Ammo costs

[skizzums]

9mm
tulammo steel_9.87$
win-13.86$

.223
tulammo steel-5.27$
PPU-7.97$
american eagle 5.56- 69$ per 150ct

this is wally's prices. but will be going up in 2014 i hear, not sure by how much. almost in stock here in georgia. .22 is normally in stock as well, federal match 350ct box is 18.97$
or remington sub-sonic for 3$ a 50ct box.
but if your still limiting your range time due to price and availability, you should really look into reloading. got the lee anniversary reloading set for 90$ and have loaded thousands in the last year. 9mm costs me 130$ per thousand rounds and .38spl costs me about 170$ per k. i have just startig casting as well and this will bring my costs down another 7c a round. primers have gone up some in price to about 35-40 a box, but the prices have declining every week for the last couple months. the powdrs you really want can be tough to find, but i havent had too much trouble. can always get the normal hp38/win231 for 21$ a pound and titegroup even cheaper if you can deal with it. rifle powders like varget etc. have been a little more difficult.

p.s. "ga arms" is a local reloadng shop here in ga, i am fortunate to live so close to them. 9mm projectiles are under 60$ per 1k and they always have powder and primers. and if you dont like lead so much, grafs has berry's plated back in stock 87$ per k for 9mm 124gr.

 

[Mike / Tx]

Well handloading is one way to drop the cost per round a ton, but only if your shopping smart. Pick out a couple of newer manuals first, then decide what powders you can get by with. One for target loads, one for mid range and one for top end. Choose your bullet and/or weights accordingly as well.

If your already shooting some favorite commercial loads try to find loads in the manuals which somewhat duplicate the bullets used, and the velocity listed. Then when you start looking for components look for those powders which are listed that are close to factory or very similar, and the same with the bullets you purchase being close to the commercial bullets. Pick up a hundred bullets and a pound of powder to make sure it works out for you.

Then when you find things that work well, start looking to purchase these components in bulk. Pick up primers 5K at a time if possible, powder in 8# canisters, new brass in 1K lots. If your shooting say a 9mm, 40, or 45 ACP, pick up once fired cases for your range loads where you might not get your cases back. Usually you can find these for really cheap listed in the classified of some forums like this one.

With a brick of primers, 8# of something like Unique, Universal, or Bullseye, and brass in you favorite flavor you can load a LOT of practice loads for not a lot of cash. If your shooting cast bullets even cheaper, especially if you pour your own.

I have loaded most of my own ammo for most of my life. I got caught with my pants down back when Clinton threw out the first ban and caused his minor little panic. Since then, I made adjustments, and I haven't been overly worried or wanted for ammo or components since. I might not always be shooting the fastest, or the absolute most accurate loads in everything I have every time I decide to go shoot, but I don't have to worry about not having ammo either.

 

[rebs]

I started reloading bck in the mid 70's and still do. Components around here are starting to show up more on the shelves of local gun shops. I still use my RCBS single stage press and powder dump and scale with the addition of a new electronic scale. Reloading is as much of a hobby as shooting. I am retired and have lots of time but less income. However my house, my truck and most everything else is paid for so my bills are not as much as they used to be. I belong to a sportsmans club that is about 15 minutes from my hous and cost about 110.00 per year and no charge for range use. Ranges both indoors and out, pistol is out to 50 yds and rifle goes out to 300 yds. I shoot mainly 3 times a week. I am not going to give up my hobby of reloading and shooting.

 

[mfreem08]

Here in Charlotte, NC I just found this week, the 9mm Tulammo 100 round for $23. Its the small soup can looking container. BrassMaxx 115 grain I believe. I figured for .23 it would be fine to plink with. They probably had 25 of em on the shelf, so I went 2 days in a row & bought their 3 box max.
Good luck getting stocked up before the next price increase/panic/or law.

 

[skizzums]

thats a good price for "brass max", usually its around 14$ a box for 50 at walmart. do you know if it uses the same "bi-metal" jacket that the steel ammo uses? i have read some un-scientific studies that say the proble with steel amo is not the casing so much, but the bi-metal jacket causing an decrease in barrell life. although i have been using tulammo for a long time in my rifles for .223 and 7.62x39 and 54r, my rifles are low-cost and i don't really worry about it. but if i had some really pricey guns, i would probably opt to shoot something else out of it.