GB
Member
Well, I give up. I ain't payin' that kind of money for a caliber I don't even like! I have owned and shot 9mm for near 50 years. I have never been a fan but there are some cool guns in that caliber and I own some of them. A Browning HP from the 1950s, Smith 911, a Beretta M9 (duplicates the 92 FS that was my last duty gun), a Smith 9 EZ and last but not least a SCCY (don't laugh, until the purchase of the 9EZ it was a regular carry gun and still sees some time on my hip) My most carried gun is a Shield in 40. It works for me and because we live in the USA, you get to carry what you like!
I have a moderate quantity of 9 mil ammo on hand (maybe 16 or 17 hundred rounds combined ball and SD. but not enough to make regular trips to the range just to shoot factory 9.
I have loaded 9mm since the 60s, when I bought my first 9 (a P38) and my first High Power(not the one I own now) Back then I shot jacketed bullets because I hadn't started to cast yet and I was young and loaded hot. For those of you of a younger generation, in the 60s 9mm was not a very common round and I could reload it for maybe 6 cents a shot or about half of the then cost of factory rounds.
Over the last 50 or so years, I have shot a ton of lead bullets and I mean several thousand pounds of lead, much of which I cast myself but not much of it in 9. For the amount of 9 I shot it was easier to by commercial cast although I do have the equipment to do 9.
For much of the last few decades, I have kept a couple hundred rounds of brass to load and shoot my 9s. Being OCD, I picked up 9 when I found it (along with most any other reloadable brass). I then traded or gave it to my friends that shoot 9 more than me.(gave about 6000 rounds to a friend to feed his MP5 in the early 2000s) I have now collected another 5 or 6 thousand cases and when I retired (almost 7 years ago), I loaded up about 300 rounds and sat back and enjoyed the 8 to 10 dollar a box factory ammo we all got use to buying. Well, it appears, that ship has sailed! And Sunk, probably never to return!
A couple of weeks ago, I did a check of my loading supplies and found that I only had, maybe, 250 commercial cast 9mm bullets and a couple hundred assorted jacketed. In checking around on the interweb, I noticed that Mid-Way did have some bullets in 9. and they had several weights of lead that were priced at what I have paid in recent years for cast. I ordered up a couple boxes(free shipping last week). I have a reasonable supply of primers and much powder, suitable for use in the 9. I will have the ability to make some shootin' ammo for, maybe, 12 or 13 cents a shot.(at what I paid for the stuff I own already) When the weather cools in the fall, I shall retire to the garage and cast some 9mm bullets when I get low and that will lower the price per round again.(until I have to buy more primers when and if I run low) The people who are shooing that 30 to 40 dollar ammo are still just leaving their cases on the ground, I should be set for far enough into the future to take care of my needs.
While not intending to come off like I am bragging,. I guess I have, a little. (A privilege of living long enough to reach geezerhood!)
And that, my fellow forum members, is why and how I plan to shoot 9mm, at reasonable prices, well into the future.
I have a moderate quantity of 9 mil ammo on hand (maybe 16 or 17 hundred rounds combined ball and SD. but not enough to make regular trips to the range just to shoot factory 9.
I have loaded 9mm since the 60s, when I bought my first 9 (a P38) and my first High Power(not the one I own now) Back then I shot jacketed bullets because I hadn't started to cast yet and I was young and loaded hot. For those of you of a younger generation, in the 60s 9mm was not a very common round and I could reload it for maybe 6 cents a shot or about half of the then cost of factory rounds.
Over the last 50 or so years, I have shot a ton of lead bullets and I mean several thousand pounds of lead, much of which I cast myself but not much of it in 9. For the amount of 9 I shot it was easier to by commercial cast although I do have the equipment to do 9.
For much of the last few decades, I have kept a couple hundred rounds of brass to load and shoot my 9s. Being OCD, I picked up 9 when I found it (along with most any other reloadable brass). I then traded or gave it to my friends that shoot 9 more than me.(gave about 6000 rounds to a friend to feed his MP5 in the early 2000s) I have now collected another 5 or 6 thousand cases and when I retired (almost 7 years ago), I loaded up about 300 rounds and sat back and enjoyed the 8 to 10 dollar a box factory ammo we all got use to buying. Well, it appears, that ship has sailed! And Sunk, probably never to return!
A couple of weeks ago, I did a check of my loading supplies and found that I only had, maybe, 250 commercial cast 9mm bullets and a couple hundred assorted jacketed. In checking around on the interweb, I noticed that Mid-Way did have some bullets in 9. and they had several weights of lead that were priced at what I have paid in recent years for cast. I ordered up a couple boxes(free shipping last week). I have a reasonable supply of primers and much powder, suitable for use in the 9. I will have the ability to make some shootin' ammo for, maybe, 12 or 13 cents a shot.(at what I paid for the stuff I own already) When the weather cools in the fall, I shall retire to the garage and cast some 9mm bullets when I get low and that will lower the price per round again.(until I have to buy more primers when and if I run low) The people who are shooing that 30 to 40 dollar ammo are still just leaving their cases on the ground, I should be set for far enough into the future to take care of my needs.
While not intending to come off like I am bragging,. I guess I have, a little. (A privilege of living long enough to reach geezerhood!)
And that, my fellow forum members, is why and how I plan to shoot 9mm, at reasonable prices, well into the future.
