Glock 22 Police Trade In

Lately a lot of online vendors have Glock 22 Police Trade In pistols for only $299.95. If you like Glocks, that’s a smoking hot deal. I usually like to buy new, but I also appreciate a good deal. I’ve been on a pretty tight budget lately so I decided to try this cheap gun. Like I said they’re all over right now, I bought mine from Recoil Gunworks. It’s a Glock, what could go wrong? As it turned out, so far so good. Besides the gun, I added a 3-pack of G22 magazines for an extra $34.95.

Out of the box…

My police trade in came with factory night sights, factory case, and 4 magazines (1 included plus the add-on 3 pack). Except for holster wear on the slide release and rear sight, the gun looked like new on the outside. Same on the inside. Either someone did a stellar cleaning job or it was fired very little. The night sights are dim, but then they’re probably at least 10 years old. Still better than the junk plastic sights that Glock puts on most of their pistols.

I was really happy with the finish. Sometime during the Gen 3 run, Glock changed from their Tennifer finish to something different. Most think the earlier finish is better, and this gun has the early Tennifer. Very nice…

The magazines were a mixed bag. One was a Gen 3 mag and the others were all Gen 4. The Gen 3 mag was easy to load with a full 15 rounds so I guess it was kept loaded all the time. The Gen 4 mags had stiffer springs so I’m guessing they weren’t used much. Some of them had department markings on them. For $34.95 I’m not complaining…

But it’s a 40…

So what? The 40 S&W is an interesting cartridge… Less power than 45 ACP or 10mm and less capacity than 9mm. That’s if you’re a “glass half empty” type. I’m more “glass half full” so I look at it as having more power than 9mm and more capacity than 45 ACP. That and more controllable and easier to conceal than a 10mm pistol. YMMV but to me that looks pretty good.

Ammo is cheap too. You can find premium self defense ammo (Winchester Ranger 165 gr) just as cheap as  9mm and cheaper than 45 ACP. I just got 500 rounds for $400, shipped. For plinking ammo, 9mm is cheaper but not by a lot.

The 40 S&W is snappier than 9mm, but the Glock design helps tame the recoil. It’s also harder on guns than 9mm or 45 ACP, so if you get one of these I’d recommend getting a new recoil spring assembly. They’re cheap insurance, mine should be here next week. Then I can do a range test.

Get ’em while they’re hot…

Right now, these are easy to find because lots of police departments are switching from 40 S&W back to 9mm. I think they’ll be harder to find as time goes on. I got mine from Recoil Gunworks but I saw at least 3 other online vendors with the same price. I even found one seller with G22 Gen 4 pistols for $329. If you like Glocks, that is a smoking hot deal. Whether Gen 3 or Gen 4, I don’t think you can go wrong with one of these G22 police trade in guns.

They’re perfect for a truck gun, nightstand gun, plinker, IDPA, or even CCW if you can comfortably conceal a full size pistol.

Peace out,
porcupine

Is reloading worth it?

Is reloading worth it? I saw an interesting question about reloading the other day:

So here we go. First off, if this offends you, you’re reading it wrong because it’s not my intent. Secondly, if you load for the enjoyment of it, I totally get that and this isn’t a question towards you. This is ONLY for the people that are loading for the sole purpose of saving money over buying retail. I’ve seen a bunch of guys lately(not in this group) bragging about loading 9mm for 3-5 cents per round. Then they list everything they’re getting and do all the math to show me that it’s actually 3-5 cents per.

My issue is, that’s 3-5 cents per round for materials only. Why does nobody figure in the time it takes to actually put the materials together into actual ammunition? The manufacturers don’t charge you for materials only. But people all the time compare their 3-5 cents per round for materials to the manufacturers 16-20 cents per round for finished ammunition. This is only cheating yourself if you don’t count your time spent actually loading the ammo. Again THIS IS NOT for people that load to pass the time or for enjoyment.

It’s actually a common question, but not usually put so bluntly. So… is reloading worth the time and effort? Here’s the best answer I saw:

That’s kind of a hard question to answer because everyone values their time differently. It also depends on how fast you reload. If my time is worth 20 per hour and I can crank out 50 rounds per hour on my single stage press, that adds .40 per round for my labor. If I think my time is only worth 10 per hour but I’m cruising through 500 rounds per hour on a progressive then I’m only adding .02 per round for labor, for a total of .07 per round.

In the first case, reloading is more expensive than just buying brand new ammo in 9mm or 223 if you’re talking plinking ammo. In the second case, I’d be saving about .12 per round over the cheapest 9mm plinking ammo I can find. A progressive press and dies is about 5 bills, so I’d have to reload about 4200 rounds before I break even.

That’s also assuming I can get the components for .05 per round. A more realistic figure where I live is .03 for primer, .02 powder, .08 bullet, plus my .02 labor and I’m at .15 and only saving .02 per round. That’s 25000 rounds before I break even, 50 hours doing something I don’t enjoy (according to parameter by OP).

If you don’t like reloading and the only reason you’re doing it is to save money I’m not sure it’s worth it.

So is reloading worth it?

If you’re only reloading plinking ammo, I agree with the answer given above. If all you care about is saving money, it’s probably not worth doing. It would take me at 5 – 7 years to shoot through 25,000 rounds of 9mm, so that’s at least 5 – 7 years until I break even if saving money is all I care about.

What about reloading more expensive ammo? I like shooting 44 Special so we’ll look at that. Factory ammo (cheapest I can find) is about $0.45 (.45) per round. To reload, it would cost about .03 for the primer, .03 for powder, .15 for the bullet (240 gr LSWC), and .02 for my time (assuming 500 rounds per hour on a progressive). Now I’m saving .22 per round. That’s a lot better than .02 per round for the 9mm, so I only need to shoot about 2300 rounds to break even. 44 Special isn’t a high volume round for me though (maybe 500 rounds per year), so it would still take me over 4 years to “break even.”

