I cant load 45acp this cheap

[Colts4me]

Most of us that reload use hard cast 230 lead pills and used brass. Our cost to reload is much cheaper than yours.

When I use fired brass the cost goes way down. The post is about building new ammo with all new components.

I look through what components cost for good deals, buying new loaded is cheaper and I don't spend hours loading.

 

[davedude]

Yeah been watching prices coming down, get the sgammo email regularly but have bought no loaded ammo in a couple years now and prices are still too high IMHO.
I have components stocked, limited budget so reloading is the only way to go and cost only my time.
Wish I could buy loaded ammo for sure. So much easier. SG has that IMI 77g OTP stocked again. I like that stuff.....

 

[Colts4me]

I am a life member of our gun club and I don't mind having just a little extra ammo for friends when another shortage hits. I don't sell my reloads.

By spring I will have reloaded enough for my summers shooting at the club and will have factory fresh ammo left over if the need is there.

Components are just another bank account but I try to buy components cheap.

 

[brunop]

What are your .45 loads?? I'm still reloading for half that cost but I never bought primers during these artificially inflated times and I use range pickup brass.

What powder are you using, Eeben? I've got so many orange five-gallon buckets full of once-fired .45 ACP brass, and all components including tips, that it's time to fire up the Dillon 550.

Components are just another bank account but I try to buy components cheap.

This. Definitely this.


I just bought 1350 rounds new Blazer Brass 230 gr. ball for $400 at an estate sale.

I definitely can load for less than $0.32/rd., but it was a good enough price on factory that I bought it anyway.

Bank account.

 

[Greensborobob]

I would discount the brass cost by the anticipated number of uses.

 

[Colts4me]

What powder are you using, Eeben? I've got so many orange five-gallon buckets full of once-fired .45 ACP brass, and all components including tips, that it's time to fire up the Dillon 550.



This. Definitely this.


I just bought 1350 rounds new Blazer Brass 230 gr. ball for $400 at an estate sale.

I definitely can load for less than $0.32/rd., but it was a good enough price on factory that I bought it anyway.

Bank account.

I passed on new blazer brass because I was told it uses small pistol primers and I don't want to sort through my brass.

S&B is large pistol primers.

Some years ago I caught a moving sale that the guy just gave a bunch of components to me. He only had too days left to move to France and wasn't ever coming back. I had bought five guns from him and when I picked them up he filled my 4runner up with all the stuff that had not sold.

You would not believe what I got.

 

[wanneroo]

I passed on new blazer brass because I was told it uses small pistol primers and I don't want to sort through my brass.

S&B is large pistol primers.

Some years ago I caught a moving sale that the guy just gave a bunch of components to me. He only had too days left to move to France and wasn't ever coming back. I had bought five guns from him and when I picked them up he filled my 4runner up with all the stuff that had not sold.

You would not believe what I got.

Yes the Blazer Brass is small pistol primer.

I found small pistol primer brass in 45 ACP is a pain and got rid of what I had. I couldn't work up a reliable load with it and don't want to deal with sorting brass as I already have so much large pistol primer brass.

You were a lucky man that day, sometimes we are in the right place at the right time.

 

[Timber Wolf]

I have sorted and loaded small pistol primer .45 but these days my small pistol primers are reserved for cartridges that require them. Years ago I lucked into an intro to an old retired competitor that had long since gotten out of the game and sold me all his left overs. Among the stash was thousands of .45 cast bullets, mostly 200 grain SWC as I recall. Since then I have been trying to concentrate on picking up .45 cases at the range and have thousands (upon thousands) cleaned and laid back. I also have primers, a few suitable powders, and a Dillion 550b with carbide dies. Just need time to go with.

 

[Eeben]

What powder are you using, Eeben? I've got so many orange five-gallon buckets full of once-fired .45 ACP brass, and all components including tips, that it's time to fire up the Dillon 550.



This. Definitely this.


I just bought 1350 rounds new Blazer Brass 230 gr. ball for $400 at an estate sale.

