Costs

Like almost everything I learn, the startup costs are quickly outweighed by the cost of the “tooling.”

My lathe and milling machine cost less than $1500. The cost of my micrometers exceeds $1000 without counting toolposts, toolholders, inserts, and a wealth of other things.

Reloading is something like that. You can get a starting kit for around $175 that has just about everything you need to start reloading. You need to add dies, reloading manual, and consumables.

Assuming you are reloading for 9mm, your dies will be between $40 and a couple of hundred. I’m currently using Redding, which prices out at $75. Manuals run $25 or so. This puts the total cost of tooling just under $300.

Your consumables will be primers at $80 per 1,000, powder at $156 for four pounds, 115gr RMR JHP at $115 per 1,000.

This puts your consumables at $351 for a total start cost of $650 or so.

Assuming you are reloading “free” brass, this gives you a startup cost of $0.60/round, which is more than range candy but less than personal defense ammo.

After your initial investment, your costs will decrease, but it will take a while before you are truly saving money.

Your next 1,000 rounds will cost you $80 for primers and $115 for bullets, giving you a cost per round of $0.195. This would bring your costs from $0.60 to $0.422 per round, including your original investment.

The place where costs really change is when you need to start reloading a different caliber. Using the same equipment, you can add a set of dies, $75, and begin reloading a different caliber.

Availability

During the great panic-demic it became nearly impossible to buy certain calibers of ammunition. Even now, it is sometimes difficult to buy certain calibers.

If you have reloading equipment, those limitations are reduced.

I, personally, reload .38 Special and .357 Magnum with cast bullets. I cast HP myself and find those rounds to be consistent in weight and go where I point them.

My LGS was only selling cowboy loads and very expensive self-defense loads. They had no brass, they had no bullets, they had no primers, and their selection of powders was limited. For the cost of a set of very nice bullet molds, I was able to create freedom seeds for my R95 and revolver.

8mm Mauser is difficult to find and expensive; I’ve got nearly 500 rounds of it for the cost of bullets and powder. The same with 30-30 and 45-70.

I believe the only firearms I cannot reload for are my shotguns. Since I only run 4 rounds a year out of them, it’s not a real issue.

This is the great power of reloading, in my opinion. You can reload for unusual calibers for the cost of a set of dies and bullets.

Quality

The big-time long-distance shooters swear by hand reloading their ammo. I believe them. When I’m reloading, I attempt to maintain that same level of quality as they do. I may or may not succeed, but it is nice to know that I’m close.

Safety

There are two big rules in reloading:

1. Don’t Shoot Other People’s Reload.
2. Your mistake can kill you.

I currently use a Franklin Armory hand primer. It works for me. I can feel each primer seat properly. Before I had the hand primer, I used two different on-press tools.

One day, I was at a private range shooting .45 Colt out of a Marlin lever action. I would pull the trigger, the hammer would fall, and there would be no bang. Not even a pop. This was a problem, but I found nothing horribly wrong. It just meant I had to fix something.

Then I switched to my 1911. Bang. Bang. Pop. STOP!

I had a squib.

This led to me pulling every bullet on that set of reloaded rounds. Luckily there were only 20 of each caliber.

Conclusion

The startup cost of reloading is not horrible. The cost grows like in every hobby. Your break-even point will be in the 4,000 round range at today’s prices.

My start was $50 for a press, four or five sets of dies, a bunch of brass, and some other stuff. I bought a pound of Hodgdon’s No. 5 powder, a Lee Reloading manual, Lee powder scoops, a box of .45 ACP bullets, and 100 primers. My total investment to start was less than $200 for my first 100 rounds, giving me breakeven on my first 100 rounds.

Your mileage may vary.

I’ve been working with Ally on how to communicate in Charlie’s Voice.

What I believe I’ve found is that he starts with people that are willing to have a conversation. Usually, the people he is speaking with have the start of their conversation with Charlie written out. They expect to have a one punch knockout.

It seldom goes that way.

The reason is that Charlie starts investigating how to connect with them or to get them to articulate what they mean by the words they are using.

