Where the heck is 45acp!?!?

Some of us are relegated to indoor ranges where nonjacketed bullets are required

EddieNFL said:

Who mentioned loading FMJ? How does increasing the price of the projectile from 4.6 cents to 18.9 cents raise the cost per round by more than $.40?

If launching commercial rounds downrange trips your trigger, all you need do is pay the piper....if you can find him. My range time did not decrease because of the ammo shortage. In fact, over the past eight months it has increased dramatically.

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I guess you guys don’t get it, when you come onto a thread discussing the cost and availability of factory ammo and you offer reloads as a cheap alternative but fail to take into account that it’s not an accurate comparison.

Why would I want to shoot ball when I can cast my own 200 grain SWC of free lead? What possible advantage does FMJ have a .45 ACP velocities? Over time, thousand rounds maybe, I'll scrub out some lead. I'm under 1000 fps, like about 900.

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I for one don’t care what you shoot but there are a lot of newbie’s to the sport and when they read statements about 8 cent ammo without realizing it’s not the same stuff for sale in the stores that is what I call disengenous.

About $40 for a box of 100 Winchester range rounds. And quite a few Rem. for $25 box of 50.

I guess you guys don’t get it, when you come onto a thread discussing the cost and availability of factory ammo and you offer reloads as a cheap alternative but fail to take into account that it’s not an accurate comparison.

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I have to agree with that. Commercial FMJ can't begin to achieve the same level of accuracy as my inexpensive handloads.

Again, if you prefer the more expensive, less accurate commercial FMJ, all you need do is pay the piper.

Eddie the (disingenuous) Handloader

EddieNFL said:

Powder runs about $16.00 per pound. Primers about $27.00 per K. The cast bullets I buy are $46.00 per K. Prices include shipping and HAZMAT. I've never bought .45ACP brass.

At around 5.0 grains per load that works out to a little over 1 cent per charge. Primers are 2.7 cents each and 4.6 cents per bullet. That's about 8.5 cents per round. A little higher than I was thinking.

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Ahhhhhhhh...you guys were talking about cast bullets. Fair enough. I can believe your numbers based on that, although I'm having a hard time finding even cast bullets for so little. Any sources that can be mentioned publically?

I don't personally reload cast bullets in .45, as my only pistol in that caliber is a Glock. It appears as if the cost difference would be enough to offset the cost of a new barrel if someone shot enough, but to be completely honest I gave up on this caliber when the prices skyrocketed. I'll have to look into this further.

EddieNFL said:

How do you figure you time?

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I don't like reloading. Or rather, I do like tracking down interesting loads, working loads up or down to increase accuracy, etc...but I don't like actually pulling that handle over and over again. It's something that I do to stretch my shooting budget, not as a hobby.

One thing that I constantly keep in the back of my mind, while doing something I don't like doing in order to save a few bucks, is that I could always be at work instead, doing something else I don't like but earning time-and-a-half for it. Thus, the money I save has to be balanced against the money I could otherwise earn. If I'm saving less than I'd earn at work, why bother trying to save the money? I don't like doing either, so going to work would be the most efficient use of my time at that point.

Not saying that this is the case of reloading (it's not, or I wouldn't do it), but I do factor that "lost" money into the equation.

This is admittedly an odd way of thinking and is inapplicable to people who actually enjoy reloading and/or do not have easy access to overtime, but it's something that I have to consider. My time has a very real cost.

This is admittedly an odd way of thinking and is inapplicable to people who actually enjoy reloading and/or do not have easy access to overtime, but it's something that I have to consider. My time has a very real cost.

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Logical argument. Most naysayers use the time argument when all it takes them away from is the boob tube. I don't know anyone who gets paid to watch TV.

Im not sure what "done right" means. Does this imply that the "high end" manufacturers of ammo consistently put out crap?

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Even with handguns, it's possible to improve accuracy with judicious handloading. It's more of a rifle thing, though. Today, there is high end ammo around, but that don't mean it's going to work iin your gun. My rifles all have loads developed just for them that shoot sub MOA and they cost far less than factory. I use premium bullets in all, Nosler, Sierra, Barnes.

For my handguns, I always know I have bullets available, the ones that work in the gun. No shortages. I cast as needed. And, if you handload, you can improve some calibers like my .257 Roberts that are loaded to light pressure levels traditionally by the factories. And, there's not much variety in that caliber in the first place. I shot IHMSA for a while and used a contender barrel in 7mm TCU. You can't even buy BRASS in that caliber, let alone ammo. It has to be neck sized, fire formed, and trimmed from .223 brass. It's a very accurate caliber which, to experience, you much handload. I loaded 150 grain Sierra Match King bullets for competition and they're sub MOA with a scope, though the competition required iron sights.

So, not only can you save money, but you can greatly improve your ammo via handloading and there are so may other calibers you can load for that you would never be able to shoot otherwise.

