Ammunition

[prichard]

Yes, but I try to never buy from "Gun Shops" they have such a high mark up on everything. One of the nicer places near Jacksonville is Green Acres, very good selection of ammo, but ****, $21.99 for 50 cheap FMJ 9mm Para...they actually dropped the price for me to $17.99 when I told them the exact same was $12.99 at Academy (think it's like $11.49 @ Walmart).

Some of them do have powder, but it's kind of a crap shoot on what, and price. Also, by the time you drive 50 miles, you probably could have paid Haz Mat.

The nice thing about the big stores is, no pressure to buy, or know it all clerks, it's normally not a wasted trip, and they normally are pretty cheap.

I know some people like to go to experts when they start something new, I Hate it. last thing I want when I don't know what I'm doing is some expert telling me what to do. I know I'll get some laughs from that, but it's true.

When I lived in jax I also avoided Green Acres. Way overpriced and very much the expert attitude.

Where I live now I have local shops I'm glad to shop at. Experts if you ask but the don't always feel the need to prove how smart they ate and how dumb you are.

 

[hutchman]

If the spacesuit fits, you must acquit....

Now that's funny!

 

[hutchman]

Maybe that is why I have never had any trouble, I don't trim pistol straight wall cases, and I have never loaded any nickle rifle cases.. I always buy the cheap brass stuff..:laughing:

I remember when I first started out I stressed over trimming pistol carts. and bought all the stuff to trim them but all the experienced old timers were laughing at me telling me the cases don't grow enough. Since most of what I do is at minimum power factor I discovered they were right and gave up. Haven't trimmed pistol since.

Now bottle neck military brass shot in an auto loader (.223 & .308) ... now that's a different story. I hate prepping military rifle brass!

 

[Soundguy]

Yup, if you dont run clean cases or dies, dont be surprised about scratches or wearing.. And dont blame it on the case material

 

[hutchman]

As a former IPSC/USPSA shooter most of my brass is from "range pickups".. Some my own, but when working stages or tournaments as an Range Officer you are entitled to all the brass that falls on your stage.

Isn't it great being a RSO?

I love it because it's like Christmas! All that nice Starline brass goes right in my bag

 

[hutchman]

It is sorta fun if you like technical things tinged with the possibility of danger. You won't save any money, but you can shoot more for the same price, and you can craft ammo just the way you want it. I started reloading about 55 years ago with my dad, but did not do it after I moved out of the house. I took it up again back about 91 when I started to shoot IPSC/USPSA when I consumed "mass quantity's" of ammo.

Plus even if you never reload, brass=money. You can sell it at gun shows easily. if you saw a handfull of nickles and dimes just lying on the ground, would you pick them up? Why not?

Yep, I can't say that I really save money (if you count your time). If you don't count your time then yea, it's probably cheaper depending on how much you shoot (equipment is expensive). Each gun is a law unto itself (even two identical rifles) so I like to tailor loads for various purpouses to each gun. I call it therapy. I can go zone out and do stuff with my hands.

I find shooting cast bullets that don't lead up your barrel especially challenging in some calibers. That added a whole new dimension to reloading skills ... casting bullets, lubing/sizing, learning all about single vs double based powders, brinnell hardness etc.

I was so used to reloading bolt action carts that stepping up to the same calibers in autoloaders was quite the challenge too. .308 in a autoloader stretches a lot in some gas guns and you really need case gagues to know how far to bump the shoulder back to not over work brass. I got introduced to case head separations too which was fun!

 

[k0ua]

Isn't it great being a RSO?

I love it because it's like Christmas! All that nice Starline brass goes right in my bag

Yes, I acquired quite a bit of brass through the years. A lot of hot hours in the sun with a timer or clipboard in your hand. But 2 or 3 hundred shooters each dumping from 15 to 40 cases on your stage does add up. Some days I was too tired to pick it all up, so I would let the range buzzards pickup my brass. All they had to do was open their wallet for privilege of picking up the brass

 

[hutchman]

View attachment 474180

This it what I use a few years ago someone told me about this. I had carbon and lead in my 45/70 barrel he told me to let it soak over night so I used a cork to plug the barrel and pored some in let sit overnight and when I cleaned it it came out easy.

If you have lead problems then you can get the Lewis Lead Remover (which I never did) or find out who sells Chore Boy Copper scrubbers like what your wife uses to clean pots/pans. Take scissors and butcher the scrubber so you can pull off some of the copper strands (you only need like 4 or 5 ... you'll have to experiment). Take an old worn out bronze bore brush with a patch soaked in cleaner (might not want to use copper remover ... it might attack the copper strands but shouldn't hurt anything - just look funny) wrapped around it and then wrap the copper strands around that (from one end to the other - like kind of how a drill bit looks). Now clean bore as you usually do. You will notice shiny slivers of lead come out. The copper strands act as little knives and scrape the lead out.

Don't ask me how much experience I have doing this or why Lets just say I had a really hard time developing some lead loads for stuff that doesn't have published data and when you get it wrong ... well, you've got quite the mess to clean up!

 

[hutchman]

If you have lead problems then you can get the Lewis Lead Remover (which I never did) or find out who sells Chore Boy Copper scrubbers like what your wife uses to clean pots/pans. Take scissors and butcher the scrubber so you can pull off some of the copper strands. Take an old worn out bronze bore brush with a patch soaked in cleaner (might not want to use copper remover ... it might attack the copper strands but shouldn't hurt anything) wrapped around it and then wrap the copper strands around that. Now clean bore as you usually do. You will notice shiny slivers of lead come out. The copper strands act as little knives and scrape the lead out.

Don't ask me how much experience I have doing this or why Lets just say I had a really hard time developing some lead loads for stuff that doesn't have published data and when you get it wrong ... well, you've got quite the mess to clean up!

Oh, and a super experienced old timer (life long machinist building custom guns) shared this with me and I've found it to be true. Clean bore with powder solvent until you think it's clean (your patches come out white). Then run bore brush with copper solvent through several times and let the copper cleaner sit in the bore a bit. Now clean again with patches of powder solvent and be amazed how dirty it just suddenly got. Repeat process until clean. He said copper fouling gets laid down in layers with powder fouling trapped between the layers. He said he couldn't count how many rifles he picked up over the years from people who just gave up on them because they wouldn't shoot anymore ... then he would do the process above and they would shoot like new again printing groups that made a ragged one hole!

 

[hutchman]

Power valley is sold out of the powders I WANT!.

They used to allow backorders but with the craze they stopped that practice for a while. Don't know if they allow it now ... been quite a while since I've ordered.

We have several local shops around here. I often will by a pound of powder at their inflated prices because buying a pound and paying hazmat would be foolish ... plus it throws a bone to the local shop which helps keep them around. I know all the guys there anyway.

Once I develop loads that I like and want to do quantity runs then I'll spring for the 4 or 8lb jug but I've got lots of "one pounders" of various things basically for load development.