Real-tail cost of shooting Percussions

I calculated what its cost me to shoot my Hawken since last thursday - walked into a gunshop, and purchased everything but lube for shooting a hundred rounds. I am flabbergasted to say the least, and know that mucho dollars can be saved by using my pillow ticking from Wally's Mart, Goex ordered from Powder Inc., casting my own balls, and using my own lube concoction with beeswax and olive oil, or Murphys and alcohol.

powder = 20.00 Pyrodex select
patches= 6.00 T/C .018 prelubed
balls= 8.00 hornady .490 round
caps = 3.00 Remington #11
lube= 1.00 SPG to "wet" the old dry patches
-------------------------------
38.00

This is actually a little on the low side since I rounded off downwards on the caps, the balls, and the patches. To make up for it I tallied the lube cost at 1.00, because the patches I purchased had dried out and turned orange, so I lubed them.

Also keep in mind, that I have not included the cost of cotton patches for wiping. Started wiping after each shot to simulate hunting condition shooting, since I will be firing from a fresh bore, I shot each shot of this hundred, with a bore as if it had been loaded and then went hunting.
Depending on ones management of fouling, thats an added cost.

38 cents per shot, minimum???? If going the retail shooting supplies market :cry:

If I pay 60.00 for an rcbs ball mould, I can pay for it after 800 rounds because I have a Ton of lead stored up.

Pillow ticking .018 is cheap at wall mart, 3.50 per yard.

Goex is 14.00 per pound delivered, as opposed to 19.99 per pound of Pyrodex select. (Get good results with select because I drop tube it to the breach.)

Lube, inexpensive enough, Cant cut any costs there. since Im not going to be buying lube for round balls but making my own from hereafter.

Sure surprised me.

 

[Rebel]

You can pay for the mould a lot quicker if you pay about $17 for a Lee mould from www.midsouthshooters.com
The Lee moulds work fine. I have one in .50 and one in .690. No problems with them.

 

Yeah, it's gotten pretty crazy - just like smokeless cartridge reloading, which used to be cheap. I originally got into reloading because I had a 44-40 WCF pistol and the shells were $25 for 50 back in the late 1970's. Then the components makers got wise and did a few calculations before raising prices.

Locally, I pay $15 for Goex, $4 for caps and $7 for 100 balls then make my own lube and patches - still $.26 a shot. I don't own a mold for my 54 so it's my highest cost ML rifle to shoot. Need to go ahead and get a Lee mold...

 

[goofball]

Thank you, Apache, you have confirmed what I suspected. I got into BP thinking it would be less expensive than cartridge guns. It is not. It is just more fun than cartridge guns. :m2c:

 

[roundball]

I calculated what its cost me to shoot my Hawken since last thursday - walked into a gunshop, and purchased everything but lube for shooting a hundred rounds. I am flabbergasted to say the least, and know that mucho dollars can be saved by using my pillow ticking from Wally's Mart, Goex ordered from Powder Inc., casting my own balls, and using my own lube concoction with beeswax and olive oil, or Murphys and alcohol.

powder = 20.00 Pyrodex select
patches= 6.00 T/C .018 prelubed
balls= 8.00 hornady .490 round
caps = 3.00 Remington #11
lube= 1.00 SPG to "wet" the old dry patches
-------------------------------
38.00

This is actually a little on the low side since I rounded off downwards on the caps, the balls, and the patches. To make up for it I tallied the lube cost at 1.00, because the patches I purchased had dried out and turned orange, so I lubed them.

Also keep in mind, that I have not included the cost of cotton patches for wiping. Started wiping after each shot to simulate hunting condition shooting, since I will be firing from a fresh bore, I shot each shot of this hundred, with a bore as if it had been loaded and then went hunting.
Depending on ones management of fouling, thats an added cost.

38 cents per shot, minimum???? If going the retail shooting supplies market :cry:

If I pay 60.00 for an rcbs ball mould, I can pay for it after 800 rounds because I have a Ton of lead stored up.