This allows him to use his wealth of general knowledge to have a conversation where they are working from talking points, emotions, and opinions and Charlie is working from a fact based world view.

I’m still working on this, and we are still looking from articles by you.

Yes, I’m a day late. I unloaded the truck Sunday, fell down, went boom. Yesterday was a lot of cleaning and recovery. So we’re a day late.

This weekend, I had the most amazing time cooking an 18th century supper for about 40 or so reenactors. I had a blast, even though it was a ton of work. We started cooking at about 9:30am, and rang the dinner bell at just after 6pm. By 8pm, I was in bed, in the dark, half asleep. LOL… But what a day! Everyone loved the food, and I made both a 13 lb turkey and an 8 lb ham, both of which were stripped like locusts in a wheat field. LOL… There were plenty of successes, and a couple of partial failures, but overall I did well. People enjoyed it, and I’ve been asked if I’m willing to repeat it next year (spoiler alert: I am!). Of the side dishes I presented, though, Roots a la Creme was probably the group favorite. It just tasted GOOD. So here is the version I made:

Ingredients:

• 4 large carrots
• 4 medium parsnips
• 1 stick of butter/margarine
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
• 3 small scallions
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 shallot about one inch round
• A small pinch of ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp dried basil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp or so of flour for thickening
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 1 cup cashew yogurt OR sour cream OR heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• vegetable broth, if needed to thin it out a bit.

Peel your carrots and parsnips and cut them in large slices. Boil them until you can stick a fork in them easily (usually 15 to 20 minutes). Drain and transfer them to a stew pan. Add the butter, parsley, scallions, garlic, shallots, cloves and basil. Over a medium heat stir well to blend the butter and seasonings with the roots.

Add flour, salt pepper and broth. Boil quickly, stirring as you do, until it thickens to a sauce. Remove from heat and reduce your heat to medium. Add the yogurt to the roots. Stir over medium heat until well blended and smooth. Take care not to boil or scorch this. If your sauce breaks, take a few tablespoons out, add a bit of white vinegar to it, and whisk well. Slowly add that back to the sauce, and it should fix it. You can add broth if it’s too thick.

Serve.

Saturday, September 27th:

VERY LONG, lots of memes, but well worth the time to read it all – (it explains a lot about what is happening in the US and globally – jlr)
We Have Been Living Through a Global Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Experiment – The Cruelites Want Civil War; Let’s Resurrect Civil Discourse Instead
bt Margaret Anna Alice and CJ Hopkins, 26Sep2025
https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/we-have-been-living-through-a-global

At One Time Many Mocked The Idea That The Radical Left Wanted A Violent Internal Revolution In America, But Nobody Is Laughing Now –
by Michael Snyder, 25Sep2025
https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/at-one-time-many-mocked-the-idea
If you truly believe that your political opponents are “fascists” that plan to commit “genocide”, what is the appropriate response?
In the hate-filled world that many of these radical leftists exist in, the appropriate response is violence…there was just a mass shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas…In this environment, violence can erupt literally anywhere at any moment…There is nowhere in this country that is truly safe. When you are out in public, please be constantly aware of what is going on around you. Even if you have nothing to do with politics, you can still be targeted…A whopping 74 percent of Democrats are convinced that democracy is not working. If they do not believe that democracy is working, they are not going to rely on the political system to enact change. Instead, they will use other means…An age of unprecedented civil unrest and extremely violent domestic terrorism is here.
(good info, but still trying to sell you his books – jlr)

PSST! Come Read Antifa’s Official Insurrection Guidelines – by Stephen Green, 24Sep2025
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2025/09/24/psst-come-read-antifas-official-insurrection-guidelines-n4944059
Here’s their handy guide to forming an Antifa sub-group of your own in just seven easy steps:…Antifa is the American rebranding of the original Antifaschistische Aktion, a militant wing of the German Communist Party in the Weimar era.

