Starting out with firearms

I've heard a rumour that in WA the gun shops have to record and declare ammo purchases to the authorities. Does anyone have any confirmed info on this?

graynomad is correct but that said the authorities have never hassled me about the amount of ammo I buy.In the process atm of adding a couple of guns to my licence(haven't added a new gun for about 20 yrs) they now want to know everything barr when you had your last s**t. New letter from property owner when you add gun, purchase guns(guns stay at gun shop until additions approved), fill out online application, then submit application, letter etc and addition fee at post office then play the waiting game for approval of additions.Will give an update on how it goes.

Yep, just buy a brick or two every time you go into town, of course if you actually use a brick or two in that time that doesn't give you any extra

Just another good reason to reload. I don't think I've been bothered by the regulation change yet

Have decided to sell my .308W
As I no longer compete my medal winning .308W "Ugly Stick" just takes up space in the safe!
Will put it up on used guns in the next week or two, time to downsize a little!

I will be hitting you guys up for info on reloading soon. I have saved my 243 cases and bought some SW 40cal case. Now got get some bargain gear etc to fill em up.

Fractus: 4 ways to go.
Absolute cheapest, $65 or so/caliber - Lee loader - not the most accurate way and definitely the slowest of reloading, but it will give you all you need to start reloading and it would go in a BOB I suppose.



From there [and my recommended starting point] you can go to a decent single stage press and you can pick them up pretty cheaply. I got mine for about $100 used. You'll need a powder measure ($80), scales ($40), caliper ($30), dies ($50), primer pocket cleaner/brass debur/case length cutter ($30) and perhaps depriming/priming tool ($40) if it doesn't have it as part of the press. 

Turret presses are a step up from here, the simplex ones are ok but some use different sized dies so you can't use the cheap [and I think fine] Lee dies. 

Progressive presses allow you to pump out rounds by the hundreds per hour.  $400-900 to get going here and then you need all of the other gear.   They're worth it if you do a bit of shooting as they will save you a ton of time.  I do have a progressive too, but still use my single stage from time to time and for odd jobs and if I were to do it over again, I'd still get the single stage [or perhaps a turrent] first as it helps in the learning process, is useful for odd jobs, for de-priming a batch of brass and so on.

"Reasonable needs" is vague enough for the authorities to give you a hard time if they want to...

In Vic, there's no restrictions on Ammo storage as far as I know.  I've noticed that they sometimes record my purchase of components and sometimes they don't depending on where I go.  With ammo and powder shortages that pop up, it's good to have some back up.

In Australia you can only have firearms for hunting or sport shooting as most of you know. So, for hunting in a SHTF, here's my thoughts.

You don't need a .22, .357 lever action is more capable.   
Yes they're great to learn on, yes the ammo is cheapish, yes you can shoot them at any range [some suburban ranges are pistol caliber only], yes a well placed .22 will kill just about any animal you hit in the head [though it's not exactly humane if miss the head] but you don't need a .22 because a .357 lever action and reloading gear [including lead molds] does all of that [higher set up costs though] about the same per shot and is 'much' more capable for hunting.  I run subsonics most of the time in my lever action and they're relatively quiet and you can even push the .357 out to almost 1600fps which gives you 860ft/lbs energy versus a .22 which is 125ft/lb.  The other advantage is you can match up with a pistol, such as the veritable Smith and Western 686.  Of course a .44 lever action is perhaps better still if you're not looking at pistols [there's restrictions on caliber for pistols in Vic].  Having said that, I've got a great .22 rifle and a conversion kit for the pistol, I just rarely use them. 

Rifle/shotgun:
Personally, I like the idea of a full set up or at least headed that way, for any rifle I have.  That means having enough ammo for any of my hunting needs with the minimum of 500 rounds, [more is better], magazines and a chest rig/bandoleer to hold your mags when you go hunting.  There's a zillion options here and so let's touch on a few ideas here.

