Reloading

I've been going through the stuff I've accumulated over the last 3-4 years, and finally gotten back into reloading.  I discovered that I've got a couple thousand .224" projectiles in various weights, but after loading the 600 prepped .223 cases I had on hand, I ran out.  (BTW, anybody need or want a box of 75 grain Hornady VMax bullets?  They can't be loaded to AR-15 magazine length, and I don't have a bolt gun in any .22 caliber.)

So I went searching last night for more brass.  I prefer to purchase prepped NATO brass - resized, deprimed, swaged, trimmed and polished.  All I have to do then is put in a primer, drop a powder charge and seat a bullet.

Everybody's out, or if they're not, they're quite proud of what they've got left.  I found NATOBrass.com, however, and they had 5,000 in stock.  Now they've got 4,000.

And I've got some loading to do.

250 Yards

.204 Ruger T/C Encore.  32 grain Nosler lead free Ballistic Tip.  Single GSW to the chest.  Didn't exit.  

DRT.

 

They know to fear me now.

Inflation, Revisited (Again)

So in August, 2014 I ran by my favorite Merchant O'Death's place of work and picked up some powder. They'd just gotten in a shipment of about a hundred pounds of various types (still no Unique - which at that point should have been renamed "Unavailable"), and I'd had him set me aside a bit: three pounds of H110 and one of Accurate 4064.

Remember when powder was around $20 a pound? Yeah, so do I. Four pounds of powder set me back a little over $116 including tax.

Ouch.

In 2007 I did a post on the basics of reloading with a list of recommended materials.  After my 2014 bulk purchase, I revisited my list and checked the price increases. I ran across that post looking for something else, and thought this would be a good time to do it again.

Originally I recommended the Lee Anniversary Kit, which consisted of their Challenger "O"-press, powder measure, powder scale, reloading manual, priming tool and (most) shell holders.  It was $89.99.  That particular kit is no longer available, but the current one is the Challenger Breech Lock Anniversary Kit, which at $126.99 $146.99 contains:

• Lee Breech Lock Challenger Single Stage Press
• 1-Breech Lock Die Bushing
• Lee Large and Small Safety Prime
• Lee Cutter and Lock Stud
• Lee Perfect Powder Measure
• Lee Chamfer Tool
• Lee Primer Pocket Cleaner
• Lee Safety Powder Scale
• Lee Powder funnel
• 2 oz Tube Lee Resizing Case Lube

Next up came dies, and I again recommended an all-Lee lineup:

Carbide .38/357 4-die set: $30.99 $41.99 $48.99
Carbide .45ACP 4-die set: $21.99 $41.99 $47.99
Steel .30 Luger 3-die set: $20.99 $30.49 $33.99
.22-250 3-die set: $24.99 $30.99 $33.99
.243 Winchester 3-die set: $24.99 $30.99 $33.99
.308 Winchester 3-die set: $24.99 $30.99 $33.99
.30-06 3-die set: $24.99 $30.99 $33.99
.30 Carbine carbide 3-die set: $30.79 $38.49 $43.99

Next up was lube. The Lee kit above has their lube, but I recommended a can of Hornady's One Shot spray lube. For the sake of economy, I'll leave it off this list again.

I recommended a steel dial caliper micrometer: Still $25.99 It went up a dollar to $26.99

I recommended a Hornady universal reloading tray: $4.79 $8.99 Also a $1 increase to $9.99

In the article I stated that a minimum of TWO reloading manuals should be on hand. The Lee Anniversary kit had one in it originally, but not now. The Speer manual at that time cost $26.99. Last time it was $29.99. Now it's dropped to $27.99, and the Lee manual has dropped from $21.99 to $19.99.

Then there was powder and primers for all the calibers we were buying dies for. Powder is per pound, primer pricing is per thousand.

IMR 4064: $18.99 $25.87 $29.99 and again out of stock
Winchester 296: $17.99 $21.60 also $29.99, but now they have it.
Winchester 231: $17.49 $21.04 It's really jumped up to $28.99, but it too is back in stock.

CCI Small Pistol: $21.99 $26.99 $32.99. That's a big price jump.
CCI Large Pistol: $21.49 $31.49 $32.99 - not so big a change.
CCI Small Rifle: $22.49 $31.49 $32.99 again.
CCI Large Rifle: $22.99 $31.49 $32.99! At least they're consistent.

