ASP 12G shell trimmer

[Desperatezulu]

HEading a little OT, what do you reckon your breakeven price per round is?
Some years back I looked into shotgun reloading (my old man is a die hard shotgun reloader but shoots less than 100 rounds per year) and my conclusion then was that at a price of R3-4/round (or R800-1000/case), reloading made no sense over factory, especially for high volume clay/pigeon ammo.

A primer at 80c, shot load at R2 (assuming R60/kg for shot), powder R1 and wad at R1, you're already approaching R5/pop without the cartidge case, time and amortised cost of reloading equipment.

Now that ammo prices are close to R8 ea for 7.5s and R10/ for heavier shot, the reloading proposition must look more appealing, even though components have also inflated in recent years.
Availability of factory ammo is also increasingly tight, especially for non-clay ammo.

[oafpatroll]

HEading a little OT, what do you reckon your breakeven price per round is?
Some years back I looked into shotgun reloading (my old man is a die hard shotgun reloader but shoots less than 100 rounds per year) and my conclusion then was that at a price of R3-4/round (or R800-1000/case), reloading made no sense over factory, especially for high volume clay/pigeon ammo.

A primer at 80c, shot load at R2 (assuming R60/kg for shot), powder R1 and wad at R1, you're already approaching R5/pop without the cartidge case, time and amortised cost of reloading equipment.

Now that ammo prices are close to R8 ea for 7.5s and R10/ for heavier shot, the reloading proposition must look more appealing, even though components have also inflated in recent years.
Availability of factory ammo is also increasingly tight, especially for non-clay ammo.

Other than buying scrap lead and electricity for the dripper my cost of reloading is pretty much fixed at what I have bought components for over the years. I have enough to cover me, hopefully, for 5 years at my current rate of consumption. I have no idea what a 7.5 28g shell will cost me to make now as the 'parts' have been bought over a long time with some of it being over 10 years or more old. All I know is that it is a great deal less than buying it assembled from a shop nowadays even if I can find it. You're 100% on the money re birdshot for pigeon especially having not been economically viable to load in happier times and that's exactly why I didn't. When I did the numbers 6 or 7 years back it was actually cheaper for me to go into a group buy with two high volume shooter mates and get two years stock in one go than it was to buy the components.

Buck and slugs cost me no more to make than birdshot and have always been a fraction of the cost of buying ammo. Even really With my situation as described above I think my slugs are probably no more than a fifth of what they would cost me to buy as i have all of the bits in inventory including the better part of 500 cast ad powdercoated sveroboy projectiles waiting to be hulled.

Just for a giggle I had a quick look at S&Os prices for buck and slugs which I haven't done for years. Rio 9 pellet 00 buck is R15.80 a pop and the only slugs they list, which are currently out of stock anyway, are B&P 32g @R21.99 a time. Eyes bugged out of head!

I appreciate that buying and holding components has an opportunity cost but I'm not a business and I bought them when they were at good prices (for the day) so i discount that part.

[A-R]

Why not use an overshot card with the bird shot and roll crimp?
Not being funny, I know nothing of shotshell reloading, just interested.

I have an older shotgun with 65mm chambers. Not that I'm using it much, but I keep it for sentimental reasons. To make ammo for it, as buying ammo is problematic, I trim 70mm cases to 65mm. The old Lee Load All 2 has issues putting a star crimp on the shorter cases, but the Lyman roll crimper does not.

Another reason to trim a case and use a roll crimp, is to make a shorter cartridge, which increases the capacity of a tubular magazine on a pump or semi shottie.

Since slug ammo is scarce and pricey, so casting my own slugs and loading them, actually makes sense. A roll crimp shows the slug nose making ammo identification easy. I would not want to load a slug round, thinking it is no 7,5 clays ammo as indicated on the case...

[zguy]

Oaf, what screws do you use to tie the slugs to the wad?
If you do that.

AR, the old shottie, what is it?

[oafpatroll]

Oaf, what screws do you use to tie the slugs to the wad?
If you do that.

AR, the old shottie, what is it?

I cut the cup off off a Jannock wad and use the case as the jig and put a small self tapping coarse thread woodscrew through the slug into the wad base. Despite me assuming that this would be iffy they never seem to separate in flight.

[zguy]

I see when TAOFLEDERMAUS on Youtube load slugs, they also use a short drywall screw to tie it to a plastic wad.
If it works , it works.

[oafpatroll]

I see when TAOFLEDERMAUS on Youtube load slugs, they also use a short drywall screw to tie it to a plastic wad.
If it works , it works.

It's what they designed it to be used with. Same method is used on some of the other svarog slugs too.

[A-R]

AR, the old shottie, what is it?

It is a German cottage industry s/s hammerless shotgun, made in 1919 as far as I can tell. It belonged to my grandfather, who brought it to SA in 1929.

[oafpatroll]

It is a German cottage industry s/s hammerless shotgun, made in 1919 as far as I can tell. It belonged to my grandfather, who brought it to SA in 1929.

What a cool thing to have. The sort of thing that would have to be pried from my cold dead hands. The only one of my grandfather's guns that I still have is the CZ75 Pre-B he gave he for my 19th birthday and that aint going anywhere.

[jehan]

Go old school if you really need slugs ... cut away bird shot shell