To load or not to load...9mm

It is always good to be prepared, gather the components you'll need. Load up some to prove your handloads. Now you are ready for that 'rainy day' when the next panic hits.

I'm like DB in that I don't get a lot enjoyment out of hand loading, but since I can generally hand load ammo for roughly half the price of factory ammo, there's an economic incentive.

Also, the good thing about stock piling components is that powders and primers can be interchanged to load different cartridges. So although I may not hand load 9mm often, I can use W231 to load 40 S&W or 45 ACP. Gives me options.

I don't reload for 9mm; if I competed, I might. At this point, I am content to buy it in bulk.

I do, however, reload for my revolver cartridges: .357 Mag, .44 Spl., .44 Mag, and .45 Colt. The savings are significant.

D.B. Cooper said:

We're at the same place. I'm trying to standardize down to a few powders and buy lots of it.

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This summer is going to be an excellent time to do just that. As families concentrate on vacations, powder and primer prices will drop even more. Powders are already down from $170/ 8 lb to less than $150.

Graf & Sons is currently giving you a free 1 lb can if you buy one of a dozen 8 lb jugs for $128. That works out to be less than $15/ lb !! Their HazMat is also down around $12.
https://www.grafs.com/

It's possible to load quality 9mm with state of the art bullets with selected loads that give performance worlds better than blaster ammo from the big box. For one, if I am shooting B27's at five yards I'd rather save the money and use Black Cat Brand in 9mm. I can carry my reloaded cartridges in my carry gun with state of art bullets. For the ordinary,I cast my own bullets and have scrounged brass in the old days. I got a machine coming that cast many hundreds of bullet in a hour. I think we will have shortages in the future. I for one, will continue to load an shoot. Time reloading? I think of the time spent in front the TV or computer like right now

D.B. Cooper asked:
To load or not to load...9mm

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I load 9mm Parabellum.

But then, over the last 42 years, it has become a matter of personal pride that I load EVERYTHING I shoot (rimfires and first ammunition through a new gun excepted).

Frequently, questions such as these are asked in respect to some sort of supposed cost savings; as if there is direct comparability between the consumption of a commodity and the fulfillment of a hobby. This is a false dichotomy. Full Absorption Accounting demands all inputs to a process be valued. So, unless you are going to value your time as so worth so little that you would envy the wage paid to a child chained to a sewing machine in a Bangladeshi garment factory, there are no significant cost savings to be realized in reloading 9mm. Considering that after retirement my billing rate as a free-lance negotiator went to starting at $180 per hour, a 50-round box of my 9mm reloads would be valued somewhere around $165; the vast majority labor. I like to think of it in these terms because at $3.30 per round, I tend to be more careful with my grip, my sight-picture, my stance and my trigger-pull than I would if I were thinking that each pull of the trigger only cost me about 15 cents.

Reload 9mm if you want to. That's what I do. But, don't kid yourself into thinking that even as a hobby where you ignore the value of your time, that you are realizing anything more than chickenfeed in savings.

Their hazmat fee to Alaska is ninety dollars!!!!!!!I And it must ship next day air.

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That sure sounds funny.
I didn't think powder/primers could go air, I thought it was ground only for HAZMAT.

D.B. Cooper said:

Took me a little while to respond to this. Their hazmat fee to Alaska is ninety dollars!!!!!!!I And it must ship next day air. Cost prohibitive. I really don't know how we survive up here.

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Might be time for you to step up and open your own reloading supply store in Alaska.
Instead of Powder Valley, you could call it Powder Igloo.

Dudedog said:

That sure sounds funny.
I didn't think powder/primers could go air, I thought it was ground only for HAZMAT.

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I have no idea exactly why it is that way, but I suspect it has to do with transport of hazmat materials through Canada opening up a whole can of worms.

I need to do some of my Mousefart 45 Colt loads for my Uberti replica revolver.

ohihunter2014 said:

I really enjoy reloading because I can sit back and say yeah, I made that and look what it did (accuracy) compared to something I would spend more $ on. As far as 9mm goes I load on a LCT with an auto drum and case kicker. Its faster then single stage or powder drops but still time consuming. I usually load a bunch of 9mm during the winter, rainy days, etc. and don't much care how much time it took. I wait until I have a bunch of it and then shoot it. Right now I have about 400rds completed and I will be saving those until my stash gets to 1k and then I will pick away at it. Yeah, the cost savings aren't much but my ammo is more accurate, cheaper and it gives me something to do on crappy days other than watch TV. Yes its worth it to me.

