I been loading Federal Gold Medal Hulls for 25 years. Years back we bought cases of factory Fed. G. M. #8 shot for trap. Shot them up and reloaded the hulls. Still broke 27 yd line birds with my reloads. Today I'm using 7 1/2 shot on crows, same hulls.
I am killing crows with cheapo's just like my reloads. I bring more cheapos when I know I will lose half my hulls in the sticker bushes.
I can always beef up the load if I need too. If I had to pay $9 or even $7.50 I would use all reloads.
Mike
-- Edited by Mike27 on Sunday 20th of January 2013 11:56:07 AM
The prices for everything is outrageous. I honestly just got into shotshell reloading and for me its about just a few reasons. I absolutely hate traffic and with walmart 20 miles away and rarely have flats of shells i cant justify the gas money to be miserable sitting in traffic. I also got into it to try different loads for turkeys and crows (being that is primarily what i hunt) I think its neat to customize and try mixing shot and testing my patterns. And for me being a part of a gun club i can find hundreds of hulls nearly every week so thats a savings aswell. The third reason i do is my old browning doesnt really like eating low brass shells so when u shoot nothing but high brass i tend to be able to save more money than if using low brass and buying in stores. But of course everyone has different reasons to buy or reload and though it is getting quite high i love making my own stuff.
When I first got into reloading it was a lot of fun. Now I fire off one box and I walking to the TV remote.The shot is the biggest cost component and at those shot prices there is not much saving to buying factory on sale. You shooting high brass is a different story. High brass around here go from $14 to $18 a box. That pays to reload.
We are shooting heavy loads and the savings is still there on them. We shoot reclaimed shot and homemade shot. If you get really creative you can still reload a box of 1.25 oz 1350 fps loads for $1.25 per box. I want sugar coat it... A lot of sweat equity goes into that $1.25 per box but it is doable if you have a source for lead.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
I remember you scored hundeds of pounds of free shot.
I checked again and right now most sites are $106 to $110, 2 bags shipped.
That puts me close to $4 a box for the lead alone for an 1 1/8 oz. load. I'm not reloading anything heavy or much different than what I can buy @ $5 to $5.50 a box. I tweek the powder bushings around every once in a while but thats it. There is not much savings.
I remember you scored hundeds of pounds of free shot.
I checked again and right now most sites are $106 to $110, 2 bags shipped.
That puts me close to $4 a box for the lead alone for an 1 1/8 oz. load. I'm not reloading anything heavy or much different than what I can buy @ $5 to $5.50 a box. I tweek the powder bushings around every once in a while but thats it. There is not much savings.
Mike
What brand, dram eq, shot weight shell can you buy for $5 to $5.50 a box and where do you find it?
Gameliel Supply still sells/ships Lawrence brand magnum shot for $98 for two bags shipped.
Thanks. I think you have to compare apples to apples. If one is reloading with premium components, especially magnum shot you would have to compare your reloads against Win AA, Remington STS/Nitro27 and Federal Gold Medal's. I haven't bought any of those recently but believe prices are in the $7.50 and up range for 12ga. Reloading is still going to save $2 a box or more when compared to those. The Estate's and Wally World Federals are going to make a gun gang bang just the same and work well in many situations but they are not premium shells which many people prefer for both target and game.
Look up some of the shot reclaimers on the net and see if there is one close to you. If you can find it, it will generally sell for around $1 per lb. Check with local gun clubs also. They will often have it. Also search trapshoot.com for people selling homemade shot. They will trade lead for shot. That is what we do.
You may also check into joining a shooting range. Sometimes they are cheap enough to join that the annual fee is smaller than the shipping you would be charged by Gameliels and more that offsets the cost. I know of three clubs here that the dues are $50, $100, and the most expensive is $200. They get a discount and all the clubs around here order at the same time and all share the cost of shipping a truck load. Shipping usually runs around $5 with no hazmat fee. Just those savings were enough to offset the cost of joining and that is only one order for us.
