Where are you sourcing bullets?

[brandonsmash]

I'm doing some .357 reloading again and have about 700 heads in stock. After loading up a few hundred I went to order some more (125gr or 158gr FMJ) but my normal source is out of what I usually buy. Generally I'd buy Armscor or Speer heads for 12 to 14 cents a pop from Graf's. Now those are all out of stock and the cheapest I can find are XTPs for 22 cpr.

Am I missing something? Is there a better place to buy components? I know primers and powder are hard to find right now, but bullets too? Should I just go ahead and buy XTPs?

 

[knockonit]

so any objection to coated boolits.

 

[High Standard]

Xtreme Bullets makes a nice 357 plated bullet you can push up to 1,500fps. I don’t usually go much over 1,200 but their website says up to 1,500. I use a lot of their plated 9mm bullets. They are very nice quality and shoot very well. I usually use jacketed bullets for target work but for practice a plated or coated boolit is great and sell for good prices.

Prices run from just under 10 cents to just over 10 cents a round from the Xtreme website. But before you order them straight from Xtreme try checking out the prices with shipping over at Sages Reloading Supply. They are usually a couple bucks cheaper and their CS and shipping cannot be beat.

 

[brandonsmash]

I don't have a ton of experience loading coated boolits other than <1k Hi-Tek bullets I bought a whole bunch of years ago. I like to be able to push light to moderate magnum velocities through my rounds and I'm not sure how coated projos stand up to this. I know I've had bad experiences with lead fouling before, though.

 

[brandonsmash]

Xtreme Bullets makes a nice 357 plated bullet you can push up to 1,500fps. I don’t usually go much over 1,200 but their website says up to 1,500. I use a lot of their plated 9mm bullets. They are very nice quality and shoot very well. I usually use jacketed bullets for target work but for practice a plated or coated boolit is great and sell for good prices.

Prices run from just under 10 cents to just over 10 cents a round from the Xtreme website. But before you order them straight from Xtreme try checking out the prices with shipping over at Sages Reloading Supply. They are usually a couple bucks cheaper and their CS and shipping cannot be beat.

Huh! I used to shoot a ton of Xtreme bullets but got away from them because I was worried about plating failure at magnum velocities. 1,200fps is normally about where I keep my plinking .357 loads. I'll give Sage's a look.

 

[High Standard]

Huh! I used to shoot a ton of Xtreme bullets but got away from them because I was worried about plating failure at magnum velocities. 1,200fps is normally about where I keep my plinking .357 loads. I'll give Sage's a look.

Here is the link to their site with some info:
https://www.xtremebullets.com/Bullet-Load-Info-s/1952.htm

And they have a very basic reloading manual:
https://www.xtremebullets.com/category-s/50195.htm

 

[338lapua]

If I am buying bullets it is from these guys, quality product, jacketed bullets you can push faster and they are right on spec from bullet to bullet. The weight difference between bullets is usually in tenths of grains if not dead on the weight.They do have blems from time to time and they sell plated from time to time from other companies




https://www.rmrbullets.com/

 

[338lapua]

Xtreme Bullets makes a nice 357 plated bullet you can push up to 1,500fps. I don’t usually go much over 1,200 but their website says up to 1,500. I use a lot of their plated 9mm bullets. They are very nice quality and shoot very well. I usually use jacketed bullets for target work but for practice a plated or coated boolit is great and sell for good prices.

Prices run from just under 10 cents to just over 10 cents a round from the Xtreme website. But before you order them straight from Xtreme try checking out the prices with shipping over at Sages Reloading Supply. They are usually a couple bucks cheaper and their CS and shipping cannot be beat.

Huh! I used to shoot a ton of Xtreme bullets but got away from them because I was worried about plating failure at magnum velocities. 1,200fps is normally about where I keep my plinking .357 loads. I'll give Sage's a look.

I used to shoot a lot of Extremes and I was running 1200 for pistols and in rifles their pistol bullets would get close to 1400. Never had a problem as I believe they thick plate and swage them a second time after plating. I went to RMR as their shipping is cheaper, shipping is in the price and they have a optional $4 insurance.

 

[Suck My Glock]

I use https://ammoseek.com/ to look for the best deals on components.

Through them, you can find deals like this one. https://www.selwayarmory.com/berry-s-bullets-38-357-caliber-357-158-gr-plated-fp-box-of-1-000.html

 

[High Standard]

Xtreme Bullets makes a nice 357 plated bullet you can push up to 1,500fps. I don’t usually go much over 1,200 but their website says up to 1,500. I use a lot of their plated 9mm bullets. They are very nice quality and shoot very well. I usually use jacketed bullets for target work but for practice a plated or coated boolit is great and sell for good prices.

Prices run from just under 10 cents to just over 10 cents a round from the Xtreme website. But before you order them straight from Xtreme try checking out the prices with shipping over at Sages Reloading Supply. They are usually a couple bucks cheaper and their CS and shipping cannot be beat.

Huh! I used to shoot a ton of Xtreme bullets but got away from them because I was worried about plating failure at magnum velocities. 1,200fps is normally about where I keep my plinking .357 loads. I'll give Sage's a look.

I used to shoot a lot of Extremes and I was running 1200 for pistols and in rifles their pistol bullets would get close to 1400. Never had a problem as I believe they thick plate and swage them a second time after plating. I went to RMR as their shipping is cheaper, shipping is in the price and they have a optional $4 insurance.

I used to have so many issues with just about every plated bullet I ever loaded. This was many many years ago. Plating separation and inaccurate bullets was very common. Went back to shooting jacketed only for many years. Montana Golds and RMRs were my fav. When coated bullets became mainstream I started experimenting with them. I have been happy with coated in my revolvers and still load and shoot them regularly. But I prefer jacketed/plated in my 9mm.

