Anyone remember primer-powered red Jets?

[trooperdan]

I won a couple of lots of Red Jet tools, bullets and cases from eBay.. I won the lots for .38 and .45 but early on I was complacent and got to browsing the 'net and missed the one I REALLY wanted, the .30 cal stuff. The tool decaps and reprimes; looks like a big set of pliers.

Back in the early '60's some outfit near Costa Mesa CA created the Red Jet primer powered ammo. The projectile is a hard plastic-like cylinder. They also made cases, just like "normal" cases but with enlarged primer flash holes. It is just amazing how much "omph" you get with nothing but a primer! Pretty accurate too, as soon as you figure out the sight picture.. I nailed a mosquito from about 10 feet. The slug does a damn damn on an adult beverage can too! I was launching the .45's from a Glock 36 but they would be really fun in a .38 revolver.

[KCSO]

If I remember right these were picked up by Speer and they still offer them. I have the Speers in 44, 45 and 38 special. I use to use them a lot for indoor practice and point shooting practice. I even have the special priming tool head that Lee offered for their old tool to seat LP primers in a 38 special Red Jet/Speer case. I was using the rounds for practice one night when the wife's cat jumped up on my work bench and tried to get in a sack of cookies. That was when I found out that those things really fly, shot at the cat, hit him right behind the ear and he dropped over stone dead! I had to take him out to the driveway and put him under the car so the wife wouldn't know how he met his maker.

[David R]

I like the one about the cat.

We used to bore out the primer hole and use regular 38 cases. I would push the shell into a cake of soap or 3/8 sheet of parafin, THEN put the primer in. I could shoot mice in the basement (I didn't have a cat) with my Dan Wesson 357. Sometimes I would even hit them.

Good thing to do on a cold winter evening.

[Shepherd2]

I used to have the Speer version in .38 and .44. They were very accurate across the basement. Good winter practice.

KCSO - Smart move with the cat.

[Buckshot]

............I have some of the Speer's in 38. One rainy afternoon the daughter and I made up a carboard box with rags draped inside hanging from dowels to stop the bullets. On the front we stapled a target. We put it down the hall and laid on the floor on the opposite side of the living room. I guess maybe 20 ft?

When Donna got home from work she walked through the door and hollered, "What's that SMELL!!?? I guess Christian and I had fired off a hundred or so of'em and the closed up house was kind of foggy with primer smoke.

Seems I just STAY in trouble.

.............Buckshot

[StarMetal]

Women don't seem to notice normal odors, or should I say odors not caused by man. BUT...boy they are like a bloodhound when a man caused odor is around...like those primer fumes, or Hoppe's, or gasoline from working on your car....hell even one of your farts. Buckshot, I have to ask you, did you at first say "What smell, honey?"

Joe