Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Hand gun reloading, copper plated bullets
bk09:
I don't know where you guys buy bullets but I had 1k cast .358 diameter bullets shipped to me for $70. Cheapest plated I found was from powdervalley and they were $74 before shipping, so probably close to $10 to ship that much lead and costing each bullet 1.4 cents more. I like to get the most savings out of my handgun reloading :D
SemperFiGuy:
bradkoll
You are Right On Target about the savings.
The cost of factory stuff has gotten to the point where it even pays to reload 9mm.
And it Really Pays to reload .357Sig, which is getting up to $35/box of 50.
NEBull
So much of the 9X18 "brass" turns out to be Berdan-primed poly-coat steel casings, which are generally non-reloadable. Hard to find good brass pickin's in that caliber. Some folks shoot .380 (9X17) out of their 9X18 pistols. But then, Some Folks don't wear seatbelts, too.
sfg
Ronvandyn:
I shoot lead in both my 45 and my 40 and I don’t have problems with barrel leading. Here is why…
Quite a few factors go into shooting lead. Speed of the round, hardness of the lead (measured in Brinell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brinell_scale)), lubrication, among others. Supersonic rounds (lead rounds) tend to melt as they pass down the barrel from both friction against the barrel and the charge sending them down-range. Since most 45ACP rounds are not loaded to pass the 1000fps mark (roughly supersonic) shooting lead is rarely a problem for that caliber. OTOH 40S&W starts out at 1000fps and just gets more aggressive. You can load them slower, but it takes some figuring… 9mm also starts out well past the 1000fps mark and is not a good choice to shoot in lead. Don’t get me wrong, it can be done, I would just prefer not to take that chance.
The idea is to look for rounds that have a high Brinell number and appropriate lubrication. Lead never really gets all that high on the Brinell scale, but try to get the highest you can find. Missouri Bullet typically casts theirs at about 18 for pistol rounds and is a good choice, plus every round comes pre-lubed. Many other manufacturer’s don’t cast them that hard, usually around 14 or just a bit lower. Good for a 44-40 or maybe a slower .38 load, but nothing near the speed of sound. 18 is pretty hard. Missouri Bullet also sells this nifty little leading removal kit on their web site. The kit is cheap and if it works as well as advertised it’s a good solution to most shooters lead fouling problems.
I have found that shooting lead is about half as expensive as shooting plated rounds. Great for target loads and general plinking, but not much else. I also have a pretty good stock of SHTF rounds (even if I don’t believe in the scenario) that are jacketed/plated. The weights are the same as the lead rounds on the 45ACP as is the load, so practicing with the lead serves the same purpose. On my 40, well I occasionally have to go through a box of jacketed rounds at full load just to keep reminding myself what real ammo feels like.
Ron
skydve76:
My current prices reusing my 9mm brass puts a box of 50 9mm rounds at about 5.75 per box. I use a high load of 4.5 grains with my copper plated bullets, and I also have been using magnum primers as I can get them cheaper than the SPP.
Given that S&B ammos is 14.99 per 50 retail, thats about $9 saving per box I reload! I can reload 50 rounds in about 15-20 minutes. They come out very accurate. Out of about 500 rounds, I had 3 duds as the primers would not go off, no idea why they would not go off, the dent in them was strong.
Be interested in hearing your guys numbers on 9mm.
CCI SPM primers
4.5 grain bullseye
berrys 115 g plated bullets
unfy:
Reloading .40s&w with online lead ran me $5-$6 per 100 iirc. In fact, all of my pistol ammo runs about that price.
Unfy (TM) Copper Coated .40s&w -- hasn't been a reality yet :( ... will be another attempt this weekend, though!
re: dud rounds
Make sure the primer is getting seated deep enough. On my Hornady LNL AP, I threw a wide flat washer under the primer seating plug (resting on the cast iron bits of the press). This helped a lot with insuring a good seating depth on small primers (haven't needed it on large primers).
Lastly, if problems do persist, clean your brass like you normally would and then run a batch through only the sizing / depriming die. Afterwards, take a look at all of your primer pockets and flash holes. I've had some brass need to be primer pocket cleaned / flash holed / etc after several reloadings.
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