And then there was case prep, cleaning and miscellaneous:

Iosso Case Cleaning Kit: $14.99 $16.79 up a dollar-twenty at $18.99

I originally suggested a primer pocket cleaner and chamfer and deburring tool, but those are included in the Lee Anniversary kit.

Safety Glasses: $8.99 $4.49 $4.99. Still a bargain.

So in 2007 all the materials you'd need to start reloading for eight different calibers, with the exception of projectiles, was $542.76.  In 2014, $702.12, an increase of 29.4%.  In 2020, $787.78.  Powder has gone up 45% over 2014's prices, but at least you can find it.  Primers have gone up about 8.5% on average - and THOSE are readily available, too.  Dies have increased by about 10%.  Overall, a 12.2% increase, but according to this inflation calculator, $702.12 in 2014 is equivalent to $758.57 in 2019, or only a 1.3% increase.  Since 2007, $670.82 in adjusted dollars, or 17.4% since then.

I'm STILL glad I didn't record bullet pricing.  I don't think I want to know how much THAT'S gone up.

Central AZ Blogshoot

On Saturday SUNDAY, June 3 a friend of mine who moved here from Australia wants to introduce anyone interested to his brother, who is the Membership and Branches Officer for the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party, a pro-firearms political party Down Under. As I mentioned a few posts below, it will be at the Casa Grande public shooting range, just off I-8. Stephen Bowler will be available to answer questions about what actually happened in Australia after their buybacks and hand-ins, and everybody can bring their bangsticks and throw some lead downrange at the same time.

Unfortunately I won't be able to make this one.

Elzy Pearson Public Shooting Range: 2766 S Isom Rd, Casa Grande, AZ 85222

Opens at 8:00AM

Take I-8 West from I-10. Exit at Trekell Rd. Turn left. At Arica Rd. turn left again. At the end first intersection, turn Right on to Isom Rd. The public range will be the second range on the left. The first belongs to the police department and they don't play well with others.

Several of the ranges are covered and equipped with concrete shooting benches, but no chairs. Bring chairs, beverages, etc. The main range is 300 yards, and there are 100 and 50 yard pistol ranges. The range has portajohns, but I'd bring a roll of TP just in case. No glass targets, no tannerite, and no .50BMGs.

Anybody Interested in a Central/Southern AZ Blogshoot?

Got an Aussie friend whose brother will be in town late May, early June.  We're looking at June 3 at the Casa Grande public range for an informal gathering of the People of the Gun.

Anybody still read this blog and interested?

Blogorado Bound

I attended Gun Blogger Rendezvous 1 - 10, only missing the last one so I could attend Boomershoot again. Unfortunately it really was the last one, but that means I have vacation time (and money) to allow me to attend another gathering of The People of the Gun™ that I have had to miss in prior years - Blogorado.

Blogorado is an invitation-only gathering of the Clan held in an undisclosed location in Colorado, attended by a glittering list of blog-writers, their spouses (often bloggers themselves) and sometimes their families.  It is held on the ranch of Farmgirl, Farmmom, and Farmdad.  Motel reservations are made, vacation time has been requested, and now I just have to choose what portion of my arsenal will be making the trip North and East with me.

I'm really looking forward to seeing several people I haven't seen in meatspace in years, and meeting new people I haven't had a chance to meet before.

For me, this is the best part of blogging - friends you never knew you had.  As Breda Fallon once said in an episode of the podcast Vicious Circle:

I'm one of those people - I like people, I'm personable, but I don't really have "friends" friends, because I just don't connect to people really that well. But then blogs happened, and I found a whole group of people that I fit in with because I'm weird and they're weird in kinda the same way, and yea for our mutual weirdness. So, thank you for being weird with me.

Another Update from the Gun Retail Front Lines

Tam posted recently on what she believes is at least partially the cause of the current glut on the firearms market:

(W)hile most firearms companies are privately held and therefore inscrutable on matters fiscal, the goings-on at a few are public knowledge because they are publicly traded.

The news from American Outdoor Brands Corporation (neé Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation) tells a tale that is probably all too common in the industry right now: Shelves groaning under unsold inventory that was churned out in expectation of the mother of all gun panics following a Hillary Clinton victory.

I sent this link to my favorite local Merchant O'Death, and he recently replied:

As I mentioned in an earlier email, and, as others have pointed out elsewhere, it is definitely a buyer's market in the firearms industry right now. The big name companies continue to offer almost absurd "deals" in the form of free gear, mail in rebates and the like. One company was offering a free pair of Oakley sunglasses with he purchase of one of their AR platform rifles. I do believe that particular deal has ended but several other companies have continued deals that were only supposed to last a month or two. Ruger is currently engaged in a program for gun store employees. Sell a certain number of new Ruger firearms, send in proof to Ruger that you have done so and, upon verification that no skullduggery is afoot, they will send the gun store employee a brand spankin' new Ruger firearm of the said gun store employee's choice (from a list of firearms posted by the company of course). . There are some pretty cool choices on the list. Now to the point: the program was supposed to last for a couple of months. It has been extended for a couple more. I suppose that is one way to move product out of the warehouse.

Our distributors call us Monday through Friday with "ganga deals" on firearms we don't need either because we have them on the shelves (and in back stock) or because we have no room for them. The only firearms we have a hard time acquiring are a handful of things that were announced at SHOT earlier in the year. The CZ P-10C is much sought after though availability is getting better. Colt announced the return of the Cobra revolver at SHOT this year. I have almost a double handful of customers with money down on one. I have yet to see one. The Kimber K6S, even though it has been out for over a year is still a scarce beastie on our shelves despite the fact that we are a "Master Dealer". With rare exception ammunition is not hard to come by at all (those rare exceptions leaning toward the "semi-obsolete" cartridges like 30-40 Krag and 348 Winchester etc.) We turn down 22 rimfire ammo every day.

We are still turning customers away with firearms for sale. We are still stacked to the gunwales with black rifles, Glocks, XDs, M&Ps, Sigs, 1911s, pocket pistols and small frame revolvers. We also have a glut of heavy barrel target/benchrest rifles of varying caliber. Had to turn a guy away today with a nice Sako single-shot, heavy barrel bolt gun in 222 Rem. He couldn't understand why we didn't want to buy it even after we showed him the eight other target guns we had that had been there for longer than we wanted them to be.

The old and collectable are still flying of the shelves. Had a non-military/police Sig P-210 come into our possession from an old customer that is getting out of the firearms game due to poor health. That gun never made it to the shelf. Customer saw it as we were buying it and said that he didn't care what the price was he wanted it. Same thing with a couple of semi-scarce Colt 1911A1 models. Same story with some older S&W revolvers.

Things are selling, just not things that are collecting dust on manufacturers'/distributors' shelves.

So, interesting things are happening in the used market, but the market for all that stuff sitting in manufacturer's and distributor's warehouses? Not so much.

Interesting Data from the Trenches

While Form 4473 Background Checks are still at all-time highs, things seem to be shifting for firearms retailers and wholesalers out there. Dennis Badurina of Dragon Leatherworks owns a brick-and-mortar gun shop and reports on Facebook:

I've gotten more calls in the past two weeks by folks asking if I buy guns.

When they tell me what they are selling, and I give them a ballpark of what its worth to me, they start bitching about how much they paid, and my offer is an insult, blahblahblah...

Anyone tries to tell me that the gun industry isn't in freefall, they'll be told to go away. I don't give a rats ass about how many NICS checks are run in a given month, or gun show attendance, or other such meaningless bullshit.

Firearms industry is slowing exponentially, both manufacturers and distributors are dumping their inventory through sites like CDNN, Buds, Grab-a-Gun, etc., and folks can buy a brand-new gun for 30% less than they did last year on those same websites, and even last year those prices were low.

--

I had a customer come in and ask me to price out Wolf steel case ammo. I actually logged in to my dealer portal, he watched me put the stuff in the cart from my distributor, and saw what the ammo would cost as if I were buying it. I was going to simply have him pay me $10 over invoice, and he would WITNESS the fucking invoice being created.

He logged into SG Ammo, and the EXACT SAME FUCKING AMMO in the EXACT SAME FUCKING QUANTITY was $70 cheaper than what the distributor sells to the little mom-and-pop. He saw it with his own eyes.

The distributors are dumping inventory so as to not be left holding the bag on the long-term purchase agreements they have with the manufacturers. They entered those agreements because everyone was certain that Clinton was going to go skipping down Pennsylvania Ave. with 99% of the vote.

Now the distributors are sweating bullets (pun intended) because they bet on the wrong horse.

I sent that info to my local favorite Merchant O'Death and asked him if he was seeing similar things. His response:

That FFL is spot on.

We are buying more firearms right now (the "down season") than we have in the previous eight months. Usually the shop is damned near a morgue come summer time. We are turning people down more often than not when they bring stuff in for sale simply because we can't take another one of what they are trying to sell.
ARs are pretty much dead as are most of the other tacti-cool types of rifles

Several manufacturers have extended promos that were only supposed to last a couple months at the most by a further couple of months. S&W has a $75 dollar mail in rebate on M&P Shield pistols that has been going on since this spring and has been continued until September.

The FFL is also right about the election outcome. I have heard more than one person selling stuff to us remark that they don't need said firearms "cuz Hillary didn't win". Apparently the family vacation to the Free People's Democratic Republic of California is more important than hanging on to the firearms they already own.

Part of the problem with people bitching about low offers from dealers (at least in our experience) is that they are spending way too much time on the internet. When we make the offer, the response is often: " well, on the Internet it is going for [insert random amount of money here]). The other part of that is that they whine and snivel when we tell them we just can't but what they have because we are over stocked as it is. They whine some more and come up with some hard luck story about why they have to sell. We tell them again that we just can't do them any good. Then the same question is asked almost verbatim, almost every time: " can you offer me anything?".

That being said, we are selling quite a bit more than usual but it is largely used stuff. Anything remotely considered "collectible" disappears from the racks in short order. I am still amazed by the number of people coming in looking for Mosin Nagant 91/30s.

Nope. Nobody expected the election to go the way that it did.

Over at AR15.com the recommendation is "Stock up on ammo while it's cheap."

YMMV.

And Now for Something Completely Different ... GUNSTUFF

I've been collecting pieces for this for several months now. I bought the Encore frame back in 2008 right after The LightBringer™ was first elected to office, and I put a .260 Remington pistol barrel on it and took it to Boomershoot 2009. But I've been wanting an Ultra-Violent Rodentblaster for quite some time now, so when I stumbled across a sale on 26" .204 Ruger barrels for the Encore I snapped one up. A 26" barrel doesn't play well with a pistol grip, however, so I needed a rifle stock. And, of course, I needed glass, since this is a 300+ yard rifle.

I ordered a fixed 12x 42mm SWFA Super Sniper scope with the Mil-Quad reticle, a set of 30mm Burris Zee rings, a bubble level and Butler Creek flip-up caps, then I went hunting for a stock maker. I found Tony Gettel, and had him make me this custom thumbhole set to my dimensions out of fiddleback maple. The stock set arrived yesterday.

Not bad, huh?




Now to build some ammo and get out to the range.

Quote of the Day - "That'll Get You Killed On the Street" Edition

Wise words from Tam K.:

The best contribution Gamer culture makes to shooting is the lack of fear of people finding out how much you suck.

Read it all.

In Other News...

...I've got 1,000 .223 cases and 1,200 Hornady 75 grain HPBT Match bullets on the way.  I've got 500 cases prepped and ready to go, and 250 projectiles already.  Primers and powder are on hand.

I've got a busy few weekends ahead.

Boomershoot AAR

So, four days of driving for two days of shooting.  Was it worth it?

Youbetcherassitwas.

This post will be pic heavy, so everything else is under the fold.

Boomershoot Update

Made my last pre-Boomershoot trip to the range this morning.  Seems during my previous testing with the .300 Win Mag I managed to shoot my scope loose.  Red Loctite applied, torqued to spec, and I'm now dialed in at 500 meters.  Took the target AR and ran a magazine through it at 400 meters.  It's ready to go.  Still need to load some .260 Remington for the Power Tool™.  I'll have to sight that in on Saturday.  I think I'm going to use it on the 385 yard berm only, though.  Last time I scared a lot of targets with the pistol at 640 yards, but I think I only hit one.

I have someone sharing Position 26 with me now, so I've got a spotter and so does he.  I head out for Orofino on Thursday.  I'm planning to stop in Ogden, UT Thursday night, which should put me in Orofino on Friday afternoon.  I'm doing Field Fire and High Intensity on Saturday, and then the event itself on Sunday, departing Monday morning for the drive home.  Haven't picked a route back yet.

I've got a 5'x7' canopy and some tarp sidewalls to keep the wind and (probably) rain as much at bay as possible, and a half-inch plywood sheet for a ground surface to put my chair and table on.  Weather report says cool and probably rainy Saturday, cooler and maybe rainy Sunday.  Thankfully the wind is supposed to be 10 mph or less.

Boomershoot Update

So Boomershoot is right at a month away.  I've picked the load I'm going to be using in my .300 Win Mag, but I've still got some issues with the rifle itself to iron out - scope adjustments and Loctite, mostly.

