Cheap Ammo and OPR (other people's reloads)

[NWCustomFirearms]

What do you guys shoot? I know people that shoot nothing but the best and God bless them for being able to afford it. I also know people who shoot nothing but Tula, re-manufactured factory seconds and bottom shelf ammo. I am an avid reloader and have been for over 15 years. I've shot all kinds of ammo, top shelf, OPR, the "white box specials" that you get at the shows. I am all for getting the best price (that's why I load) but if I buy ammo I don't buy the cheapest.

I get asked all the time, especially by newer shooter, what kind of ammo to buy. My advice to everyone, based off my personal experience, who asks is spend the extra dollar or two per box and buy good name brand ammo. Do not buy bottom of the line, or steel case or your friend's cousin's reloads. 9 out of every 10 stuck cases, stuck rounds and squibs that are brought into our shop for pulling are either the cheapest ammo, OPR or re-manufactured. I often tell them that spending an extra couple bucks can save them a lot of money. I have personally had to examine 4 guns over the past 2 years that shot a certain brand of re-manufactured ammo and had a catastrophic failure. Rounds blew up in the gun, before the bolt was closed, complete head/case separation etc. Spend a nickle now to save a dollar in the long run.

Just my 2 cents worth

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[Joe13]

Agreed to a point.

I've shot a few thousand rounds of steel cased Wolf and Tiger 7.62x39 with only one stovepipe thru a SKS.

I have shot about 750 rounds of WRCC reloaded 9mm with zero issues.

I don't buy steel cased stuff anymore (sold the SKS) but I'm still a bargain hunter.

A couple exceptions:
-I won't buy TulAmmo anything.

-Rem Golden Bullets (.22lr) are dirty and junk rounds.

-No reloads from a person, only licensed companies.


I also don't own any guns that are ammo picky. I plink with 7.62 NATO (brass) surplus with my .308 hunting rifle on the off season to stay in tune with it.

 

[techiej]

My son & I only shoot my own reloads or 22lr.

The only exception is that for a 'new' to us gun we will run a box of WWB first so that if there is a problem they can't blame my reloads.

 

[Member 5605]

My son & I only shoot my own reloads or 22lr.

The only exception is that for a 'new' to us gun we will run a box of WWB first so that if there is a problem they can't blame my reloads.

I used to shoot Blazer a lot, no white box ammo. Remington, Federal and other middle tier and some higher tier.

My AR plinking was the cheap stuff. Always. Wanted to ensure it would run with the worst possible ammo.

Now days the only ammo I buy is .22LR and shotgun. Can't speak of store ammo in the current period.

Reloading for 4-1/2 years.

 

[Member 34319]

Depends on the application.

Range time with the AR or one of the pistols (mostly 9mm) = The cheapest version of a reload I can create. If not that then the cheapest ammo the firearm will eat.

Home defense and such = the best I can afford.

I'll shoot trusted friends reloads, as well as re manufactured. I'm not picky, I have many tools in my shed, if one fails do to a slip up from a bad ammunition, I go and grab the spare tool.

I don't own any Ferrari's or Lambo's, so i don't need to buy the premium fuels.

 

[evltwn]

I have reloaded for years. I cast my plinking boolits, but purchase quality projectiles for self defense rounds. Every receive gets chronographed, and added to my spreadsheet. I'm not sure if I get more satisfaction from shooting a lot, or reloading a lot. Kind of an endless circle of enjoy,ent

 

[NWCustomFirearms]

Agreed to a point.

I've shot a few thousand rounds of steel cased Wolf and Tiger 7.62x39 with only one stovepipe thru a SKS.

I have shot about 750 rounds of WRCC reloaded 9mm with zero issues.

I don't buy steel cased stuff anymore (sold the SKS) but I'm still a bargain hunter.

A couple exceptions:
-I won't buy TulAmmo anything.

-Rem Golden Bullets (.22lr) are dirty and junk rounds.

-No reloads from a person, only licensed companies.


I also don't own any guns that are ammo picky. I plink with 7.62 NATO (brass) surplus with my .308 hunting rifle on the off season to stay in tune with it.

I'm with you, on the rare occasion that I do have to buy ammo I stay as far away from tula as possible. I have had several get stuck in my AR's, Mini 14 and even a Rem 700.

I had a case of re-manufactured ammo, from a local licensed dealer, and when I finally got around to looking through the ammo I found several cracked cases, shortened rounds where the bullet was seated too deep which would cause a high pressure situation. I'm all for shooting budget, just not bottom shelf.

 

[ageingstudent]

I don't care for steel case ammo. Not picking on HSM I appreciate the reasonable price on their practice ammo, but I bought a box of .45acp last year and holy poppers that stuff was hot! It had my P220 knocking me around like a .44 mag.

I find that S&B and brass cased tullammo are ok and sometimes buy it on sale. I like S&B brass as well as PMC. Also like Blazer Brass just fine.

I would shoot a direct trusted friends reloads. Not a friend of a friend.

I reload 500S&W for a good friend but I taught him a lot about pressure and how to work up safe loads before I handed him a box of ammo.

 

[Mark W.]

I typically will buy one or two boxes of factory ammo when I get a new firearm. I then collect up the brass and dies to reload.

For decades now almost everything I pull the trigger on save .22 rimfire and shot shells come from my own bench.

