Is anyone out there making or otherwise sourcing everything themselves?

[Ozz]

So I saw where quartz could be used as a replacement for flint. I'm sure other stones would work as well. I know lots of folks pour lead. I also saw where the truly industrious make black powder. Is there anyone out there that is truly self sufficient?

 

[LawrenceA]

I don't think anyone in our society is TRULY self sufficient. I my mind this would entail having amassed a lifetime supply of materials and or components or have unfettered access to these for the foreseeable future.

So are you asking:
1. if people have a lifetime supply on hand or can access a lifetime supply of said components and materials?
2. Or currently have commercial access to these components and currently use components to assemble/produce powder and flints?
3. a combination of both?

Sorry but I am struggling to define what you are asking.

 

[Ozz]

I don't think anyone in our society is TRULY self sufficient.
Just think of what is needed to make a patch.

Point well taken. But suitable patch material could be scrounged I think. I wonder if old blue jeans would suffice?

 

[LawrenceA]

Yeah jeans would do it.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Total self sufficiency in muzzleloaders would be difficult. Even making black powder which we don’t talk about this forum requires components from outside sources. Do you have a lead mine? My comment is a bit young in cheek. Shooting a flintlock with a large supple of powder, flint and lead can be pretty self sufficient as long as nothing breaks that you can’t fix.

I knap some of my flints and cast ball, so I guess I could go a long time.

 

[Phil Coffins]

I’ve made guns but never mined iron or did any lumber jack work. Haven’t tried to weave cloth let alone raise cotton. Nope, we depend on others at some level.

 

[Dale Lilly]

If you can imagine a man/woman who hunted with a self-made bow and arrows, made all their own clothing. lived alone in a self-made shelter and upon death was all alone … not buried or otherwise enshrined… but eaten by a grizzly bear. Almost ….but he/she certainly did not birth or raise him/her self. Nope .. neither can I. Dale

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

Use wisely until supplies run out...

 

[ohio ramrod]

If you can imagine a man/woman who hunted with a self-made bow and arrows, made all their own clothing. lived alone in a self-made shelter and upon death was all alone … not buried or otherwise enshrined… but eaten by a grizzly bear. Almost ….but he/she certainly did not birth or raise him/her self. Nope .. neither can I. Dale

I knew a man who came close as to the hunting part. Don Kohl made his own bow, twisted his own sinew bow string, knapped his points, split his shafts, fletched them with turkey feathers from turkeys he shot. knapped his knife, dried his jerky, grew his corn and other vegies ,tanned his hides for his clothes, and did many other self sustaining things . He lived with his wife and had many friends so he was never alone.

 

[Bob McBride]

I grow much of my own food, raise cattle, hogs, chickens, ducks, geese, bees, but I order my powder from powderinc.com and my patching from TOTW. Churning butter and spinning cotton is for the birds.... So, not me.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I don't think anyone in our society is TRULY self sufficient.

Once you take tech above stone technology, you have tech that means individuals are no longer truly "self sufficient".

You may have sustainable small communities, but "sustainable" and "self sufficient" are not quite the exact same things.

The reason being that the transition to metals means some rather labor intensive activity, and thus those engaged in that labor could not have devoted as much time to food, shelter, and garment production, and had to have a reason for the intensive labor...something that was traded in return for items generated by the intensive labor.

LD

 

[Rifleman1776]

I have always tried to make my own accessories for my ml activities. None artistic but most are useful. As for quartz flints....... Arkansas has several large quartz mines. For several years I made and sold jewelry made from quartz. I tried using it as a gun flint. Results were very poor. It is up there on the hardness scale but breaks down readily on impact. From my experience I cannot recommend for use as a gun flint material.

 

[Tasbay]

Quartz for flints I have tried, works but you get very few shots per piece , that said its free and as Rifleman said it breaks down rapidly. Balls yes have never bought a ball for any of my Muzzleloaders , until recently you couldn`t buy them here. Powder Yep have made my own for about 30 years, cheap as chips to make.

 

[nhmoose]

I have a nephew that used to giggle and pick up a rock in the driveway at the Ft TY range and then shoot all 3 days using it in his Kenny Briesen made Heavy bench flintlock and win the matches he entered.

The gun hangs in his office today.

 

[tenngun]

Outside of a Hunter-gathering society I doubt if ever people were self sufficient. With the advent of civilization people had some specially. Most were farmers but there were potters, vintners and beer brewers, tool makers ect.
I can sew ok and do some mild horn work, build a gun from assembled parts. However I can’t do black smithing, or white smithing. When I lived in the country I did a lot of my own food, but far from all.
Even the old timers lived with bought goods.