9mm Pain Point?

tactikel said:

I reload 9 mm with bullets I cast from scrounged lead. Paying 5¢ for primers, 1.5 ¢ for powder.
$ 3.25 per 50, exclusive of brass.

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Tactic- I envy you. I have all of the requirements, except for a mold and a lubrisizer, to make my own rounds with my own lead. Couple of hundred pounds of scrounged wheel weights ( that I melted into Lyman mold ingots 5 years ago). But I am still leery of jumping in.

I see too many things to worry about that I do not know anything about such as lubing and brunnel hardness. I need a local lead guy mentor. So every few months I buy another component and contemplate lead rounds and then change my mind. I almost bought the last component a few months ago from a guy here on the High Road.. Still thinking.....................analysis paralysis.

gifbohane said:

Tactic- I envy you. I have all of the requirements, except for a mold and a lubrisizer, to make my own rounds with my own lead. Couple of hundred pounds of scrounged wheel weights ( that I melted into Lyman mold ingots 5 years ago). But I am still leery of jumping in.

I see too many things to worry about that I do not know anything about such as lubing and brunnel hardness. I need a local lead guy mentor. So every few months I buy another component and contemplate lead rounds and then change my mind. I almost bought the last component a few months ago from a guy here on the High Road.. Still thinking.....................analysis paralysis.

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If you go to your profile and fill in your location it would make it easier for people to help ya out.

Wheel weights are plenty hard enough for 9mm. Don't lube. Use Hi-Tek or powder coat. A Lee 120 gr TC mold will get you started and they don't cost a lot.

Nature Boy said:

Quite a few given recent posts on the reloading section of the forum. They go something like this:

"Hello, I'm new to reloading. I just bought a (red, blue, green) reloading press. Where do I go to find powder and primers?"​

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At Walkalong's house. Now try to find his house.

9 mm (the cheap stuff) is being sold on GB for 0.50/rd in bulk with lots of bidders right now.

I have this funny feeling that somethings about to break. Either that or people are scared spitless.

gifbohane said:

Tactic- I envy you. I have all of the requirements, except for a mold and a lubrisizer, to make my own rounds with my own lead. Couple of hundred pounds of scrounged wheel weights ( that I melted into Lyman mold ingots 5 years ago). But I am still leery of jumping in.

I see too many things to worry about that I do not know anything about such as lubing and brunnel hardness. I need a local lead guy mentor. So every few months I buy another component and contemplate lead rounds and then change my mind. I almost bought the last component a few months ago from a guy here on the High Road.. Still thinking.....................analysis paralysis.

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Get some powder coating and a lee psh through sized and jump right in. It is just not that hard.

Well, of the 10,200+ rounds, I have loaded, everything I have ever shot (except for rimfire) as gone throughout one of these other rifles.

I started reloading for 9mm in 2017 when I was shooting in GSSF matches and was looking to roll some tuned ammo for a competitive edge. I managed to work up some very accurate loads, but they were hot enough that I didn't notice any difference between them and my .40 S&W match loads. Then I discovered that my match gun really liked the Federal Brass 115 grain sold at Walmart for much less than what I could load it for. So, I quit reloading it.

Then the virus hit and 9mm plain old disappeared here months ago and hasn't been seen since. I stopped shooting in GSSF and now only shoot reloads since that's all there is. A month ago I also stopped loading target ammo and am now saving my primers for premium defense ammo.

How's this for a pain point? Just got this from Buds, after you figure shipping it's a dollar a round for 9mm range ammunition!

MrShooter said:

View attachment 944529 How's this for a pain point? Just got this from Buds, after you figure shipping it's a dollar a round for 9mm range ammunition!

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That's why you'll need financing

I bet there’s a million really high credit card balances from ammo that won’t get paid before the next statement date!

I had a decent stockpile before this year, 9mm mostly at the $.20 - $.25 price point and .22lr at the $0.08 price point. When the prices started rising this year I bought another 4.5K 9mm practice rds and stopped buying at the $.38 price point. I also bought an additional 15K rds of .22lr at $0.09 / rd. That should give us about 3 years of additional practice for $2750 above what I already had in reserve. I also got 3 .22lr practice pistols for $1250. These numbers about double what I already had in 9mm and .22lr for practice ammo. That works out to under $0.26 / rd including the new pistols.

I reload hollow points myself. Components are getting scarcer, but thankfully I have a Walking Dead Apocalypse supply. The local small town shop is the only one who has any factory ammo. He tries to sell at what the going rate is on ammoseek. I doubt he sells much. Owner probably has an underground bunker with ammo and guns stockpiled somewhere. Prices guns high too. Pencil me in as one who believes we won't be seeing reasonable prices for a long time.

M

I get a mailer from a shooting sports outfit about every six weeks. Watching one brand of 9mm that two mailers ago was $8.39 for fifty rounds. Next mailer up to $8.79, this mailer $12.59.
And I thought $8.39 was high?

Target sports, my main go to

Before-- *price including deliver to front door

Now--- ---Nada, nothing, Zero, Zilch

I have some 9mm, but I am shooting it less. If I shoot a 9mm handgun, I will shoot 50 or 100 rounds instead of 200. Trying to think up exercises to do with a few rounds loaded instead of just doing mag dumps.

As far as buying ammo, mostly I am just looking for opportunities at local stores. I am not hard up enough to spend $500 on a case of 9mm.

What? Are we really expecting a civil war?

Yep

I'm not so sure it's just hoarding. The ranges I've been going to have been jam packed and people are shooting off tons of ammo. There are millions of new gun owners and tons of people doing a lot of shooting. It could just be an increase in ammo consumption rather than flat out hoarding.

The ranges I have been going to are busy, busy with New Shooters and their one or two boxes of ammo with their new guns. Look at all the new guns sales.
Ranges will be busy for a long time just with new gun owners and their one or two boxes of ammo.Every time they go to the range there are thousands to replace them.

I along with the OP, draw the line at .40cents per round. I dont like to pay it, but if I dont want to dip into a sealed case and just want to shoot enough to get by I will occasionally buy an overpriced box or two...

I lucked into an ammo situation the other day. I got 11 USGI magazines, 1 of them a Colt and one a Stag, the rest were Kay's, 150rd pack of 115 9mm, 70rds of Hornady 9mm JHP's, 20rds of HST 9mm, 200rd Bulk pack of 5.56 and a partial plastic ammo box with 40 rds of American eagle 5.56.

Price. $160 for all. Just under 500rds of assorted 9mm & 5.56 plus mags. A steal indeed.

21 cents is where I stop. I got sick of these stupid prices, and gave the finger to the sellers. I bought a press, all the gear, enough supplies for 10k rounds, and it still cost far far less than 10 cases at today's prices. Its literally paid for itself before I loaded a round as far as I'm concerned.

Plus I get to keep the press, and equipment.