9mm reloading

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bogie

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I just got a 9mm semi pistol and am alarmed at the way it wades thru a box of ammo. I reload for a bunch of rifle cals and am thinking of going to cast (jackted bullets will be about $10 for 50rounds). I have been told by the local shop that I should spend the extra money for carbide dies so I dont have to wipe the lube off the cases. It would take a lot of loading to pay for an $80 set of dies.
Your thoughts???
 
I just started reloading .45ACP and I cast my own bullets so my payback time on the dies is minimal.9mm being cheaper might take some time.
My actual cost per .45ACP round is less than 5 cents... if I factor in the labour @ $20.00/hour then it works out to about the same as factory ammo but I don't have to spend $100 on ammo every time I go to the range.
Reloading is like a second job..instead of spending hard earned cash on ammo you put some labour in to it and get it cheap.
 
Place here in Vancouver. Just started looking really. I do the recycling for a large club and always have piles of 9mm so brass wont cost me.
So you guys figure carbide is the way to go? Guess I should check WSS as they are driving distance. Hmmm. Guess I better make some calls.
 
Budget Shooter supply has everything you need, Henry is a great guy and the prices are great... I got all my stuff there and will probably reload 9mm some day so I know where it is coming from.
 
I have been able to price MFS nickle plated steel cartridges for 210 delivered.

My cost to Reload are about 170 per thousand with jacketed bullets and about 60 per thousand with cast boolits that I make myself.

Now it is nice to shoot for 60 or so per thousand but I takes quite a bit of time to make that many projectiles. With a six cavity mold it takes about 4 hours of casting, then heat treating them, unless you are dropping them in a water bucket, then lubbing, then sizing then lubing again. Probably another 2-3 hours of work. So about 7 hours of work to save 100$ on the projectiles.

The actual loading will take about 3 hours to make 1000 with a dillon. You probably need to rollsize your brass as some range brass will have been glocked and could cause a stoppage, so say 4 hours total.

So to save a 140$ per thousand it will cost you about 11 hours of work. This is not counting the time it takes to scavage every casing that pops out of your gun. If you lost all your brass upon firing it costs 30 bucks per thousand.

I cast boolits and I load for 9mm, but I am not sure of the sanity to do so. I used to have a lot more time then money. Now I have alot less time and it does not make as much sense to cast and load for 9mm when it is readily available and cheap.
 
i have no issues running glock brass through my dies without roll sizing, never causes an issue, is it really needed?
casting, that i dont do so i have no idea about that, plated seems like less mess and less work and not that much money, plus i dont worry about using really not burning powders

i reload plated 147gr at about $.11 a round, about half price of buying commercial reloads and my tv time has become reload+tv time
 
Henry is great guy to get re-loading gear, good price and selection. Gave up on WSS, most items are OOS and expensive.

Agree with JBD only cast if you have lots of time, his estimates are pretty dead on. I use Berry plated from Henry for 9mm. Cast my own 45ACP for the fun of it, lots of dirty work.

Lee Carbides for 9mm and 45 works fine. Brass from range pickup to stuff from my Glock, Beretta, Norinco all works fine. Haven't noticed any Glocked brass issues.
 
Yes, get the carbide dies.

Make sure you get a set with a taper crimp die. That was just to set off a debate over crimping vs not for 9mm :)
 
I haven't reloaded 9mm for years with the abundance of commercial reloads and cheap factory ammo these days.
500/$99 yesterday at TSE

338 Lap on the other hand.....
 
bollox said:
I haven't reloaded 9mm for years with the abundance of commercial reloads and cheap factory ammo these days.
500/$99 yesterday at TSE

338 Lap on the other hand.....
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Lee carbide dies are cheap and work well. I bought the Lee 1000 progressive loader and can load a 4 liter icecream pail worth in around 2 hours.
9mm is cheap enough that you don't really need to load for it but it is still cheaper to handload.

What brand are those ones for $99/500? Thats cheaper than the Norinco stuff from CanAmmo.

Ya 338 Lapua is a totally different case. $5 each for factory loads and about $1.50 each for home rolls.
 
who ever tried to sell you a set of dies for 80 "saw you coming"- gawd, how i absolutely hate it when "people" take advantage of a newbie ( in any sport) and try to sell him a cadillac-mercedes class of tools when all they need is a chev
i'm not going to pass judgement on whoever sold/talked you into an automatic,b/c that may be you and i don't wish to offend.
however , if more people would SERIOUSLY think about their usage, they'd end up with a REVOLVER as the FIRST gun instead, unless it's a 22- i have yet to see any advantage of revolver in THAT caliber
however, back to the main topic- the way to beat this ammo eating thing is to have multiple magazines, but ONLY LOAD 5-6 rounds PER MAG- that teaches you discipline almost as well as a revolver- having to "break" the cycle of pulling the trigger will slow you down and your sessions will last longer- ie you'll get more out of it- and tape your targets every magful, not every boxful- again, that slows you down- you can always miss in a hurry- it's normal for a person , esp a newcomer to blaze away for the first couple sessions and then taper off , but you get better with practice
as far as getting dies goes, i'd stick with reloads for now, as you're not ready and that's a whole science unto itself- and it's not just dies, you need a press, scale, and a bunch of other stuff as well- i've been at this some 40 + years and my rifles/pistols/shotguns represent the least of my "investment"
 
i didn't even know they make non-carbide dies for pistol calls still?!

with my current purchase of plated bullets i got off the EE my costs are 137 for 1k or 6.88 for a box. cheapest i've seen 9mm in the gta area is 12-13 (10 if you count the bulk mfs stuff) all of those are not including tax, mine is.
 
bogie said:
So you guys figure carbide is the way to go?
Click to expand...

Put it this way- after 1 session of reloading 9mm with standard (non-carbide) dies, I bought the carbides without a second thought, and haven't looked back. Besides, I use the same carbide die to decap/size my .38 S&W.
 
Spawn-Inc said:
i didn't even know they make non-carbide dies for pistol calls still?!

with my current purchase of plated bullets i got off the EE my costs are 137 for 1k or 6.88 for a box. cheapest i've seen 9mm in the gta area is 12-13 (10 if you count the bulk mfs stuff) all of those are not including tax, mine is.
Click to expand...

the carbide is just a ring that's imbedded to the base of the die- my brother's actually had one fail on him- so yes, they do make STRAIGHT STEEL dies, and while they're not as popular b/c MOST PEOPLE find lubing a chore, they still sell-and it's just a simple matter of "skipping" a step wile making the die- plus if it's a bottleneck caliber, unlless there's a SECOND CARBIDE RING IN THE NECK, YOU have to lube- and i don't know of anybody that does that
 
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