I definitely can load for less than $0.32/rd., but it was a good enough price on factory that I bought it anyway.

Bank account.

4.6 gr of Titegroup for 230gr plated

 

[tommygun2000]

Having collected and bought lots of components way back when prices were quite cheap, I'm still reloading .45acp for about 15 cents a round.

Brass is mostly known once fired range pick ups from PD subguns and or other once fired bought for 1 cent each from an older retired guy that spent a couple of hours a day picking up range brass and selling it so he could take his wife out to dinner on Friday nights. Nobody picked up their brass on a range I used to shoot at and the ground was carpeted with it. A hundred dollar bill bought 10,000 pieces of good .45acp brass.

Powder is HPC-18 pulldown stuff from GIbrass in 8lb jugs (that was a long while ago) 700X, 800X, and a couple of others. More recently I bought some jugs of the BR-5 Jeff was selling. Loads well and burns clean and can be used for several calibers.

Primers, always bought in the 5000 count cases X many in SP,LP,SR and some SP. I used small rifle primers exclusively for all my 9mm subgun ammo for years and didn't even have small pistol primers on hand. Later I started shooting a bunch of 38spl so I broke down and got some small pistol primers.

Bullets are 230gr lead RN, Monatana Gold Bullet 230FMJ, 185gr jacketed HP and a few others bought in smaller lots as they appeared.

 

[Colts4me]

I kinda think down the road, I can shoot up the low cost components but if I want to keep shooting I have to replace them.

.46 cents a loaded ball round means all I will have after I shoot it is a once fired case worth about 14 cents each.

Reloading those with rnj bullets is almost 39 cents which means I need to find a good bullet source to buy jacketed 230 ball.

 

[wanneroo]

45 ACP cases seem to last forever. I have a few from the 1950s that I must have picked up at a match and I keep shooting them and reloading them. Probably at this point with all the factory ammo and reloaded ammo I have, I've got a lifetime supply of cases.

My favorite bullets are 230 FMJ and the 185g JHP Nosler bullets. The Nosler bullets are awesome, at some point I need to get some more.

 

[tommygun2000]

45 ACP cases seem to last forever. I have a few from the 1950s that I must have picked up at a match and I keep shooting them and reloading them. Probably at this point with all the factory ammo and reloaded ammo I have, I've got a lifetime supply of cases.

My favorite bullets are 230 FMJ and the 185g JHP Nosler bullets. The Nosler bullets are awesome, at some point I need to get some more.

They last almost forever because they're a low pressure round. You can reload them almost until the headstamp is illegible.
I find reloading .45acp to be the easiest of all because of the large size. So much easier than handling .223/5.56 bullets.

 

[Colts4me]

45 ACP cases seem to last forever. I have a few from the 1950s that I must have picked up at a match and I keep shooting them and reloading them. Probably at this point with all the factory ammo and reloaded ammo I have, I've got a lifetime supply of cases.

My favorite bullets are 230 FMJ and the 185g JHP Nosler bullets. The Nosler bullets are awesome, at some point I need to get some more.

I am still running some old Super Vel cases in 45 acp. None of my 45acp seem to split like 38s do but they get damaged one way or another.

Guy I got all the components from sorted and boxed his brass. He was a long time target shooter that went to a lot of matches. Gave me two pacmeyer shooting boxes and an aluminum shooting box. All set up to have a spotting scope on the lids. Cool stuff.

 

[alphadog58]

I'm sorta friends with a guy that cleans out buildings for people. A few years ago he brought me a 1000 round box of Winchester 230 gr ball bullets. It looked mostly full. He wanted $20. Just loaded the last of it, there were 800 bullets in the box. Don't score like that very often...
Larry

 

[John Crusher]

I load 44 special and magnums, it's cheaper to load those than buy them. Same with 45 Colts. 9mm is cheaper to buy here.

I only load 357mag., 44 mag, and 45 colt in pistol calibers.
However, in rifle I load 30-30, .308 and -06.