Posted on 05/20/2008 5:50:16 AM PDT by 300magnum
Maybe Chancellor-elect Obama can come up with a Federal subsidy program to help them out. ;^)
That’s more like it.
Ahhh... happiness is a large pile of brass. ;-)
time for a congressional investigation into Big Ammo.
Doesn’t it unnerve anyone that governments, state, local, federal, foreign, are buying ammo as fast as it can be made?
ping
This is why I cast my own bullets and reload with them. Now if I could only make my own primers.
That too.
Exactly.
Wheelweights are mostly lead with about 2% tin and up to 4% antimony, which makes the resulting alloy harder.
Actually, I test the ingots obtained from melting ww’s. The hardest (most antimony) are reserved for the .223’s (the high velocity/pressure requires a harder bullet). The softest alloy is used for the .38 revolver rounds.
I really want to get into casting and I'm ready to invest in the tools, but the biggest obstacle for me is obtaining the wheel weights. It seems all the tire stores around here have arrangements to have them recycled. Any suggestions from the FR banglist crowd?
Unless you are re-loading A LOT of ammunition, I’d suggest a small, independent auto repair place. They will have fewer wheel weights to give you, but they are less likely to have a bulk recycling deal, and can PROBABLY supply all but the most voracious re-loader with all the lead (and antimony and tin) he/she can use.
And if you DO need more lead, you can always scope out a couple of the smaller shops.
Primers were up to $27 a carton at the gun show last weekend. That’s up from about $22 at the LAST gun show we went to about 6 months ago.
Sorry, should have ended with “... a couple OTHER smaller shops as well”.
Been making my own for a long time, and making strategic purchases when the opportunity arises. I won’t say how much I’ve got, but it’s probably pretty close to the total rounds fired during the Revolutionary War.
I suspect that there is going to be an international effort to restrict the market for 7.62x39mm M43 ammo, in a back door effort to neutralize a lot of the world’s AK-47s.
The idea is that since the AKs are everywhere, everyone wants ammo for them. So if they can somehow restrict production, it will drive the price out of range for most owners. In a lot of places, ammo will just become unobtainable, and this will subdue some of the 4th world troublemaking.
It's a shame that gun buyers must consider the cost of ammo when looking at different calibers, much the same as car buyers must consider fuel mileage. Although 9mm FMJ's are still (barely) under $20 per 100, all other serious loads (.380, .38, .357, .40, .45, etc) are over $20, even over $30 per 100.
WWB .45 still $30/box
Rem .223 55gn $.43/rnd
at WallyWord
And that is about as good or better than can be gotten in bulk over the net, without the hassle of shipments and the s/h cost.
Was in there yesterday and there was a line at the counter.
Which reminds me...time to change the tag line...
Somehow I get the feeling all it’s going to do is make the market more lucrative for the Chinese.
The days of easily obtainable wheel weights are pretty well over. I’ve been going to a scrap metal outfit and paying for alloy, but that price is going up too and sometimes if they are busy they won’t be bothered with someone wanting relatively small amounts of it. I’ve also used range scrap that we dig out of dirt mined from the burms at my local range. I’ve also used reclaimed shot from the trap range, which is excellent alloy but expensive. One simply has to hunt for the stuff. On-line outfits like Midway sell alloy, and the quality is very good but again the cost is up. I think the basic answer to your question is that it’s something one simply has to hunt for these days. I recently lucked into 150 lbs of free linotype, which for bulletcasters is almost gold.
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