cost of factory ammo

mick b

Well-Known Member
for the first time in over 5 years ive had to buy some factory ammo at a cost of £98 for 40,ok its for a 338 winmag and im reloading the cases but after picking myself of the floor just b4 the wife walked in they were paid for.
is it me or are they really getting expencive????
 
its all getting expensive mate, shells ,bullets ,fuel dont know anything that isnt these days
not alot of point having the ability to buy 100,s of bullets on ones ticket i would need to speak to my bank manager 1st :D
may have to start reloading ....been saving my brass and a mate will give me lessons
 
It's not just you, for 40 rnds of 7mm rem mag I had to pay £78 and I won't dare mention how much .375 ammo set me back. I'm just glad I've sorted out my reloads now.

Snag
 
And guess what they have not stopped the increases yet :cry: the idiots in Westminster are about ot put fuel duty up again.. Are they really that thick that they cannot work out if fuel goes up EVERYTHING GOES UP!

Just one more reason why I was exploring the old paper patched concept ;) of course it would confuse Plod no end as it would vastly reduce the need to purchase spoft points ........................... Ho hum :doh:.
 
i had a very good friend stalking with me this weekend and he has just bought his son a 25-06 , and when he showed the price of factory ammo he had bought i nearly fell over !

£45 for a box 20 federal 100gn balistic tips !!!! :eek:

no wonder he has just cleared my local RFD out of a load of re-loading stuff !:cool:
 
It's a bullet casting method.... originally for muskets and muzzle loaders

you wrap a rizla around the bullet :D
 
Last edited:
Please elaborate

It's a technique of "jacketing" a lead bullet, but instead of a drawn, copper tube being used to form the jacket, the bullet has a couple of wraps of tough, thin paper around it. Done right you can drive a lead bullet at velocities very close to a propper metal jacketed bullet.
It is most commonly used in black powder cartridges such as 577-450 Martini Henry, 45-70 and 45-90. The Swiss also used papaer patched bullets in their initial loading of the 7.5mm cartridge, so it is a useable technique for bullets in our modern, "small" calibres.
 
Last edited:
I have one "gunshop" near me, it's really just a farmers wife acting as an RFD. The last time I went she wanted roughly £30 per box of Federal 100gr 243 ammo. Got two boxes instead of three, went home and ordered a reloading kit. Never been back since! Factory ammo is getting very pricey
Al
 
Sorry without thinking I assumed others would have heard of paper patching. OK quick history lesson:-

The first smokeless cartridges used paper patched bullets and the paper "jacket" patch is wrapped around the bullet damp and allowed to dry and shrink onto the bullet. The patch was then treated with a lubricant waterproofing medium before loading. The lead of the cast or swaged lead bullet does not touch the barrel at all in most applications. The first metal covered bullets were labeled as metal patched the term jacket did not come into usage until quite a bit later.

Paper Patched bullets performed very well but were costly to apply as it was mostly done by skilled women by hand and stamping out metal patches could be done by machine so once again cost was the driving factor and not as often assumed performance. Even .22 centre fires were paper patched at one time. Now a properly prepared paper patched bullet can be made of almost pure lead so expansion in quarry is almost certain and without a copper/tamboc/gilding metal corset to restrict expansion performance on say deer is excellent. The lead expands but unless velocities are extremely high it does not shatter and in calibres like the .30 cal velocities of just under 3000 fps can be achieved with a paper patch bullet.

I was experimenting a bit with them in the 9.3x57 until the licensing department decided I could only shoot certain rifles in the collection to development came to a halt.
 
So it is not just me that has this really uncomfortable feeling every day, sort of like I've just had my back passage thoroughly reamed out.

Most people I know also feel the same but what adds to my pain is when I see one of our glorious political leaders sitting on his backside in the House of Commons smiling for the cameras. If his back passage was getting reamed out the way ours is he'd spend a lot less time sitting on it and he certainly wouldn't be smiling when he did.
 
At the Shooting Cinema near Strasbourg last week 20 rounds of 173g 7x64 ammo was 20euros. It was PPU and shot to minute of pig in my rifle. Now I wish I'd bought an outer and brought them back.
 
Maybe not for everyone but the Privi stuff really does seem to offer good value for money, (compared to some other manufacturers that is). I reload but recently bought some .243 100g @ £54 per 100. As per longlowdog it groups to MOA in my Blaser Bockbüchsflinte with it's relatively light barrel and does the job downrange as well as anything else on deer and foxes.
 
bullet prices getting silly for sure but dont make the mistake of thinking that reloading will actually save you money, it wont!! you've all the kit to buy, then more (cos thats always the way isnt it). Then different bullet heads and powders, then all the test firing. I expect most stalkers get through less than 100 rounds per year in pursuit of deer so you could be looking at a 6yr + payback!!!
If you shoot a lot of other stuff or paper then that could be quite different
 
My answer to this is GECO in .243 and .308 at £20 a box.

Sadly they don't do .22-250 or 6.5x55. Last time I bought the latter it was £40 a box.
 
bullet prices getting silly for sure but dont make the mistake of thinking that reloading will actually save you money, it wont!! you've all the kit to buy, then more (cos thats always the way isnt it). Then different bullet heads and powders, then all the test firing. I expect most stalkers get through less than 100 rounds per year in pursuit of deer so you could be looking at a 6yr + payback!!!
If you shoot a lot of other stuff or paper then that could be quite different

Not everyone only shoots at deer some of us enjoy shooting even at targets. In the period Dec 09 to Jan 2011 I loaded 307 rounds of 25-06 and shot most of them and I also loaded and shot some .222 Rem, 6mm Rem, .243, 6.5x55,.270 Winchester .308 Winchester and 303 British as well and that's just off the top of my head without going through my reloading records. I did count the 25-06 entries ;) and I also shot about 80 rounds of the Federal Fusion 150 grain in 270 Winchester and 60 rounds of factory 25-06. Hand-loading is a hobby all on it's own and an interesting one at that.

Despite what some may thing reloading tools rarely wear out with normal usage. I have collected mine over several decades and one thing I know for sure I could not afford to just shoot factory rounds. The price of jacketed bullets is one thing that has made me look at casting and paper patching bullets once again. I used to paper patch bullets for the 577/450 Martini Swinburn sporting rifle I had many years ago. I picked up a used lead smelting pot Oh about 17 years ago and a couple of bullet lubrisizers so have acculmulated most of the stuff. Need to get somewhere to set them up sorted out.

Perhaps some stalkers should shoot a bit more :eek:.
 
Back
Top