Word Crimes: How the Redefinition of Language Destroys Truth – by Jamie K. Wilson, 24Sep2025
https://pjmedia.com/jamie-wilson/2025/09/24/word-crimes-how-the-redefinition-of-language-destroys-truth-n4944049
…Orwell warned of this in 1984 with his invented language, Newspeak. But Newspeak was built by replacing old words with new ones — destroying vocabulary so certain ideas couldn’t even be thought. What we face today is subtler and more deceptive. Instead of erasing words, our institutions keep the familiar ones — equity, violence, woman, democracy — and hollow them out, refilling them with alien meanings. Orwell imagined burning the library. In our real world, the library still stands, but many of the books have been replaced with forgeries…

John Bolton’s Office Raid Bombshell: Classified Documents Related to WMDs, Strategic Comms Found – By Rusty Weiss, 24Sep2025
https://redstate.com/rusty-weiss/2025/09/24/john-boltons-office-raid-bombshell-classified-documents-related-to-wmds-strategic-comms-found-n2194302
Bolton Was, Indeed, Hiding Classified Files in His Office
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/09/24/bolton-was-indeed-hiding-classified-files-in-his-office-n3807129

Expectant Libs Post TikTok Videos of Themselves Gobbling Down Tylenol to Spite Trump, RFK Jr. – by Brett T., 23Sep2025
https://twitchy.com/brettt/2025/09/23/expectant-libs-post-tiktok-videos-of-themselves-gobbling-down-tylenol-n2419408
video – 00:00:10 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1970531489080320183
video – 00:00:20 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1970391539240112351
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/820200-overview
Minimum toxic doses of acetaminophen for a single ingestion, posing a significant risk of severe hepatotoxicity, are as follows:
Adults: 7.5-10 g – Children: 150 mg/kg; 200 mg/kg in healthy children aged 1-6 years
(Each tablet = 500mg, so 16-20 tabs, untreated, is a lethal dose for an adult and much less for children – unknown is the lethal dose for a fetus, much less a chronic 9-month+/- long ingestion of Tylenol
ALSO SEE: https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/acetaminophen-intoxication-a-criticalcare-emergency

Climate Crusader-in-Chief Newsom Flip-Flops As Scheduled Refinery Closures Spark Panic – By Steve Williams, 24Sep2025
https://redstate.com/steve-williams/2025/09/24/from-climate-hero-to-flip-flopper-shuttered-refineries-leave-newsom-in-panic-n2194317
…California’s biggest energy threats: refinery closures. Negotiations to keep two Bay Area refineries open collapsed. Without a deal, the Valero plant in Benicia (the city’s largest private employer) will close by the end of the year. More refinery closures are scheduled, further shrinking capacity, killing jobs, and locking California into even higher prices and deeper dependence on imported fuel.

Supreme Court Sides With Trump: Grants Executive Authority to Fire FTC Commissioner – By Pamela Geller, 24Sep2025
https://gellerreport.com/2025/09/supreme-court-sides-with-trump-grants-executive-authority-to-fire-ftc-commissioner.html/?lctg=92233992
(SCOTUS didn’t GRANT anything.  It AFFIRMED his right, as head of the administrative branch, to fire employees, just like any CEO – jlr)

Speech Is Not Violence – Why imprecise political language is creating a permission structure for violence – and how we fight back with precision. – by Kaizen Asiedu, 25Sep2025
https://thatskaizen.substack.com/p/speech-is-not-violence
When “fascist” can mean anything from Hitler to someone who disagrees with you, when we operate on a political spectrum but pretend everything is binary, when words become tribal weapons instead of tools for understanding – we create the conditions where speech gets conflated with violence. This isn’t just an academic problem. It’s getting people killed.
embedded video – 00:14:19

Dem Candidate Laughs At Charlie Kirk’s Murder, Mocks MAGA for Mourning Him – by Caden Olson, 27Sep2025
https://www.westernjournal.com/dem-candidate-laughs-charlie-kirks-murder-mocks-maga-mourning

‘The View’ Panel Gets Triggered Hearing Trump Would Win ‘By Bigger Margin’ If the 2024 Election Were Today – by  Nicole Silverio, 27Sep2025
https://www.westernjournal.com/view-co-host-triggers-panel-saying-trump-win-bigger-margin-2024-election-held-now