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I have never had a factory box of ammo shoot like this. Don't mind the holes with the slit in them as those are from previous shooting. The red marked ones are 124gr RMR matchwinners at 21ft.

D.B. Cooper said:

So it looks like Federal dropped their aluminum cased 9mm (i.e. cheap) ammo. Does anyone else make a cheap ($7-8/box of 50) 9mm 115grn FMJ? The next best things I can find are Magtech and Winchester NATO at $10/box and Blazer Brass at $11/box. (I'm gun shy about steel cased ammo so avoiding it.)

So at 20¢/ round compared to about 12¢/ round, I'm not sure I should go in to loading 9mm. I use a Lee LCT turret press and can produce about 125 rounds per hour. I figure I can load 9mm for about 12¢/rd; that only saves me about 8¢/rd, or about $10/hr. I'm also loading 44 special at about 14¢/round, but on that caliber, I'm saving 46¢/ round, or about $57/hr. I hate to pay $10-$12/box of ammo for 9mm, but according to basic economic principles, I should be focusing on loading 44 spl; any time I spend reloading 9mm is an economic loss.

Scenario 1: I'm doing this purely as a cost cutting strategy, I don't need hyper-accurate ammo, and that I'm not reloading for the joy and/or sake of reloading in and of itself, what do you guys think? Should I even gear up to reload for 9mm?

Scenario 2: Massive ammo shortages. Should I gear up to reload 9mm not as a cost cutting measure but as a hedge against market fluctuations/hyper-inflation? And if the answer yes, why wouldn't I just buy as much loaded ammo right now as I possibly can afford?

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I am loading my own 9mm. Here is what I see
Case is free - ranges are littered with 9mm if you can get them for nothing then pick them up and take them home. I am getting 10-15 firings out of a 9mm case.
Projectile - Rocky Mounting Reloading 115gr FMJ roughly 7.5 cents delivered to your door. Sometimes they have a sale and they also have a 5% discount for TheHighRoad members.
Primer 3 cents roughly.
Powder - depends on what you use and how much you pay. 1.3 cents for 4.6 grains of bullseye based on $20 per pound divided by 7000 grains multiplied by 4.6 grains I am loading per round.

Net net 11.8 cents per round. If you are purchasing cases add 1 penny per round considering they can be reloaded many times over. Personally I dont shoot steel cased ammo as I have no good reason other than I dont want steel on steel in my guns. I am using a Hornady lock and load and can reasonably make 250 rounds per hour while paying pretty good attention and being very safe. I dont have a case feeder that would probably speed me up to 350 rounds per hour but to be honest I hate this press and at some point will replace it with a Dillon 650.

Net net at 12 cents per round a box of 50 would be $6. At this point its more about enjoyment of reloading than cost savings!

I have been through a shortage or ten before. I already reload so it was just a set of dies to change calibers. I seem to have acquired about 3 five gallon buckets of 9MM brass over the years. So like I do for every other caliber I reload for, I tested out many combos of components and found several good loads that are saved to paper to use IF things go south again. Add to that, my ammo is more accurate and I LIKE reloading, so I do. If all you want is cheap blasting ammo then go out and stock up, then shoot it up. I don't blame you for that. The OP has a few other things to consider living in AK for sure. Up there I would think being able to make something work at least would be a priority in case supplies run short---specially if cash is tight and you cant afford to stock too deep. YMMV

My EDC guns are 9mm and my carry ammo are reloads using 124 gr Speer Gold Dot bullets. I like to practice at the range with loads as close as possible to my EDC rounds.

Even with reloading practice ammo using Speer Gold Dots can get a little expensive. I have found that the RMR MPR 124 gr are close match to Gold Dots and much more economical.

It's too expensive for me to buy factory loaded Gold Dots for both EDC carry and range practice. Reloading 9mm allows me to carry premium Gold Dots and also practice with the high quality the RMR MPR bullets.

It might be hard to put a justifiable savings on this but it is certainly an option as a reloader that I am enjoying.