Pillow ticking .018 is cheap at wall mart, 3.50 per yard.

Goex is 14.00 per pound delivered, as opposed to 19.99 per pound of Pyrodex select. (Get good results with select because I drop tube it to the breach.)

Lube, inexpensive enough, Cant cut any costs there. since Im not going to be buying lube for round balls but making my own from hereafter.

Sure surprised me.

FYI...if you think you'll do enough shooting in a couple years or can split it with someone, a case of Goex can be delivered for $10/Lb...I get mine from J&JPyrotechnics in Moscow, PA.

I hawk the various auctions constantly and usually run across large quantities of prelubed Oxyoke and/or TC patches in the range of $2.50-$4.00/100...and every now and then get a great delivered price on a few boxes of Hornady/Speer balls.

Remember, the post office now has a special priority mail box for a flat rate of $7.70 to ship everything you can fit into it, anywhere in the country, regardless of the weight...the box is like a foot square so the more you buy at one time defrays the shipping so it's very reasonable.

My average flintlock target load is .22 cents...and a full power hunting load with an oxyoke wonderwad averages .32 cents (but I don't shoot many hunting loads once a rifle is sighted in)

 

[Zonie]

It could have been worse.
If you had one of the neet new plastic stocked Modern Muzzleloaders you could have bought some Barnes Expander MZ Sabots at $20.99/25 (($83.96 per hundred).
Then just the projectile would cost you 83 cents per shot!

Of course you wouldn't want to shoot such a good bullet with only 70 grains of powder so you would need to increase the powder load to at least 130 grains. At $20/pound for powder that would be .37 cents/shot.

The #209 primers are 3 cents each.
Of course you don't need no stinkeeeen patches so you save money there. No lube either...more money saved.

Now, for a grand total that equals $1.23 Per Shot

Now aren't you glad your shooting round balls?

 

[Pittsburghunter]

I guess this is a good time to remind all you folks to look at the bargin bins. The last time I did that I found for $32.90 1-pound 3f Goex. 40 rounds of 370g T/C Maxi Hunter, 20 rounds of the 355g Maxihunter 50 wadds for my .44 pistol , 100rounds of .44 balls an extra load measure and some half shot boxes of rounds.

 

[arcticap]

I realize that at times one really doesn't have any choice but to pay the piper. But I'm always looking for clearance items whenever I go to out of town Walmarts, etc... Also, whenever I go to a gun show I do the same. Lot's of stuff at half price. Tag sales, Ebay, etc...you have to scout the deals just like when your hunting deer, or else you become the prey! :kid:

 

[Slamfire]

I think you've overstated the cost of your powder. Unless you are using a 700 grain charge you'll get more than 100 shots from a pound of pyro. If you use a 70 grain charge you'd get 1000 shots.

 

[750k2]

70gr is 100 to the lb.

 

[Bob Riegl]

Listen this is a hobby and a pastime---and you get relaxation, enjoyment and diversion from the mundane. You get a chance to exercise your imagination, like when you were a kid, and stimulate your cortex towards the better things in life. I do not put a price on my pastimes, if I did I might have myself committed. If you have to sit down and add up your costs, that's detracting from your pleasure. Don't put a price on this and ruin it for yourself---just try to live within your means and it all works out. Remember " he who dies with the most ML equipment wins the game...." :m2c:

 

[lanedh]

In re Pasquenel--

DITTO, DITTO, DITTO !!

 

Of course you could cut costs a lot by buying real BP in bulk (split it with your pals), cutting you own patches from ticking, using spit lube or homemade lube--the cost of caps is the cost of caps--and molding your own roundballs using scrap lead. Back when I started shooting BP everyone used spit or Crisco, now we are overloaded with lubes--spit works jes' fine, thanks--and it is free. The sport can cost less or it can cost more, depends on how you do it!

 

If you use a 70 grain charge you'd get 1000 shots.