Texas Jihad Update: It’s WAY Worse Than We Thought – by Kevin Downey Jr., 26Sep2025
https://pjmedia.com/kevindowneyjr/2025/09/26/texas-jihad-update-guess-who-let-the-shooters-in-n4944156

THE SKY IS FALLING
Asteroid 2025 SU4 flew past Earth at 0.06 lunar distances – By Teo Blašković, 24Sep2025
https://watchers.news/2025/09/24/asteroid-2025-su4-flew-past-earth-0-06-lunar-distances/
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2025 SU4 flew past Earth at just 0.06 lunar distances (0.00015 AU / 22 380 km / 13 906 miles) from the center of our planet at 08:34 UTC on September 24, 2025.
(The Earth’s radius is approximately 6,371 kilometers (3,959 miles), and the asteroid was at13906 miles from the center of the earth sooo the rock was only 9,947 miles above the surface – I think that qualifies as CLOSE – jlr)

This was slipped under the door by e-mail – and yes, I remember a lot of this, and so does Pepperage Farm
Comments Made in the Year 1955! – That’s only 70 years ago!

‘I’ll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it’s going to be impossible to buy a week’s groceries for $20.00.’
‘Have you seen the new cars coming out next year?  It won’t be long before $2,000.00 will only buy a used one.’
‘If cigarettes keep going up in price, I’m going to quit.  A quarter a pack is ridiculous.
‘Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?’
‘If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.’
‘When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon.  Guess we’d be better off leaving the car in the garage.’
‘Kids today are impossible.  Those duck tail hair cuts make it impossible to stay groomed.  Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls.’
‘I’m afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying DAMN in GONE WITH THE WIND, it seems every new movie has either HELL or DAMN in it.’
‘I read the other day where some scientist thinks it’s possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century.  They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in  Texas  ‘
‘Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball?  It wouldn’t surprise me if someday they’ll be making more than the President.’
‘I never thought I’d see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric.  They are even making electric typewriters now.’
‘It’s too bad things are so tough nowadays.  I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.’
‘It won’t be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.’
‘Marriage doesn’t mean a thing any more, those-Hollywood stars seem to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat.’
‘I’m afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.’
‘The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.’
‘There is no sense going for a weekend, it costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.’
‘No one can afford to be sick anymore, at $35.00 a day in the hospital it’s too rich for my blood.’
‘If they think I’ll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it.’

Tuesday, September 30th:

Recommended reading… – by OldNFO, 30Sep2025
https://oldnfo.substack.com/p/recommended-reading
Originally written by John Murphy in 2015, updated this year…It is only a matter of time before Islamic terrorists execute a Mumbai, Westgate Mall, Garissa University College, and perhaps even a 7 October scale attack in the United States. –
https://www.citizen-defender.com/blog-1-1/Blog%20Post%20Title%20One-nlc94

17 days after Charlie’s death, it’s clear: We are now on the other side of the Rubicon – by BlazeTV Staff, 27sep2025
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-auron-macintyre-show/17-days-after-charlies-death-its-clear-we-are-now-on-the-other-side-of-the-rubicon
…when one side believes that chopping off the genitals of a child is not only permissible but loving? Peaceable discourse is no longer a viable option…

It Is Always About Violence – By Chris Johnson, 27Sep2025
https://vineofliberty.com/2025/09/27/it-is-always-about-violence/
Communism, an idea so good it has to use force to keep its citizens in. – Soft Violence – Physical Violence – Murder

We Now Know Why That Charlie Kirk Tribute Never Aired: Death Threats from the Leftists Who Murdered Him – By Samuel Short, 27Sep2025
https://www.westernjournal.com/now-know-charlie-kirk-tribute-never-aired-death-threats-leftists-murdered/
…Sinclair took these threats seriously as more deranged leftist terrorists would have acted against their other affiliates. This is becoming a pattern after Kirk’s assassination and the attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday.

