In South Africa reloading makes sense and cents

9mm Luger ammo goes for about R3,60 and up , a shot  … the only thing cheaper is .22 the rest all cost more …

To reload cost me about R1.20 a shot … so it really makes financial sense

so the other day i got a lee breech lock press from nicholas yale and a scale from bid or buy – I won a bid for R21 .. less then the shipping fee’s for a grain class scale … whoo hoo ; )

and a set of lee 9mm speed dies… unfortunately  lee doesn’t make these dies anymore, but they are really cool if you can find them – they cost me R180 instead of the R450 that a 3 die set costs normally, and it does a resize, carbide , a Decapping , and flair , bullet seating and then crimp all with one die .. by just taking pieces off or adding extra.

the breech lock cost about R1100 and the scales and powder measure another R800 total… so got in way under budget …

a good reason to reload in ZA is also that you are legally only allowed to have 200 rounds of assembled ammo and 2400 primers and 2kg of powder in your possession, with a standard self defense license, so having the ability to reload expands your ammo store substantially.

I am also getting a set of molds to cast my own bullets… i have some old lead acid batteries i want to reclaim .. and i know everyone says its a lot of work, but it a hobby so i don’t mind , i want to learn whats involved because ultimately should the SHTF I want to be able to make cast bullets with scraps from cars that will be all over the landscape.

which I am going to plate the bullets with copper using some instructions I found on the web … so they don’t lead my barrel to badly.

all you really need is a copper electrode, a battery and some copper sulphate …

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Ok so an update the casting is fun .. used scrap wheel weight and it drops the price down even further … It cost about 8 cents round for a cast bullet … That’s south african rands and cents if you convert its about 1 cent US … That’s a real saving … If I need to clean my barrel more then so be it .. still need to get to the range for some good testing but so far so good

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Another update – I ended up using cast lead covered in Expoxy with HBN powder, worked like a charm.

the plating was a joke — don’t bother the copper doesn’t bond well to the bullets