In a total societal collapse, some have predicted a return to a "local economy," meaning a return to handmade goods and locally grown food. If this rather far-fetched situation did occur, history has much to teach about the resourcefulness of the human being. For instance, on the topic of reloading cartridges for firearms by hand, we find this comment about Native Americans on the Great Plains:

"Powder and lead [were] obtained by breaking up the cartridges of another calibre that didn't fit an [Indian's] gun and using these to reload the shells -- which worked about as well as the right shells would have, had he been able to obtain them. Some of the shell casings were reloaded as many as fifty times."

The U.S. Army, fighting the Indians, was aware of this and warned officers "to prevent Indians from procuring the empty shells thrown away by troopers after firing."

One Army officer had this to say about Indian resourcefulness:
"I heard a shot fired and saw a young buck Indian near the water with an army breech-loading rifle, calibre fifty, short in the barrel, and with a raw-hide wrapped stock. I went to where he was and, to my surprise and I may say delight, saw the first centre-fire reloaded metallic rifle cartridge. It seems that this Indian had picked up some empty shells left at the target range, and had, with a small three-square hand-saw file, reamed out the hole punctured by the firing-pin of the rifle so as to take a gun- or pistol-cap, which he placed in the pocket made with the file; he then put a lath- or shingle-nail into the cap, filled the shell to cover the nail-head with powder, placed over this a gun-wad cut down to fit tightly, then filling up the shell with duck-shot, placing over that another gun-wad, split thin so as to secure as much room as possible, for the shot. Over the last wad some sealing-wax had been melted and run in, and the lip of the shell slightly turned in, to enable him to insert the cartridge easily into the chamber of the rifle. This Indian had quite a number of these reloaded shells with him ; he, however, prepared and reloaded some for me with shot and some with ball, the latter having been hammered into shape by hand to fit the shells. I secured some of these cartridges and sent them either to General Ord, then commanding the Department of California, or to his adjutant- general, Colonel Sherburn, I think. I never received any reply or acknowledgment to this, but some time thereafter a circular or order was issued from San Francisco, giving instructions that in future the empty shells, after target practice, would be carefully collected, in order that the Indians should not get them. The ammunition referred to was what is known as "solid head." If you remember, centre-fire ammunition was issued to us, I think, in 1880 or 1881. Query, did the ordnance people get the idea of centre-fire ammunition from the "noble red man" of the Yuma tribe? This Indian surely displayed great skill, genius, and ingenuity in preparing the shells and reloading them."

It is a matter of debate, then, whether Indians, with primitive tools, developed the reloadable center-fire cartridge case. In a little more modern context, consider these comments [link] about bush repair of vehicles. The point is simply that skills, not equipment, make the difference. A winning attitude, resourcefulness, and a refusal to give up can be very important in any survival situation. They should be the first items you pack into your "survival kit." Custer certainly would have wished that his opponents had not.

Back in the 80's, some guys I know of attempted to cross Africa on their own in a 4WD (could've been a Land Rover, I don't recall any longer). Anyway, well into the trip they crashed their vehicle in the middle of some African plains. Much of the damage was repairable but not the axle - it was twisted and broken.

Crap! No way in hell they were going to get a factory replacement. Not when you're literally a thousand miles from civilization. They didn't even try to fix the axle, would've been futile without a well equipped machine shop. However, there happened to be a settlement nearby, just a bunch of families living in huts. In a couple of days, the village smith made them a new, hand-forged, dead straight axle just for the hell of it! All he had were a few hammers and files, a coal forge and some scrap iron.

The new axle was actually ok and it worked so well they managed to finish their trip without any trouble. When they got to Europe they drove to a real mechanic. The folks in the shop were amazed because the hand-made axle was so good it didn't really need to be replaced. They simply could not believe the axle was made by a village smith with just the most basic hand tools.

Well, I guess a little skill and ingenuity goes a long way...

We rely on modern manufacturers/producers to manufacture/produce and deliver goods expediently at an affordable price. One of the unfortunate consequences of this dependency is that there will be generations of people who won't know how to get by when, for whatever reason, traditional supply channels are unable to fulfill their needs. This becomes painfully obvious when asking where food comes from and some can respond only with "the supermarket".

Look around online and you can find how to reload primers using
strike anywhere matches.

Now that primers are unavailable, it might be a useful bit of
know how.

Too bad you can't get strike anywhere matches anymore either.

Ben--you can..i have about 10 box's of them stored away,still in the plastic wrap,inside plastic jars--old dog treat ones--with a small desiccant pack to keep them dry..i guess in Minnesota they trust us with matches---

I have been looking high and low for them here in Denver. Not a sign.

Here is why-

"Wentworth took over an Association that had, during its first decade, concentrated primarily on developing fire-safety standards for the insurance industry. However, U.S. and Canadian fire losses were far greater than those in Europe, and the public was generally indifferent to the problem. Wentworth, who was a crusader at heart, believed it was NFPA's mission to educate people on fire-safe behavior. He championed fire prevention education and used the Quarterly to get his messages out to NFPA members and the public.

One of his first crusades was to replace the "parlor" or "strike anywhere" match with the safety match. In 1907, NFP NFP Not for Profit
NFP Natural Family Planning (contraception)
NFP National Focal Point
NFP National Financial Partners Corp.
NFP Nurse Family Partnership (Denver, CO) A's Committee on Matches had concluded that the only match the Association could recommend was the safety match, but little headway was made in the fight against parlor matches Par´lor match`

1. A friction match that contains little or no sulphur. until NFPA started its general education and publicity campaign in 1909. By 1912, NFPA had adopted a suggested model law and municipal ordinance prohibiting parlor matches. As a result, "strike anywhere" matches eventually disappeared from general use in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. .

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Crusader-a01611663784


You can find them at Amazon.

I get them at the hardware store.

Maybe a special order?

Plenty of Strike Anywhere matches in PA.

SA Fisher, that was an interesting post.
The ability to improvise is a very valuable skill to have.
It seems that we are raising complete generations with that talent and the mental agility it demands removed from them.
Our technology reflects that change too. Most products are designed to be used and thrown away if they break. The idea that things should last or at least be repairable are forgotten concepts.