, too, as do many types of rock. Simply pile the rocks in a square to make a dais. Pile more rock on top of the dais to form a hollow square semi-open on one side. This will hold your fire and allow air to be forced through the semi-open end.

  Since the blower or bellows is a bit heavier and awkward to carry, you have elected to build one on-site rather than haul it your base camp. By cutting Cedar planks and hauling squares of leather to the base camp you may build a bellows. Form your Cedar planks into two triangles and tack your leather between the triangles forming a bag. Then, cut a hole in the leather at the sharp end of your bellows and insert an empty food can that has had both ends removed by a can opener. Tack your leather around this can also. Tack a handle to the wide end of the bellows and you will be able to pump the bellows, which will blow air out of the can. Cut dove tails into the front of the can and the end of another can and attach them together to form an air pipe. Place the air pipe towards the semi-open end of your fire box and you now have a forge.

  Blowers are harder to manufacture expediently. They are more compact than bellows, but still awkward and heavy for carry. Your best bet is to haul a plastic, electric radiator fan on the back of your pack. Once on location, fix the fan upright away from the fire box. Use leather to form a funnel around the front of the fan to funnel air into an air pipe made from metal cans. Fix the air pipe into the semi-open end of your fire box and power the fan with a battery.

  Another option, instead of hauling a battery and fan to your base camp is to find a hiding place for your car and build your forge around your car. This is harder to hide, however, and you may not be able to protect your tools while not at your car.

  By December 24, 2012 you should have a workable forge. At this time of year, the weather is much less than desirable for working a forge outdoors. You’ll need a roof and walls. You can build a structure by making a simple lean-to or you might go all out and build a log structure around your forge. You now have a smithy in which to work while the weather is bad. This wi
ll also help your survival by providing shelter and warmth from the elements. Leave a hole in the roof directly above the fire box. Many times smoke won’t like to rise out of such a structure until a chimney is built over your fire box. However, since air is being forced through the fire box, the fire will be extra hot and smoke will rise more efficiently from the structure.

  December 26, 2012. It is time to seek out equipment to complete your smithy and allow you to work metal scrap into tools. The first thing you will need is an anvil. This is a piece of equipment far too heavy to haul up to your base camp, as your first priority was family and survival supplies. Your best bet to find an anvil is to scout along some railways for a short length of railroad track. Checking the maps of your area will pinpoint what you need.

  You may have to walk some distance, but find yourself on a railway. You know not to destroy laid track just on the outside chance that someone alive is using it. It’s not long, however, when you come across a place that has been repaired or destroyed and a length of track is available. You can’t carry an entire length back to base camp with you, but, fortunately, you know that mixing the correct proportions of powdered aluminum, rust and potassium nitrate renders thermite and will cut railroad track. (Something you will never do during normal times.) Shortly, you have a short length of track you will use as an anvil. Even a short length will weigh a lot and you will have to walk a long way back. To make things easier build a travesall by lashing two poles together, then lashing branches across the poles. Lay the track on the travesall and drag the anvil back to base camp.