Good luck and I hope some birds show up your way.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
A friend makes it for us on a split. We get 6's, 71/2''s or 8's depending on target. It is not perfectly round or perfectly sized. It runs about a 1/2 size small but it kills clays and crows well. I know several folks that shoot it competitively.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Somebody let us know how the reclaimed shot patterns. Given it's a mix of shot sizes with a high percentage of deformed pellets I suspect it may not pattern as well but would surely be good enough for the skeet field.
Somebody let us know how the reclaimed shot patterns. Given it's a mix of shot sizes with a high percentage of deformed pellets I suspect it may not pattern as well but would surely be good enough for the skeet field.
A lot of the people reclaim it, clean it, melt it down again, then re-drip it at a specific size.......
My buddy made a shot dripper, and he makes all of his own shot from wheel weights, and whtever else lead he can get.....
I always wanted to reload my own shells, mostly for the savings. But if its going to cost more per box than factory loads, it kind of ruins it for me.
Where you can save money is if you are loading a heavy load..........the load I use is similar to Remington Express Long Range, I can load them for about 7.00 a box versus 15 dollars a box for the Remingtons......
I got rid of the one I made and I now have two James Stewart Shot drippers on a very cool setup and 5000 Pounds of pistol lead smelted into ingots. I cannot get this type of lead to make shot worth a damn. Very dissapointed. I though this lead would make ok BB's. I'm not entirely done trying yet. I blame it on an incosistant source of power.
This is the shotmaker I bought from this guy and I added a second Black MAX dripper. I cannot get it to run like this and the guy who owned it died. The best I can tell is that you MUST use clean wheel weights to make this thing work and it cannot be run off a gernerator or in cold weather. The thing has got to be hot outside air temperature and have a consistent electric source to run.I was reloading crow loads for a box $2.20. And .410 for 1.75$ when I was making shot. Now my drippers are plugged and I am back on the drawing board. Anyone have any suggestions please, I'm all ears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeOgvvatkPM
-- Edited by Mallardsx2 on Tuesday 22nd of January 2013 02:11:24 PM
I got rid of the one I made and I now have two James Stewart Shot drippers on a very cool setup and 5000 Pounds of pistol lead smelted into ingots. I cannot get this type of lead to make shot worth a damn. Very dissapointed. I though this lead would make ok BB's. I'm not entirely done trying yet. I blame it on an incosistant source of power.
This is the shotmaker I bought from this guy and I added a second Black MAX dripper. I cannot get it to run like this and the guy who owned it died. The best I can tell is that you MUST use clean wheel weights to make this thing work and it cannot be run off a gernerator or in cold weather. The thing has got to be hot outside air temperature and have a consistent electric source to run.I was reloading crow loads for a box $2.20. And .410 for 1.75$ when I was making shot. Now my drippers are plugged and I am back on the drawing board. Anyone have any suggestions please, I'm all ears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeOgvvatkPM
-- Edited by Mallardsx2 on Tuesday 22nd of January 2013 02:11:24 PM
Trapshooters.com has several threads on shot making. Most people have problems with the coolant that is used to drip the lead into. The coolant system has to be just the right viscosity and temp or it will not work well. We use range lead and the fellow that makes it for us doesn't seem to have issues with it. We have made 6, 7 1/2, and 8's out of it.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
I checked out the the guy and here cleans and redrips the shot. Doesn't sound terrible except the 4% antimony. Don't know how accurate that is. Magnun shot is what I buy at 4% to 6% antimony. If he is under 4% he is getting down to chilled shot. Still a good deal.
I got rid of the one I made and I now have two James Stewart Shot drippers on a very cool setup and 5000 Pounds of pistol lead smelted into ingots. I cannot get this type of lead to make shot worth a damn. Very dissapointed. I though this lead would make ok BB's. I'm not entirely done trying yet. I blame it on an incosistant source of power.