Leading Democrats Incite to Murder, Leftwing Protests Call to “SHOOT ICE” – By Pamela Geller – on 27Sep2025
https://gellerreport.com/2025/09/video-democrats-incite-to-murder.html/?lctg=92233992
video – 00:01:38 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1970876028248891880
video – 00:00:46 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1971220642348605738
video – 00:01:33 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1933168342547780032
video – 00:01:38 0 https://twitter.com/i/status/1942265570923274346
*video – 00:07:06 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1971695145784692806
video 0 00:00:59 – https://twitter.com/i/status/1971450671032652262

John Brown Gun Club Invokes Kirk Assassin’s Message on Campus Flier – By Tom Knighton, 26Sep2025
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2025/09/26/john-brown-gun-club-invokes-kirk-assassins-message-on-campus-flier-n1230048
“make a real change” through aggressive activism instead of “ceremonial resistance.”

Now Chicago Anti-ICE Rioters Are Carrying Guns – by By Ward Clark28Sep2025
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/09/28/escalation-now-chicago-anti-ice-rioters-are-carrying-guns-n2194494
It is beginning to look a lot like open rebellion in several of the country’s major cities…some sort of explosive device found last night near the ICE Chicago detention facility…the presence of an IED seems a significant escalation.

Get training – And carry your guns. – by Ian29Sep2025
https://thelawdogfiles.substack.com/p/get-training
get training…don’t forget first aid…don’t forget legal insurance
***(Carry ALL the time, even at home, because bad things happen suddenly and the bad guys are NOT going to wait while you go and get your firearm – jlr)
“God created all men, but Samuel Colt made them equal.” – Unknown
“A Smith & Wesson does more for empowering women than Feminism ever could” – Greg Gutfeld 29 Jul 2017
“An armed society is a polite society” – “Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

Trump Official Attacked at United Nations By Leftist Goon – By Pamela Geller, 27Sep2025
https://gellerreport.com/2025/09/trump-official-attacked-at-united-nations-by-leftist-goon.html/?lctg=92233992
“An HHS official was followed into a bathroom, recorded, physically assaulted and verbally accosted by a deranged leftist at the UN who somehow entered the venue past multiple layers of security,”

***INTERESTING READING/listening/watching
What Civil War Could Look Like and How to Prepare – by Brian Duff, 26Sep2025
https://mind4survival.com/civil-war-preparedness/
podcast – 00:29:47 –https://content.libsyn.com/p/9/f/b/9fb64627c7caf640/M4S265_Civil_War_Prepping.mp3
video – 00:37:33 – https://youtu.be/-cJ_aktCWDE
video – 00:11:10 – https://youtu.be/HVHgPnGWtec

Trump Admin Set to Inflict ‘Maximum Pain’ on Democrats if Shutdown Goes Forward: ‘They Will Pay a Huge Price’ – By Jack Davis, 25Sep2025
https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-admin-set-inflict-maximum-pain-democrats-shutdown-goes-forward-will-pay-huge-price/
The White House is gearing up for major layoffs if the government shuts down, using the funding gap to cut federal jobs. A memo directs agencies to fire employees from unfunded programs misaligned with Trump’s priorities, per WaPo. Even if funding resumes, only essential staff will stay.

***Liberals More Likely to Cut Ties with Friends and Family Over Politics – by W. J. Lee, 29Sep2025
https://amac.us/newsline/politics/poll-liberals-more-likely-to-cut-ties-with-friends-and-family-over-politics/
(However, since Sept 10th, I don’t think so.  I think conservatives are now fed up with, and no longer wish to put up with, the whining, the crying, the feeling-driven rather than fact-based political lectures, the political diatribes and rants, the sulking, the hurt feelings, and the generally divisive drama from their leftist relatives, especially at holiday family gatherings.  So they just won’t invite them this year, or maybe ever again, depending on how divisive and abusive they have been to the family – jlr)

Not a favorite artist, but I like the message.

It was a grand weekend. I have much to share and little time to do it in. There will be more later in the week. I wanted to share this, though, as an example of what people on the Left are sharing currently on book of faces and elsewhere.

