In my various travails breaking in and getting used to this plastic striker 9mm I have of course had attacks of nostalgia for my very nice S&W m69 revolver. Why did I decide to take this painful journey to present-day armament? 17 rounds in the mag versus five, sure. Not having to carry an assortment of ammo in speedloaders all the time, okay. But…
Oooh my god. $1.44/round for Winchester white box? $1.34/round for aluminum case Blazer? Are you okay? Did something hurt you, and you’re just lashing out?
And that’s not even the expensive stuff – or the stuff you’d really want to shoot out of an L-frame.
$2.90/round for .44 mag carry ammo. That’s … extraordinary. And of course that same old $71 for a box of aluminum case .44 Special, which is literally the only commercial .44 Special ammo available around here.
Maybe a guy could do better online, I’ve never bought ammo online. I know lots of people do. But pistols aren’t rifles: You can gain a certain level of proficiency with a rifle, come back a year later and at least be able to hit a stationary target. Good chops with a pistol require regular practice, at least with me. And the price of reloading components hasn’t really come back to earth either. This last ammo drought hurt us.
If my only reason for switching to 9mm were ammo price it might still be a rational choice. And the Arex is behaving itself better. As long as I avoid 115 grain Winchester white box. And don’t fully load the magazines.
But I miss my S&W. I have spells where I think I should research the price of .357 Magnum.
What air pistol and what snapcaps are you using to maintain proficiency as cheaply as possible?
S.v.
It’s time to think about one of the dozens of plastic 22 semi autos out there that mimic a specific plastic wonder 9. For me, a Ruger Mk. lll, 22/45 is close enough for cheap practice. You have enough readers to help out on a fund raiser for a 22 practice/trail/ranch, gun.
Somebody that knows how to get such things rolling should get it happening. I’m so broke i rarely donate to anything, but I would give to this worthy cause.
Funny you should mention that – I do have a 22/45 that I used to use a lot for varmint control. Lately I’ve been using it more for pistol practice but it’s old enough that I don’t think I can put an optic on it. And my eyes have gotten to the point where a red dot isn’t really optional.
I went looking for .357 Mag cases at our not-Cabelas (Sportsman’s Warehouse. Cabela’s tried to buy them but the deal went south.) They had .38 Special, and .357 Sig or something, but not Mag. OTOH, they now have small pistol mag primers. That took a year of looking before they became generally available.
Still looking for Large Rifle primers. Or a supply of .30-06 cases made for small rifle. 🙂
Start to reload or stick to the 9mm. I am thinking 375mag will run around $40.00 a box.
9mm should be easy enough to find for 20 bucks a box or less.
Not to ruin the surprise or anything, but Paratus is in about three weeks and you never know what the Paratus Long Range Recon Gift Squad will leave for deserving folks.
These people have 9mm at 21 cents per round
https://2awarehouse.com/capital-cartridge-9mm-115gr-fmj-new-brass-plated-steel-case-1-250rds-metal-ammo-can
It won’t make the ammo any cheaper – AlGore’s Intertubes can help with that – but making each round fired more effective could be a benefit.
I’m thinking “drills.” I do drills every 2-3 weeks, and rarely consume more than one 50-round box doing it. There are lots of different drills available on the ‘net, some more beneficial than others. I’d think the addition of a Picatinny rail to your 22/45 and a red dot – preferably identical, or nearly so, to what’s on the 9 – would enable using it for drills (one question would be “whatever gets spent on RDSing the 22/45 could be spent on 9MM ammo, and is that a more productive expenditure?”). You have an advantage many of us dream about – a practice range almost right outside your front door.
Pro Tip: When a particular drill starts being “easier” or you find yourself prefering it, stop using it and go to something harder. A couple months of non-use will restore much of the difficulty on that particular drill.
My 22/45 is a Mk lll, so it came with a picatinny rail. I put a $20 Chynesium dot sight on it, works awesome and has lasted 5 years so far (surprise!). The sight has 5 retical choices with 5 brightness levels in green and red! I also put one on my 10/22 at the same time, still going strong. ALTHOUGH… when I first got 2 of them, one wouldn’t hold a zero, the seller sent me another one pronto, Amazon Prime may have influenced service, I’m not sure.
My 73 year old eyes definitely benefit from the dot sights. The only iron sights that work for me now are peep sights, because they still work when fuzzy. Why do the gun makers even put fuzzy sights on guns these days! Cost cutting? DEI?
The cost of ammo is getting rather stupid. I don’t reload, which is the reason I sold my 7.62 x 51 Ruger Scout. It was just too expensive to run and since I haven’t hunted in years…
If it wasn’t for Prime Minister Light-bringer and the ATF making it all but impossible to ship handguns from Canada to the States, I’d gift you my S&W 19. ☹️
38 spl +p+:
Powder: 4c/ rd.
Primer: 8c/ rd.
Bullet (bought in bulk): 8c/ rd.
Cases: no current cost; have saved thousands over the years.
Used turret press and 38/ 357 dies, bought six yrs ago: $75… but amortized over many thousands of rounds. And I don’t charge myself for the time spent loading; it’s enjoyment.
Other than hand-loaded ammo, what else is kinda affordable?… 9mm and 22lr. So you’re where you need to be. Shoot well.
SP RN
Joel, I have seen some good deals for ammo, sometimes very good deals, on GunsArizona dot com. For reloading supplies, I have seen smoking hot deals at same website. It seems a lot of guys are getting out of reloading.
The downside is traveling to complete the face to face purchase.
The above website is part of the Guns America network. Check for your state
At the current prices, nobody gets a warning shot.
This is where I usually buy ammo. I get know commission or payment from them. I’ve just had good luck with them
https://www.luckygunner.com/handgun/44-magnum-ammo
People don’t like PMC, I think it is from South Korea, but I have had good luck using it for practice. And I don’t shoot 44 magnum or 44 special
But generally speaking larger quantities are cheaper – though the shipping is an issue, because they won’t deliver to PO Boxes.
Per ZD, Lucky Gunner is good. If you’re willing to roll the dice a little, try ammoseek.com and ammowiki.com, but pay attention to the seller’s restrictions and shipping costs, and how competent the seller is; sometimes it’s worth it to spend a few cents per round more to get better service. I’ve estabished relationships with 3-4 sellers over the years and while they may not always offer the most rock-bottom pricing, they’re always very close and being knownhelps – sometimes – in availability. And, ZD is right – larger quantities get better pricing.
Looks like the paid shills have entered the chat.
Stay away from lucky gunner. If you choose to order online, there’s much better companies to do business with.