I just looked back two years with the "Find" function and did not locate any discussions pertaining to the specific "Cost per Shot" concerning both Hunting Loads and Practice Loads. I see a good number of posts praising and condeming specific Bullets for on-game performance and accuracy, but not much concerning Cost.

I'd be interested in knowing if you Practice with a separate Load than you Hunt with and their cost per shot. Also where you normally buy your components.

Thanks.

My practice load is my hunting load: 70 gr or 90 gr FFFg under patched round balls in my .62 smoothbore and .54 rifle, respectively, and a couple three grains of FFFFg for the pan. Have to admit I never priced it per shot though I did use some of my Christmas money to buy a bag mold to throw my own .600s as storebought balls in uncommon diameters are pretty spendy.

I sight in....if this is practice then so be it...same bullet, powder, primer, sabot ect. see no reason to do otherwise. As far as cost well lets see Hornady 200 grn SST and sabot about $.50 Knight plastic jacket $.10 Win 209 primer $.04 and 120 grns. Hodg. 777 powder at about around $.40 per charge that should be around a $buck give or take.

I purchased my bullets and components at a small local hunting/gun store. My range shots are the same as what I use in the woods. For my inline, the 430 gr. Buffalo S.S.B sabot/bullet, 85 gr. 777 powder and 209 primer cost me 87 cents per shot.

My 58-cal roundball, bore butter prelubed patch, 75 gr. 777 powder and #11 cap cost me 65 cents per shot.

I feel the same way. I shoot all year long and probably average 600-800 shots, but hardly ever vary my loads or bullets. 100 grains of Pyrodex P or 777 in FFFg, either a 300 grain .452 Hornady XTP or 300 grain Barnes MZ, and the RWS 1075 cap. Powder runs about $12.99 a pound. I don't shoot pellets at all.

I did get a good deal at Sportsman's on Barnes, and got all the 10 shot blister packs of 285 and 300 bullets w/ sabots for $3.50 per pack. Bought about 40 of them. That will last a while.

The XTP's are on sale every once in a while also, and I get a lot when I buy. That is my favorite.

Since Idaho just changed their regs for muzzleloader-only seasons, I will probably start shooting a lot of round balls and conicals again in my sidelocks.

With my Savage ML10II it's pretty inexpensive to shoot. My smokeless hunting loads cost 60 cents a piece and target practice loads are only 40 cents each. That's using 250SSTs and 250 XTPs. It's probably one of the most inexpensive MLers to shoot. It can also shoot any of the loads other Mlers use as well but, I think I'll stick with a clean burning smokeless load that pushes a 250grner over 2300fps

Good Luck

Reloader

It runs about $1.40 a round to shoot my Knight with 250 SSTs and 777 pellets.

Reloader

I never figured cost per shot. I buy my componets bulk at a local gun shop, except the T7 I use. I bounght 10 pounds of T7 at wally world 2005 for $7.00 a pound. I buy Hornaday 230 & 240 grain bullets for $18.00 per hundred and MMP sabots for $16.00 per hundred. I buy the CCI 209 primers by the 5,000 brick and the CCI # 11 caps by the 500 box.
Over all I would guess it cost about 85 cents a shot. Normal target shooting is done with my hunting loads but I do expermint some too.

Al

Mine is fairly cheap to shoot.
.30 each 2-50gr Pyrodex pellets.
.00 each My own cast 240gr SWC. (Made with WW)
.04 each 209 primers
.18 each TC Black Mag sabot.
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.54 per shot

Some of you folks are apparently getting some tremendous buys on Powder. Al that is absolutely amazing - great timing.

I went by a Gun Shop just yesterday and noticed their Pyrodex/777 Powders were running $21/#, the American Select was $22 and the Shockey Gold $23. This is a small Shop with a very limited amount of Powders though.
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Hey Reloader, Have you ever tried a Patched Round Ball in the Savage with the Smokeless?
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Oh yes, I know there are "7000 grains" in a Pound of Powder. But I also remember someone mentioned to me that the Black Powder "Volume Measures" do not equate to the same "Weight in Grains".

How many "Weight Grains" are in a 100 Grain by Volume measurement of BP?

quote:

Hey Reloader, Have you ever tried a Patched Round Ball in the Savage with the Smokeless?
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Hot Core,

No, I haven't but, I know some guys that were doing it with some cheap sabots (for .451-.452) intended for pistol bullets but they were stuffing .47 cal round balls in ontop of light charges of smokeless for varmint shooting and plinking. Recoil was nill and great to get the kids into the sport.

I'm sure some of the other guys on the savage board may have tried the patched round balls. Only problem is the fast twist 1:24 isn't realy that great for them.

The savage works best with sabot rounds.

Good Luck

Reloader

I have shot Patched round balls in my Knight MK85 54cal but more than 80grs of pyrodex they skip the rifling and go straight down the bore making for lousy accuracy. I have killed many deer with the same 80grain load. When my kids were young they shot hundreds of rounds at 50grs of pyrodex RS and a patched round ball out of several different Muzzle-loaders, they had a lot of fun.

quote:

How many "Weight Grains" are in a 100 Grain by Volume measurement of BP?

I haven't weighed any true black, but my powder measure, set at 100 grains and filled with FFFg T7 weighs 75.5 grains...

Thanks for all the input. I learn a bit more about this BP stuff every day I stop by here.

Good Hunting and clean 1-shot Kills.

Lets see, I still have about half of the 150 lbs of plumbers lead I traded 4 speedloaders for, vauled at $20.00, and casting 380 grain REAL bullets for the 54 cal. that breaks down to less than a penny apiece. Then 100 grains of ffg B/P at about .30 each, and a #11 cap at about .02 cents each for a total of .32 cents each, not counting cost of mould, pot and time to cast. I should shoot it more at that price.

Hey Eterry, Could you expand a bit those REAL Bullets. I think it stands for Rifling Engraved At Loading, but beyond that?

Why did you pick them to start with? How well do they shoot - Paper and Game?