What do you do when the price of brass is very close to the price of factory ammo?

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m&p45acp10+1

New member
Well the title says it for the most part.

I have my new Marlin 1895 in .45-70 when I bought it I bought a bag of brass, ans some cast bullets to test it with Trail Boss loads. Now the rifle has 200 rounds fired. All cast, all hand loads. Well I want more brass so I can shoot more at the range.

Loaded ammo runs around $20 to $28 per 20 depending on brand around here. Cabella's shelf price was close to that. Price for 50 new unprimed R-P cases was $44.95 plus tax. So the price of gas factored in if I go to buy the brass I would be spending less to buy the factory ammo from the local store, and using the once fired brass.

Only problem is it is all jacketed. That means having to clean the copper out before shooting the lead again. Though I am gonna do it.

PS I know there are places online to get the brass a bit cheaper. Though If I factor in shipping cost the price is close again.I also cast my own lead for bullets.

Well looks like I get to test some factory ammo this weekend.

I will in the future order some primers, and couple of big jugs of Trail Boss so I will have to put in some brass in that order as well.
 
F

FrankenMauser

New member
Order it.

Cabela's is a bad place to price reloading supplies.

Even with people constantly complaining about Midway's 'high' prices, I found a reasonable offer...
Starline, 100 pieces, $43 - Midway. (R-P is $75 / 100)
--Don't forget to check Starline's own price, though. They ship for free.


There's also Natchez, Powder Valley, etc.
 
M

m&p45acp10+1

New member
I am going to order the powder, and primers from www.powdervalleyinc.com I will buy a box of factory ammo for this weekend just to compare it to my hand loads. Though I know it is going to have way more recoil than my 1100 fps cast lead loads do. Though I am not recoil sensitive, I do not like beating my shoulder if I do not have to.

Well off to the credit union before they close.

Oh an the Cabella's price I mention it for an on the shelf store price. Meaning I go there, and buy off the shelf. For all of my buys so far I have used midway, and have no complaints at all. They have gone above and beyond in customer service.

My last order they charged me for snail mail shipping. ($9.94 with estimated delivery at 10 days.) UPS truck dropped it at my door 2 days later.:eek: I sent an email stating I would pay the extra shipping cost due to getting it so fast, and well they had to pay for that fast shipping.

The response I got was from a customer service rep. They said have a safe and happy holiday. The extra cost of shipping is on us.

I will order from them in the future.
 
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tkglazie

New member
One important factor would be what brand of cases the factory ammo uses. If the $20/box factory ammo uses good cases, sure, its worth a cleaning to pay very close to what empty cases cost. As much as I try to avoid buying factory ammo for any reason, it IS kind of nice once in a while to shoot the factory stuff and compare it to your own handiwork.

edit- you posted your plan of action before I hit submit- sounds like a good plan
 
M

m&p45acp10+1

New member
They are Hornady, and Remington.

Though the Hornady brass is shorter to allow them to feed with the longer profile of the LeverEvolution bullets. I do have some Hornady that was given to me. It works just fine. I have to readjust my expanding die, and the Seating die to crimp. I have a dummy already so set up is pretty quick when doing that. The Remington I have 20 of the original 50 bag left. The lock ring on the Hornady New Dimension die would not allow the die to stay adjusted, so it over expanded 30 pieces, and pretty much ruined them.


I changed over to a Lee lock ring from a die I am not using. Problem solved. Though I wish that Cabella's would have had a Lee die set on the shelf. I know operator inattention played a big part in thrashing so many cases. It stayed adjusted for the first 20 then worked its way loose. It was an expensive lesson to say the least. Now I use my powder funnel to check every round as soon as it is out of the die. Have not had a problem since.
 
J

jcwit

New member
Not sure what I'd do. I haven't purchased cases for decades, free range pick up has supplied me with way more than I need. Have even sold some.
 
M

m&p45acp10+1

New member
For range pick ups I have more .30-30 than 10 people can reload, same goes for .270 Win, .30-06 Springfield, .243 Win, .308 Win. Throw in your choice of belted Magnums, WSSM, and .223 Rem.