Train Like You Fight, Fight Like You Train

One of the consistent doctrines of the US military is the above. And we do train that way. We train to be able to overcome, to succeed.

There are countless examples of training interfering with fighting and even more of training bringing victory to the battlefield.

The first cops into the Nashville school state that their training just took over. They moved with purpose towards the sound of gunfire. They cleared rooms along the way, rapidly with no wasted motion. When they had cleared, they took the lead and did not stop until the asshole was dead.

Compared to the school cops that ran and hid in Texas and Florida. In both cases they went into barricaded with hostages, and children died because of their cowardice and lack of training.

Another example from an earlier time: when they recovered the body of a dead cop, they found six expended cases in his pocket or pouch. Why? Because he had been trained to retain his brass when he reloaded.

Why do we train with FMJ bullets?

Cartridge Pricing

These are representative prices. I’m not suggesting that these are the best prices, but they come from the same source.
Description,Quantity,Price,Per Unit

The cost of reloading a FMJ and a JHP is the same but for the cost of the bullet.

Training Costs

If you are buying your training rounds, you are going to save nearly 60 cents per round. When you are talking about 100 or more rounds in a single training session, that is a $60 difference per 100 rounds.

That means that most people will use “range candy” instead of self defense rounds.

On the other hand, the difference between firing a reloaded FMJ vs. a JHP is 6 cents per round. Even with a range session of 200 rounds going downrange, that is only a $12 difference in cost.

For me this is a non-starter. I am working through my FMJ .45 ACP but I will no longer reload FMJ pistol ammo. It isn’t worth it to me.

I have some 9mm pistols. The Blue-Haired Fairie’s is an H&K in 9mm. The PC-9 is 9mm and takes Glock magazines, so I have a Glock.

What I didn’t have was an EDC that I actually liked. I’ve never been particularly fond of the Glocks. It might be because I was driving nails with my Kimber in .45 ACP and with the H&K, but the Glock had rounds going “that-a-way” for me. I traded it for something.

My Kahr got upgraded to a Sig P938, which I like. I just don’t like shooting it. It is so small and so light that it bites when it is fired.

That Kahr and later P938 were my EDC when I needed something small for when I was in the office. I had one box of Hornady Critical Defense for it. I fired just enough of those $1-per-round personal defense rounds to know that my FMJ reloads went to the same place.

So I looked through all the cans looking for 9mm. I found over 1,000 rounds of FMJ or copper-plated rounds. No problem there. What I didn’t find was any JHP.

This led to a big thank you to my son. Yesterday he moved every single ammo can until we found the crate with 9 mm and .45 ACP bullets.

The Ammo Hunt

My ammo cans are in crates: 4 30-cal cans per crate or 3 50-cal cans per crate. I also have some simple crates that hold bullets, brass, and other fun stuff. Each can is properly labeled.

The issue was that the crate labeled “bullets” was at the bottom of the hardest-to-reach stack of crates.

My son diligently worked his way to that stack and handed them all out to me until he got to that final crate at the bottom of the final stack. Therein he located 2,000 JHP bullets, just waiting to grow into Freedom Seeds!

I see reloading time in my future. There is no need to have bullets when I have spark buttons, powder, cases, and seeds.

As we say, shooting is a perishable skill, and I need more range time.

Conclusion

What do you think is the proper ratio of seeds to seed dispensers? My current is around 1,000 seeds per caliber or 500 per dispenser, whichever is greater.

Newcommers

EDC

Every Day Carry. It can refer to a firearm, knife, light, or IFAK. The stuff that you have with you all the time.

IFAK

Individual First Aid Kit

Spark Button

Primers

Seeds

Bullets

Freedom Seeds

A complete cartridge, ready to fire.

Seed Dispenser

A firearm

You can buy cartridges, or you can make cartridges. The process of making a cartridge is called “reloading” because, in general, we are recycling the cases of fired cartridges.

A cartridge consists of a case, normally brass, sometimes aluminum or steel, which holds all the other components. A primer, which causes a spark when struck correctly by the firing pin of a firearm. A propellant called powder, gunpowder, or smokeless powder. Gunpowder is not the same as smokeless powder; using smokeless powder when the firearm expects gunpowder or black powder causes bad things to happen. And a bullet.

