Thrifty Reloading Tips--- List yours

S

sleeping dog

New member
Superhornet, the topic is about saving money. Having a wife and daughter may be a couple of blessings, but it ain't cheap! :)

I get pretzels in giant plastic jars. Those are great for keeping brass in various stages of prep. Wash out the salt first, it's probably corrosive.

Regards.
 
E

Edward429451

Moderator
Revive this good ol thread!

Make your own bullet lube. I had no clue how easy this stuff was to make until I tried it. I havent actually shot any bullets with it yet by by comparing it to commercial Alox, saeco green, and red rooster...I know its going to work fine. It took about 30 -40 minutes to make ~120 dollars worth of lube for an outlay of about 30 bucks. I can already tell that I'll never buy commercial lube again.

The recipe list is short and can be tweaked to your particular application with ease. It's:

2 Tablespoons mineral oil
1 Tablespoon castor oil
1 Tablespoon Ivory, or homemade soap (grated)
1 Tablespoon Lanolin
Beeswax - Piece approximately 3 1/2" X 3 1/2" X 1 "

The Lube is called Felix World Famous Lube (FWFL) and complete instructions can be found at:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=543&highlight=FWFL

Da man "Felix" is there and is happy to answer questions, he's a good gent. Don't be confused by some of the banter, it really is easier than some guys make it sound. I used measuring spoons and it came out perfect.
 
C

cpaspr

New member
Homemade bullet lube

My dad would use 50% beeswax, 50% parafin. Melt and mix, let cool. Set all the bullets needing lubing base down in a pie pan. Put on the stovetop on low and add enough chunks of lube mix till the melted mixture covered the grooves on the bullets. Remove from heat and let cool. The bullets can now be popped out with your thumb.

The real time saver comes on the next and subsequent batches. Simply turn the "holey" wax over, insert new bullets needing lube, add the pie pan and flip the whole thing back upright. Place on the burner just long enough for the wax to melt and flow, then remove from heat and allow to cool. Repeat as necessary to lube all your bullets. Add small amounts of lube mix wax as needed to keep the grooves covered.
 
C

CrustyFN

New member
Take a fabric softener sheet for your dryer, cut it into 1" squares and add it to your tumbler. It will keep dust from sticking to your cases and will collect the dirt so your media will stay a lot cleaner.
 
R

RevoRick

New member
Tumbler trick sounds great. Can hardly wait to try it. I use a plastic grit made of recycled pop and other plastic containers to tumble brass. It cleans great but most of the dust and crud doesn't stick to it but instead settles in the bottom of the tumbler or lightly adheres to the casings. This could be the answer to my prayers.

ps - I use the plastic grit as I can wash it and use it over and over.
 
F

flutedchamber

New member
I use cat litter containers to store brass in. The type I buy, Exqusicat crystals from Petsmart comes in a two gallon clear plastic jug with a screw on cap with a pour spout type flapper on it. The jugs are strong, easy to label, and the top makes pouring easy, especially if you use it to store your ground walnut media.
 
S

shooter chef

New member
I always let my wife try out my new loads first... she likes the excitement...lol
I use different colored markers on the bottom of my loads to differentiate between the different grains I use per rounds.
 
S

Scott5

New member
Use old media that you were going to throw out to fill the your rifle rest bags.
It's a lot lighter than sand and almost dirt cheap.

A lot of people tell you that you can't shoot cast bullets faster than 1000 fps because of leading the barrel - wrong.
I took some MICA and a bunch of cast bullets both 357 and 9mm and put them in 6 oz. Butter tub, rolled the bullets around in it and shot them at medium velocity.

Now I can shoot cast in my 9mm's and 357's as fast as jacketed.

Happy shooting
Scott5
 
H

HiPowering Along

New member
Always keep at least two empty primer boxes (lg and small) around - you'll have a place to put the primers when you change from small to large calibers (can you tell I got caught with this one? :D)

The small plastic 50 round .22 boxes (translucent blue, can't remember the brand right off) make great containers for your case gauges. One box holds the .45, .38/.357 and 9mm Dillon case gauges quite well - a small piece of foam cut to fit keeps them from rolling around in the box. Beats the heck out of constantly looking for them when they roll to the back of the cabinet!
 
S

safeshot

New member
I will try the dryer sheet deal for sure. The .22 boxes are stingers CCI.

I use imperial sizing wax and carbide buttons like eirlier mentioned I lube every two to three cases and do not have to clean the dies as much, when I clean dies I use the long q-tips.

These are little things but the best tip I have is get a manet mirror type deal a miror on a stick or somthing like that and stick it to where you can see down in the case after a powder measure has dropped a charge. I use this on a dillon square deal B sence it doesn't have a powder check.

The next tip I have is DO NOT RELOAD IF YOU CAN NOT CLEAR YOUR MIND!!!!


SS
 
O

OneInTheChamber

New member
I'll keep what I started going:

1. Collect EVERY caliber of common brass you find. If you don't shoot that caliber; save it. You may in the future. If you want cash for it; eBay it. You can get $25-$35 per 500 of common rifle and pistol calibers.

2. Get a hand priming tool. That way you can prime cases as you watch TV or such. I do this for the rifle calibers that I do single stage.

3. Always, always, always mark what kind of primers are in a feeder. You can't visually tell a rifle from a pistol primer; and you need to never, ever mix them up. It just makes good sense; and its free.

3. Always store lead shot in a separate bag than what you initially opened. That way; you don't spill thousands of little pieces of round lead all over the garage floor (been there, done that, and cleaned it up too).
 
F

frankxd

New member
Here is a tip to save a ton of money on reloading supplies:

Get your C&R license and send a copy to Midway and Brownells and request to receive dealer pricing. The C&R license costs $30 for 3 years. You will save more than this on your first order.

When I first got into reloading, I bought all of my equipment from Midway. I saved almost $200 on my initial set-up!

Note: Go to surplusrifle.com for info on obtaining your C&R license.
 
H

hotwls13

New member
^^^FrankXD, what would you say is the average discount at Midway? I recently sent off for my C&R and hope to have it in about a month.
 
S

swmike

New member
I had a bunch of cases to trim and got tired of using my old RCBS Case trimmer. Took a Lee Case Trimmer, locked the shell holder in a drill press vice, chucked the trimmer in the drill press (a $39 Harbor Freight Bench Top Drill Press) and trimmed 500 cases that afternoon. I set the drill press on the slowest setting and let the vise "float" on the table so it would align with the trimmer easily.

I also use the drill press to clean primer pockets and cut the military crimp out. Unlike those case prep stations where the work is done on the bottom while you are looking at the top, you can see what is happening without having to turn the case over.
 
F

frankxd

New member
^^^FrankXD, what would you say is the average discount at Midway? I recently sent off for my C&R and hope to have it in about a month.
Click to expand...

There really is no average discount. On some items, the discount is only a couple of pennies while on others it is up to 40% :confused: . On my last order, I bought a Streamlight TRL-1 for my buddy. List price was $129.99; I paid $92.99 :p . That's the other cool part about it- I never seem to have to pay for shipping anymore, because my friends always have a list of items to purchase for them.

If I had to guess on an average savings, I'd say about 20%.
 
C

cpaspr

New member
I looked into a C&R FFL,

and is there a requirement that you ACTUALLY HAVE curios and relics that you've collected, or simply that you might in the future?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top