penny pinchers and tight wads like me

[colt 357]

Now things don't cost what they did 15 years ago. I got back into shooting a couple of years ago after setting out for about 15 years. Before when I was young and single with a pocket full of money shooting didn't seem to cost that much.
Now that I'm married, have kids and a house payment things are a lot tighter. Plus now I have a 14 yr old son that like to shot to so now I'm paying for two of us.
So I had to find ways to make that dollar go a lot further. So I got on the internet to find some home brews and things to make my self to help cut the cost of shooting.
Now my biggest cost cutter is casting my own boolits. That how I found this forum. But some of the other things that I have done is to make Ed's red bore cleaner. I found this after cleaning my black powder pistols and the cost of hoppes at $9.00 a bottle. Eds red cost about the same to make a gallon of as a bottle of hoppes. I still have a bottle of hoppes around for them stuburn ones but use Ed's red to clean about 95 % of the time.
Ok the next one I do admit that I am a cheap ***. But when a blizzrd hit last winter and I was stuck at home and looking for somthing to do. I grab some old tee shirts and cut them in to bore patches to run though my bores. Now I am guessing that this one save me about $40.00 this summer. All I was out on this one was a cold bad winter nite. Had to stay in the house to cut rags. OHHH well.
I also brewed up my own grease groove wax to fill the grease groove on my cast bullets. I got this one from iraqvetran 8888 on youtube.
I also use a silicone spray for walmart then the silicone gun sprays lot cheaper and even smell the same
One other thing that i found that worked for me after i found some surface rust in the bore of one of my black powder pistols and couldn't get it to go away is dextron 2 automatic tranny fluid. It got in the small pits and eat the rust out and hasn't came back since. Found this one on a google search it took about a week of working it but it did the job for me.
So what are some of your home brew to save money so you can shoot more boolits.
Next one I am working on is tumblin media.

[WILCO]

I cook with cast iron 100% of the time. It cuts down on natural gas consumption. I've even been known to burn cheap charcoal with my dutch oven when I want to make biscuits for sausage and gravy.........

[mroliver77]

I try to save money until I can buy powder, primers, brass etc in bulk or on sale or both. I have feelers out for lead all the time and it trickles in a bit at a time but it adds up. I will buy some jacketed if the price is right. I do shoot jacketed in some milsurp guns.
I bought a bunch of Russian .30 cal projectiles sized to .308 and stocked up while they were "cheap". I am not a component snob and will try anything that's safe. I have been using Wolf primers for a few years now with more than acceptable results. I picked them up on sale and bought enough that the seller paid the haz mat. Along with the primers I bought quite a bit of A2520 powder that Powder Vally had on sale for $50. per 8lb jug. Again no hazmat paid on my part. I can buy "Titewad" powder pretty cheap and have worked up loads for the .38 special and .45 Auto that make IDPA major power factor.
I also make and use Eds Red, Felix boolit lube, atf, "generic" sprays and oils and do make some of my patches. I bought a bunch of patches at a close out years ago for very very cheap.

[parson48]

My wife is quite a sewer/quilter. She uses a rotary cutter to make me patches from old t-shirts. She can knock out a few hundred in just a few minutes.

[smoked turkey]

I am retired and on a fixed income. I am a do-it-my-selfer to an extreme. I look at it this way: If I can do a job around here that hired done would have cost me $50 I've just made $50. If it took me five hours then I have just made $10/hour. Figuring it this way my hourly rate is all over the place but I almost always make money. Sometimes I am more satified with the results than if I had paid to have it done. Sometimes not but such is the life of a do-it-my-selfer. I do make my own patches and pillow ticking for PRBs. Ofcourse I am always on the look for wheelweights for my boolits just like everyone else.

[curator]

Titus Canbee, there's something wrong with saving money? If it isn't cheap or free I don't do it.

[canyon-ghost]

How about case sizing lube you don't have to order? Believe it or not, Alberto VO5 hairdressing gel works! No more sticky RCBS, no more expensive One-Shot (although I love the stuff).
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx228/3rdshooter/contenders/22Hornetcases005.jpg


To give credit where credit is due, I got this idea from Ed Harris at Cast Bullet Association.

[GRUMPA]

For case lube I use baby oil, just a couple of drops on my ink pad and I'm good to go. Don't know how much that hair stuff cost but I got the baby oil at the dollar store about 7yrs ago and still have more than half a bottle left. And if any of you guys knew me you'ld know I'm cheap, my wife tells me if I had a dime in my hind end you couldn't pull it out with a tractor.

[Armorer]

I don't have anything to add right at the moment. Just wanted to say that I really enjoy these kind of threads. They speak to the tightwad/scrounger in me. Carry on gents!

