HOW PREPARED ARE YOU?
You've lived through all the warning signs that cause shortages: the first Gulf War, the Clinton years, 9/11, the second Gulf War, the Obama years, all the Democrat nominees warning about taking away guns and you've made sure you have primers, powder, brass, bullets, and dies for all the cartridges you shoot. But there is one little item which can shut you down. I learned decades ago always have every conceivable size and type de-capping pins on hand. They are normally sold in packages of 10 and I have every size on hand I need for the dies I use. I was reminded of this again when I was sizing and de-capping 500 .38 Long Colt cases. When the de-capping pin broke it took less than a minute to replace it
Years ago we had a gun store close down...
The man just got too old to keep going. He kept part boxes from die manufacturers. Every conceivable stem, expander, pin, nut, etc.
I told him I was interested and he sold me the lot and an RCBS powder scale for $100. I've only ever used a few parts from the boxes.
I do keep a few Universal Decapping Dies on hand too.
When Shapel's closed after three generations
I purchased all their Colt New Frontier barrels and have used them on several Ruger customs as the third generation Colt barrel threads are the same
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I have a pretty good supply of parts ..
collected over the years ... I've made decapping pins at times some years ago.
I have several parts boxes that I have
Filled over the years and can pretty well take care of any single-action repair. A friend stopped by with a broken hammer on his .45 Blackhawk and all it took was a screwdriver and a reach into my parts box to fix iT. Also have a good supply of barrels and cylinders. Another box is just marked one and the also have the box of screws for scope mounting. About three decades ago I picked up a like new 7-1/2" Great Western .45 Colt barrel. I eventually came up with a Great Western that needed that barrel. I also bought a Colt New Service .38-40 barrel for the same amount of five dollars and it went on a New Service I picked up for only $200 because someone had hack-sawed the barrel to 2 incheS.
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