We use a reloading press to prepare the case and insert the primer. We add powder to the case, then place the bullet in the mouth of the case and use the press to seat the bullet. Once done, you have a cartridge that is as good as, if not better than, factory cartridges.

Communism, an idea so good it has to use force to keep its citizens in.

The fact is that Communism requires that all dissenting voices be silenced. They are silenced with violence. People are sent to re-education camps, they are disappeared in the dead of the night, and they are grabbed off the streets, never to be seen again. All with the authority and violence of the government.

The image of people being disappeared is what the anti-American agitators are using when they say that “masked men are kidnapping people off of the street.” It invokes images of communist countries doing just that.

The difference is that these people are not being disappeared. They are being arrested. They get lawyers, or they had lawyers.

When ICE agents detain a criminal illegal alien outside a courtroom, that criminal has had due process.

Are these arrests violent? Only if the person being arrested makes them that way.

Soft Violence

When the Tea Party came into existence, I wanted to fly the Gadsden flag. I did not for fear of how it might affect my wife and children. I flew an American Flag instead and still worried.

People were silenced by fear of reprisals. This was the time of cancel culture from the left.

Voice a double-bad-think opinion, and you were canceled. Voice a bad-think opinion, and you might only be warned.

You were made to feel alone, but for a few lonely voices in the dark. You were told by every talking head that you were guilty of bad-think and would be punished if found out.

This is also the screaming and in your face, just shy of physical assault.

Physical Violence

This is where you start to see the laying on of hands. Physical beatings, shoving, and punching. Actual battery.

In Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s famous book The Gulag Archipelago, he talks about being stuffed into a cattle car. The violence was being dealt out not only by the guards but also by fellow prisoners.

But they weren’t “fellows” in the classic sense. Most of the prisoners were regular people stuffed in the pipeline leading to the Gulag. These were criminals, and they colluded with the guards for privileges and in exchange kept the rest of the prisoners cowed.

We see that in the criminal attacks in Seattle. Roaming gangs of violent thugs impose their beliefs with truncheons and bats. And if those don’t work, even more.

In Cabaret, the maître d` of the Kit Kat Klub kicked some Brownshirts out of the club. The cowards were not willing to do anything about it at the time. Instead, they waited until the maître d` had left the club, then beat the shit out of him.

They sent the message, “Oppose us, and bad things will happen to you.”

We see this type of thuggish behavior in the cities. We see it when conservatives set up tables to have a conversation and are driven off campus by gangs of feral louts.

And the state defends these thugs. Regular folk who stand up for themselves and others are punished by the state. Look at how the authorities treated prayer groups defending themselves vs. the antifa lice that attacked them. Look at the violence against federal buildings by antifa and then what happened when grandma walked through the Capitol.

This violence is vastly asymmetric, and it is intended to be. At every step of the process, you are told to back down. You are told that you have to restrain yourself. And if you don’t? Ask Kyle what happens.

Murder

Ask Lincoln how Democrats behave when they lose. Ask JFK, killed by a communist. Ask almost any victim of political violence in the last century how Democrats behave.

Unfortunately, you can’t. Most of those people were murdered.

The goal of the left is to create an event to prove the right is the more violent.

The problem is, we are. When we react, we do it with force and with a will to get things done.

Again, ask Kyle. When it was time, he pulled the trigger, and cos-playing degenerates died. That boy showed remarkable trigger discipline.

And this is not new.

In 1977, JoAnne Deborah Byron, AKA Assata Olugbala Shakur, was convicted of murdering a police officer.

This happy little communist worm was a member of the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army and other groups. She was a murderer, a terrorist, and a bank robber. After she was convicted, she was sentenced to life + 26-33 years.

Of course the standard whining leftists blamed it all on racism.

She escaped, stayed on the lam for a while before moving to Cuba to live the life of a privileged Communist.

On September 26th, 2025, she became a good communist. Cuba has reported she died of health complications.