Finally started reloading

[JBoone]

Me too! Good luck

 

[lazarus]

I remember when gas was $.29/gal. Then one day in ‘74 a shortage and its never been inexpensive. Wonder if this will be the same with bullets...then end-of $.17 9mm factory ammo.

Supposing there are no artificial constraints on it like government forcing you to pay more via limits, licensing, extra taxes or monopolistic manufacturer (IE most leave the market leaving only one or two) then likely you are looking at metals prices, plus obvious some overhead and stuff for the manufacturers. But it isn’t like they are hand made. So you are looking at one persons’ labor cost to operate one or more machines that can crank out tens of thousands of rounds a day. Packaging, shipping, advertising.

Anyway. Most of them weren’t going broke at 17cpr. Labor and metals costs haven’t suddenly skyrocketed last I checked. UMC got bought up, so we do have one less market participator.

Anyway. At a guess if Biden doesn’t mess up the ammo market and if MD doesn’t make it expensive to buy ammo within 2 years I’d bet we are back down near low 20cpr for 9mm. Might take a couple years more to get down to or under 20cpr.

 

[Zorros]

45colt

I am new to reloading. I have the Lyman manual, have looked on line for answers to whether 6.0 gr of Bullseye under a 250 gr acme coated lead flat nose bullet is a safe load in terms of being powerful enough for the bullet to clear a 4” and a 7.5” barrel. I know it is not too powerful a load for my guns. I have also,loaded some 5.5 and 5.7 BE using a 230 gr rd lead bullet.
Alliant publishes 7 gr for a 250 gr LSWC speer bullet (879 fps from 5.5 barrel).
I am just plinking around and don’t need that power, shooting a ruger and a colt new frontier. I have fired maybe 50-75 of these and they have been fine as far as I can tell. Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[John from MD]

Here are my plinking loads for a Colt 1873 5.5 inch barrel and a Lee 255gn cast bullet. 4.8gns WST, 4.6gns Bullseye, 4.8gns RedDot. From the bench, these give me one ragged hole at 20 yards with 70 year old eyes. I have tried to use WW231 and have not found an acceptable load with it. These bullets are sized. .453 and my cylinder mouths are .4525. They are lubed with XLOX and I get no leading.

If I shoot the same bullets powder coated, they open up about a 1/2".

 

[Zorros]

Here are my plinking loads for a Colt 1873 5.5 inch barrel and a Lee 255gn cast bullet. 4.8gns WST, 4.6gns Bullseye, 4.8gns RedDot. From the bench, these give me one ragged hole at 20 yards with 70 year old eyes. I have tried to use WW231 and have not found an acceptable load with it. These bullets are sized. .453 and my cylinder mouths are .4525. They are lubed with XLOX and I get no leading.

If I shoot the same bullets powder coated, they open up about a 1/2".

John, thanks again for your help. All your help. Always.
I take it from your use of BE 4.6 gr and a 255 cast bullet that 6.0 will push the bullet out of the barrel. And 6 gr for this bullet seems under the Alliant published recipes of 7 gr for a speer 250 LSWC? 6 gr in these 40 oz revolvers have recoil, but nothing unpleasant.

 

[Zorros]

Here are my plinking loads for a Colt 1873 5.5 inch barrel and a Lee 255gn cast bullet. 4.8gns WST, 4.6gns Bullseye, 4.8gns RedDot. From the bench, these give me one ragged hole at 20 yards with 70 year old eyes. I have tried to use WW231 and have not found an acceptable load with it. These bullets are sized. .453 and my cylinder mouths are .4525. They are lubed with XLOX and I get no leading.

If I shoot the same bullets powder coated, they open up about a 1/2".

John, thanks again for your help. All your help. Always.
I take it from your use of BE 4.6 gr and a 255 cast bullet that 6.0 will push the bullet out of the barrel. And 6 gr for this bullet seems under the Alliant published recipes of 7 gr for a speer 250 LSWC? 6 gr in these 40 oz revolvers have recoil, but nothing unpleasant.

 

[John from MD]

John, thanks again for your help. All your help. Always.
I take it from your use of BE 4.6 gr and a 255 cast bullet that 6.0 will push the bullet out of the barrel. And 6 gr for this bullet seems under the Alliant published recipes of 7 gr for a speer 250 LSWC? 6 gr in these 40 oz revolvers have recoil, but nothing unpleasant.

Not for you my young friend but my arthritic hands like lighter loads.

I do use 6 gns in my 1858 Remington conversion cylinder with a Lee 200gn bullet. I wish it would shoot 255's but they shoot too high for any adjustment.