Cast Boolits Shooters Are Still Shooting

[Silver Jack Hammer]

While the jacketed crowd can't get components those of us shooting cast boolits are still able to shoot. Some buddies at work with their 35,000 psi 40 S&W's and .223's are practicing Lamaze with the last of their boolits. I just cast up two huge boxes of .454190's and .429667's plus a bunch of RCBS 200 CM's. My revolvers and 1911's take cast boolits all day long. The component shortage has not hit my shooting yet.

I'm seeing several pounds of Green Dot in the local gunshops. VV powder is available at $38.00 a pound.

We are in a gov't caused / consumer induced ammo drought but the cast boolit shooters shoot on.

Today a guy told me he got his 1,000 round order of 52 gr .223 boolits from Cabela's. He said he ordered them last December before the craziness hit.

Hopefully more will join our ranks and sling lead.

[tacklebury]

I was lucky, I bought out a reloader getting out of it and bought up all his .22, .38 and .45 bullets. ;)

[btroj]

I hope the other guys keep shooting at my range, I need the range scrap.

[PbHurler]

I was at one of the local indoor ranges last weekend, just looking around & killing time. The line for the shooting bays was SUBSTANTIALLY less than over the last few months. I've got to attribute that to the availability / UN-availability of factory ammunition. There are LOTS of new shooters here, and I think the scarcity and cost of ammunition has them rethinking a bit.

On the other hand, the shooters that are there only seem to be going through 100 - 150 rounds before leaving. I may need to break out some revolvers and spend a few hours there myself.
:castmine:

[Silver Jack Hammer]

Locally here we have two indoor ranges and two outdoor ranges. The indoor ranges do not allow lead ammo. Generally I find one particular indoor range to be the most busy. There are no annual fees at the busy indoor range, just show your range safety card verifying you have had the basic safety class and pay your fees for the day. Lots of different guns available to rent, but if you rent their guns you have to buy their ammo of course.

[fecmech]

I noticed something quite different at our indoor range yesterday. We have a 40 gal barrel for spent brass that the club sells for scrap. We have a couple police depts that use our club also. Normally there is lots of .40, 9MM,and .380 brass in the barrel along with all the .22 rimfire. Yesterday there was not one piece of centerfire brass in the barrel and it was 3/4 full! I think a lot of people are getting into the reloading hobby.

[texassako]

The range I go to is usually slow during the weekday mornings I try to go, but lately there has been about double the number of shooters. Used to be a few shooters with a lot of rounds, now it is a box and done mostly on the handgun line. Casual conversation has also changed from "What are you reloading?" to "Where did you find that much ammo in stock? You reload? What is that?" It rained on my usual mornings this week, but I can't wait to see what other funny commments I get since the next outing has some real oddballs.

[btroj]

Not always reloaders, some just pick it up for scrap. I pick up every case I see even though I won't use 99 percent of them.

[TheGrimReaper]

I hope the other guys keep shooting at my range, I need the range scrap.

That is what I am always thinking too!!!

[1Shirt]

Yep, this craze is keeping ranges better policed up!
1Shirt!

[9.3X62AL]

Yep, this craze is keeping ranges better policed up!
1Shirt!

The Banics certainly have that effect!

I'm shooting less, but concentrating more fully during my practice sessions. I do MUCH less load experimentation these days, and will save most of that for times it is easier to back-fill the primer stocks. These banics have happened before, have abated, and re-occurred. I'm almost accustomed to them. I have established, accurate loads for most of my primary hunting guns--and keep a modest-to-substantial stock of these loads on hand.

[fecmech]

Not always reloaders, some just pick it up for scrap.
I don't think so. This is a private club and there has always been all the .40, 9mm, .380 brass cause no one wanted it. The barrel probably has a couple hundred pounds of .22 brass in it now so I don't think it's someone stealing it for scrap.