 

[mrblond]

Only Remans I buy are Freedom and I use them for range only. If I am buying to store, its either IMI or Federal.
Id never buy reloads from anyone, known or not.

 

[edslhead]

I got some old reloaded 243 from a friend and like an idiot used some to sight in my Ruger precision first time out. Didnt make it through the first mag and got nasty squib. What a pain in the butt to get that out. Wont do that again

 

[NWCustomFirearms]

I don't care for steel case ammo. Not picking on HSM I appreciate the reasonable price on their practice ammo, but I bought a box of .45acp last year and holy poppers that stuff was hot! It had my P220 knocking me around like a .44 mag.

I find that S&B and brass cased tullammo are ok and sometimes buy it on sale. I like S&B brass as well as PMC. Also like Blazer Brass just fine.

I would shoot a direct trusted friends reloads. Not a friend of a friend.

I reload 500S&W for a good friend but I taught him a lot about pressure and how to work up safe loads before I handed him a box of ammo.

HSM is a brand I had forgotten about. I have a couple boxes laying around in .45LC that I picked up in a swap meet last year. I haven't shot them yet and was hesitant ever since I had a guy bring in an AR with one of their (live) rounds stuck in the chamber. After much much effort we ended up buying a new barrel. Still have the barrel and it's been soaking in kroil for some time now... maybe I should give it another shot lol

 

[ageingstudent]

HSM is a brand I had forgotten about. I have a couple boxes laying around in .45LC that I picked up in a swap meet last year. I haven't shot them yet and was hesitant ever since I had a guy bring in an AR with one of their (live) rounds stuck in the chamber. After much much effort we ended up buying a new barrel. Still have the barrel and it's been soaking in kroil for some time now... maybe I should give it another shot lol

So the round jammed in the chamber but not in far enough to lock up?

 

[NWCustomFirearms]

So the round jammed in the chamber but not in far enough to lock up?

Correct, it went in just far enough in to ALMOST lock it up and completely solidify that round in the chamber.

 

[ozmosis]

Well here is my "Gun show reload" story. Many years ago when I was living in Oklahoma I bought a bunch of factory loaded ammo from a vender who also manufactured ammo. Bought a box of his custom loaded .40 to try out and it shot pretty well and beat the factory by a few dollars. So after talking to him for a while I bought a few more boxes and went to the range.
After a few magazines I had a complete Kaboom, slide was knocked of its rails and the frame split down the middle. My hand was bleeding and I also was very lucky because I was wearing my safety glasses. I called him up and he said it was my pistol not his custom ammo, but he replaced my firearm anyways and also replaced his custom ammo with factory federal. So as we are transferring SW99s we get to talking and he says that it will be good to have a .40 in his inventory. I say, you don't test your loads in a gun? He says he just goes off the published data in the load books. I am thinking you sell ammo online to people, at shows and have a automated ammo factory but you dont do load tests with actual guns? Well at least I got a new gun out of all this. Granted this was over 12 years ago but I learned a lot.

So I reload now, with extreme attention to detail from all this. Found a box of his "custom" ammo last year and broke down a few just to satisfy my curiosity. Of the 10 I broke down, most were 4.9 grains but 3 were 6.5 grains and I remember he said he used a Shotgun powder for the .40 so you guessed it. Over loaded for sure. Plus I suspect that his automatic loading machine may have been a factor.

 

[etrain16]

I stay away from steel cased ammo. I've used aluminum cased ammo with no issues (when it was the only thing available. Overall I do prefer to stay with brass and now that I'm starting to reload, I want cases I can reuse. I don't really have a preferred brand when it comes to plinking ammo, and to date, I've never had a problem with WWB in 9mm, .40 or .45. I typically buy what's on sale to help conserve the cash.

In the class I recently took, we went through about 450 rounds during our time there. Mix of Blazer, WWB, some import ammo in an orange box and I think some Remington UMC. Every single round went bang, not a single failure. Gun and ammo 100%

I would also like to add as a side note that I'm up to about 1,500 rounds in my M&P 9c carry gun now - and to date, not a single failure - clean, dirty, cheap ammo, good defensive ammo, doesn't seem to matter, that gun just plain works.

 

[The Nothing]

Honestly, aside from one transaction here, I haven't found a cheap enough price on reloads to even consider them (.40s&w). Most places, after shipping, ends up just about the same as white box Federal RPT that I pick up at NWArmory, so that is what I use.

 

[mcfoto]

Honestly, aside from one transaction here, I haven't found a cheap enough price on reloads to even consider them (.40s&w). Most places, after shipping, ends up just about the same as white box Federal RPT that I pick up at NWArmory, so that is what I use.

I use Freedom but the only way it makes sense is to use the brass trade in program and wait for a sale or free shipping. Last week ordered 500 rounds of 9mm with the total payout of $18. I've used their reman in the past with no issues but have gone to buying new as the difference is $.02 a round which is worth it for a little piece of mind.

 

[ageingstudent]

Correct, it went in just far enough in to ALMOST lock it up and completely solidify that round in the chamber.

Oh wow man. That ain't right. Don't know any way to get that out safely.

 

[The Nothing]

I use Freedom but the only way it makes sense is to use the brass trade in program and wait for a sale or free shipping. Last week ordered 500 rounds of 9mm with the total payout of $18. I've used their reman in the past with no issues but have gone to buying new as the difference is $.02 a round which is worth it for a little piece of mind.

I've been stockpiling my brass for that same reason. How much did you send?