renaissance, I load rainier 124 HP bullets.
These are plated, not jacketed, but they shoot fine at +p velocities, even 357SIG velocities.
I buy bullets, primers, and powders in bulk in large quantities.
Sometimes, with shipping all the stuff adds up to slightly over $3.00 a box, but not much.
Even when buying in small quantities, you can load with plated bullets for under $4.00 a box, in 9mm.
Sometimes, you forget that you even pay that much for them when you have a full ammo can or two.
But sometimes you get all the packages at once and the big bills all have to be paid at once.
Priorities.
I constantly check for sales/large quantity price breaks, etc.
Right now natchez has 9mm HP rainier bullets $42.53 per thousand.
Not a great price, not a bad one.
4.2 cents per bullet.
Other brands of plated bullet are sometimes less expensive. Check around.
I've used rainier's because they have always worked well for me.
Buying in lots of 5000+, a lot of companies will give you significant unadvertized price breaks.
Also check with your suppliers for free shipping, and price breaks if you spend over $500.00 at once.
I like
http://www.grafs.com/
They have cheeeeeeeeaaaap shipping and a 5% price break over $500.00. Call or go to their site.
I use CCI primers, and get them locally in quantity, cheaper than online, no hazmat charges.
Buying powder in 8 lb. kegs gets the price down as well, too.
HS-6, my 9mm powder runs about $12.00 a pound if you shop around, and a pound does over 1000 loads, with my 6.8 grain load.
Graf and sons pays the hazMat charge if you buy 4 kegs, and has almost free shipping.
I'm sure you can do it cheaper if you use a powder that uses a smaller charge, but I like HS-6, and I stick with what works.
I also trade, and use the barter system, for instance, I trade my 9mm reloads to a senior range member for spent brass.
I trade 50 rounds of 9mm reloads for 400 rounds of .40 brass.
Figuring $4.00 a box for my reloads, I just got .40 brass, inspected, and tumbled (He does it when he sorts it.) for a penny a piece. No shipping, no tax. Actually less than that, because it doesn't cost me $4.00 a box to load 9mm.
Then I trade the .40 that I loaded to a good friend of mine for 9mm brass that his friends collect for him.
And so on...
My dillon press has paid for itself so many times over that I thought about upgrading, but mine works so well, I don't want to mess with it.