Sporterised Lee Enfield ($250-300), no scope (so you can use the clips for reloading), bandoleers and clips and 500 rounds of ammo.  You can pick up beaten up ones probably used as farm guns once a year for very little and are just fine so long as you have a good bore in them.  Coupled with the lee loader as demonstrated above and components you can reload those 500 rounds and have a rather good amount of back up ammo for shortages.  All up costs are around $1000 per rifle, which is something you want to look at when considering such items.  You can use magazines instead though that'll cost you an additional $50/ea.  Below is the mad minute to give an idea of what is possible with lots of practice. 


Scoped Remington Pump [7600/7615] ($1500), chest rig [cheap chinese ones work], magazines ($60ea) and 500 rounds of ammo.  All up costs are much more at about $2500 for 4 mags and 500 rounds.  With a decent scope your accuracy will go up.  You can also run a range of ammo through them, I like to use subsonic 308's in mine.  Below is an example of what's possible, though most of us will be restricted to 10 rounds.  



Rifles/straight pulls
There's a zillion options here, they might be a little slower than what is mentioned above but with practice most rifles and a set of magazines will bring you up to speed. 

Shotguns
7 rounds [5 in the mag, 1 in the breach and 1 in the carrier], slow to reload, though a shotgun is defiantly the best weapon to take out a crazed bore running at you at close range.  A double barrel [there's tripple!] is quicker to reload, though obviously stores only a few.  Unless you've got some reason, we can't use pump action shotguns in this country.  Costs are about $1000 all up and buck shot works out to be 30c/round if you make you cast your own and reload.  Shotguns shells can be reloaded without gear, though you can pick up Mec500's for about $100.  It's not worth reloading them as the ammo is cheap, unless you're doing buckshot.  Grab a bandoleer or two for the shots and you're good to go.


Lever action rifle
I've already mentioned them above, the start up costs are pretty good ($1100), are good out to an easy 100m and you can do it cowboy style with bullets on belts.  Perhaps the main advantage here if you're suburban is that you you should be able to shoot them on any range, unlike other rifles which for Victoria there's really only one range unless you live out in regional areas.  Practice being key. 

Air rifle
I don't own one, though eventually I'll be getting one for quietly getting birds [perhaps the occasional rabbit] which are everywhere my way.  Ammo is fairly cheap and obviously you'd get one which you can put air in yourself. 

Martini Henry/black powder breach loaders
Some firearms don't require a license to own [check your state and you will probably need a license for the ammo if you make your own!], that is if they're original antiques and don't use readily available ammunition.  You won't find the ammo at the store, they are slow [very slow for breach loaders!] and really you're better off with your standard firearm, though it's worth mentioning.  Expect to pay $1000+ for a Martini henry and brass has to be reformed from 24 gauge brass shot shells or you can buy it premade for about $3/shot.  An expensive option, but certainly has its appeal for myself because of it's military history. 



Other thoughts
The most important thing with any firearm is familiarity.  The more you practice with said firearm, the better you understand it and the more your motor memory will be there for you.  All modern firearms [except for .22] can be dry fired safely and you ought to be doing that pretty regularly to familiarize yourself with your firearm, re-acquiring a sight picture and practicing reloading and stoppage drills if applicable.  There's options such as snap caps or if you reload you can set up some dummy ammo for practice drills.  Obviously it can't be said enough that this has to be done in a super safe way so you will want to mark/paint/drill your rounds to make sure they are insanely obviously practice rounds and keep them stored elsewhere.  Practice costs nothing [only time] and when you do get to the range your shooting will be far better sooner for far less money.  Whatever you own, familiarization is key.  Just owning something is no where near enough. 

In terms of calibers, again, lots of options, many very good ones with .223 and .308 with rifles having proved their worth in the battlefields and popular.  I would suggest you keep your number of calibers down whatever you choose so that you reload accordingly and it's worth noting that at least here in Vic you'll have to provide reasons for owning more than 4 firearms of any caliber for your PTAs.