How do you value your time?

I value my time at $20 per hour. How much do you value your time? Putting a money value on my reloading time doesn’t make much sense to me though, even if I hated reloading. It’s kind of like “charging myself” for working out. I hate working out, but I do it any way. Not because it saves money over going to a gym, but because it improves my health.

Really, adding the “cost” of your time to the cost per reloaded round only makes sense if you’re selling the ammo you produce. If you’re doing that, you’s also better add in the cost of an FFL, liability insurance, and other costs you’ll incur from making and selling ammunition.

The true value of reloading

So… is reloading worth it? Sure you can save money reloading, but not as much as some people tell you. If saving money is your only reason for reloading, then no, it’s probably not worth it. That’s not the true value of reloading though…

The true value of reloading comes from learning a useful skill. It comes from being able to make custom ammo that’s optimized for your gun. If you shoot competition, making custom loads for accuracy is probably a necessity. It’s a more productive way to spend time than staring at the TV for hours. Sure, you might save some money in the long run too. That’s not really the point though. Is reloading worth it? It is for me, what about you?

Peace out,
porcupine

Making do…

A couple years ago I wrote about building a miner’s cabin in the backyard. That idea didn’t really fly with my wife so I changed tactics. I quit calling it a miner’s cabin and started calling it a storage shed. THAT idea she really liked. We manage rental properties as a side gig, so our house and garage are always full of stuff for that. Last summer we got started on it with a lot of help from my brother and his wife (actually my wife’s sister and brother-in-law). I had my ideas and she had hers, but I got her to agree on shiplap siding. She wanted a concrete floor. Not exactly “backwoods” but it does make sense for a storage shed.

We started and everything was going great. Got the slab poured, put up the wall framing, got the roof on. Got my first load of shiplap and finished about half on an end wall. And then… nothing. It’s been sitting uncompleted since last October. My wife decided that shiplap siding was too expensive. She wants me to tear off what I’ve done and finish it using molded pressed board siding. NOT happening. Too ugly, too prefab looking, just too… modern. Not happening…

So about once a month we have a fight over it. She gripes that it’s not done yet. I say fine, I’ll go get the rest of the shiplap and finish it in a day. Then the conversation goes down hill fast…

Making do

Part of being a Backyardsman is making do with what you have. I have a mess – a half finished shed that’s worthless as a shed or a cabin the way it sits. I was in Home depot yesterday and the had pressed siding boards on sale and it reminded me I need to do something about the miner’s cabin shed. Went home and gave it a pretty hard look. Even with the roof on, it’s pretty wobbly because there’s no skin on the frame. One of the walls is along our fence, about two feet out and not really visible. I figured I could use pressed sheet siding for just that wall and finish the other 3 with shiplap.

I measured the wall height and checked level. Went back to look at the siding on sale. All the sheets were warped really bad so I picked a different type. Not on sale but I’d rather spend a little extra than deal with crappy material. Bought 3 sheets and cut them to length. Tonight I’ll get them hung.

The wife – of course – was like “why’d you buy the siding? I thought we were still arguing about what kind to use?”

Whatever. I just reminded her that it’s been sitting, unusable, since last November. I’m sure she’ll be happy I got pressed siding for the one wall. Of course I didn’t tell her it was for just one wall. Looking forward to see how much skinning a wall will stabilize the whole structure. When it comes time to get the rest of the shiplap… well I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. In the mean time, I’m making do with what I have.

Peace out,
porcupine

Solitude close to home

solitude close to homeI had lots of fun on a nature walk in the city with my kids and some friends a few months back. I’ve been looking for closer places but I’m always too busy. I guess I haven’t been looking hard enough. After 16 years in my house I just found a good place to hike, practically in my own back yard – a trail head about 2 miles from home. It splits into 3 trails right at the start. One goes south and then turns west and winds around to the top of a hill overlooking the valley. One heads south and leads to a park in a different part of town, and the last heads east and ends at a ditch. For our hike, we took the trail heading east.

Makings of a microadventure?

The sign at the trail head warns that overnight camping is illegal. Whatever. We saw only a few people on the trail. The land is surrounded by houses and businesses on 3 sides so I was kind of expecting to see more people. Thankfully there weren’t many. I did see a few places I could easily spend the night and not be noticed. Maybe a good place for a microadventure?

Round trip was about a mile. There’s a pretty nice hill so coming out was good exercise. The trail ends at an irrigation ditch running along the edge of private land. Doesn’t look like it holds any fish. It was really nice finding a place so close to home with so few people.

Dirt road coming up to the irrigation ditch. Doesn’t look like it’s been driven on in a long time.

Ditch at the end of the trail. On the other side is a private ranch.

Next to the ditch, looking north.

Looking north-east as we approach the ditch. The road is the one we took to get to the trail head. The green area in the middle is a private ranch. I hope they never sell it and build on the land. That would really suck…

Looking south-east. Feels nice and remote even though we’re surrounded by homes and buildings. There’s a highway less than a half mile behind us. Thanks to the hilly terrain, we can’t hear the traffic at all.

My family walking back to the car. This was so much nicer than just walking to the little park by our house.

Back side of some businesses along the north side. The owner of the white truck was doing some dumpster diving. Don’t know what the businesses are but it looked like he was finding stuff to keep. This is only about a quarter mile from where we were at the ditch.

Solitude close to home…

Glad I found this place. It has a nice, remote feel to it even though it’s so close to homes and businesses. Even the highway along one side doesn’t break the solitude. I’m thinking really hard about spending the night there before winter hits. It will be my first microadventure. Until next time…

Peace out,
porcupine