Sticker shock @ j-word bullets

[HammerMTB]

So, I don't buy a lot of j-words. I get a few, most for my .264LBC.
But I got the BFR in .500S&W, and after casting some wondered how it might shoot with copper condoms.
So I dropped in the local gunshop. They are well-known to have competitive prices.
They only had Barnes, which is kind of high-end to a cheapskate like me. My ancestry may be showin'....
They were $20 a box! Which, if I were buyin a hunnert, I'd pay in a heartbeat.
But the box had 20 in it. They were a dollar a pill.
I don't really track my cast costs. Lead costs me, but not much. I give the guys at the tire shop a big box of donuts now and then.
I sort 'em for free.
I buy a bottle of propane to smelt. It's gotta last a long time, as in all my smelting I have yet to run one out. I run 'em out brewing beer.
I run the pot on electricity. That's a little, but not much.
I buy molds. That is by far the biggest single cost. 2 cav Lee, $20 6 cav, $40 when I need one, which isn't much any more, I have about all the calibers I might ever need.
So a boolit might cost me 3 cents, if I amortize the mold cost over 1000 boolits or so.
I may not shoot many j-words ever again.
rant off
:castmine:

[SciFiJim]

Yep, that is why most of us got into casting our own. Here in parts of CA we can't use lead to hunt with and are forced to use all copper bullets. So, I work up a load for hunting with copper bullets and only shoot a few. I still use boolits at the range for fun.

[geargnasher]

Don't you know you can't shoot copper bullets? They will ruin your barrel! :kidding:

Gear

[frankenfab]

I am so glad I stocked up on a bunch of j-words years ago for my hyper velocity calibers. Nosler partitions @ $1 each? I don't think so!

Fortunaltely, I don't live in a lead-free hunting zone (yet?). I like revolvers the best, and think boolits are better that jacketed for hunting anyway, particularly from the .454 on up. Actually probably in any calibre, really. But, the thick jacketed .45's and anything larger in diameter are really expensive now.

[josper]

This is why I started casting my own.The state I live in is choking off access to jacketed boolits and other supplies.Little by little they are putting the small gun shops out of business.I travel far and wide to buy my components for reloading.Even the mail order places are stoped from selling to us.

[ku4hx]

I've been casting since 1970 and I shoot very few J-word bullets. About a decade or so ago I bought a whole bunch of factory J-bullets for my rifles at about $12/100 if I remember correctly. Whatever it was it was very low compared to today's prices. I've still got the original boxes with labels where I bought Remington 180 grain Golden Saber bullets for $80/1000 in 10mm/.40. Today 1000 of those things are over $200. Just ain't happening any more for me. I'll spring for factory rounds for my own personal "home defense" weapons every five years or so but that's about it.

Given the age of most of my casting equipment, its all been paid for many times over. Even if I were to buy alloy from outfits like Rotometals (which I have) I'm still casting at about 7 cents per boolit for 180 grain 10mm/.40. And if I can keep scrounging lead and lead alloy of various types I can cut that cost by half. I had a friend give me 20 pounds of dive weights the other day. People don't know gold when they see it. He knew what I would do with it but he still will pay the price for J-word bullets all the while complaining about price and refusing to cast his own.

I feel sort of sorry for people I see at my gun club. They bring 50-100 rounds of ammo for 4-5 people to shoot and think they got a bargain on the White box stuff from Wal-Mart. And they never refuse to let me have their spent brass. Just no sense of what real value is.

My kids are lucky. They'll inherit a tremendous amount of casting and reloading equipment and be well set for some time after I'm gone if they choose to be. But in today's throw away world they don't really understand the value of all that equipment.

I consider myself a craftsman. But it seems to me the craftsmen of the world are dieing out in favor of the cookie cutter junk. And we got lots of junk out there in my opinion.

[FN in MT]

A dozen or more years back Jacketed slugs took a pretty big jump, with an even bigger one predicted by the Nosler Rep and the Speer Rep when I talked to them at SHOT Show.

That Summer several of us got together and put in a BIG order of reloading supplies through a LGS. Our $6K order put him into the next discount category...which he passed on to the rest of us.

