I couldn't sleep last night, so I sorted my brass from the last three range trips (the last two of which were last week -more on that to come, because the second trip was very interesting), and put it in the tumbler to run the rest of the night.
How MUCH brass was interesting, particularly how much .45acp.
Now, this is just what I bothered to pick up. Mostly it’s the brass from my 625, and I usually shoot about 4 times as much total as just in the 625.
...250 rounds, including 120 that was still in moon clips (thank god for the moonsetter and demooner). Plus another 180 that was from my last range trip of 2006 (in December).
Now remember, that’s just from the 625; multiply that by 4 and were talking 1,000 rounds.
So, since I last did the sorting, before three trips ago; I’ve fired about 1000 rounds of .45. (and about 300 rds of 9mm, 300rds of .380, 300 rounds of .38, 150rds of .357, 200 rds of .30-06, 200rds of 12ga, and 50rds of 20ga). And again, that’s just me, not including my wife and friends.
2500 rounds, since the first of the year. Unfortunately I’ve only made it to the range about once a month so far this year; I usually go twice a month.
Assuming I just maintain my current slow pace, I’ll be at about 10,000 total rounds this year. If I can manage to get back to twice a month, then I may break 15k rounds this year.
Even cheap whitebox stuff is up to $0.30 a round now. That’s at least 3 grand in just ammo, and may hit $4500 never mind other supplies, new guns etc…
If I can buy in the biggest bulk I can manage, get the best deals possible etc… and using brass I’ve already got, supplemented with once fired; I can probably get under $0.11 a round. Thats only 1/3 the commercial ammo cost (of course that means Ill just shoot more. It’s impossible to save money on loading and shooting ;-).
I REALLLY need a progressive press. Hell, I could pre-buy a ton of crap in bulk and make 3 months worth of .45 in two or three hours.