This is the shotmaker I bought from this guy and I added a second Black MAX dripper. I cannot get it to run like this and the guy who owned it died. The best I can tell is that you MUST use clean wheel weights to make this thing work and it cannot be run off a gernerator or in cold weather. The thing has got to be hot outside air temperature and have a consistent electric source to run.I was reloading crow loads for a box $2.20. And .410 for 1.75$ when I was making shot. Now my drippers are plugged and I am back on the drawing board. Anyone have any suggestions please, I'm all ears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeOgvvatkPM
-- Edited by Mallardsx2 on Tuesday 22nd of January 2013 02:11:24 PM
Trapshooters.com has several threads on shot making. Most people have problems with the coolant that is used to drip the lead into. The coolant system has to be just the right viscosity and temp or it will not work well. We use range lead and the fellow that makes it for us doesn't seem to have issues with it. We have made 6, 7 1/2, and 8's out of it.
I just bought 2 bags of shot for $70. This is factory shot. My buddy's father sells it, he buys high volume to resell, they're in a skeet club so they go through a lot of it.
I'm loading at just over $4 a box.
Also, I've been collecting wheel weights from the local tire center. I give the guy a six-pack of beer for around ten gallons of wheel weights. So far the only thing I've been making with them is decoy weights for my duck decoys.
Eagle Brand shot from Peru runs abot 34-38.00 a bag at the border. Only 7 1/2 and 8 shot available which is OK as all I load for these days are trap/clays.
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
Eagle Brand shot from Peru runs abot 34-38.00 a bag at the border. Only 7 1/2 and 8 shot available which is OK as all I load for these days are trap/clays.
Ted
Which border?
I would hate to drive to the Peruvian border just to pick up some shot.........
Eagle Brand shot from Peru runs abot 34-38.00 a bag at the border. Only 7 1/2 and 8 shot available which is OK as all I load for these days are trap/clays.
Ted
Which border?
I would hate to drive to the Peruvian border just to pick up some shot.........
49th parellel, the Canada/US border. Eagle is IMO real nice stuff, very round and uniform but it does run about a half size smaller than labelled
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
Guess I haven't kept track of shot prices very well. Wow! I stopped reloading when I stopped shooting competitively. I still have a few bags I bought for $12 each. If I hold on to them a few more years I'll be able to trade them for a car.
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I am new here to the forum. I reload my own 12 gauge shotshells for Crow busting and I use Hodgdon Clays with #4 Copper Plated Lead from RotoMetals. The shot prices seem to be at a normal price for average these days, but, I will agree some retailers are treating shipping with less than satisfying gouges. I am trying to find more information on a company I just found for reclaimed #7 lead called J&S Wholesale, but, those folks must be out of business because they have yet to return any of my 3 emails.
-- Edited by DODGEM250 on Friday 8th of February 2013 12:29:06 PM
You're really getting into another price range with that load. There copper plated shot is $30 for 10 lbs. plus shipping. You should do fine with 25 lbs. of magnum shot for just a little more. I don't know your shooting situations, i.e. long tall shots, but I would try going smaller with the pellet size.
I am new here to the forum. I reload my own 12 gauge shotshells for Crow busting and I use Hodgdon Clays with #4 Copper Plated Lead from RotoMetals. The shot prices seem to be at a normal price for average these days, but, I will agree some retailers are treating shipping with less than satisfying gouges. I am trying to find more information on a company I just found for reclaimed #7 lead called J&S Wholesale, but, those folks must be out of business because they have yet to return any of my 3 emails.
-- Edited by DODGEM250 on Friday 8th of February 2013 12:29:06 PM
Hey dodge,
Is this the website that you got the email address from? http://www.bargainammunition.com/page7.php
49th parellel, the Canada/US border. Eagle is IMO real nice stuff, very round and uniform but it does run about a half size smaller than labelled