BULLETS FOR PEANUTS
For the serious shooters, make your own bullets

In my family, we buy our bread, but we make our bullets.

I was weaned from my Daisy BB gun to a .38 pistol using homemade bullets that gave half the kick. My dad loaded the gun with these training rounds so I could learn the intricacies of firing a handgun without knocking my arm out of joint. I destroyed the paper plate target feeling the metal swell, burn and buck in my hands, and with that I understood what it meant to be a man (even though I was a 10-year-old girl). 

Most gun owners wouldn’t even consider making their own ammo, nor would they need to. However, there’s a large population of individuals who take their shooting much more seriously, far beyond nightstand protection, and can benefit from a specialized slug. The trick is knowing what you need and what you don’t. 

Realistically, a store-bought bullet won’t do you wrong and will more than suffice for the average person’s needs. Most of us only need the point, click, boom of a standard shot, and as long as you know how to line up your sights and can keep your arm steady, the bullet and the bang will do the rest. The subtleties in bullet craft come more into play for the specialists, the aficionados; those whose shots are measured less by the number of tin duckies knocked off the line and more by how expertly they taught the duckies a lesson. With the right tools, bullets can be made to punch a perfectly circular hole in a target rather than make a tear, or ease up on the kick to give that extra microsecond between blasts so you can blow away the competition. Such miniscule differences don’t usually matter when facing a foe or a feast, but they are exactly what can determine an award-winning shot. 

Price can be a factor, too. After the initial expense of purchasing the loader (which can run anywhere from $100-$1,600, depending on the quality) to stretch, stack and cap a shell, you can make your ammo for dimes. Gun powder is cheaper than dirt, and the casings can be used two or three times if you’re careful. On the other hand, one bullet itself might not cost much, but purchasing rounds and magazines can get surprisingly expensive if you’re not paying attention to just how many little orange boxes you’ve dumped into your shopping cart. The general rule applies — the bigger the bang the bigger the buck. A box of 500 rounds for lower caliber firearms starts around $10, but each step in caliber raises the cost. Five hundred shots in a rifle can run about $100, and loading a machine gun or some other high caliber automatic can cost you a mint. It’s easy to go through a box of bullets in a day at the range or in the desert. Throw in a buddy, a salami sandwich and an ironic silhouette and watch the ammo fly. 

The bottom line: Unless you either participate in competitions or otherwise just need buckets full of bullets so you and cousin Jeb can defend your plot of land, stick with store bought. Bullet construction takes times and practice and a special kind of precision.

If you’re just looking for a hobby, stick with something in which you can’t accidentally blow off your arm. Still, bullet craft can heighten your experience at the trigger and make your gun scalpel slice precise. There’s certainly something special about teaching a loved one to shoot a gun with bullets you made yourself. And men, if you find the right girl, a gesture like that is better than roses. 

Plus it’s just damn cool to say, “I make bullets.”