45 ACP ammo

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Eat Beef

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OK, maybe this is a stupid question, but:

Is there a list of the cheapest .45 ACP on the net anywhere?

Like 24 corps does over at rifle-company for 7.62 and '06, or the .223 list at ar15?

I'm looking to add a little .45, and 9mm, 40, 357, 44........:eek:

Thanks
 
Sorry, don't know of any "list of the cheapest". All I can tell you is Wal-mart still wins for the lowest prices on the Winchester White Box.
 
american eagle

a couple gun shops and ranges around the philly vicinity have been selling 1000 rd. cases of federal american eagle for $180.00 to 200.00. seems like a pretty good deal to me.thats 8 to 10 bucks abox of 50.close or better than wally world.
stock up you can never have to much ammo:)
bentwrench
 
american eagle

a couple gun shops and ranges around the philly vicinity have been selling 1000 rd. cases of federal american eagle for $180.00 to 200.00. seems like a pretty good deal to me.thats 8 to 10 bucks abox of 50.close or better than wally world.
stock up you can never have to much ammo:)
bentwrench
 
The cheapest? Make your own. This cost me about $0.06 per round:


ammo.gif

I finished up about 1/2 hour ago. It's raining here so I couldn't go to the range. By the way, I highly recommend the Hornady L-N-L Progressive press.

The brass was picked up at the range, the bullets came from Ebay, and I bought the primers and powder locally. They're 200gr hard-cast lead SWC over 5 grains of W231.
 
Oh Eddie, if it were only that simple. Ignoring the cost of the press, cleaning tumbler, dies etc. what do you make per hour at your job? How many hours spent depriming, cleaning and sorting cases, resizing, and finally reloading? What does that work out to per hundred rounds?

I did the math. Forgetting the machinery costs, for me, .45 acp has to be right around $20/box-50 to make it worth reloading for me. Or, about double what it is now..
9mm about the same and it is less than 1/3 that right now.


But I still pick up my range brass "Just in case"...

I got a couple big bags-o-ammo from a local reloader, it's his "range ammo" lead round nose 9mm's, he sells a big bag of about 500 rounds (He weighs them)for $39 with 500 or so empty brass exchanged he gives a discount. So far his stuff ain't bad for target practice. I gave him $100 and a big bucket of mixed pistol/rifle brass and he gave me three bags last year. They run about 520 rounds per bag.
 
Oh Eddie, if it were only that simple.
Click to expand...

It may be simpler than you think.

I live in Mass and we can't buy ammo through the mail or over the Internet. If I want something that is not carried by Walmart, I have to go to a gun shop. For example, if I want anything other than 230gr FMJ for my .45's, I'll pay about $16-$18 per box. Since I shoot a lot of 10mm, I often have to have a gun shop order me ammo. I'm not complaining - I choose to live here for a lot of reasons (cheap ammo ain't one of 'em) and I've found a way around it by reloading.

You are right in that if one were to figure ones hourly wage into the cost of home-made ammo, you'd have to load nothing but S&W 500, 45-120, or .50 BMG to recoup the cost. I happen to enjoy reloading so I don't don't consider it lost income. That's like thinking about how much money you're losing when you're playing with your kids, shooting at the range, or making love to your wife/girlfriend. If you enjoy doing something, you turn the adding machine off.

As far as the cost of the equipment goes, I bet I have about $700 into my reloading hobby (since Christmas). I buy my dies and bullets on eBay. I reload the following calibers (highest qty at the top):

.45 ACP
.38 Special
10mm
.44 Special
.32 ACP
32 H&R Mag
.30 Carbine
.380

The first week I had the press, I loaded 1500 rounds of 10mm, 500 rounds of .44 Special, and 500 rounds of .32 H&R Mag. I can reload ammo for between $0.06 and $0.10 per round. Based on local prices I figure I saved $350 on the 10mm, $175 on the .44 Special, & $150 on the .32 H&R Mag for a grand total savings of $675. I virtually paid for my equipment the 1st week that I used it. Technically, I haven't realized that savings because I have yet to shoot all of the ammo that I made that week.

