standardized on caliber

You can't miss as long as you keep it common.

You will notice a lot of people have tried to streamline. Not a lot have succeeded down to one or two calibers. That's simply because no one caliber is a "do all". The simplest way to understand this is- a .22 is a poor big game/ man stopper and a .308 is a poor rabbit rifle. From that single rule, you need at least two calibers.

Here is a list of some common calibers that can be considered:

.38 / .357- I say .357 and you have both options. Was the standard for law enforcement for about 100 years. Because of that, you are bound to find a box of .38s in any Grandma's night stand.

9mm / .40 / .45- At first glance, 9mm seems to beat out all other modern defensive calibers. I'd say the LE use of .40 brings it to the table. I would also say that for every LE / .mil 9mm round made, at least 1x .45 ACP is still made. .45 is perhaps the most popular commercial handgun round. It takes well to cast lead boolits and black powder because of it's low operating velocities / pressures. Any of these three are good choices. Pick up free brass at your local range. Hell, pick it all up and trade off what you don't use to people like me. I shouldn't have to buy another piece of .45 ACP as long as I live.

.22LR. Nothing else needs to be said. 500 rounds is about $18. You can feed yourself up to deer sized game. Get heavy, slow movers for populated areas.

12 ga. I'd say the most popular shotgun bore of all time. There is at least 100,000 rounds on your Wal-Mart shelf during hunting season. A bit heavy, but the advantage of changing out rounds while hunting and going from bagging squirrel to deer is a plus. Every major military keeps the shotty in inventory as specialty weapon for a reason. Not a good pick as a primary gun IMHO. 12 ga is also as common as .22LR in American homes.

5.56 / .308 Win- The mil / LE use of these calibers can't be understated. These are THE fighting calibers to have. Either one is viable up to 500 yds+ with the right shooter. Notice I said 5.56, not .223. You can shoot either in a 5.56 chamber- get a 5.56 chamber. Notice I said .308 Win and not 7.62x51. Commercial .308 is loaded to higher pressures than 7.62. Get the .308 Win chamber. Both have EXTREMELY available reloading components. I haven't paid for brass for either in a long while. (If you think 7.62x39 is THE mil caliber, move to Bulgaria. At least there, you will be able to find your domestically made caliber )

7.62x54R, 7.62x39, 5.45x39, .303, 8mm Mauser- I think I covered all the surplus rounds here that are currently (commonly) available. These are too cheap not to mention. I put all these into the same category because we are one import ban away from being stripped of these (until a domestic manufacturer could pick up production??when??). The good news is that you can cheaply stockpile a lot now. Reloading would be a must for surplus calibers. Availability can change a lot. .303, for instance, is tough to come by now. It used to be common and cheap. A little bit tougher to get these days. The Mil-Surp market won't last forever.

30-30, 30/06, .44 Rem Mag, other hunting calibers. The hunting caliber category can't be ignored. Common at department stores or sporting goods stores alike. I think that you are nearly as likely to find a 30-30 round as a .22LR round in most homes in America. I am sure that there are more than what I listed. I would not put most the niche / new cartridges in this category. I have seen people pissed over the fact that their "new-gotta-have-it-short-magnum" cartridge isn't available anywhere locally (and is like $35 / box + when it is). Stick to the common.

I think that's it. I am sure that someone can think of something I missed.

 

Primers would be interesting.

I've cast bullets for 38, 357, 41 and 44 pistol; although I've see bullets made I've gotten into it. How accurate are they?

 

Right on. I mentioned 44 Mag in the hunting calibers. I'm a fan. There just isn't too many people that enjoy a 44. Kind of sad actually. If they knew how useful they are at long range in such a compact package, they might change their mind?? Back east, I've rarely had a hunting situation that couldn't be solved with a revolver in .44 mag.

