Muskrat and Arky, those are the most intelligent remarks I have ever read, RIGHT ON!!!

Bullet casting is the key to really saving money. Lee makes decent quality stuff at reasonable prices, and I've had no complaints with any of their bullet molds. Depending on what supplies you have available to you, 5 gallon buckets of wheelweights, that yield ~100#'s of bullet alloy run from free to $20.

If you have shooting buddies interested in cast bullets in the same style you shoot, you can sell 100 bullets hear and there to pay for your powder and primers. You might find a tire shop that'll trade bullets for more ww's as well.

If you do any amount of casting at all, you'll find it's not how many years a bucket lasts, but rather how many buckets you'll use a year.

Muskrat
Two wives have come and gone! Painful experiences, Yes! I learned something each time and kept accumulating firearms and reloading stuff. Should I feel the need to indulge myself one more time in the insanity of American marital bliss I'll sell the spent primers and worn out brass to a recyclier for an engagement ring. By the time I get enough to buy a ring I should have come to my senses.
Jim

Like dave said , bullets can be had online for a good price . You can get good quality bullets at www.berrysmfg.com and the shipping is included in the price. You can also get reptile litter at the big pet stores in bulk for tumbling media. It is ground up walnut shells.

I used reloading for others as a way to have access to and shoot many calibers and rifles that I didn't want to buy, just shoot. Gotta work up them loads, you know. So, it saved me from having to buy a lot of guns! You get to build ammo that performs in a most excellent fashion in your rifle, I'm not so sure about the saving money part of it, by the time you add up all the things that go into doing that. Buy a 308, 270, 30-06, and stock up at XXXMart during the inventory reduction sale, might be a better way to save money. But then you loose the fun and experience that comes from rolling your own, huh?

If you're serious about saving money while reloading, powder choice is one way to find savings. A 1 pound cannister of powder contains 7000 grains of powder. How many grains does it take for your cartridge? If you're lucky, you can find a powder that works well for you which requires less grains per load than other powders and reload more cartridges from the same cannister of powder.

Bullet choice is another opportunity to save money. Buy inexpensive bullets in bulk for fireforming, plinking, working up loads (you'll still have to back off your petload a little and work back up when you switch to your preferred hunting/target bullet).

Don't waster powder and bullets at the range for fireforming, breaking in a barrel, or anything else if that can be done while plinking or hunting. Good fireforming loads are available, and a barrel can be broken in while using it for its intended purpose.

Learn to anneal brass cases. Brass is the most expensive component of the load (excluding premium hunting bullets). If you don't abuse the brass by using hot loads that open up primer pockets, the brass can be annealed every 4th-5th firing to prolong its lifespan.

I normally buy brass cases in bulk from the same lot and segregate it by weight, and cull out any cases that aren't uniform in case wall or neck thickness. The culled cases aren't pitched, but I don't use them for working up a load. The uniform "good brass" will save you a lot of time at the bench trying to work up a good load by eliminating variables that can cause fliers, which means less wasted bullets, powder and primers trying to find an accurate load.

I use a Sharpie to write my load data on every case I handload. I remember when I just wrote the load on the box. The tape or label would come off, or for a number of other reasons, I wound up with unmarked loaded cartridges that I didn't know what they were loaded with. NOT GOOD! Buy a bullet puller so you can salvage bullets, powder and primers when a you make a mistake or wind up with loaded cartridges that you don't want to use. If you've marked each case with a Sharpie after you've loaded it, you can pour the powder back into the proper cannister. If not, you must necessarily pitch it.

I didn't start handloading to save money, but it is possible get into it very inexpensively, and reload on the cheap. It's just never been one of my goals. It seems I've bought one of everything and I'm still finding stuff I've got to have. I've got a couple dozen powders on hand and use them all. It's a sickness, I tell you. Welcome to the club.

Arkypete

Its a whole lot easier to shed wives then your favorite guns my friend!!!!!
I am on my second one too, but she doesn't complain about what I buy in the gun area and I don't complain when she buys,clothes,shoes,purses, or other such items.Everyone has to have something that they really enjoy in life.I have wondered if that boy is still even with that young lady? they were about 20 years old or so. Five months is a longtime at that age!!!!!
muskrat
live to shoot-shoot to live!

I've been reloading ammo now since 1954, and I've never used a tumbler! This is one of those "nice-to-have, but non-essential" items.



If you really want to save money, cast your own plinking and target practice bullets, and only use store-bought projectiles when you are loading up ammo for hunting large critters. You can save a lot using scrap alloys that you can get free or for very little. Get one of Veral Smith's books (Lead Bullet Technologies), and learn how you can get jacketed bullet performance from cast bullets by heat-treating alloys! It'll give you a lot of fun, and challenges to get it right, and you can have bullets for little or no monetary investment! By using reduced loads, your cases can last virtually forever, and cases are the most costly component of a round of ammo!! Powder and primers are pretty cheap, per shot!!

Another way to save on powder. Buy in 8 pound kegs. Not only is it cheaper, you deal with the lot-to-lot difference in powder less often.

Clark,,, or anyone else that knows what he means. " remove the expander ball".

What do you replace your expander balls with? I use Redding dies.
Or do you just not use them?

I just go without them.
Many persons [who know more than me] keep telling me to get my die's necks lapped out [to .002" less than my cartridge necks] if I am going to do that. But I am getting great results and have not done as I was told yet.

The Sinclair concentricity gauge comes with instructions that say "~you will probaly find the expander ball is the problem~".
The guage does not make the ammo any more accurate, it just shows were the process goes wrong. Save $75 and skip buying the gauge, and go directly to removing the expander ball.

Hmmm ...Ill have to try that? I hate that the expander ball streches the case and length.
What do you use to hold your depriming pin?

I have an RCBS decapping die, but one could use the expander ball for a smaller caliber or punch them out with a pin and hammer.