In the meantime a guy I shoot with occasionally convinced me to try plated again. He shoots competition and shoots only Berry’s and XTremes. I tried Berry’s and while I got good results, I was a little disappointed in their QC. I went to XTremes and have been very happy with them in 9mm and 357. I hoarded a bunch of XTremes. I have a small stash of RMR’s and Montana Golds still.

I like to spread my reloading dollars around so my next purchase will be RMR again. I have a lot of good reload data for their bullets still. They were a good company with good CS. Thanks for reminding me about them.

 

[High Standard]

Just to add a couple more thoughts to this. There was a point in time during this last shortage that some of the sources I buy bullets from were out of bullets when I wanted to buy some. I always keep a good stash of them just in case. So if they are out I can go back again later to buy. My lesson is to always have data for two or more suppliers for each type of bullet I prefer to shoot for each caliber so I always have a source during shortages and I am not running low on anything. I am also prepared to cast and coat bullets in case of extreme shortages. At current prices and availability I don’t feel it is worth the effort to cast and coat my own except for the obsolete calibers I shoot.

Same goes for other components especially powder and primers. While I was never short on powder I got caught getting low on SPP. When some of the domestic and foreign primers became available I put my credit card to use and had some hard months financially but I am back up to a good level for SPP. I paid up and paid dearly for them. Lesson learned. A two year supply is not enough.

 

[brandonsmash]

I was out of the hobby for a couple years while I focused my time and money on building my business. When I came back I was rather startled to find what had happened to the cost of reloading consumables!

When prices and availability stabilize a bit I'll likely buy primers by the 10k just to have on hand.

For the time being it sounds like I would be wise to give Xtreme another look.

Some of y'all mention reloading 9mm. How is that cost-effective? I just bought another thousand factory rounds for about 25 cpr; how do you get much below that reloading? At best you're going to spend 10c on a bullet, 5c on primer, and 5c on powder. It seems like it would be really hard to amortize savings on 9mm unless you shoot an absolute ton.

 

[High Standard]

I was out of the hobby for a couple years while I focused my time and money on building my business. When I came back I was rather startled to find what had happened to the cost of reloading consumables!

When prices and availability stabilize a bit I'll likely buy primers by the 10k just to have on hand.

For the time being it sounds like I would be wise to give Xtreme another look.

Some of y'all mention reloading 9mm. How is that cost-effective? I just bought another thousand factory rounds for about 25 cpr; how do you get much below that reloading? At best you're going to spend 10c on a bullet, 5c on primer, and 5c on powder. It seems like it would be really hard to amortize savings on 9mm unless you shoot an absolute ton.

Except for the last couple of months (personal issues) I shoot 100-200 rounds of 9mm a week. Mix in some 22 and 38/357 into a week. I don’t necessarily reload due to cost. The cheapest I have seen 9mm lately is 26 cents a round for TulAmmo on a one time sale. I see it regularly for around 30 cents. I’m not a big fan of this ammo for what I am doing. Plinking? Sure. But I don’t plink much with 9mm.

I think I make some pretty good ammo. I tailor my ammo to specific firearms and for specific needs. I enjoy the development process as well. So for me it is not necessarily about cost. However, if brass cased ammo with copper jacketed bullets get down to 25 cents a round I won’t hesitate to supplement my ammo supply with commercial ammo and slow my 9mm production.

 

[XJThrottle]

I just bought another thousand factory rounds for about 25 cpr;

Where was this?

 

[brandonsmash]

I just bought another thousand factory rounds for about 25 cpr;

Where was this?

A sale at PSA. I went in with a buddy of mine to split shipping.

 

[Abbey]

Some of y'all mention reloading 9mm. How is that cost-effective? I just bought another thousand factory rounds for about 25 cpr; how do you get much below that reloading? At best you're going to spend 10c on a bullet, 5c on primer, and 5c on powder. It seems like it would be really hard to amortize savings on 9mm unless you shoot an absolute ton.

Factory 9 is back down to $250/case? At that price, it makes little sense to reload 9mm, IMO. The only reason to reload is if you are trying to get a competition load at just the right power factor, or in my case, I prefer to load subsonic (which is always more $ than 115gr) so I don't have to think too hard about which ammo can I grab from when shooting suppressed.

I'm not shooting as much as I used to, so I'm still using up primers that I stockpiled at significantly cheaper prices than current market. So I'm currently buying 9mm FMJ projectiles for ~$.12 per, primers are a couple cents, Bullseye or N320 powder is pretty cheap at 3.6gr/round. It's mostly just my time that is expensive. Once I'm out of primers, I'll have to re-evaluate.

Before the current supply crunch, I almost got out of reloading. Like you, I was busy with work & decided my time was worth more than the cost of factory ammo and seriously thought about selling most of my reloading gear. Now I think of it as a hedge. When factory ammo is cheap, buy a bunch. When reloading components are available (and not too crazy expensive), buy a bunch.

 

[Abbey]

Oh, to answer your original question, I prefer FMJ bullets. Precision Delta has become my new go to for handgun as they have maintained stock pretty well over the last couple years. When things were really bad, I picked up some coated Blue Bullets to try but then FMJ came back in stock before I loaded them up.

I've been able to get most rifle projectiles too from Midway or wherever. The only ones I haven't seen in awhile are the Berger hybrid 6.5 140gr.

 

[xerts1191]

As cheap as the manufactured 9mm is right now and given the many different grain options I can buy that and save the reloading components for a Biden induced rainy day.

 

[tabascoman79]

Check rockymountainreloading.com or sagesreloadingsupply.com
I buy most my bullets from rmr

 

[knockonit]

blue bayou, free shipping over 200 dugats