Incredible reloading finds

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Dale shaver

Dale shaver

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if you would, please share with us great reloading finds you have come across in your venture. It could be a rare die you have been looking for or a great deal on a piece of equipment. Just whatever you have experienced. Mine was buying a reloaders Supply of equipment and components at an incredible price. It started my hobby in 2008. A friend who worked with my wife her husband passed away and she just needed to get rid of it and get rid of it she did. 8000 bucks worth for only 2000. Praise the Lord what a find. What’s yours?
 
In 1980 I bought a used C-H reloading press. I have resized over 100,000 rounds on that $75 press in the last 38 years and it's as good today as it was when Jimmy Carter was president.
 
I got these two Lyman Ideal molds and an estate sale for $25 each one set of blocks had the handles. The old caster that owned the molds left the last bullets he had cast in the molds which was a common practice at one time. I have those bullets displayed on my reloading bench in remembrance of the old caster.

Left to Right Lyman/Ideal 357443 & Lyman 358477
im5nh63.jpg
 
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No deals on equipment, but I scored 3 - 8# jugs of Universal Clays from a guy moving who didn't want the powder. He was getting out of trap shooting.
All 3 jugs for........$120.00. That was about 6yrs ago.

Guess what powder I use the most......lol. :thumbup:
 
RockChucker Supreme press
8 sets of dies RCBS and Lyman
Probably 10,000 shotgun hulls: 12, 20, and .410
30+ pounds of various smokeless powder: H110, 3031, BlueDot, RedDot, GreenDot VN130, Retumbo, TightGroup, 4895, Herco, Unique etc.
15 pounds of 777 and Jim Shockey
Probably 3,000 pieces of various pistol and rifle brass: 44, 30-06, 270, 38/357, 7mm Mag, 444 and some others.
4k-5k primers: LP, SP, LR, SR, and 209
Case trimmer
Powder scales
2 reloading manuals
And I can’t even remember what else....for $450.
 
I once bought a truckload (pickup heaping full) of gear for a hundred bucks, but as luck would have it the hundred bucks immediately came back and a Marlin 60 left my truck to go to its new home. I got lots of bullets, brass, primers, dies, powder drops etc. The standout items in my mind were a thumbler tumbler, mitutoyo calipers and micrometers, and a 300 pound pile of 9mm cast lead. I still use part of the stuff, and I have not bought a single pistol bullet except for a single box of 10mm since then. I got my money back 2 days later by selling a pair of RCBS powder drops. I traded part of the lot out on AR parts too. On top of all that, the stuff was packed in good stuff too. I have 3 Korea era Army foot lockers in decent shape, several ammo cans, and large galvanized buckets of brass. Probably my best score yet.
 
I was given a 20ga and a 12 ga Lee Load all, 4 lbs of various powder, a 5 gal bucket of hulls, 1000 wads and a bag of 4, 5,and 6 shot. A coworker had them from his grandfather in-law. I only shoot clays about 2 times a year so I should be good for a while.
7/8 of #4 is killer on rabbit.
 
Many, many years ago I started reloading because I was shooting a 10 gauge for waterfowl and shells were incredibly expensive. Like $20 to $25 for a box of 25.

I got to buying my components from a single local shop and developed a good relationship with the owner. One day I was buying wads when he asked me if I was interested in some new Alcan hulls. The upshot was he had 1000 new hulls that he had had for a number of years and Alcan had stopped production of new 10 gauge hulls some years before. I offered him $10 for a hunderd of them (it's all I could afford at the time. I was a USAF A1C). He said he wanted them gone and let them all go for my $10!

Actually, I think he felt sorry for me at the time. :oops:
 
Dale shaver said:
if you would, please share with us great reloading finds you have come across in your venture. It could be a rare die you have been looking for or a great deal on a piece of equipment. Just whatever you have experienced. Mine was buying a reloaders Supply of equipment and components at an incredible price. It started my hobby in 2008. A friend who worked with my wife her husband passed away and she just needed to get rid of it and get rid of it she did. 8000 bucks worth for only 2000. Praise the Lord what a find. What’s yours?
Click to expand...
I just had a deputy sheriff that I know give me more .243 bullets than i'll ever use and 8lbs of vitoi160. All because he got it from his father in law and "didn't know what to do with it all"
 
When I was on the road I stopped at a flea market set up in a field out of town and found a box with a Lee 3 hole turret. Lee 1000, Lyman single stage, old Ideal cast bullet lube/ sizer and a RCBS lubrisizer. Had a post it marked $25 so I bought it. Everything was in great shape.
 
