I should have made myself clearer. I would be reloading shotgun shells with the primers and smokeless powder. My reasoning is that you can reload cartridges at your leisure, but you may need a quick second or third shot in the field.Haggis wrote:the nipple is for percussion caps, so it would need modifying.Catweazle wrote: A useful pot-filler in Mad Max world, provided you have a supply of sulphur.
Personally, I would buy a load of shotgun primers and smokeless powder instead.
There's a gunsmith who mods black powder pistols to use shotgun primers and nitro, all legal. You could probably mod the Ruger that same.
Also, don't knock those cheap Chinese air rifles, or even the Russian ones, some of them use the same tooling and steel as for firearms. Especially from the Norinco factory, so they may be rough, but they're built to last. Cheap enough you can buy one to use and one stored in grease.
I wonder how difficult it is to reload rimfire rounds, apparently the factory drops liquid primer into the bottom of the case then spins it rapidly to force it into the rim, where it dries. The rim would gradually get dented in all the way around but you'd get a fair few shots from it unless it split where previously dented.
Re Chinese air rifles, I wouldn't buy one for the same reason I won't save a couple of quid buying cheap pellets - accuracy is important. I wouldn't want to spend 15 cold, wet minutes sneaking up on a bunny just to miss because a cheap rifle doesn't shoot straight.