[dragon813gt]

You'd be surprised. There are only a few people that reload at the club I belong to. Everyone is picking up their brass lately. When I asked a guy if he reloaded he said no. He was picking it up because he heard that you can sell once fired brass for a pretty penny right now. Not a reloader or scraper. Just someone that thinks he can make money. There were a few more just like him that I talked to.

[JHeath]

At the other end of the scale, 90% of the Phoenix police decline to fire 100 practice rounds per month even with free ammo:

"In Phoenix, the Police Department has stopped providing officers with 100 rounds of ammunition per month for practice. Sgt. Trent Crump said 10 to 15 percent of the department's 3,000 officers, who are assigned .40-caliber and .45-caliber handguns, had taken advantage of the ammunition for practice shooting." http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130404/DA5ESAMG2.html

[9.3X62AL]

Same conditions occurred at my old shop. Very difficult to understand, but many deputies didn't enjoy shooting. To them, it was a chore or necessary evil, just like periodic first aid or CPR re-certification. I was a range rat, and less than 6 years after joining the agency they had me doing rangemaster work part-time, which I continued doing until retirement (1983-2005). The more, the better AFAIC.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

Officers not using their 100 rounds per month is not unique to Phoenix. Even in the revolver days the officers on my Dept did not use their 100 rounds per month. Now the interest in range practice among this new generation is even less.

I applied to a police department a while ago, they wanted me to list all the guns I owned by type. My impression was they did not want to hire a "gun guy" because that agency was very liberal. Not all agencies are that way around here and there is a lot of difference between agencies. One local large agency takes their firearms training very seriously. But we don't have the inter dept shooting matches we used to.

There has been a big change in law enforcement. Our State academy firearms instructors report the new recruit classes are full of people who have never fired a gun before. It used to be that police recruits had some firearms familiarity and many new recruits came from the military and many grew up shooting. Now the academy firearms instructors joke about having to start their classes with -The boolits go in the bottom and come out the end of the barrel.

Whether this is because we are looking for a different kind of personality in law enforcement or because firearms enthusiasts are not being attracted to jobs in law enforcement is open to debate. One thing is that the revolver required more practice to maintain proficiency with than the Glock. I also noticed guys liked their revolvers and that affection did not pass on to their Glocks. The Glocks are superior to the revolver for law enforcement but even the non gun guys mention they liked their revolvers and do not have that same feeling for their Glocks.

[9.3X62AL]

Hear ya, Jack. Lots of variables enter into this question, for sure. My county doesn't have much more range space now than it did when I started in 1977, with 250 deputies on staff. The ranges are in constant use, so range time for self-initiated practice is well-nigh unavailable.

I always managed to get all the shooting I wanted, though. There's this big old range area out east of where I lived--it's called The Desert. In a couple hours or less, I had targets up near safe backstops and could blaze away. Now, I'm in the desert AGAIN, and even closer to open spaces of that sort and have 3 range sites within 20 minutes of my doorstep. Marie's career move out here 5 years ago GREATLY enhanced my shooting oppurtunities, and incidentally placed us almost the same distances (220 miles) from both Mission Bay (saltwater fishing launch point) and Bridgeport (Mission Control for Sierra trout fishing). The boat is launched at either place inside 5 hours from my doorstep. Best of all, I don't have to live on gridlocked freeways or heavy surface street traffic anymore.

[Whiterabbit]

While the jacketed crowd can't get components those of us shooting cast boolits are still able to shoot. Some buddies at work with their 35,000 psi 40 S&W's and .223's are practicing Lamaze with the last of their boolits. I just cast up two huge boxes of .454190's and .429667's plus a bunch of RCBS 200 CM's. My revolvers and 1911's take cast boolits all day long. The component shortage has not hit my shooting yet.

I'm seeing several pounds of Green Dot in the local gunshops. VV powder is available at $38.00 a pound.

We are in a gov't caused / consumer induced ammo drought but the cast boolit shooters shoot on.