.45-70 is like hens teeth in the brass bucket at the range. Most guys that shoot it reload, and take the brass home with them. I had 200 pieces of it last year, and traded them off. Though I do not regret it at all. It was a good trade for me that I would do all over again in a second.

The problem is the places that have brass right now are high. The places that are not high are out. Oh well I will wait.

Though I will pick up a box of something in the early morning tomorrow, or Sunday. Shopping anywhere tonight is like a madhouse with it being the last Friday before Christmas. Acadmey, and Walmart were so packed I am not even going to bother with it tonight.
 
N

noylj

New member
Never found any .45-70 range pick-up.
Silly question--why do you need brass? Need more to shoot or something happen to what you have?
Blue-Star-Inc has once fired for $54.21/100, so that's not any better.
Guess stock up on the factory?
 
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Jerry45

New member
Something worth mentioning. Hornady leverevolution 45-70 and Remington 45-70 brass are not the same length. Hornady is shorter.
 
F

frumious

New member
If they are that similar then buy factory ammo. But then know that, even in .45-70, that brass will last you through several reloadings. So the cost is less than you might think.

But if they are that close then by all means buy factory ammo. Something to shoot right away!!

-cls
 
M

m&p45acp10+1

New member
Noylj I am working on getting more brass to have more to shoot. I cast my own lead so cost of bullets does not break me. For .45-70 buying bullets is nearly as expensive as the brass. Though my cast bullets cost me less than a penny each to cast.

As it stands right now I have 58 brass cases for reloading. I have 4 reloads on all of them. I will annel them soon to keep the cases from spliting at the case mouth from expanding.

Jerry I think I mentioned that earlier. I have a few of the Hornady cases. It takes about another minute to change the dies for the expander, and the seating die. It is no big deal as long as you pay attention to which you are working with.

Oh and I mentioned in another post that the Buffalo Bore .45-70 Magnum Lever Gun cases all use small primers. Also the brass is quite a bit thicker. Was told that the small rifle primers helped to keep the primer pockets from getting loose due to the high pressure charge. Similar to .454 Cassul using small rifle magnum primers.
 
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hodaka

New member
When I first started shooting my K31 Norma brass was all that was available. In spite of the expense, I bought 100. Soon after, Privi ammo became available and loaded ammo was nearly cheaper than the brass so I stocked up. Still shooting the Privi brass although the factory rounds are long gone.
 
M

m&p45acp10+1

New member
Hodka I bought 20 Norma cases for 7.62x54R, that cost me more than a box of loaded PPU brass cased ammo. I now just pick up a box of PPU brass cased ammo when I can pick one up.

They stand up to a whole lot of loads. The Norma brass is great though the way I shoot with irons I would not be able to tell the difference of the head stamp when shooting them.
 
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jmorris

New member
If I had to buy brass that cost as much as factory ammo and my intended load was close I would buy the factory ammo. I get my brass for free but even then back 10 years or so ago when 9mm was $2.99/50 rounds, I shot factory ammo in matches all the time. Didn't switch back to reloads until the prices went back up.
 
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Kevin Rohrer

New member
When Brass Costs Equals Loaded Ammo Costs

Cabella's shelf price was close to that. Price for 50 new unprimed R-P cases was $44.95 plus tax. So the price of gas factored in if I go to buy the brass I would be spending less to buy the factory ammo from the local store, and using the once fired brass.
Click to expand...

The simple solution is to find sources of cheaper components. Cabela$ is high-priced.

Goto Starline and get 250-rounds of 45/70 for $110.50. It is much better brass than R-P and is 1/2 as expensive.

Buy your primers and powder in bulk (5k and 8lbs, respectively) at a time from a local source who can beat Cabelas. They are out there, you just have to look. I have 4-stores in my area that sell powder and bullets far cheaper than Cabela$.
 
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tobnpr

New member
Until I found a great source for 7.62 x54R brass (LAPUA!), I used to buy Prvi ammo just to get the brass.
 
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dacaur

New member
Depends on the gun. For a plinker yea i would get the loaded ammo, but I did just that for my hunting rifle and ended up just pulling the bullets and dumping the powder on half of them, because it was no fun to shoot since it was so inaccurate in my gun.... I guess I don't have it in me to just pull the trigger to hear a bang....
 
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