Unjacketed lead calibers?

[Oly]

I was just wondering what calibers can you still buy unjacketed lead ammo for these days? Or is .22lr the last one?

[Streeker59]

Are we talking pistol calibers too or just rifle?

[Oly]

Just rifle

[MarinePMI]

All the CAS loads IIRC are lead loads...

 

30-30, 32-40, 38-55, 45-70, 25-20, 32-20 etc...

[Laurie]

All the CAS loads IIRC are lead loads...

 

30-30, 32-40, 38-55, 45-70, 25-20, 32-20 etc...

 

I don't think we can get any such in the UK. York Guns had PMC CAS lead-bullet ammo in some of those cartridges plus 40-65, but it went years ago, as did the PMC company. I haven't heard of any other makes being sold here since.

 

It makes some cartridges - eg .30-30 Win and .45-70 - handload only numbers here for anybody with FAC variations for such rifles and ammunition for 'target shooting on approved ranges', as the only jacketed factory ammo available is expanding and therefore not legal for this purpose.

 

Laurie

[MarinePMI]

Are you guys allowed to cast your own? Was wondering with all the "You can have only so many bullets on hand at one given time per your FAC".

[Laurie]

Tim,

 

no problem with casting, either legally or technically. We can hold as many non-expanding bullets as we want too - it's only when they're assembled into ammunition that maximum holdings apply. Keen BPCR target shooters all cast for their 40s and 45s importing the high quality bullet moulds for long-range Postell design bullets and suchlike, our few CAS shooters probably likewise. Some of our revolver cartridge levergun shooters still cast their own, but not nearly as many as in pre-Dunblane handgun shooting times.

 

Expanding bullets are a bit different - legally they are 'prohibited items' that are then subject to an exemption from the law where required and only when specially authorised. Yes really! - you couldn't make it up. This was because Thomas Hamilton used 9mm JSPs in the Dunblane school massacre and the then Home Secretary gave into a demands in a parliamentary debate for 'Dum-Dums' to be prohibited before anybody pointed out they are both ethically and legally essential for shooting many live quarry species.

 

So ........... FAC holders can only buy expanding bullets or ammo loaded with same if they have an authorisation stamp on their certificate and this usually limits the total quantity held whether in cartridges or loose form waiting to be loaded. Dealers and individual shooters are legally required to treat the bullets the same way as live ammunition security-wise, although I bet few individual shooters realise this. Many keen fox-shooters have become so fed up with over-tight limits applied by their local firearms licensing team that only allows a box of 100 bullets to be bought at a time that they have switched to using match bullets - hence the regular requests about how A-Maxes and similar perform on live game, as well as it being due to people looking for the most accurate bullets.

 

Also, as with (all) ammunition, expanding bullets have to be bought on a face to face basis showing the FAC, so no mail order as used to be the case and a trip to the dealer for each purchase.

 

Welcome to the Big Brother state! And how many crimes / deaths has all this beaurocracy prevented? Sweet FA - even the police describe it as nonsense and most would like the law to be changed as it just creates useless work.

 

Laurie

[MarinePMI]

Laurie,

 

Thanks for the detailed response, though sorry about getting you riled up.

 

The expanding bullet in you country is the same as the moderator in ours. Makes no sense, but someone made the masses believe it's an evil thing, therefore banning it.

 

I had one co-worker tell me once that she thought guns should all be banned. When I asked her why, she said "Because they scare me." Talk about brain dead and emotional. This is the same person who got a Master's degree at your Cambridge, and is working on another at MIT currently. Lots of book sense, but got shorted on the common sense...

[menial 1]

Laurie,

 

Thanks for the detailed response, though sorry about getting you riled up.

 

The expanding bullet in you country is the same as the moderator in ours. Makes no sense, but someone made the masses believe it's an evil thing, therefore banning it.

 

I had one co-worker tell me once that she thought guns should all be banned. When I asked her why, she said "Because they scare me." Talk about brain dead and emotional. This is the same person who got a Master's degree at your Cambridge, and is working on another at MIT currently. Lots of book sense, but got shorted on the common sense...

 

That's because she did her Master's in Cambridge.

Common sense is no longer allowed in the UK, we have the Health and Safety Executive to tell what to do and how to do it at all times.

Pete.

[Laurie]

Pete,

 

I've worked out my answer to the Health & Safety Executive 'issue' for when I become Lord High Dictator of all I survey (Yeah .... right on!).

 

What is the most high-risk workplace activity that British citizens currently perfom and therefore needs the greatest attention from the H&S 'professionals'? It's soldiering in Afghanistan, I reckon. So, I'll pack the whole lot of them out there pronto, and since I'd be an equal opportunities dictator, the job description would require them to advise the locals too including the Taleban, Arab insurgents and anybody else with an AK and attitude.

 

Well, you can dream about these things, or until Orwell's '1984' becomes reality and the Thought Police turn up on the doorstep. (Nearly at that point now I reckon!)