556/223 Load or Buy Bulk?

[Rule3]

I always get a chuckle when reading these kinds of threads.

Just another opinion:
Free 22lr cases/free lead for cores/free range brass/$0.022 primers/$0.029 powder

Free jackets and cores


223 brass is everywhere

Primers go in sale a couple times for $20 a brick + tax or $108 for 5000


Overpaid for powder paid $157 (each) for these #8 jugs, 24gr of h335 or 26gr of bl-c2


Went and bought a cheap savage axis hb in 223 for $325 out the door. Had a $50 rebate and I sold the scope for $50 that came with it. At the end of the day I had $225 in the rifle. Put a 24x scope on it, punched the bore out & checked the torque on the hold down screws and off to the range I went with the:
home swaged bullets/mixed range brass/ladder tests
Nothing more than 5-shot groups with that new rifle, easily did moa


Then there's the YA look at the cost of the swaging dies and core mold. I say YUP I'll use them making countless 1000's of free bullets for decades and then sell everything for more $$$ then I paid for them to begin with.

Right now I'm shooting 223's for under $.06 a round

Time consuming??? Perhaps, but right now there's still snow on the ground and it beats sitting around watching tv. I only load/shoot 5000+ rounds of 223 ammo a year

5000+ rounds ='s $300

OK, but you never said how much time you spent doing all this?

Also shooting a bolt action you are not blasting a lot of ammo.

How long does taking and posting pictures.

You obviously ENJOY doing what you do, others do not.

This kind of post make be chuckle also.

Oil Changes Men vs Women.

Funny2 - Men vs. Women: How to Change Oil 1
Funny2 - Men vs. Women: How to Change Oil 2

Men vs. Women: How to Change Oil 1

WOMEN:

1. Pull up to Jiffy Lube or Valvoline Instant Oil Change when the mileage reaches 3,000 miles since the last oil change.

2. Drink a cup of coffee while they change the oil.

3. 15 minutes later, write a check and leave with a properly maintained vehicle.

Cost: $29.99 oil change, $2.00 coffee. Total $32.00

MEN:

1. Wait until Saturday, drive to the auto parts store. Buy a case of oil, oil filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner (don't forget a little tree air freshener). Write a check to the auto parts store for approximately $50.

2. Stop by 7/11 on the way home, buy a case of beer. Write a check for $20.00.

3. Drive home with oil and beer.

4. Open beer, enjoy it.

5. Spend 30 minutes looking for the jack stands.

6. Find the jack stands (finally) under the kid's pedal car, jack the car up.

7. Open another beer, drink it.

8. Place drain pan under engine.

9. Look for 9/16" box end wrench for drain plug

10. Give up looking ten minutes later, find crescent wrench.

11. Unscrew drain plug.

12. Drop drain plug into pan of hot oil. Splash hot oil onto your hands and face in the process. Cuss and swear.

13. Crawl out from under car, wipe hot oil from hands and face. Throw some kitty litter on the spilled oil.

14. Open another beer while watching the last drops of oil drain.

15. Spend 30 minutes looking for the oil filter wrench.

16. Give up looking for oil filter wrench, crawl under car and hammer a flat-head screwdriver through the oil filter and twist it off.

17. Crawl out from under car, splashing hot oil everywhere from newly made holes in oil filter.

18. Cleverly hide used oil filter in trash to avoid those pesky environmental penalties. Open another beer.

19. Install new oil filter, making sure to apply a thin coat of oil to the gasket.

• ←
• THERE'S MORE!

MEN (STILL GOING!): 20. Pour the first quart of new oil into engine.

21. Oops! Now remember the drain plug (removed in step 11). It's still swimming in the now-warm oil in the drain pan.

22. Throw more kitty litter on the quart-sized oil puddle on the floor.

23. Open another beer and drink it.

24. Find drain plug with a minimum of spillage, hand-tighten in drain plug socket. Drink beer.

25. Crawl under car (getting oily kitty litter embedded in neck and arms). Tighten drain plug with crescent wrench, but this time, it's slippery. Bang your knuckles on the frame while tightening drain plug.

26. Throw crescent wrench across the garage in anger. Throw a fit because crescent wrench hits bowling trophy (which wife wouldn't let stay in the house).

27. Open another beer and drink it.

28. Clean hands, bandaging where needed to stop blood flow.

29. Pour in five quarts of fresh oil.

30. Lower car from jack stands. Smile at your handiwork. Open another beer and drink it.

31. Move car back to discover oil puddles you missed; apply more kitty litter to missed areas.

32. Test drive car to make sure oil doesn't leak.

33. Get pulled over a block from the house by local police, get arrested for DUI.

34. Call loving wife and bail bondsman.

35. Next day, get car out of impound yard.

Cost: $50 parts, $20 beer, Impound fee $75, Bail $1500, DUI $2500 minimum.

Total: $4145 (but you know the job was done right!)

 

[Forrest r]

Don't really know how long I take making 223 ammo since I also cast #300+ pounds of lead a year that needs either sized/lubed/coated/swaged to feed several different calibers.

Guess you missed the memo, the part where I posted I do 5000+ rounds of 223 a year. I bought the cheap savage axis to "test" home swaged bullets. I feed several m4's for the other 4600+ rounds a year.

Doesn't take long to post pictures, took less than 1 minute to post this picture of a couple of my favorite pistol powders. Bought these 2 years ago & it's time to replace the am select and the clays.

How long does it take for you to go thru #24 of pistol powder in the 9mm/38spl/357/44spl/44mag/45acp ? Hence the #300+ pound of lead a year used for casting.

Of course I enjoy what I do, been reloading since the 70's (1974), casting since 85?, and swaging bullets since 1990.

I did take a break from centerfires for a couple of years (2006 to 2009) and spent several thousand $$$ on high quality 22lr firearms. Shot them in the past and really wanted to learn about them so I invested in winchester 52's, 40x's, anschutz's and several olympic pistols along with cases of sk, eley & lapua.

Anyway, used to buy bulk 223 bullets (hornady 55gr sp's) and load/shoot 1000's of 223's a year. Took a hard look at the cost of the cheap bullets and found that if I swaged my own bullets out of free material it would pay for the primers and powder.

223 ammo
$.06 a round or $300/5000 rounds
Only the reloader can decide if it's worth it or not

 

[MJFlores]

I haven't reloaded 5.56 since ammo became available again. Even if you have a good supply of your own brass, you dont save a dime when buying bulk. You can actually save money by buying the right bulk. I agree with getting him the tools and teaching him to reload, but the bulk he'll likely shoot will most likely be bulk purchased ammo.