That's what I meant by "done right", but it's an old adage that rings true quite often for me. Handloading ain't rocket science. It does take some digging and it is a constant learning experience, but it ain't tough to do. Safe procedures need to be followed, of course, You should work out your system of double checking powder charge, for instance, not hard.to avoid double charges. I rarely hear of one, but it can be done if you don't have safe procedures. There are ways to avoid that, though, like using trailboss instead of bullseye in some calibers with big cases.

I for one don’t care what you shoot but there are a lot of newbie’s to the sport and when they read statements about 8 cent ammo without realizing it’s not the same stuff for sale in the stores that is what I call disengenous.

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In my guns it's not the same stuff, it's better.

Hey, but those that don't handload, no problem. Get too many people rollin' their own and we could have shortages of primers again. We're just getting over that little problem, now.

Who mentioned loading FMJ? How does increasing the price of the projectile from 4.6 cents to 18.9 cents raise the cost per round by more than $.40?

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My bad, I read the wrong # on the calculator I changed it to 23 cents.

Handloading ain't rocket science.

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Maybe, but based on your description, there is indeed a good deal of science and know-how involved.

Frankly, I admire the reloading crowd...I really do. But, with my measly 1,000 rounds or so per year (and that is a good year), I just do not feel the need for reloading at this point (as I have mentioned before, ad nauseum).

Either way, keep "rolling your own" man. I certainly understand where you are coming from.

Yesterday I received my Tactical Solutions 2211 Conversion. I put it on my Colt 1911 and went to the range. Okay, I miss the bang and bigger holes of .45 ACP but it was a heck of a lot of fun shooting .22 all afternoon (550 rounds of Federal Bulk .22 cost approx the same as 100 rounds of WWB.45 ACP).

As I said above, I reload, but even so, I found myself shooting my CZ 75 with a Kadet Kit a lot.

For the 1911s, the 2211 seemed like a logical step.

APIT50 said:

Must reload. My cost because I don't have the time to cast is about 10 cents a round.

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I never was good at math but I just did some figuring on my cost of reloading .380ACP.
Powder $20/lbs = 7000gr/lb=3gr/shell= 1 cent/shell
new winchester brass $23.00/100=23 cents/shell
hornady 90gr jhp $15.00/100= 15cents/shell
cci small pistol primers $36.00/1000=.03/shell
According to my figures this is about 40 cents per round initially. I realize the brass can be reused numerous times so this will decrease total cost over time but the other components remains the same.
How are you figuring that it runs about 10 cents per round?

An easy tool to help with reloading costs.

http://handloads.com/calc/loadingCosts.asp

never was good at math but I just did some figuring on my cost of reloading .380ACP.
Powder $20/lbs = 7000gr/lb=3gr/shell= 1 cent/shell
new winchester brass $23.00/100=23 cents/shell
hornady 90gr jhp $15.00/100= 15cents/shell
cci small pistol primers $36.00/1000=.03/shell
According to my figures this is about 40 cents per round initially. I realize the brass can be reused numerous times so this will decrease total cost over time but the other components remains the same.
How are you figuring that it runs about 10 cents per round?

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For starters, you're paying too much for powder and primers.

How much is factory .380 and where can you buy it?

My figures were for .45 ACP.

I found some... at Walmart. Since I have found a another load equal in quanity. Just gotta hit it right!

Just bookmarked the calculator, less than 8 bucks for 50 .44 mags, less than 7 for 50 .38 specials. I Love reloading.
Cheapest factory .44 is 35.00 and it kicks! My reloads don't. I'll use the stout stuff for hunting.

I'm glad to see the hoarding slacking off a bit. All that does is drive up the price, and make ammo hard to find.

Local wally world had 5 of the 100 rd WWB in stock today, I bought 2. I also noticed tons of .22 and 9mm and .40 along with a lot more rifle stuff than there was before.

(gaffney sc WM)

I'm not sure where you guys are shopping for your .45 ACP, but I've been buying it for $16 to $17 per box for the last year or so. I'd tell you where, but then you would be going there and buying it all up -- Sorry! By the way it's Blazer FMJ. I've also been able to find the Remmington JHP also. I'm not that happy with the Remington stuff...it just doesn't hold tight groups compared to the Blazer FMJ.

Around here between Walmarts and a Farm & Fleet you can locate just about anything within a couple weeks.
Not on a daily basis by any means but every 7-10 days or so I can spot most calibers somewhere, sometimes even in large quantities.

Walmart the last time I was there was a 9MM shooters dream.....


The hardest to find here is still .380 and .38 Special.

If you are brand/type specific it can be frustrating but if you are not picky about what you shoot it's not too bad.

I like Mini-Mags but they don't show up very often.

No 2 Walmarts ever carry the same ammo selection.
Each tend to have there own semi-normal items in stock.