A month ago I put out a query on a private email list of gun collectors that I was in need of empty brass, namely .38 Special, .45 acp and 9x19. I got one reply with this:
4,700 .38 Special
3,000 .45 acp
350 .357 Magnum
Delivered price was 5 cents each to include priority mail (3 boxes). Its not that I need that much brass but I asked and the good fellow replied and its a done deal.
In the last year I bought a 4 lb keg of 700X back when powder was nearly non existent. It was the only powder on the shelf and I've used it before in handguns but its also quite useful for cast bullet loads in bottleneck rifles. So it sits unopened in reserve.
Then Powder Valley had 5744 8 lb keg and I jumped on that because it will load all my rifle cast bullet loads and has been useful for the Swedish rolling block 12,7x44R so now that keg sits unopened.
Then miracle of miracles an 8 lb keg of UNIQUE shows itself from Powder Valley and being this was the first time in TWO years I've seen it available. I jumped really fast on that one and for $31/pound delivered it now sits unopened, waiting.
I have been prudent in bullet casting for the many molds I now use. I didn't really want to get back into casting for handguns but there was that 3 cavity NOE mold for 9mm on the S&S forum and I jumped on it. It drops .358" so theoretically I can use it for .38 Special as well as 9x19mm.
I'm fat dumb and happy rolling in brass and powder and casting ingots from das Kapitan of this forum.
This is where the Karmic b-t-h visits you. When your copious joy shines to the heavens drunk on the manna that feeds your beloved handloading press (Lee turret).
Powder Valley has Argentine SP primers for $80/M with a 2M limit. Two thousand is about half of what I could use in the next year. It boils down to $200 for two thousand SP primers delivered. Ten cents for one single primer. Most of us here are from the days of penny primers. One cent for one primer. Take a deep breath and do the right thing...... he says to himself.
The powder kegs are bought and paid for. Money no longer exits. Same with the empty brass. The $400 for that 8,000 pieces of brass has washed so far down the stream of life that I'll never see it again. But I probably will never again have to buy brass for .38 Special, .45 acp, or 9mm.
And then it hit me...
You think handloading ammo you'll never shoot is any different than this? That, my friends, is extensionalism.
existentialism
noun
ex·is·ten·tial·ism ˌeg-(ˌ)zi-ˈsten(t)-shə-ˌli-zəm
ˌek-(ˌ)si-
: a chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad