As with every thing else, bullet prices are climbing (for reloading). I used to buy a lot of Nosler 2nds for paper punching practice (their 2nds prices have jumped astronomically in the last few weeks), and sometimes would find good deals from Midway on their bullet blems sale (they don't do that very often and by the time I've seen it, not much selection left).
And I like to practice a lot before hunts so am wondering what others do for their practice bullets, shoot premium ones, find deals, or whatever these days to help keep costs down. Of course reloads are still cheaper than factory ammo (well maybe not in .223 using fmj bullets).

Either I'll practice less, or just keep my eyes open for deals somewhere.

What do the rest of you do??

As a competitive marksman I practice with the same ammo I shoot with. If I am shooting a 100 yard reduced course I shoot 52 grain SMK's, for across the course (200, 300, 600 yards) I shoot 77 grain SMK. When I run out of 52's I'll probably shoot 77's at 100 also. I got the 52's from a friend and they shoot well but now I have two different loads to keep track of from loading to packing for a match.

One thing to consider with a "practice" round is that it is still trigger time. If you have known data for your scope, you can shoot a less expensive bullet and change your zero back before the season.

Something to consider in practice ammo is how well it groups and how does it feel when you shoot it. If you have a 3/4 MOA hunting round and a 2 MOA practice round that's not very comparable as it does not give you feed back as to your point of aim or mechanical problems.

It's kind of like shooting surplus ball to practice with at 2-4 MOA, then shooting a match with 1 MOA ammo. Your best practice group won't tell you that you aren't holding tight because the group might be 2 inches, but the first 6 that you shoot with the good stuff will tell you how bad you've let your position get because you were blaming the ammo for the poor practice target.

If you can make a practice round that shoots the same group size than rezore and shoot it, if not shoot what you normally shoot.

Consider learning how to cast bullets. I have over sixty moulds, for every caliber I own.

Rich

I truly feel your pain. What is happening was foreseen for some time. Most of my shooting now days is with 22 calibers. Fortunately I was able to acquire a lot of Berger seconds and Varmint Nite Mare bullets at about 40% what they now cost.
All I can say is that if bargains come along and you are financially able , take advantage. roger

Unless I'm already using a bullet like a Core Lokt, I always use the cheaper bullets for my off season practice. IMO, marksmanship is more important in bagging game than having some sort of magic bullet in a rifle that you only shoot 6 times a year.

Sometimes the cheaper bullets like the Core Lokt give fantastic accuracy and performance as do other so called non premium bullets like Speer.

There are some cartridges I load for, that do especially well with expensive bullets. For those, I'll do initial load workup with cheaper bullets and use the "good" ones for the finishing touches on a load. Also, occasionally, very good deals on bulk bullets will come up and, when they do, I snap some up.

quote:

Originally posted:

IMO, marksmanship is more important in bagging game than having some sort of magic bullet in a rifle that you only shoot 6 times a year.

I agree. that's one of the reasons I prefer C 'n C bullets for most all of of my hunting. And why I "hoard" (make large bulk purchases when I find large amounts of hunting bullets at estate sales, close-outs, wherever). They are enough less expensive that I can practice a hell of a lot more than 6 times a year with the same bullets I hunt with.

Even recorded scope settings don't help much in hunting if you practice with one bullet and hunt with another. Using two bullets and needing different scope settings is something a person can fairly easily manage in target practice and match shooting, or if they are really just hunting paper at the local range. But it usually doesn't work out super-great in using one bullet for almost all of one's practice and then using another for real hunting.


All trigger time helps some, but good trigger time with the bullets actually used in the field for hunting helps a lot more.

One often doesn't have the time to change scope settings when hunting, and even if they do, they need to know the distance to what they are shooting at on the hunt if they are going to start screwing with their scope in the middle of finally taking that shot.

Nice thing about using the same bullet both for practice and the hunt is by doing it that way you build sort of a trajectory "muscle memory", "instant recognition", or whatever one wants to call it, putting your reticule where you need to hold to make a good shot.

That's also a good reason for sticking to one gun for both practice and hunting. No putzing around. Your mind subconsciously tells you where to point the gun and you pull the trigger smoothly & correctly as things "feel right".

You don't run the risk of letting the shot or the animal get away by wasting time trying to consciously dope everything out and then concentrating on "squeeze".

That may also suggest to us that hunting rifle practice is better done at targets of opportunity (plinking) in the field than at known distance fixed targets at the rifle range. I buy that too. Not only teaches one to shoot without relying on a bench & bag (two crutches), but also improves one's skill at judging distances over varying terrain..

For some reason I could not resist the the cheap cosmetic blems from Nosler. For the last three years I have compulsively bought everything I shoot from .243 up to .358 calibers paying from $5.00 up to $19.00 per sac. In fact I got so cought up I even explained to my son and grandsons and yes, even my wife, what I was doing. Now I know why, check the prices now and you will see. Thank the reloading God for the compulsion and for the feeling that it was too good to be true. Now, I can relax and feel satisfied and fullfilled. Good shooting.

What I found was that 99% of what I hunt will roll right over with a standard C&C bullet just like Canuk says. I don't need anything premium to kill deer or hogs and if you do then you need to work on your shooting skills more. The game is no tougher than it ever was and a bullet through the boiler works will work every time.

I shoot plenty of rounds every year, and yes I DO have a few rifles for which I DO load a premium bullet. That said I usually only shoot a handfull of rounds through those rifles each year. I have the loads worked up and I verify the loads before hunting season when I "might" shoot them one or twice each during the season.

For the rest of my rifles and handguns I shoot Remington bulk bullets the most, followed up by what appear to be Hornady blem's, and then Winchester bulk. For all the different bullets, I have worked up loads which are very similar in velocities for the given rifle or handgun, so that there isn't much difference in felt recoil or average groups. This allows me to shoot what ever happens to suit my fancy at the time.

Like others have mentioned, once upon a time I stocked up on a good deal when I saw it. Nowadays, those good deals of the past were awesome deals. I simply do not have the extra cash to spend on high dollar bullets which might be .50 per shot or higher simply so I can say I killed a paper target really dead with. I have plenty of Partitions, Solid Base, and Ballistic tips to last me quite some time, but I have even more CL's, SST's, and Power Points to carry not only myself but probably my daughter and grandsons quite some time as well.

Idaho Sharpshooter
Ditto what you said fellow Idahoan! Cast bullets is the only way to go! Put a gas check on them and you get almost jacketed performance!
Been casting as long as I've been shooting!

An to think my wife bitched about 800-1K lb of projectiles stacked and racked in the garage ,as I kept telling her some day sales won't be sales !. Is this the day I can sound off ! ?. Probably not if I want to eat or rest peaceably or WAKE UP !!!. A civil tounge is the better part of valor

Was looking to buy some 6.5 Hornady 160 grain RNs to test in my new wildcat. Was shocked to see them listed for $44.00/ 100.That is more than ten times what I paid in 1966!
If someone here knows where to get them at a better price I'm all ears.
Thank Goodness I'm well fixed on fishing hooks and bobbers. roger

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Consider learning how to cast bullets. I have over sixty moulds, for every caliber I own.

Rich

Rich is telling you the straight poop on this one. The only thing I would add is to tell you not to just use those cast bullets for practice. They will kill anything that walks in North America, and probably anywhere else.

Like Rich, I have a LOT of moulds...somewhere over 140, by actual count. Used to buy every used one I saw priced at $10 per cavity or less. And, yes Virginia, a lot of them were $5 per hole or less. So I guess there really WAS a Santa Claus.

And many of mine came with handles at that price. Handles alone are now over $30 per set if bought new.

Still, even at $100 per mold and $30 for handles at today's prices, how many bullets does one have to make to get his money back, when comparing cast bullet prices to jacketed bullets these days? If made of used wheel weight metal, which is still free in many areas, about the first 300 or 400 cast bullets per mould should cover your investment.

And they WILL shoot plenty accurately. I have fired 10 shot groups at 100 yards in the heat of registered competition which officially measured under 0.5" in size. Sure, that was from a bench, but it tells you what accuracy cast bullets are capable of...the rest is up to the shooter.

And believe me, a 210 gr. .30 cal. cast bullet cruising along at 2,100 to 2.300 fps is plenty, even for large bears.

The only caveat I would throw in right now is to start hoarding those free used wheelweights. They aren't gonna be free forever.

I had to sell most of my linotype cache when we moved here last year because of today's costs of shipping...but I did rent a 10-ton truck and brought a LOT of wheelweights and jacketed bullets with me on my own, as well as my rifles, moulds, and so on. The sale of my linotype much more than paid for the truck rental, fuel, and my personal expenses enroute. And I sold the lino at half the going rate because a real shooter from here on AR was buying it.

Anyway, learning to DIY may be one of the good things this generation is about to learn from today's rough economic times and the large corporation rip-offs. One can still do things pretty darned well and have a lot of fun on the cheap if he learns to make his own stuff and use it with skill.

