Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupert
Not really. The base of the shell, with its rim and its primer pocket is the hard part, and having lots of cartridge-sized tubing doesn't help with that part.
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Easy is relative. Drawing brass from cups stamped from strips of high quality brass is easy, if you've got the proper set up. It's much harder for a smaller operation to manage. On the other hand, using hydraulic presses and a variety of dies and punches to shape copper tubing is something an individual can do, as is using solder and a gas torch to "weld" copper plugs and rings to the base of the tube. If you have enough round stock and a lathe, or even just a drill press you can use an extremely wasteful method to produce shells. Quality on all these methods other than a commercial set-up is likely to be hit and miss, and reliability should be low.
The primers, fair enough, are the truly hard part. I don't really know how you would make them. I mean, I have an idea of the rough process, but I don't think I could, for example, manufacture them. The guy who knows how to make your primers would certainly be someone who should have a lot of respect in a post apocalyptic setting.
Given the tremendous advantages bolt action or semi-auto's offer over muzzle loading firearms, I'd expect that people would try to keep them operational, even if they had to kludge together haphazard solutions.