Chapter 04 · Ammunition TechnicianFM 93-07

Ammunition Technician

You loaded competition ammunition in a garage full of presses, dies and a scale you would not let anyone else touch. Nobody shot more rounds a week than you, and none of them came out of a box.

A garage reloading bench: press, brass, lead, and a scale under one bulb. — Plate III-H. — The press, the scale, the brass.

Spec	Issued
Creation cost	−4
Effective start	Gunsmithing 3 · Reloading 3 · Handloader
Granted trait	Handloader (purchasable 4) — bonus yield on casting and handloading; reload faster; Gunsmithing XP.
Schematics	You do not know the workshop firearms. Find the paper, or befriend a Gunsmith.
XP source	Gunsmithing crafting. Reloading 3 is combat speed, not a second XP meter.

Who this is for

The person who keeps the lights (and the rifles) on. You will never be scarce the way a Gunsmith is scarce. You will be necessary every day. Reloading 3 means you can also run the gun you just fed. Handloader means the pile grows while you work. If nobody is shooting, you are a hobbyist with a press. Keep a stall so cheap they start, or walk with people who already have.

// FROM THE FILES — GARAGE, GORDONSVILLE

Competition shooters from Gordonsville to Charlottesville knew your scale. The matches are cancelled. The presses are not. The county still chambers the same calibers it always did — you load those, not a rumour.

How to play it

Stand the loop up in this order: ungated pull-down shotgun shells and a gun cleaning kit → smelt battery lead / cast bullets (2) → resize scrap brass (3, you spawn here) → assemble a reloading press (3) → handload 9mm / .38 / .45 (3). That is a business before the first workshop pistol exists.
Treat factory ammo as feedstock, not a gift. Ten pistol rounds pull down to ten casings and one unit of powder. Reloading those ten costs two. The bullets are gone. You are always short of propellant unless a chemist is milling smokeless powder (Chemistry 7). Make friends. List “will buy fertilizer / charcoal / powder” on the stall.
Cast more than you think. Handloader sometimes yields extra on cast and load. Small and large pistol, buckshot at 2; rifle bullets at 4. Primers at 4. Shotgun reload at 4. Rifle handloads (.308, 5.56, .30-30) at 5. Climb for the calibers your neighbours actually carry, not the ones that look cool in a wiki.
Pipe guns are allowed. Pipe pistol at 2, shotgun at 3, rifle at 4. You can arm yourself without schematics. You cannot arm the town in workshop steel. Do not pretend otherwise; charge the Gunsmith for the rounds that go in their carbine.
Reloading 3 is how you stay alive on the way to the brass pile. You are not a Veteran. You are faster with a magazine than a civilian. Use it to disengage, not to clear a mall alone.

The closed loop, on one page

// BENCH ORDER

1. Spent brass / pulled-down factory rounds → casings

2. Batteries → lead ingots → cast bullets / buckshot

3. Chemist’s mill (or scavenged powder) → propellant

4. Primers + press → live rounds in the calibers the county already chambers

5. Sell the surplus. Keep a day of each caliber the stall advertised.

Operator’s note Crafted ammunition is ballistically identical to factory ammunition. Your lever is economic: volume, bonus yield, and not running out. A Gunsmith without you is a museum. You without a Gunsmith are still a store.

First week: live, pliers, shotgun shells to pull, a battery, a press recipe’s parts. Handload whatever caliber you actually found a gun for. Pair with Gunsmith and Chemist. List ammo at a Shopkeeper stall so you can sleep.