Lead shot

I shot trap and sporting clays in Kamloops BC. Every time I went to Victoria BC I stopped in at a place that recycled lead shot from trap ranges. I would pick up 10 - 25lb bags of shot to bring home($12 -$14 a 25lb bag). Now its what $42 - $49, whew. I used 8 bags up in 2 years. Never went back to the island. Still dabble when I travel to ranges that shoot trap.
 
Shot

At Lawrys shooting sports is where that is for $34 a bag and it sounds like they won't deal. If I could get a pallet for $26 a bag i would take. I think I seen some price posted here at that last year, i thought it was Lawrys...
 
I use a shotmaker and make my own shot, however it is a pita to make and once you make a few bags of it, you wouldn't want to sell it for any price!!
 
The current market price for raw lead is .9590 US cents per lb. which converts to $25.25 CDN per 25 lbs. In January lead was between $1.20 and $1.10 and the exchange rate was not as good for importing as it is today, so the conversion would work out to over $30 per 25 lbs. Now you need to add the cost of the antimony and processing and transportation costs plus some profit for the people involved. I doubt you will see lead drop in price much in the near future ... it will depend on what happens to the price of raw lead in the future.

Lawry's buy lead in the US from a shot maker and add a marginal markup to cover their costs. They make their money manufacturing and selling targets. They sell components and ammunition slightly above cost, so we can shoot more targets.
 
At $55 a flat for federal top gun shells at Lawry's why would anyone reload?:confused: It costs more to reload than shoot factory and has for some years now. Before the last ammo price hike I could not figure out why the guys at the club were loading/buying components when it worked out to more than we were paying for factory.......and I did not see any discernable difference in their scores rising!:p I sold my loaders and equipment years ago when we had to start shooting non-toxic for waterfowl plus I wasn't seeing any cost savings for target loads any longer. Just my opinion.;)
 
the spank said:
At $55 a flat for federal top gun shells at Lawry's why would anyone reload?:confused: It costs more to reload than shoot factory and has for some years now. Before the last ammo price hike I could not figure out why the guys at the club were loading/buying components when it worked out to more than we were paying for factory.......and I did not see any discernable difference in their scores rising!:p I sold my loaders and equipment years ago when we had to start shooting non-toxic for waterfowl plus I wasn't seeing any cost savings for target loads any longer. Just my opinion.;)
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It doesn't cost me as much to load my own as it does to buy flats from stores. It does take time though. I have to admit too that the difference in cost has decreased quite a bit over the past couple of years. It would certainly take longer to pay off the cost of starting up now. One reason I reload is to have an alternative to just buying factory. I don't think the shells I reload are better than factory. In fact, I'm impressed by how good even cheapy factory loads are. But I often can't find loads I want to shoot around here, e.g. 7/8 oz or even 1 oz sometimes. So, there is some flexibility there. Call me paranoid if you want, but I have the feeling, that the minute enough people give up the option to reload one will run into rising prices for flats and have less ability to deal with them. So, reloading not only provides some option to factory, it also might provide some kind of check on prices for flats if enough people keep doing it.
 
I got 38 bags of lead for free from a friend. He works installing X-ray equipment, and apparently they use bags of lead shot when doing so. I would say I am set up for quite some time.
 
Fred:

If you have one or two little old sweethart side by sides you like to take out to drive once in a while, you can indeed make superior ammuntion that has a little lower pressure, and a little spreader wad insert to handle the usual tight modified and full chokes.

I have yet to figure the economics of factory ammution prices though, in terms of commodity prices, and supply and demand in downturned economy.

If anyone has suggestions, please interject with your information.
 
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