What would you do ?

[Mortblanc]

Truth is that I have never been a strong proponent of the .22 rimfire over here in the States. We have experienced several severe ammo dry ups in the past decade and .22 rimfire is the first and hardest hit in each case.

I do have a good supply of ammo now, but I seldom shoot the lowly .22 rimfires. It does not have the advantages over here that it does in the UK.

The .22lr is best used in a survival situation with a suppressor. While those are easy to obtain and very acceptable in the UK, over here one would think that they had asked permission to possess a pocket sized nuclear weapon if one tries to purchase a suppressor. That means the .22 does not have the stealth potential here that it does for you folks. If you are going to shoot something you might as well shoot it with something of substance.

During the great raccoon war of 2013 I gave up on the .22lr for anything bigger than a bunny. I had a real nice Ruger 10/22 set up with a night vision scope and found it useless on the coyotes and raccoons in my area. Touching a .22 off at 3am is LOUD too!

I shoot mostly .177/.22 air guns here at home, and at the range it is mostly testing various load combinations for reliability and accuracy in my centerfire rifles.

As for reloading, I do that, and cast my own rifle, pistol and shotgun slugs as well. I reload every major pistol caliber and 15 different rifle calibers, as well as reloading shotgun shells in the major persuasions.

Due to my historical work I have a raft of black powder hardware also, in calibers from .32-.75.

The historical study also led me into museums curation and demonstrations and I hold a master blacksmith rating from the regional metalworking guild. I was the village blacksmith and museum director in the local museum in my home town from 1994-1997.

As valuable as the blacksmithing work in a survival situation would be machinist crafts, and I worked as a tool and die maker part time back in the 1980s when teaching secondary school would not cover the bills of a growing family.

I even created something of note during that era. I worked in the shop that built the first set of forming dies to create the magazines for the first Barrett 50 Sniper rifle. The Barrett factory is in my home town and I went to school with Ronnie Barrett. They farmed out the die work to the company I worked for.

I have worn a lot of hats in my years.