I've lost count of how many rounds I've fired in my life, several hundred thousand is my guess, but it's probably more considering I've been shooting for over thirty years. A lot of those have been factory rounds supplied to me, factory-made, I mean; however in my time as a shooter I've made many, many thousands of rounds myself. It's dont for many different reasons. With my rifle rounds it's for the increased accuracy from precision hand-made rounds rather than imprecise production-line rounds. With handgun, it's done to reduce cost as the rounds are less than half as costly to make myself.
I shoot long range rifles, that's my passion and I'm good at it; not bragging, it's a simple fact. However I've been shooting handguns for just as long and it's those I go through at a rapid rate so have to replenish at a rapid rate. This weekend, being a four day weekend, I've set aside a day for making 9mm rounds. The plan is to make about four thousand.
Today I was in my workshop making sure I had enough components: Projectiles, primers, cleaned cases and powder. Naturally, because I'm me, I have ample. I decided to take a few shots of the stuff whilst I had it out as over the weekend when I'm producing rounds I'll not stop to take photos. Here's a few shots of the components and one of my 9mm handguns.
I go through these at the rate of about 300-400 rounds a weekend practicing various elements of shooting and run and gunning. The only way to retain skills, speed and accuracy, target verification and acquisition is by doing it.
These cases (the gold things) are left over from spent rounds and are cleaned, de-primed, and reloaded to be used again. Each needs to be checked though; split or damaged cases are discarded. The projectiles are by Frontier, CMJ Restrike 124gr in weight. (Copper metal jacketed)
These little grains is the accelerant that pushes the projectile out of the case, down the barrel and out of the firearm's muzzle. I use ADI AP70N. There's many different types of powders designed for different uses, rifles, shotguns, handguns and calibres; getting them mixed up is often bad, painful or terminal.
I use Federal primers for handgun and rifle rounds, naturally each is different from the other. The green inside the primer is the accelerant that explodes one the firing pin hits the back of the primer. That explosion pushes through into the case where the gunpowder is packed and...boom. The triangular thing in there is to disperse the flash evenly.
This gets pointed at the intended target and the projectile pops out the end and...you know the rest.
This firearm is designed to be used in the field, it's military-spec, meaning it will fire in all sorts of conditions and is able to accept the worst sort of treatment. The 9x19 marking refers to the round the firearm uses, the 9x19 Parabellum (also known as 9mm Luger, named for the man who invented it). The handgun is primarily made of polymer so is very light-weight.
Squeezing this little thing makes the magic happen if the firearm is loaded of course. I can fire around three accurate rounds a second, that's why I need to keep making rounds.
The rear and foresight have small luminous dots on them for targeting in dim building interiors or at night. Obviously it's a close range weapon and target acquisition and the shots need to be rapid. The hammer is what strikes the firing pin causing it to hit the primer and...because you read above you know what happens.
I added this shot because I just fucken like it. If you look closely, you can see the rifling inside the barrel and some marks on the very edge where the projectile comes out spinning as it heads down range.
That's it for this photo set folks. As always, comment below if you have anything to say, questions and so on, I'm always happy to hear from y'all.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default; tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind - galenkp
[All original and proudly AI free.]
Every image in this post is my own.
My Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III was used to take these photos.
