The Price Of Bullets...

Greetings,

Went Window Shopping for the Speer 0.314" 98 HBWC on the Internet.

Everyone is sold out. Now I am saving money.

What stunned me was the MSRP, Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price, at Speer of $121.99 per thousand!

Fortunately, they are eligible for Free Shipping.

Well, the last week I cast up slugs to be swaged into bullets. I have a full box of 65 grain for the 32 ACP and another box for the 98 grain HBWC. Roughly 500+ pieces each. It took two hours to cast them all.

I did buy the Lead Alloy from a fellow on-line. Roughly $1.00/pound delivered. And it is clean metal cast into small ingots.

So, at a $1.00/pound my swaged SWCHB 65 grain bullets for the 32 ACP work out to $9.29/thousand.

The 98 grain HBWC calculate out to $14.00/thousand.

Since I am retired I have the time to cast, swage, and lube the bullets myself.

Sadly, the Speer bullets need to be "bumped" up to 0.314" to realize any appreciable accuracy. More labor on top of the initial purchase.

The final benefit to my efforts is that both the 65 grain SWCHB and 98 grain HBWC stay inside the Ten-Ring, with 10X groups quite common, at 50 yards with a variety of different barrels.

Oh yes, one last benefit. When I run out I can predict with certainty when my stocks will be replenished. Something I learned when I worked for a living. Once you farm the job out (buying bullets rather than making them), you lose control of it.

Cheers,

Dave

What you need is a wire feed cold header..,make ‘em by the million.  

Wobbley wrote:What you need is a wire feed cold header..,make ‘em by the million.  

Greetings Wobbley,

Obviously, you have not visited my Mann Kave recently.

Looking for a Surface Grinder and wondering where I would put it.

Cheers,

Dave

I have to explain this availability issue all the time to colleagues at work. Sadly it doesn't get through. 

That said, I don't shoot enough .32 S&W at this point to make it worthwhile, but I do have hbwc moulds for the S&W, alloy, and lube if I need to cast. 

One of my mentors cast up to 50k 45 bullets a year for he and his wife when they were shooting several matches a week and practicing and training on their home range daily. He said that it wasn't too bad with 2 or 3 4 cavity moulds. The problem was that they shot different bullets and each had different bullets for long and short. Hers were from a H&G 130 and his from a 68 or the slightly heavier Lyman version of the 68.

jmdavis wrote:I have to explain this availability issue all the time to colleagues at work. Sadly it doesn't get through. 

That said, I don't shoot enough .32 S&W at this point to make it worthwhile, but I do have hbwc moulds for the S&W, alloy, and lube if I need to cast. 

One of my mentors cast up to 50k 45 bullets a year for he and his wife when they were shooting several matches a week and practicing and training on their home range daily. He said that it wasn't too bad with 2 or 3 4 cavity moulds. The problem was that they shot different bullets and each had different bullets for long and short. Hers were from a H&G 130 and his from a 68 or the slightly heavier Lyman version of the 68.

When I retire lol