Nolser pricing their bullets just like oil. Here something from Nolser forum

Sorry guys. The reason the seconds from Shooters Pro Shop are the only thing that increased is because there is more demand for them then the firsts. Shooters Pro Shop didn't want to raise prices on anything that they didn't have to pay more for, which means that as soon as our current inventory of firsts are sold out there will be a price increase on them as well. You will notice the same thing with all the online retailers as well, as soon as they run out of the current inventory they will increase their prices. We've been delaying a price increase for quite some time (I think the last time was in 2008) and we eventually had to do it.

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
Was looking to buy some 6.5 Hornady 160 grain RNs to test in my new wildcat. Was shocked to see them listed for $44.00/ 100.That is more than ten times what I paid in 1966!

Damn, bartche, my 1967 Camero R/S 327 was only $2,600 off the showroom floor; what did you expect? We're gettin' old, son. Not much to be done about it except live it up while we can...

Yea, but bart, back then you were using REAL dollars. In 1966, $4.40 would get you 18-20 gallons of gas. Today $44.00 get you 11.

fyi Cabela is having what looks like a reasonable ammo sale! Get that expensive brass and bullets already loaded at a fair price in these expensive times.
roger

For those of you of the Jewish Scottish lineages perhaps an answer for your spare time ! ? .


http://www.corbins.com/

I have a close friend who purchased one of these years ago at a show , don't know if he ever unpacked it ? He cast bullets for old obsolete military cartridges , an was pretty dam creative in case making as well . As far as I know he's never used it , it's Doubtful he will now at his age . If anyone's interested I'll attempt to contact him an see what's become of it or what all he actually purchased .

Maybe we'll get back to making bullets out of 22 RF cases. Ya think? roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
Maybe we'll get back to making bullets out of 22 RF cases. Ya think? roger

I already do, Roger. Make both .22 and 6 m/m bullets with dies and core moulds which I bought 35+ years ago from Corbin. Mine won't win any benchrest matches, but they sure do work well on varmints and even small deer. My SN 71 gr .224 bullets are especially good on things like coyotes.

I paid $100 for both sets of dies, complete, which also include the dies for re-shaping the annealed .22 hulls. It was their introductory "special" for their products back in the day. Not the worst investment I ever made.....

I do cast bullets in 30 cal, 9,3, .375, .416, .458, and .475 as well as pistol cartridges. I would do the swaging thing if I could find some dies for a reasonable price ... they are expensive!

Wheel weights, the fuel to smelt them, gas checks, primers and powder are all more expensive than they once were so the process is not quite so attractive.

Even so, have never bought a factory round for any of the big bores.

quote:

Originally posted by mstarling:
I do cast bullets in 30 cal, 9,3, .375, .416, .458, and .475 as well as pistol cartridges. I would do the swaging thing if I could find some dies for a reasonable price ... they are expensive!

Wheel weights, the fuel to smelt them, gas checks, primers and powder are all more expensive than they once were so the process is not quite so attractive.

Even so, have never bought a factory round for any of the big bores.

Glad to hear you are doing that, Mike.

If you live in the city you have to buy a source of heat for casting bullets. But, if you live in or near the woods, a wood fire will work just fine to melt your bullet metal. Not super convenient but will work okay. For that matter, in the old days burning buffalo chips provided a smelly but adequate source of energy. Burning dry cow pies will work for those who live in ranching country if times get tough.

As to primer and powders, one has to buy or make those, whatever the kind of bullets he/she shoots.

When it comes to gas checks, those are easy to make from soda cans. I have a couple of sets of dies which punch and form them...I think the maker was The Haned Line. One set I got free at a gun show because the guy who's table they were on had no idea what they were for. He told me that if I could use them, I could have them. Naturally that sounded real good to me.

Anyway, just another good reason for stocking up...I bought over 100,000 GCs on sale back when they were like $5 to $7 per M (wholesale). Doubt either I, my son or my nephews will run out in our lifetimes.

A person doesn't even need gaschecks anyway, if he uses heavy bullets at low velocity. Leading in that instance is more a result of poor bullet fit to the chamber throat than anything else.

Hope everyone starts making their own stuff. Eventually then the large corporations which are taking over the gun supplies world now, will realize they need customers more than we need them.

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:
Sometimes the cheaper bullets like the Core Lokt give fantastic accuracy and performance as do other so called non premium bullets like Speer.

There are some cartridges I load for, that do especially well with expensive bullets. For those, I'll do initial load workup with cheaper bullets and use the "good" ones for the finishing touches on a load. Also, occasionally, very good deals on bulk bullets will come up and, when they do, I snap some up.

Sometimes those cheaper bullets do a good job on the game animal too!

There's not much short of dangerous stuff in Africa that I wouldn't hunt with a 30.06 and 180 grain Interlocks.