I always hunted with Nosler partitions so bought ten boxes of each of the weights I used in my .280 Rem, and for the .300 H&H's. Then another ten boxes of assorted .338" that I shoot out of the .338-06. Even bought five boxes of 300 gr partitions for the .375 H&H.

REALLY stocked up on .224" 55 gr varmint slugs I think I did fifty boxes.

What we paid back then is laughable by todays prices. WHY I like to stock up TODAY versus paying what they want several yrs from now.

FN in MT

[frankenfab]

I see your point. You are a glass half full kinda guy, I bet!

[Treetop]

Other than the Federal HSTs that I carry in my concealed carry 1911, cast boolits satisfy all of my current rifle and pistol shooting needs. I do, however, have many rounds of surplus ammo stockpiled against an uncertain future...

[T-Bird]

I stocked up on primers, powder, and the only J word I shoot in my 260 rem when we went into Iraq. My father told me how hard to find all ammo was during WW2. I extrapolated. T-Bird

[ColColt]

I just recently left a GP100 with a gunsmith due to roughness in the forcing cone/rifling and clarified I wanted an 11 degree chamfer and clean up as best he could. Reluctantly he finally agreed. One of his helper told me the problem was that I was shooting lead boolits??!! I said, oh, really? He said, "Yeah, always shoot jacketed and never shoot lead in a Glock-it'll blow it up"!! I'm wondering if I made the right decision leaving it with them.

[zomby woof]

So a boolit might cost me 3 cents, if I amortize the mold cost over 1000 boolits or so.
I may not shoot many j-words ever again.
:castmine:

Yea, saving money. That's what I said three years ago.
Have you checked out the group buy section yet?

It's now an extension of my reloading hobby.

[Adk Mike]

A box of Speer bullets last years for my deer rifle. Every thing else is cast. I figure about 10 cents a round including gas checks for the 06 cheap fun and I can shoot all I want. Mike

[HammerMTB]

Have you checked out the group buy section yet?

It's now an extension of my reloading hobby.

Yes, I am a confirmed member of CA (caster's anonymous)
It sounds good to believe I am saving money. It's really more like I am stocking up on guns and molds.
I don't see a .500 mold I like in the GB section. I've been thinking of drawing one up and seeing if it might have interest. 325-350, WFN kinda thing.

I did find some j-words for a more reasonable price. $.45 apiece ain't cheap, but it's better, and if I only use a few, I can live with that cost.

[Hardcast416taylor]

It`s funny, before 2000 and even farther back than that I bought "J" bullets and brass along with primers and powder abd brass, much more than I needed. The "buy a box of ammo to blast away guys" got their yucks at my expense all the time about my hoarding and reloading. Well nowadays these same guys are crying the blues about ammo costs and some are actually selling some of their guns to cut costs. What I find funny now is the number of them trying to "chum - buddy" me for ammo out of friendship (read free).Robert

[JTknives]

I have run into a similar problem with buy jacketed bullets. 2 of my guns HAVE to shoot jacketed and i cant cast for them. the first one is my 9x25 dillon which is a 10mm necked down to a 9mm. has a very short neck and shots very fast, 90gr at 2050-2100fps. the second one is my 50cal desert eagle, its gas operated and you cant clean the gas port that is inside the barrel. i have read some nightmare stories on the internet about people having to send there barrel back to magnum research. so i have to buy 50 cal bullets, but so far the cheapest ones i can find are the speer 300gr Deep Curls aka gold dot lol. its like 23 bucks for 50 i think so its not as bad as a buck a shot. but loaded ammo is 27bucks for 20 rounds of the cheep stuff. and in an auto you burn through it.

[x101airborne]

I am now casting for almost everything I shoot. After seeing me kill a couple of hogs, I am casting for my dad in 7mm, 308, and all of his pistol needs. Have molds coming for the 50 beowulf and the 7.62 nagant. I have absolutely no need for jacketed anymore. My wife and kids shoot cast for everything. Sure I spend money on molds and sizers, but once I have em, they are here to stay. Now as long as I can get lead......

