Packing the car for Thanksgiving travel

And

 

they closed all the kk's up here. i'll have to drive to 'mama and eat 'em on the way back

 

One of my soil ecology pals aspired to quit Science and manage a Krispy Kreme (TM) shop instead. That's how deep it goes

Half sugar and half lipids, with enough flour to hold the thing together,,,well, that's strong medicine.

 

The other meat

 

Blueberry cake or "tractor tires."
I do NOT however eat KKs unless I'm left with no other choices---and there are open boxes about the break room.
...and nobody is charging for them....

....and I'm HUNGRY!

Since I live on free soil, I live in a town that actually has a 7/24 doughnut shop that actually makes fresh doughnuts daily (nightly.)
If they close down, I live NEXT to a slightly larger town that has 2 such shops.

Life is goooood.

 

Like your Emergency Brake

 

Never did like the pedal kind.....

 

were sugar pops a southern thing too?

 

That inspired me to do a quick search to see if history ever contained such a thing as a pedal-powered machine gun and find an image to post. I don't know of any, but it doesn't seem wholly outlandish.

All I got from my search were guitar pedals with edgy names, but on the bright side, maybe that kept me off some ATF list somewhere.

 

And some electric ones too.

 

I don’t know if you guys have been keeping up with current events, but ammunition and reloading components are more scarce than civility in political discussion!
Our local sporting goods warehouses (Academy, BPS, etc...) have people waiting in long lines on the two days of the week when delivery trucks arrive hoping to score a box of ammunition or some reloading components.

Automatic weapons?
Can’t really feed one of those right now.

 

Two month factory shut downs have many things in short supply.

 

You can say that about TP, and hand sanitizer, but there's a different......er...."component" in reloading supplies and in certain flavors of ammunition....the latter affecting the former.

One of the...."prime" components that are in rather short supply right now are.....primers.
There are something like four manufacturers of these the US (Federal, CCI, Remington and Winchester) and several off-shore brands....Armscor in the Philippines, Sellier & Bellot in the Czech Republic, Fiocchi in Italy and JSC in Russia.

If I'm accurately informed, these facilities are more or less running FLAT OUT, because unlike meat processing plants they are not labor intensive.
Primers....particularly pistol and small rifle primers, are being sucked out of the consumer reloading market to fulfill the latest surge in pistol and military rifle cartridge demand.

Two interesting things about this.
1. As late as December 2019, there was a glut of pistol ammunition, with 9x19mm cartridges going for something like $0.08 a round and other flavors being correspondingly low. One could (and I DID) get ammo shipped to the house for much less than the price of the large box sporting goods stores. Primers were widely available because even though it was not AT ALL cost effective to reload 9mm, other flavors could be reloaded at a considerable savings.

2. Primer shortages in the past
There was a "primer famine" in 1993 when certain legislative trial balloons were lofted attempting to regulate these destructive devices.
Some 15 years later, the great 2008–2016 United States ammunition shortage - Wikipedia further whipsawed the supply chain, causing another glut in some areas...MOST especially 9mm ammo and handguns.
This is the reason that one could (and I DID) get a very decent polymer framed pistol for <$250 OTD before March and the current shortage is why they will probably be <$200 again in a year or two.

Globalization: 101

One could (and I DID) get a box of 1,000 primers for less than $20 OTD as recently as early this year over the counter, and with any luck there will be more wars and rumors of wars against these evil little devices.
$15/1,000 might be the final price!!!....

There is one lasting side effect of the 1993 legislative efforts.
Primers are not considered to be "Hazmat" when they are inserted into a pistol cartridge with powder and a bullet.
However (comma!) they ARE considered to be "hazmat" when they are shipped by themselves.
Because: DOT.GOV

There is presently a shortage of (some flavors of) pistol dies, powder measures, priming tools and brass tumblers and many other things with Lee, RCBS, Lyman, and Hornady stamped on them.
If you are reading this and you're thinking about getting into the exiting and rewarding world of reloading....

WAIT!!!
In about a year (maybe two, depending on November) there will be ANOTHER glut, and you can pick up some gently used gear on the cheap.
I got a reloading press, tumbler, beam scale, dies and boxes, primers and bullets from a friend for free one time because he simply wanted them out of his closet.
I urged him to sell it and at least get $0.10 back on the dollar, and tried to give him some money but he would not take it.

The human animal if pretty funny about scarcity and hoarding, and if you think you're immune????
Think about gas lines....meaning waiting in line for gas.
How much T.P and dried beans do you have in your house or apartment?

 

A few weeks ago, I was actually able to purchase a large box of Remington 22 cal "shorts" for the first time in years. They were not the cheap misfiring Chinese versions either. I was shocked when I saw them. 22 shorts have been unavailable for years.

 

Do not care about bullets etc. but I noticed "beam scale" in post #16.

May have caused an oxytocin release

That somebody actually slides those weights, rather then buying a modern digital balance (made you know where )

 

I'm NOT a reloading expert, although I dig some of the science and engineering, but I can report that most of the people I know who reload for fun and profit use powder measures and verify with a Mk-1, Mod-0 beam scale.
I have one myself, but it was given to me.

I also bought a digital 'jeweler's scale' with 2 proof weights for about 1/2 the price of something with Lyman or Hornady stamped on it.
Since I use 'grains' (15.4324 grains = about 1 gram, or 5 carats) the jeweler's scale seemed more appropriate given the origin of the carat....