I am in the same ballpark but only because I do have free brass. But the supply has been cut off and when I am out, I am out. I am too arthritic to crawl for brass, so one of these days I will be buying econoball. I can afford it, but it will just grate on my nerves after decades of loading for all purposes except carry.This obviously presumes the brass to be free.
Code Name: JET STREAM
A couple of my friends have bought something like this. We must pick it up from time to time since we have access to a private area and it would become litter in short order. They work on collecting the brass while we (a little) younger others pack up the steel.Originally Posted by Jim Watson
Back before I got so much for free I bought some, it can be pretty cheap if you look around.
Also, somebody might contribute, many of us have so much, and I just inherited another five gallon bucket full.
I wet tumble all cases with pins, using hot water, lemishine, and ArmorAll car wash with wax. I find the ArmorAlls wax keeps the cases from fingerprinting and tarnish in storage, loaded or unloaded. The pins can also be important if you purchase or scavenge used brass. I do on occasion tumble without pins when my fired cases are really clean but I do like clean primer pockets. I'd suggest you look into SAAMI spec dies, unless the heavy "Coke bottle" case look doesn't bother you. I have perhaps three different 9mm sizing dies. When I buy once-fired brass I use an old Hornady Durachrome carbide sizing die the first go-around because it has a full length carbide insert and will size cases almost fully to the extractor groove. This erases any past indiscretions the cases may have encountered, there are some really sloppy chambers out there and a lot of newer sizing dies have difficulties sizing the cases fully. My 9mm pistols seem to have reasonably tight chambers so this isn't a real issue with my guns. Some sizing dies can leave a "belt" of sorts just above the extractor groove because of an oversized bevel at the dies entry point. I've gotten to the point where I'll spend an entire session on processing brass for use in loading later. This allows me to focus on the quality of my brass processing.
I use a 550 Dillon, and have for decades. I've found no reason to change but YMMV. My seating die is Hornady New Dimension, and my taper crimp dies are Dillon. These are my choices and again, YMMV. I do load quite a bit of cast bullets in 9mm and have found the Mr. Bulletfeeder powder funnel for Dillons to be a great help with cast because of their deeper expanding stem and stepped flare profile which is similar to the Lyman "M" die.
Watch your bullet seating. The 9mm case tapers inwardly really fast & hard, you need to make sure you don't try to seat the bullets any deeper than this or the case can swell when the flat base of the bullet tries to push past this inner taper. I had a problem with this long ago and it was the dickens to figure out the problem. I've grown to love bevel base bullets for 9mm.... Additionally, the short bearing area of both the inner case walls and the bullet shank can make it really, really easy to have bullets tip a bit and seat crooked. It seems to me like the lighter weight bullets are the worst for this because of their short lengths (makes sense). Watch for bullets seating crooked and deal with it as needed. I recently sold off a thousand 115 gr RN 9mm bullets at a gun show because they made me hate them for tipping. They just simply wouldn't seat straight, no matter what I did. I went so far as to buy two additional different 9mm bullet seating dies to try to take advantage of the availability of cheap 115 gr jacketed bullets without success.
Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem
I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude
-Thomas Jefferson
I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.
A couple of my friends have bought something like this.
They were commonly seen in CAS. If I were still in CAS, I would sure use one to recover .44-40; don't know about 9mm. Maybe .45.
I have a variant of the nut picker, haven't used it in some time, I will dig it out.
Code Name: JET STREAM
147gr Bullets often bulge cases in 9x19... especially TC shaped bullets seated deep enough to fit in tight chambers like Gen 5 Glocks or CZ's. RMR's heavy Matchwinner 147's seated deep enough to work in my Gen 5 Glocks have the "coke bottle" profile. It's not really a problem, as long as they fit chambers/case gauges, it just looks weird.
Hornady 147gr XTPs and their 147gr round nose FMJ both have boattail shaped bullet heels to help alleviate this. The 147gr Zero JHP has a small reduction in diameter of the shank at the heel for the same purpose.
I haven't kept super careful record of prices paid, but per roundbout $.03 for powder, $.085 for primers, and $.085 for bullets. W231, Federal SPP, and Blue Bullets 135gr TC. A friend brings me once fired brass from the range he works at.
So I'm at $.20/round. With the cost if equipment, and time spent, I'm not really saving much, if any, money, even with the free brass, but I do know I've got consistent performance.
I have mentioned this on other threads, I had given up on 9mm reloading, based on cost. However, a local M class shooter who was helping me, showed me how the different loads, that I was buying locally, whenever there was sale, grouped at 25 yards. There was enough variation, going from brand to brand, that I quickly realized I either needed to buy the exact same stuff in huge quantities, or start loading my own.
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"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am. Send me." - Isaiah 6:8
One other thing to consider, load for an OAL that will fit all your guns, or all guns you may buy in the future. When I first started loading I shot polymer striker guns and they will eat pretty much anything. Now I shoot a CZ and have a couple thousand rounds of reloads I can't use because they are too long for the gun.....
"Shooting is 90% mental. The rest is in your head." -Nils
I never really thought about that. The load data from Blue Bullets for the 135gr lists 1.150" as the recommended OAL, and I have my dies set so my OAL comes out at 1.148 to 1.152.
As I'm considering other guns when will no longer be required to carry a Glock, I better think about that so I'm not also stuck with loads I can't use, if I switch guns.
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"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am. Send me." - Isaiah 6:8
I try to pick up just my brass, at the indoor range I use. I don't mark my brass, so occasionally I get brass from other shooters.
When I shoot at matches, or on the rare occasions I travel the long distance to an outdoor range for practice, I don't pick up any brass. There are lots of "9 major" shooters at the matches, and those two outdoor ranges. I don't want to risk getting any of their brass, as the experienced loaders warn that the 9 major brass can cause problems.
I wish there was a quick way to sort 5.56mm and 9mm. The guy who gives me brass often is bring buckets of mixed brass, and the trays won't sort those two.I bought some slotted brass sorting trays that fit inside a 5 gallon bucket. These allow me to weed out 45, 40, 38 or whatever fairly quickly. The kit I bought also has an insert that will allow those nasty little 380's to fall though but nothing else. These trays also have the benefit of filtering out the rocks n' crap from range brass as well.
I have now oaded just shy of 3000 rounds, and twice I missed .380 cases, and they made it all the way through the press, but the case gauge revealed those two rounds.
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"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am. Send me." - Isaiah 6:8
One time, I accidentally made a 9mm Luger load in a 9x18 Makarov case. I did not discover that fact until it did not fire in the CZ I was shooting at the time.
They have the same case head size, and all the brass Mak cases I’ve seen were Hornady, so I gave myself a “bye” on that.
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