I will admit that it is impractical to load 9mm when I can go to Dick's and get good ammo for under $6 per box of 50. It's also barely practical to load .45 ACP practice ammo. However this batch was loaded out of necessity - my brother and I sometimes shoot at an indoor "lead-only" range and it's difficult to find unjacketed .45 around here.

P.S. - It's not all that time consuming. With the progressive press, I can load about 300 rounds per hour with my son helping me.
 
I still find it amazing that, in this country, decent factory-ammo is so cheap that it almost makes reloading uneconomic (Africa's a different place altogether). That said, I still intend to buy a press and sets of dies once I purchase my firearms (whenever that may be) simply because I like being as self-sufficient as possible.
 
Rolling your own ammo is not about saving money for most people. It is about more time spent doing something you enjoy, it is a continuation of your range trip. Heck I even cast my own bullets and I know I don't save money doing that labor intensive activity.
 
well it may not seem like a big money saver for most of you, but my wife and I shoot 400 rounds twice a week, thats 800, at a cost of 20 bucks per hundred at wal-mart, totaling 160 a week , if we dont shoot any rifle, so the press payed for itself in the first 8 hours I owned it, my dillon can reasonably make 4-5 hundred per hour if I work hard, at a fraction of the cost of storebought ammo, plus I can tailor my wifes loades so she can shoot 200 rounds of 45 acp with less fatigue than wolf, plus my reloads are cleaner !! Its a great hobby, consider it if you have the time to do it
 
I've only been reloading now for about 6 month but I can tell you a couple of things.

First, it may or may not save you money in the long run. You may just end up like me and spend as much money to load a lot more ammo.

Second, it isn't as expensive as you would think to startup but still can be pricey. A Lee turret kit runs anot $100 then the die set about $25-$30. Just add a bullet puller to fix your mistakes for about $20 and you have everthing you'll need to start provided you have somewhere to mount the press. My biggest expense was the $250 I spent of a craftsman workbench from Sears. As for the tumbler I haven't needed one yet.

Third, the biggest benefit to reloading is that you can customize your loads to be as accurate as you pistol will allow. You end up getting match grade quality for less than the cheapest budget ammo you can find.
 
For practice fodder I'm buying a 100 round bulk pack of WWB from Wally World every so often. Wolf is actually a hair cheaper even if I pay for shipping and when I can find it locally it's about $15 per 100 vs. $20 per 100 for the WWB.

However I plan to reload in the future just because I think I'd like to do that, so I see buying the WWB as buying a future supply of brass. Seeing as how brass for .45 ACP costs about $12 or more for 100 cartridges' worth, I'm basically buying the Wolf + once fired brass for $7 less than if I bought the Wolf and then bought new brass to reload with down the road.

Did that even make sense? Basically it amounts to I'd rather pay $20 for a box of ammo and then get some brass after shooting it than pay $12 for a box of new brass.
 
Oh Eddie, if it were only that simple. Ignoring the cost of the press, cleaning tumbler, dies etc. what do you make per hour at your job?
Click to expand...
The presumption is that I reload during business hours, which I clearly don't. The reality is that I fit in batches of loading chores in what would otherwise be downtime - priming a batch of brass while watching a movie, resizing a batch of brass after putting the kids to bed, and so forth. When you look at it that way, the labor becomes free. :)

I load about 1000 rounds of 45ACP per month on a single stage press, and it takes less time than you'd think. And, as has been pointed out, I get to tailor the load to what I want. Right now, I'm figuring that fifty rounds costs me about five dollars and change in materials - that's about half the WWB price for 230gr hollow point ammo that can be used for both range and SD use if needed.

But if I want to shoot store-bought ammo (back on track of the thread) WWB at WallyWorld is still probably the best bet.
 
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