Today a guy told me he got his 1,000 round order of 52 gr .223 boolits from Cabela's. He said he ordered them last December before the craziness hit.

Hopefully more will join our ranks and sling lead.

Casting is just further insulation from the craziness that is going on. And thank God for that insulation.

[375supermag]

Hi...
While I don't cast my own bullets, yet...

I shoot around 8-10,000 rounds of cast lead bullets out of my handguns annually. That number has been increasing each year (except for my health issues last year), as my son shoots more and more.
This year will probably see another large increase, as a friend I reload for has purchased a new 9mm autoloader. Once he accumulates a supply of brass, I will probably be loading another thousand or so rounds for him each year.

On top of the large number(2K+ annually) of .357Mag, .38Special and .45ACP) we typically shoot annually, I also load about a thousand rounds each of .41Magnum, .45Colt, .45AutoRim, .44Special and .44Magnum.

I really never realized how many rounds I load annually on that RockChucker down in the reloading room until I just checked how much brass I have prepped up and ready to load.
Buying cast bullets in increments of 1000, is the only way I can continue my current level of shooting. Once I venture into reloading 9mm for my friend, it seems likely that I will be forced by time constraints, if nothing else to upgrade to a progressive press.

[casterofboolits]

Yup! Casters will be able to shoot. I just finished loading 2,000 45 ACP with my cast 185 grain #68s. I have 2,000 09-125-SWCBB H&G #275s, 2,000 38S-145-SWCBB and 2,000 40-145-TCPBs of my boolits ready to load as soon as I get a new detent ball and clean up the SDB set up for small primers. I was on hold with Dillon for 45 minutes this morning before I gave up!

That should last me for awhile, unless the zombies rise up!

[FergusonTO35]

I'm still shooting but not as much because I need to make my primers and powder last. Yeah alot of cops are not gun people. At the agency I work for alot of them have a hard time with the annual qualification. Many of them have less than stellar gun safety habits too. I guess that's the irony of it. I spend my paycheck to enjoy shooting. The cops have guns, ammo, and ranges provided free and not many of them really take advantage of it.

[warboar_21]

My friend and his wife recently visited us and I took him and his oldest son shooting. The whole time we were out there shooting he was talking about how he couldn't find anything on any shelves or online. He got caught with his pants down and has to save what few components he has for some shooting comps that are coming up. After shooting I showed him my casting equipment and walked him through the process (without firing up the pot) and I could see the gears in his head starting to turn. I am sure I will be getting a call from him soon on what he needs to get started casting for his handguns.

[km101]

Got lead ingots coming this week that will be boolits by next week! I will cast about 800-1000 .358 158gr SWC, and about the same in .45 and .44. This will keep me loading for a while. By the time I get that loaded I should be able to get back to shooting handguns.

And the brass rats are out in full force at the ranges around here! I have had to stop someone from picking up my brass the last two times I was at the range. Once it was just a matter of asking the man not to pick up the brass as I wanted to reload it. The other time I had to go to the RSO and complain. He told the guy that he had been warned previously and that he would have to leave the range! The guy was practically catching the brass as it left my 1911. It didn't have time to cool off before he scooped it up! I know brass is getting more expensive, but that is ridiculous!

[Michael J. Spangler]

Maybe the primer and powder market will catch up when the jacketed guys stop reloading due to lack of bullets.

[Lefty SRH]

I'm in good shape on my pistol components. But I kinda missed the rifle componant bandwagon as I was trying to transition to cast in my rifles when all this **** hit. Now I find myself low on powder and still not know what powders my rifles want/like. I went to a gunshow today and saw some IMR 4895 (8lb jug) for $200! Its a powder I want to try but I'm NOT giving in to these CRAZY/STUPID prices, plus I can't avoid a $200 gamble on an unknown (performance wise) powder. Unfortunately he didn't have any 1lb cans.