Armorer

[mongo]

Me too, I cut my own patches, cast from range scrap, Fix just about everything myself, Yesterday my break line on my Explorer rusted threw and popped. The guy in the shop said , Yep, gunna cost $150 to run a new line. I went to Auto-zone and for $21 got 25ft of 3/16 breakline. It may take me a little while to repair it, But with 240,000 miles on it, It still runs.

[Kraschenbirn]

Let's see...I mix my own boolit lubes (Emmert's, Felix, and 50/50), make my own spray-on case lube (lanolin dissolved in 90% isopropyl alcohol), do most of my own gun repair/gunsmithing, make my own "splatter" target for long-range shooting, scrounge range brass to swap for lead with my recycler, do most of my own home repairs (I'm a retired commercial renovation contractor), bicycle for errands whenever I can (saves gas and a great cardio exercise), and haunt our local estate sales and auctions for stuff I can use myself, use for barter, or for just sell outright.

Bill

[JeffinNZ]

Taint nothing wrong with being frugal. If everyone lived that way the world would not be so screwed up finanically.

[kbstenberg]

I'm glad not ashamed to say I'm very frugal myself. But it can go to far.
Last year i salvaged a stainless BBQ from the local dump. Changed it so the side burner was inside of the hood to smelt WW. All I needed was the connector to fit the burner to the tank hose. I put it off for a year, thinking the parts would be spendy.
This spring I had 8 full buckets of WW. plus I had some alloying to do. I finally broke down an went to see how much the parts would be. 4$ an change including tax. And I waited a full year.
Kevin

[afish4570]

Fo alittle range mining myself, make patches out of flannel pj's when not worn too thin, also by on sale at local JoAnn's Fabric store---flannel after Halloween, Christmas, St. Patricks day etc. when you can get the $2/yd. supper sales. Just made a new smelting pot out of a 20 # old propane bottle. Safety note, I removed the valve packing (brass and will scrap too), filled with water and left in sun for a few days. Then took my new ($9.99 coupon sale price) Harbour Freight 4 1/2" mini grinder with a cutoff blade and cut 2" above welded seam in about 10 min. or less and only used 1/3 of the blade at a cost about $1/blade. Besides being a brass rat and casting my own bullets I managed to and afford it too despite higher costs. afish4570:coffee::coffee:

[colt 357]

Yes me and my son get to the range 1 1/2 hour before the range opens to pick up brass and after we get done picking up brass we go to the berm and start mining the lead out of the berm. no use buying lead when there is tons of it in the berm. I beleve that counts as green shooting as we aren't adding any new lead to the hill.

[454PB]

Frugal "recycling" ideas like these are what made America great.

Our parents (at least for those of us whose parents were alive during the Great Depression) accepted ideas like this as normal living. Mine sure did their best to pass it on to me.

I tried to instill it in my kids, and it was met by rolling eyes most times, but during a camping trip with my daughter and her family, she grabbed the used plastic forks and told me she was going to wash them for reuse. That's my girl!

[Freightman]

I was told if everyone spent no more than I did the economy would be back to the stone age! got no idea what he meant.

[oneokie]

I was told if everyone spent no more than I did the economy would be back to the stone age! got no idea what he meant.

Now that's funny to another old timer.

[Harter66]

I'mdown to the last 5 yards or so of cotton flannel my X wife bought about 10 yr ago at a $1yr close out. I've come to hate being at the range w/those guys that just wont quit shooting so I can scrounge the hill side. I've cutup traps on the pistol backers ,smashing those jackets for trade in/sale is a PITA. I cut split 38/357 and 45 Colts down to all of their cousins,ie Colts/Schoffield/Win mag/ACP/GAP, and 9x23,21,19. 06' gets new life as x57,308,Savages, and moon clip versions of the Colts. 3/4 of my guns are from distressed sellers. I coast key off half way to work. Im getting child support from my Army son and his idiot X for raising my granddaughters. I make 32 Rem out of 30-30. Change my own oil which is used in my saws for firewood. I do business w/7 places that do discounts for cash and pay cash. I take every chance to use a Gi discount w/my gov/depot badge. I've had 5yr hyro-checks and services on my extinguishers done by the FD at work. I've never bought a tow chain or strap but I've about 100' on hand at the moment mostly roadside recovery. I trade odd jobs for primers. I use pistol ammo trays for loading blocks, I've taken the lap top to the parts house to get the other guys internet price. I haven't bought an ear plug or mouse ears in 15yr. I haven't left a restaurant w/o salt,pepper,sugar or sauce packets in 20+ yr.

There's more im sure.

[canyon-ghost]

Ah, the hair stuff is about $3.79 at the grocery store. One tube lasts for many years. The upside, it contains lanolin, so as the guys say, "it's the slickest stuff you never got off your hands".

[10x]

I was told if everyone spent no more than I did the economy would be back to the stone age! got no idea what he meant.

Flintlocks, folks would start shooting flintlocks again....