[Char-Gar]

I have bought one box of (30 cal) jacketed bullets in the past 25 years and still have most of it left.

[Bad Water Bill]

While I have some size and caliber of J words in stock I have been watching them reach a point where they are not in my budget any more. Sure glad I started casting and collecting back in the 60s. It is nice to say I can get over 150 boolits out of a # of PB. Now if I could get moulds, sizing dies and gas checks in .204 I will be a happy camper. Imagine shooting over 200 rounds for less than $10.00.

[41mag]

Years ago I started stockpiling the bullets I liked, as it seemed that every time I developed a great load the manufacturer would either change the bullet up or drop it entirely. I was REALLY bummed when Nosler dropped the Solid Base, but I did manage to squirrel away enough that I still have plenty to tide me over for a while.

I also managed, don't know how, to get in just ahead of the big price jumps on primers and have plenty in all flavors for a while. Brass, well I will never shoot it all till it's ruined.

I beagn casting as a means to an end. Like was mentioned I shoot a big bore and buying the dollar a piece bullets simply wasn't cutting it. I had a small supply of J's I got from LS&B but even those were starting to dwindle.

My biggest issue now is accumulating enough lead. I fully appreciate the folks here who offer their WW up for sale every once in a while. I have taken advantage of it several times. Also picked up some isotope lead as well that I can blend later on to what I need it to be.

The other issue is I can't seem to quite finding molds I want either. I simply blame this on guilt by association, it's yall's fault. Least that's what I keep telling the wife.

[sig2009]

Unfortunately manufacturers have not discovered that there is a limit to what someone will pay for their product. Like why would I buy Berrys plated bullets anymore. They are copper jacketed whereas Precision Delta are FMJ and cost about $25 per 1000 less than Berrys.

[ku4hx]

Unfortunately manufacturers have not discovered that there is a limit to what someone will pay for their product. Like why would I buy Berrys plated bullets anymore. They are copper jacketed whereas Precision Delta are FMJ and cost about $25 per 1000 less than Berrys.

Thank you! The vast majority of my ammunition is loaded with cast boolits, but there are times I favor jacketed. Precision Delta is now a bookmarked source.

[jlchucker]

Don't you know you can't shoot copper bullets? They will ruin your barrel! :kidding:

Gear

Absolutely! :castmine:

[DLCTEX]

I got sticker shock at he price of cat bullets for 480 Ruger when I first got it. I wanted to buy a few to test before buying a mould, but at the price of 50 bullets I could buy a Lee 2 cav. and cast hundreds of my own.

[TXGunNut]

I've only been casting a couple of years but I didn't get into it for economy, I bought a Sharps and felt it should be fired with cast boolits and BP. I couldn't buy decent CB's so I ordered up some new toys and it's been quite a ride since!
A couple of months ago I was in Cabelas considering trying one more time to load LeveRevolution bullet$ for my Guide Gun. I've become quite the tightwad over the last couple of years! Left them on the shelf and the GG is my current CB project, .35 Rem is next. Six cav mould and my old Dillon probably "paid" for most of my casting setup when I decided paying $23 for a box of .45ACP practice ammo was silly. I don't think I'll ever cast for my .30-06 or my ugly black .223 but all the others are on my to-do list. :lovebooli

[390ish]

I have also come to realize that it does not take much to kill a deer. Cast bullets out of a krag, russian or mauser are great to almost 150 yards.

[izzyjoe]

the price of copper is only going higher, just look at the copper thieve's, they are going into overdrive here. but i think they should get some copper at 2500fps. that would stop some it. but in reality prices on everything will get to a point that it's not affordable to do anything, and that just what they wan't! and yet we have to carry the burden.

[Ed K]

I have biased all of my firearms purchases going forward toward those that can use boolits. I do still have a couple that I feel benefit from jackets but have pretty much laid in a lifetime supply for them at Nosler shooters pro shop (when the deals were still there) and a couple of other sources.

Where I live in the northeast, most rifle hunting can be accomplished with 35 cal and up as ranges tend to run short and where I feel cast boolits really shine.

Just have to adapt, scrounge and get by...