Top 10 Reasons You Should Own An AR-15

[brewster]

[media]https://youtu.be/74ssMmD_tXE[/media]

You bring up some very good points. I don't think we'll see a Bronze Age Collapse type situation.
That being said, a situation where people would have to make their own smokeless powder who also be a situation where no one could build a computer or cell phone.

Primers can be made much easier than smokeless powder. I know one old guy who reloads .22 rim fire. I have a friend working on making lead shot, which sounds simple, but is tricky as hell. The measured molten lead has to be drop from a predetermined height (around 30 ft) into water at controlled temp. Making brass ammo casing can be done, it's the smokeless powder you bring up that's the real problem.

It doesn't need to be bronze age, just Antebellum, 160 years. As I'm certain you know, most Civil War weapons were muzzle loaders. My professional expertise is in metalworking, and I can tell you making brass shells is not a backyard industry. Even if you salvaged this whole shop below, keeping it maintained and running would be tough without infrastructure like bearing makers and other replacement parts. Forming dies wear out. Technology is interdependent, you could not have efficient steam engines till you had machine tools capable of high tolerance work. Pouring lead muzzle loader ammo anyone can do, I pour lead fishing jigs.

[clubgop]

Who's going to make your primers, finely processed granulated & smokeless powder or your brass shells? Takes precision industry, usually located in cities. As I've heard it, an AK has far less refined tastes than a AR, and and can shoot poorly made ammo. Is this true?

BTW .223 is inches, same as NATO 5.56mm.

You bring up some very good points. I don't think we'll see a Bronze Age Collapse type situation.
That being said, a situation where people would have to make their own smokeless powder who also be a situation where no one could build a computer or cell phone.

Primers can be made much easier than smokeless powder. I know one old guy who reloads .22 rim fire. I have a friend working on making lead shot, which sounds simple, but is tricky as hell. The measured molten lead has to be drop from a predetermined height (around 30 ft) into water at controlled temp. Making brass ammo casing can be done, it's the smokeless powder you bring up that's the real problem.

Never thought of Blackpowder in a modern Semi Auto, this guy tries it in an SKS

Doesn't really work.

My motto is an M-4 over every Mantel. But it need not be an AR platform weapon. In the American Revolution the Charleville Musket was the musket to buy, the one promoted by the Continentals, but the finest weapons were the Pennsylvania Long Rifles. With either one a head of household could perform his duty for family and community.

NOTE: The best Ammo Factories in the country are in very rural areas.

This is why I bring up the meth example, the chemistry is there, some redneck will or already has figured out a way to make that shit or a workable substitute.

[heydaralon]

I didn't know Brewster was a metal worker, but I have a suspicision that he has a familiarity with rods... in his asshole that is.

[brewster]

This is why I bring up the meth example, the chemistry is there, some redneck will or already has figured out a way to make that shit or a workable substitute.

Just like there'll be a redneck who will assure you he knows exactly how to take out your appendix.

[brewster]

I didn't know Brewster was a metal worker,

My family was tinsmiths back in the Cossack dodging days, I'm a legacy. One grandpa made chandeliers, the other built the ductwork on the USS Missouri in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Come EOTWAWKI, I'll be a hot commodity, I can actually fix shit, and have the tools to do it. If I don't get eaten that is.

[C-Mag]

[media]https://youtu.be/74ssMmD_tXE[/media]
It doesn't need to be bronze age, just Antebellum, 160 years. As I'm certain you know, most Civil War weapons were muzzle loaders. My professional expertise is in metalworking, and I can tell you making brass shells is not a backyard industry. Even if you salvaged this whole shop below, keeping it maintained and running would be tough without infrastructure like bearing makers and other replacement parts. Forming dies wear out. Technology is interdependent, you could not have efficient steam engines till you had machine tools capable of high tolerance work. Pouring lead muzzle loader ammo anyone can do, I pour lead fishing jigs.

I guess I didn't word that correctly. Going back to Antebellum technology would be a Bronze Age type Collapse for our world. So if that's the tech level we are left with, yes, you would end up eventually with muzzle loaders. Current stocks of weapons and ammo would take a long time to expend.

What do you do for metalworking? I tinker with it myself.

[clubgop]

This is why I bring up the meth example, the chemistry is there, some redneck will or already has figured out a way to make that shit or a workable substitute.

Just like there'll be a redneck who will assure you he knows exactly how to take out your appendix.

Probably does, I can do the same, now keeping the patient alive is another matter.

[brewster]

[media]https://youtu.be/74ssMmD_tXE[/media]
It doesn't need to be bronze age, just Antebellum, 160 years. As I'm certain you know, most Civil War weapons were muzzle loaders. My professional expertise is in metalworking, and I can tell you making brass shells is not a backyard industry. Even if you salvaged this whole shop below, keeping it maintained and running would be tough without infrastructure like bearing makers and other replacement parts. Forming dies wear out. Technology is interdependent, you could not have efficient steam engines till you had machine tools capable of high tolerance work. Pouring lead muzzle loader ammo anyone can do, I pour lead fishing jigs.

I guess I didn't word that correctly. Going back to Antebellum technology would be a Bronze Age type Collapse for our world. So if that's the tech level we are left with, yes, you would end up eventually with muzzle loaders. Current stocks of weapons and ammo would take a long time to expend.

What do you do for metalworking? I tinker with it myself.

I guess how long the ammo would last depends on the type of collapse, but it will eventually run out in a long term event. I build gadgets and stuff for the entertainment industry. RC puppets, props, effects for costumes, anything they want from me. It's basically inventing one-off products. If you've seen a Disney Broadway show or a Muppet movie from the 90's, you've seen my work.

[brewster]

This is why I bring up the meth example, the chemistry is there, some redneck will or already has figured out a way to make that shit or a workable substitute.

Just like there'll be a redneck who will assure you he knows exactly how to take out your appendix.

Probably does, I can do the same, now keeping the patient alive is another matter.

And that's ignoring the anesthesia problem unless padded chains for surgery are going to make a comeback. But I would guess that redneck trying to make cordite would face a similar survival problem. I don't think cooking meth would really prepare you.

[C-Mag]

I guess I didn't word that correctly. Going back to Antebellum technology would be a Bronze Age type Collapse for our world. So if that's the tech level we are left with, yes, you would end up eventually with muzzle loaders. Current stocks of weapons and ammo would take a long time to expend.

What do you do for metalworking? I tinker with it myself.

I guess how long the ammo would last depends on the type of collapse, but it will eventually run out in a long term event. I build gadgets and stuff for the entertainment industry. RC puppets, props, effects for costumes, anything they want from me. It's basically inventing one-off products. If you've seen a Disney Broadway show or a Muppet movie from the 90's, you've seen my work.

That's really awesome. I love hands on problem solving.

Our country has an abundance of people like you relative to other countries in the world. I don't know about you, but I'm in this circle of friends and family with a lot of machinists, fabricators and just tinkerers who are building stuff all the time. I take on all kinds of projects, welding, blacksmithing, restoring old equipment...………. I don't have a specialty.