RE: [HOE] Makin' Bullets

["William M. Hartnett III" <whartnet@charter.net>]

To realize just how silly this is, just reverse it.

My next stop, I'm going to buy 50 bullets, break them down, and sell off the
components for a net gain of $100.

Then, I'm going to do it again.

This is the kind of thing that is so iritating about some games.  Just admit
the goof, make an fix, and move on.

For GMs, I would suggest the following numbers...

2 percussion caps for $1
4 smokeless powder units for $1

After other costs (lead, etc.), 9mm bullets will cost a bit more than 4 for
$3.

Make sure the player has a casting for the right size bullets.  And don't
let them sell odd-ball rounds easily... who needs them anyway?

There are plenty of things to do if this gets out of hand... like have a
little accident involving the smokeless powder.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hoe@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-hoe@gamerz.net]On Behalf Of RedFox
Whiteruff
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 4:46 AM
To: hoe@gamerz.net
Subject: RE: [HOE] Makin' Bullets


Well let's look at hard numbers for making say 50 bullets, here...

Ignoring the initial $100 for the bullet press, you've got:
1 lb. of lead - $5 (note that the book doesn't say how much lead is consumed
to make a batch of casings)
50 percussion caps - $100
50 units smokeless powder - $50

That will net you 50 pistol rounds.  That is a total of $150 + an unknown
amount for lead ($0 if you're saving your casings with a $10 brass catcher).
That's $3 / bullet.  That's one hell of a markup.  You'd be insane to even
consider saving your shell casings unless you were in *dire* need of the
flexibility to create multiple ammunition types.

Consider also that the only place you can reasonably expect to buy smokeless
powder is Junkyard.  Junkyard is also a place that manufactures bullets.  So
why on earth would you buy the powder or caps when you can just buy the ammo
itself for far less money / barter?  The same goes, to a lesser extent, for
traders who might carry smokeless powder from Junkyard or (shudder) Denver.
They'd be able to buy bullets for the same price.

The book mentions how folks save their brass so they can repack their
bullets.  But with the prices as they are, they're better off simply buying
new, already made, bullets for the exact same price as the powder and not
having to put out TWICE the price for new percussion caps.

Again, some numbers for perspective:

1) 1 pistol round = $1
2) 1 percussion cap ($2), 1 casing ($?.?? or free), 1 unit of smokeless
powder ($1) = $3+

You can buy 1) at the same place you can (only) get one of the components
for 2).  So why bother?

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hoe@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-hoe@gamerz.net] On Behalf Of Kai
Tave
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 1:56 AM
To: hoe@gamerz.net
Subject: Re: [HOE] Makin' Bullets

>That means that with buying a bullet press and lead, and percussion caps,
>and shell casings (which admittedly can be scrounged or saved), that you’re
>better off buying whole bullets than manufacturing them. Is this a typo?


I'm of two minds about this.

On the one hand, you ARE doing an awful lot of work for what works out to
be, economically, a negative profit.  It seems like a bit of a raw deal when
you look at it like that.

On the other hand, with a press, a chunk of lead, some smokeless powder, and
some percussion caps, you have the ability to make multiple calibers of
ammunition on demand with your only real limits being how much material you
have and what sort of shell casings you have.  That means if you run out of
.50 AE for your Southern Alliance handgun and the only settlement in a
week's travel has nothing for trade but 9mm and a half-full box of 5.56mm
rifle rounds, you're not outta luck JUST yet.  You might use up a decent
amount of your bullet-making supplies, but hey, that's what it's there for
i'n'it?

So, in a way, you could argue that by paying a bit more you gain a little
versatility in a world where you can't always just buy the bullets you want
when you want them.

And this really goes without saying, but you should ALWAYS save your shell
casings.  Always.  Even if you never cast your own ammo, someone else DOES.
Think of it like pocket change.

--Kai Tave

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