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Is buying reloaded ammo worth it?
A Marlin .45-70 that blew up after some bad reloads. (Photo credit: MLAGB.com)
Spirit Airlines is an ultra cheap, budget airline making headway in the travel industry. The premise behind Spirit is to provide no-frills transportation in order to capture portions of the market that are hard-pressed for cash. Customer service is subpar and all amenities — except using the bathroom — cost extra. The French call it a la carte, I call it bare-bones.
Most Spirit Airlines passengers said they hate the experience and would never use them again. Funny thing is, statistically, many of them are lying. People are always looking to save a buck, but often times they cut corners in places they never should. I’m sure Spirit is probably just as safe as any other major airline, but saving $60 isn’t enough for me to endure the painfully uncomfortable flight.
While listening to a radio piece about Spirit Airlines, I was struck with the similarities between them and a niche group of the gun industry. Namely, shooters who buy other people’s reloads at gun shows. I’m sure there are plenty of good reloaders out there whose handloads put the best ammo maker to shame. The problem is, unless you’re knowledgeable enough to roll your own, you can’t check to see if the guy knows his stuff.
Ammunition, a controlled explosion inside of an expensive fragmentable steel object, is not a good place to take risks, especially when that explosion takes place inches away from a shooter’s face. In every piece of firearms safety literature I could find there is a section explicitly warning folks to avoid other’s reloads. Yet, I know guys with guns worth several thousand dollars who, despite having bad experiences with unknown reloads, continue to buy them!
Another example is one of my regular shooting buddies. He has an AR-15 chambered in 5.45 that he has dropped $2,000 on. He feeds it a steady diet of 7N6 — corrosive surplus ammo. Then proceeds to complains about accuracy and the additional cleaning required. He has the money to buy commercial 5.45 ammo, but he wants to save money!
I am a frugal guy and I recognize the importance of saving money. I understand where both the Spirit Airlines passengers and the ammo guys are coming from, but you have to cut corners in the right places. I’m a gambling man, but I only gamble things I can afford to lose. An eye, via reloads, not being one of those items.
The post Is buying reloaded ammo worth it? appeared first on Guns.com.
Source: http://www.guns.com/2014/02/26/spirit-airlines-ammunition/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spirit-airlines-ammunition
Well, that said, buying reloads is illegal in the United States (unless the reloader has an ammunition manufacturer’s stamp from the BATFE). You can shoot freebies from a friend all day, but pay him a dollar, and you BOTH are in trouble (you for not paying ammo tax, him for selling without a stamp).
That said, only a fool buys unknown reloads, anyhow. For that matter, only a fool shoots unknown reloads, free or bought.
Unless you have a way to measure CUP pressures, know what pressures you can safely shoot, know the composition and consistency of the batch, FORGET IT! You just acquired a bunch of things that look like bullets, but could be hand grenades, instead.
If you want to save money on ammunition, the answer is DIRT SIMPLE – RELOAD your own ammo! You can normally reload for less than half-price of store bought from a trusted supplier, like Rem or Win. You can control lots better than even they do (short of their match-grade stuff), and if you have one of the few ‘select weapons’ (like a Ruger Super Redhawk), then you can reload to max CUP and maximize your weapon’s effectiveness (the Redhawk has a reinforced forcing cone which allows for HOT LOADS without damage).
Again, get a reloading manual, read it a dozen times first, buy yourself (my favorite) a RCBS Super Rockchucker Master Reloading Kit (about $350, but saves a TON of returns to your shooting store getting the ‘little stuff’), and talk to someone who reloads your caliber for a good ‘moderate starting load’ combo.
Reloading is a GREAT hobby, done right. Record your loads, chronograph your best loads, compete with friends on most accurate, best hunting load, etc. It is a calming, relaxing hobby that I’ve ‘taken over’ the small bedroom with before, and I’ve also justified an attic finishing as a result of.
Save you money? Well, it costs about $500 to get into it, and a total of about $1000 to be set up well (with tumblers, all the ‘bells and whistles’, etc.). For 5.56mm, you are looking at about 11,000 rounds reloaded to get investment payback, and beyond that, you are dropping your ammo price significantly, every time you shoot. (personally, I justified my big stuff by shooting volumes of my small caliber stuff). My .300 Win Mag and my .338 cost from $1 to $1.50 per round to buy in the store, but I can reload for around 40-percent of that cost, so again, multiple calibers are a simple die-change to accomplish, along with a powder and primer change, but you get cost benefits out of each one.
Forget playing ‘devil-may-care’ with someone else’s unknowns – pick up a new hobby, and load your own!