The MilSurps would be an investment. Components are available- you just have lean forward enough. I feel like a lot of people get caught up in how cheap they are now. Later, when the ammo dries up, used ones will litter the market from people trying to off load them. I would just stash components or load them and stash them. Use the MilSurp ammo until it's dry and be ready for when it is. A C&R is on my near term list. A Mosin is there as well. I had a 91/30 in the past, but my recent interest in casting has me thinking that a Mosin may be a fun rifle to cast for. Some of the older MilSurps were actually designed for cast, not jacketed.

I like this thread. So many projects, so little time

 

That was the main reason why i went to a standard calibers for the weapon i have at the cabin along with reloading supplies for them ..

the basic no really hunting weapon listed for i have a Ruger N1 single shot 308 cal rifle with a good leupold scope on it and it a basic all around my area hunting rifle along with bow i have i figure i'm good shape up to Elk size animals there in the mountains of Az ..

Now as far as a back weapon to hunting rifle i figure the 1911 pistol loaded with 300 grain hollow points i found will work just as good a revolver and if it going to the problem with animal becomes so close i would like to have something my hand reload fast as i can .

 

The swaging process makes the used 22lr into a .22 Hornet projectile, it wouldn't be recommended to swage unfired .22lr cartridge cases, and the .22 Hornet cartridge case will still need a small rifle primer, but you knew that....damnit, I've been pranked

 

Many experienced .22 Hornet reloaders prefer the Small Pistol Primer, as it imparts less initial 'oomph' to the bullet, and supposedly improves accuracy. I need to try this myself - my loads ALMOST equal the superb reloads I got from a vendor at the local gunshow many years back, but I still lack the special little 'something' that will give me his laser-tight accuracy! The SP primer may do the trick!

I priced the swaging gear awhile back, but it was prohibitively expensive unless you had a bunch of guys or a club chipping in, and buying materials in bulk! I just don't shoot enough to make it pay for itself myself.

 

http://www.survivalmonkey.com/forum/firearms/11112-swaging-free-bullets.html
This is a thread from a while back on swaging bullets from .22 rimfire brass.

 

The grand or more initial set up cost and the price of the lead wire makes it more a 'small company' proposition, unless one is very well-heeled.

 

I estimated about 8-10K for a payoff on my investment. I have already paid for it and am officiallly shooting free bullets after I figured a means of casting the lead core with wheel weights. I wish I could extrude the wire but casting works. I found my swaging dies on ebay for around five hundred bucks to set up complete.

 

To hopefully answer the op's question directly. If 9mm is your choice Ruger makes handgun and carbine that use the same magazine they are the P-series 85, 89,95 and the PC-9 carbine. A Marlin 9mm carbine takes Smith and Wesson model 39 magazines so that is another combo that would fit your request.

 

Don't overlook the venerable UZI. The 16" barrel, full size semi-auto carbine can be had in .22lr, 9mm, 40S&W, .357 Sig, 10mm, and .45acp. If you reload your ammunition, you can use a slower burning powder to get the mazimum velocity out of your projectiles.

An UZI may be heavy, but it is proven. Right now, you can find NEW UZI's made by Vector, INC and CAI. There are several well known shops making recievers so one could make a semi-auto out of kits if they were so inclined. The average price for a Vector full size carbine is $700 at Atlantic Firearms.

32 round surplus UZI magazines are still quite plentiful and relatively inexpensive.

 

Picking a set of calibers as a standard to stock up on makes sense but having other calibers for what ever reason don't hurt. After its over having a gun that fires whatever ammo you happen to find wont be a bad thing. So having things in 30-30 or some other common non tactical calibers will allow you the use of what you find instead of wasting your emergency stock pile.

 

The toy box has a variety of calibers although most are commonplace; some are either no longer sold or wildcat. I try to enjoy all of them.
Proficiency comes with practice. I have friends who are serious preppers; although they have firearms they rarely if ever practice with them. Although they live in a BOL, they haven't considered defending it.

 

The issue that makes the Red surplus ammo so hard to use is that they're almost always steel cased. I've converted lots of brass casings from berdan to boxer by reaming out the primer pocket. Lyman makes an inexpensive tool to do this in your drill. Granted the brass rounds are less common and either problem makes the common com-bloc ammo all but unreloadable...