Ironicaintit said:
Heck, I'm tickled if somebody just gives me free used brass!
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Yea me too. I have asked many friends and family to pick up their brass after shooting and I think it has happened maybe four times since 2008. All the other brass I had to buy or trade for.
 
Scooter22 said:
When I was on the road I stopped at a flea market set up in a field out of town and found a box with a Lee 3 hole turret. Lee 1000, Lyman single stage, old Ideal cast bullet lube/ sizer and a RCBS lubrisizer. Had a post it marked $25 so I bought it. Everything was in great shape.
Click to expand...
They wanted to get rid of it
 
Sauer Grapes said:
No deals on equipment, but I scored 3 - 8# jugs of Universal Clays from a guy moving who didn't want the powder. He was getting out of trap shooting.
All 3 jugs for........$120.00. That was about 6yrs ago.

Guess what powder I use the most......lol. :thumbup:
Click to expand...
Always good to get supplies you don’t have to pay taxes, shipping, or hazmat fee. You saved on all three
 
Just a few years ago Local Gander Mountain was getting out of reloading supplies. I got 1# jugs of H-380 and AA 2230 for $10

One of the things I’ve thought about is make by up some kind of cards or flyers to put on bulletin boards in grocery stores, banks, etc

Flyer would say “I legally and safety remove unwanted ammunition, reloading components, and unwanted firearms”. Wondering if one could find anything that way. Dunno.
 
Shortly after I started casting last year I lucked out on an estate sale and got 320 pounds of wheel weight ingots for 70 bucks and a pound of the honey I produce from backyard hives.
 
I've found a few bargains over the years. I bought several MTM 100 round rifle ammo boxes for $2 each. They were in a discontinued color (gray). I found several cast iron ingot molds once for $2 each, a Lyman and a few other brands. I bought 2 pallets of 50Cal ammo cans for less than $2 each a few years ago. I've had 2 friends quit reloading that gave me their entire set-ups. These were passed along to other new reloaders. I recently bought 5600# of sorted lead wheel weights for 40 cent a pound. Maybe a few other things back through the years.
 
A local shop took in a couple of guns and a box of casting/reloading stuff. The box contained a nice RCBS .44 mold, a couple Lee whack-a-mole reloading kits, a couple hundred bullets, and various other tools. They wanted $30 for the box, but were willing to go down to $25...

I bought a Thompson Contender from a guy who got it from a friend and he had a box of reloading supplies that he was going to throw out unless I wanted them. The box had 2,000+ primers, a pound of IMR3031, a couple hundred 7mm-08 bullets and brass and reloading dies. This was along with a bunch of .223 and 375 Win brass, bullets and dies that came with the Contender for free.
 
At an estate sale last spring, Bonanza beam scale in original box, 2 lb of genuine fffg black powder, Handloaders Digest 1995 and an old leather holster that doesn't fit any of my guns but, I might be able to cut and re-stitch to fit my SP101, and a 5 pound box of miscellaneous .357 bullets all for $22. .A nearly new thumlers tumbler for $15 Bonus: 3 pot dutch oven set in a wooden carry box, $30.
 
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Saw a Dillon SDB in 9mm on craiglist at an estate sale for $400. Called on it on a Friday to see if she still had it, but couldn’t make it out before the sale was over as I had family stuff come up. Texted the seller on Monday and apologized for not making it and told her I wished her well assuming it was sold. She texted back that it was not sold and that the estate liquidation offered her $140 for it. I asked her what her best cash price thinking it would be more, but she said $100. I met her 30minutes later and had it in hand. Turns out it was a couple downsizing for a move, and they were glad I could use it. We had a great conversation and I took it home. About 3 weeks later she texts and asks if I wanted “the stuff that went with it”. She had found another box of stuff and told me it was mine if I wanted it. I couldn’t get over there fast enough. It had a Dillon beam scale, a Lyman Turbo Twin, 1000 once fired brass, an RCBS bullet puller, a set of calipers, several bags of tumbling media, and several bullet trays! I offered to pay her for it, but she was just really happy that someone could use “all that old stuff. “
 
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