The Glade 4.0

Yeah you could reload up until the point you ran out of primer, case, powder, or bullet - in the case of .38 or .357 or the older cartridges - remove the powder requirement because that is relatively easy to create at home. How many people know how to mix up some mercury fulminate in their house, how about lead styphnate, DDNP (I have no idea how to make the latter), potassium chlorate...likely the easiest in grid down.

So then its a matter of getting shipped and pressed brass reliably...good luck. Not a lot of people do home brass work anymore (I knew one - my uncle) and most of those who do is artistic not precision measured molds required for firearms. Sure you can reload but you can only get SO many reloads out of one case. Lead would be no problem - batteries don't work so the world especially the US would be littered with cars to mine for lead. So the more I think about it...I should get a .357 lever action.

So you will be mostly left with reloadable rounds still in use after smokeless powder came about. (Yes I am sure some people would still eventually re-manufacture nitrocellulose but it won't be nearly as many). So no 9mm, no .45 ACP, no 10mm or 40. Revolvers lots of ...and bonus they keep the case right there so no loss of case. 45-70 and the like for rifles.

Barrels are another huge problem - lack of good upkeep materials means barrels will likely go back to smoothbore very quickly...the internal milling of the rifling requires a lot of precision and specialty machinery.

Thus what do we have that is easy..lots of piping left around, black powder, lead...yeah I can see standard issue muskets for the common soldier...at least for a period of time before the detailed process can support themselves as industry...ie after most people have food and shelter and enough extra to trade or be taxed.

Very rich would be the person who opens a well secured gun safe to find a few AR-15's and a brick or two of ammo. Could be a serious local challenge to Monroe (until the ammo was out).

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Re: the diesel motor thing.

Where would they get fuel?

Biodiesel would remain fairly easy to create.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Tires shouldn't be an issue, not at least after only 15 years, even if you lot both tires, going to all metal wheels like the old original tractors had would be easy enough. As for the rotor, if your talking out of a turbo, very few farm tractors are turbo'd until you get in the really big machines, if your talking about a disc on a plow, it'd be many years before you lost enough discs to stop a plow from being effective. I guess it's just the area of the country I'm from, but down here, redneck engineering is a way of life, people from other areas laugh at some of the crap people around here come up with, but rednecks are pretty good at coming up with simple, often ugly, solutions to complex problems. I'm a fairly tech savy person, but I live in a small town in Arkansas (pop. of about 1000), I know half a dozen people who still know how to run a forge, and twice that who know how to make bio-diesel. I guess my point is, based off what I've seen in Revolution so far, Monroe better not try to invade the south, he'd lose badly. Actually, based off that map, I'm surprised he's lasted as long as he has, probably shear population advantage.