As to the standardization, I'm totally with ya in concept. Tactically, a .40 cal combo (Beretta CX series has been mentioned, I believe Glock makes a kit as well) would be a fine trade-off between carry weight and stopping power for defense purposes, but when it comes to hunting to survive in a post-SHTF scenario, I want a calibre with more stopping power and less potential ruined meat, so I'm gonna go with a lean three-calibre combo.

I know folks that are into sustenance hunting will be already quite good at quick kills on most game, and i suspect the same is true for most on this forum , but in persisting high-stress, low-rest and potentialy poor health conditions (post-disaster), hunting is to live, and the only pistol calibre I want to be shooting at a medium sized game is heavy like faster, medium-weight rifle bullets (of course I mean the .44 mag, which I love for the standardized calibre concept except for it's mass factor).

For my system, I really like my sidearm (in either .40 or 9mm) to have a conversion kit for firing .22lr, something like Glock, Sig, or a few others. Though it adds cost, the conversion kit is such a small mass footprint in what is going to be on you at all times, and fifty rounds can be carried for the weight of a big candy bar. The .22lr is quiet for tactical and hunting purposes as well, and always makes my top pistol calibres for that reason.

After that, I would choose a .30 calibre rifle as my main system, exactly which one is up to you, the key being that when you get to the medium sized calibres, you can cast for them (as has been pointed out), and an aluminum lee mold will take up little room in your pack, and allow you to make shootable bullets around a campfire once your initial supply wears thin.

I chose .30 cal over the .223 cal because the smaller bullets need to go too fast for cast lead to be viable for taking a wide range of game. I prefer .308 as a do-all over 30-06 and 30-30 because it allows me to utilize lots of different actions as I may find them post-shtf (although for my non-shtf hunting I rather use my M98 30-06).

So three calibres in two firearms in my minimalist system. It's lean because it's designed to be packed around, your situation and requirements may vary. Great topic tho, thanks for hearing my .02.


IR

 

Use NATO rounds. There are tons laying around at every NG armory. 9mm, .223, .308, 12GA. The only one I use outside of this range is 22.

 

I lucked out early on, in buying a lot of commercial Remington and Winchester 7.62X39, and then having a buddy give me some 600+ cleaned and tumbled brass commercial cases - he had no use for them.
So, I find reloading this caliber both funand more conducive to accuracy. My Yugo SKS has gone from a 6MOA rifle with WOLF junk and 4MOA with better milsurp, to 2MOA or less with the handloads. The single BEST way to enhance accurady of a milsurp weapon is to feed it GOOD ammo!

 

Handloading/reloading is a must IMHO.

It's the next logical step in purchasing firearms. Practicing on a budget pretty much requires reloading these days.

To show the cost, I scrounged brass for .45 ACP the last ten years to the point I shouldn't need and an I only paid for a few hundred up front. Primers run $30 / 1K, bullets are about $129 / 1k, and 1 lbs of PowerPistol gives me about 1k rounds (I think about $23 last time I bought some). Altogether, 1000 .45 ACP rounds cost me about $182. At the local rate of $25 / box, 1000 rounds would cost me about $500 + tax. At a savings of over 50%, reloading is still a bargain despite the rising cost of components. The one factor that can't be ignored is to pick a common enough caliber to make the cost of brass $0.

 

On every range visit I look for reloadable brass on the ground. 7.62X39 and 7.62X51/.308Win are especially prized! 8mm Mauser and .303Brit are very rare in Boxer form.
I once ordered 500 'once-fired' 7.62X51 from Wideners - ended up with a count of 545 in 7.62, twenty or so in 5.56, and a few empty .22LR - I figure they scooped them off the ground at their range and bagged them by weight - had some sand in the mix too! It all cleaned up well though.

It allowed me to stock a big Fat-Fifty can of good stuff for my CETME rifle, in case TSHTF!