Im using 90 grains by volume, per shot. I believe Pryo is lighter than Real BP, so you get in reality 20 percent or 30 percent more shots in a pound of Pyro than you would Goex. but if we look at it by weight, just to get kind of close, so as to dispute the 1000 shots (I think you have a typo here?) and ignore volume -

7000 divided by 100 = 70 shots
7000 divided by 70 grains (weight) = 100 shots
7000 DIvided by 90 grains (weight) = 78+

to make it clear, on the pyrodex, i load by VOLUME, and not by weight. With Real black powder I find that a scale measured charge of Goex is pretty close to a volume measured quantity. Pyrodex must be some really fluffy stuff.

anyway, Mainly I was just looking at how I wasnt shooting the Front stuffer any cheaper than my 308 Tactical rifle, and so I had a new found respect for the economics every time I pulled the trigger. As far as getting more bang for my buck, One shot of the ML, is twice the satisfaction of the centerfire.

I was just trying to figure out how to get more trigger time from my money spent, which I think is rational, anyway. GOEX, Stumkillers moose snot, Casting balls with the Lee aluminum mould, buying pillow tick from wal mart, all will reduce costs and increase shooting. Suppose I could rob all my neighbors cars of their wheel weights to reduce lead consumption? :kid: Percussion caps are a pain, and I look forewards to a flint lock, for the independance of cap buying. I didnt know all this hazmat stuff when I first started shooting the rifle because I had a billion caps from my cap and ball old army.

 

Then just the projectile would cost you 83 cents per shot!
The #209 primers are 3 cents each.
Now aren't you glad your shooting round balls?

Yes, I had a while back considered putting a ML barrel on my encore, but after looking into it further, decided not to spend 250 bucks on the inline when I find in my heart, im a flintlock round ball shooter, in the muzzle loader arts. If I want long range thump, Ill stick to my 1874 sharps.

 

[roundball]

Right...and Hodgdon's reloading manual says that a 100grn volume measure of their Pyrodex only actually weighs 85grns.

So a 7000grn pound of Pyrodex will yield 82 powder charges that are poured into a 100grn volume measure.
(7000grns divided by 85grns = 82)

 

[Pittsburghunter]

Pasquenel is of course right if I did this to be cheap I would still just own my CVA Missouri rifle a bullet mould and black powder. I am in it for fun and sometimes spend way too much money on exotic bullets or such. I own more M/L than my friends own regular rifles the exception being a collector friend.

What blows my mind is having to pay $8 for a pack of 50 wadds for my pistol. WIUWT????

 

[mississippi]

I got my Pyrodex at wall mart back in Feb. after deer hunting was over for $5.00 a lbs 70g a shoot that's 5 cent a load, I got 6 lbs

 

[Slamfire]

70gr is 100 to the lb.

I agree with your version of arithmetic, but only in the daylight when I'm awake.

 

[Regulis7]

I use Pyro RS in my New Englander .50 because thats the powder that yields the best accuracy under a RB for me. I purchase my RS at Wal Mart after hunting season at reduced prices. Back in Jan-Feb I bought the 2lbs of RS at the closeout price of $5 a can.

Before I started using the RS in my New Englander, I was using Goex FFg. I have several friends who do WBTS re-enactments and shoot in NSSA competitions, so I would have them pick me up a couple lbs of FFg for around $8 per can when they attended shoots and meets.

Another friend owns a 3" ordnance rifle (canon) and uses light charges of FFg in the canon and unit rifles during WBTS re-enactments. His unit orders in bulk so I usually toss in for a "can or two" when they make an order, still around $8 per can.

Roundball has always been my most expensive local purchase, about $10.99 per 100 for Hornady .490. I have found them cheaper online buy shipping charges generally drive the price back up to local cost unless I can make a large order to help reduce the per item shipping charges. Eventually I will get setup to cast my own, but until then I rely on store bought balls.

The cost of shooting my .50 is not much less than some of my centerfires, but its a whole lot more fun! So long as the fun is in the shoot I will keep shooting my .50cal ML!

Regulis7