I still need a spotter/co-shooter for Position 26.  I'll be traveling from Tucson through Salt Lake City on April 21, arriving in Orofino, ID on the 22nd, departing on the 25th.  Anybody want to join me?

What Red Dot for .45-70?

For yesterday's Central AZ blogshoot, I put a spare Tasco ProPoint I had laying around on my Marlin 1895M SBL.  It survived about 50 rounds.  I think the Hornady 325 grain LeveRevolution rounds beat it to death.  But while it was working, I liked it a lot.

Obviously I need something that can withstand that sort of brutality.  Suggestions?

Blogshoot Update

Earlier posts about the 2016 Annual Central Arizona Blogshoot are here and here.

I'm bringing the thumpers this year.  The .45-70, the .458 SOCOM, my as-yet-unfired Mossberg 930JM with 1oz sabot slugs, and one of my No. 5 Mk I Jungle Carbines.  I'm also planning on bringing the 629 if I can get some .44 Mag loaded in time.

If you want to shoot any of the long guns, I recommend wearing something with a pad in the shoulder.  Weather promises to be cloudy, calm and cool after the storms move through Thursday and Friday.

My Reaction to Obama's Gun Control Announcement

I've just about completed my inventory of reloading components.

I have a LOT of stuff I need to put together into functional ammunition, collected over the last few years while the picking's been slim.  Powder, primer, cases and projectiles.  Just received 200 .300 Win Mag cases this afternoon, for instance.

I'm going to be busy for a while.

Blogshoot! (BUMPED with addendum)

The annual Central Arizona Blogshoot is scheduled for Sunday, January 10 - just two weeks away. As previously, it will be held at the Elsy Pearson Public Shooting Range just off Trekell Road and I-8, just West of I-10 near Casa Grande.  (Ignore the labeling on the map.  The one marked "Pinal County Public Shooting Range" is the one we're at.  The other is the Casa Grande Trap and Skeet club.)

Same as last year, the range opens at 7:00AM. There are no rangemasters. There are no chairs - bring something to sit on. The firing line is covered and there are concrete shooting benches, however.


And the city has porta-potties out there on a permanent basis, so we don't have to rent our own (but bring your own TP just in case.)

The rules are pretty simple:


No explosives, no .50BMG rifles, clean up after yourself, don't be a dick.

The rifle range is 300 yards deep with the first berm at 200.  The mountains that form the ultimate backstop are another 300 yards out and farther.  The ground there is reinforced concrete disguised as sun-baked clay. Forget about any target stand that needs to stick into the ground, it ain't happenin'. Steel and targets that don't need taping are best. And the benches are funky-shaped. Regular camping chairs are marginal, stools are better. I bring a folding chair, a target stand made of 2" PVC pipe, and my steel swingers. I also have some .22 rimfire rated rolling targets made of steel.

I recommend you bring:  water or other non-alcoholic beverages (no alcohol on the range), sunscreen, ear and eye protection.  Ladies, don't wear anything low-cut or open-necked.  Yes, I'm sure it looks lovely, but you don't want to catch hot brass down in there.  OPTIONAL:  Something to shoot with, and something to shoot AT.  If you're a reader or a non-gun blogger interested in coming to a off-the-cuff funshoot, please come on down!  I imagine most of us will be bringing multiple firearms and lots of ammo, but if you don't, well, I'm willing to let people shoot my stuff (with my ammo), and I'm willing to let them shoot at my targets.

Hope to see you there!

ADDENDUM:  It has been brought to my attention that exit 199 to I-8 off of  Westbound I-10 will be closed starting Monday, January 4.  So if you're coming from the direction of Tucson, the recommendation is to exit at Jimmy Kerr (Exit 198, I believe) get back on I-10 Eastbound, then take Exit 199 to get on I-8 West.  Exit I-8 at Trekell Road.

Boomershoot 2016

OK, I'm officially signed up - Position 26.  Saturday Field Fire and Saturday High Intensity shoot, Saturday dinner, and Sunday Long Range event.  Room reservations at the Konkolville Motel are made for Friday through Sunday.

Still need a co-shooter/spotter.

And I really need to start working on my .300 WM loads!

Boomershoot?

I'm seriously considering attending Boomershoot 2016, which is April 22-24 this year.  Unfortunately DC, my shooting buddy, can't make it this year.  I need somebody to share a slot with and to trade spotting duties.  I'd also like to trade off on driving and split the fuel costs.  It's a two-day drive from Tucson to Orofino, ID.  I could pick somebody up in or near Phoenix or Salt Lake.

Anybody interested?