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Jeremae wrote:Brass: Well I guess you could trim 9mm luger brass down but best bet would be to buy enough new cases beyond what you have now to make a reasonable cache (say 1000) and pick it up as you shoot it. 9mm is a little more high pressure than 45 but you should be able to reload them at least 10 times or more.

Bullets: Never looked for 9mm mak bullets, try contacting people like Montana Gold, Ranier etc and see if they make them but don't list on their web page. You could try hard cast lead bullets but as has been said, they may require more effort to clean due to fouling of the barrel.

I'm sure there are forums dedicated to the mak where you could get some help.

You might look up the phone number for Coal Creek Armory in Tennesse, one of their employees blogs and she has maks. Maybe she could point you toward bulk suppliers.

It takes a little more than trimming for that. 9x18 is not the same kind of shape... it's more of a straight case than 9mm luger. Also, the bullets are significantly larger... 9x18 bullets are between .363 and .365, as opposed to 9mm luger, which is .355. You'd have to stretch the brass a bit to get it to fit. Starline makes 9x18 brass in boxes of 1000 for $116, and I think I'll probably go with that. Sierra makes FMJ bullets in 9x18, and that seems to be the best deal I can find ($7.35/100). With those prices, I could probably make them for about 21 cents/round, which is cheaper than the S&B i shoot. After a while, it should offset the cost of the press and equipment, especially after I start reloading brass.

age_ranger wrote:I've figured I'm paying out about 50% for ammo after getting my reloader set up. It's almost paid for itself already. I'm buying 124gr 9mm bullets at $45 per 1000. Considering primers and powder (I pick up brass at local matches) I guestimate my cost per 100 at about $5.00. That's a pretty big savings and I can load them up snappy or light depending on what I want to use them for. I was against reloading at first because I didn't see the savings, but I'm a believer now. It's not just the savings, though. It's extremely gratifying to see holes in paper that YOU reloaded. Pretty cool stuff..........

Where do you get your supplies? I'm not finding anything other than packages of 100 bullets in 9x18 (.363-.365). The lowest I've found is $7.35/100 at Widener's. I've found cheaper brass for $140 per 1000 at Midway.

Unfortunately, I'd have to search long and hard if I wanted to try and pick up brass left by others. 9x18 is not the most commonly used caliber around here (or really, anywhere besides eastern Europe). I've not met anyone else in person who shoots it yet. I'd be pretty much stuck with only collecting my own brass.

KRM45 wrote:

NcongruNt wrote: Bullets for reloading by themselves cost about 16 cents/ea, then powder and primers on top of that. New brass by itself seems to run 30 cents/ea. A new 9x18 handload will cost 50 cents, and reloading a piece of used brass would cost about 20 cents

When I first started reloading (about a year ago) I was spending too much on components too. The key though is buying bulk, and if you can shooting cast lead bullets. I know prices have gone up since the last time I bought, but I 500 cast lead .45 bullets for $27 last time... That's less than .06$ and it's .45...

How much do you consider "bulk"?

The prices I was getting were in quantities of about 200. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places... where do you go for your componentry?

Wildscar wrote:If someone wanted to get started reloading what would be the initial cost? Dosn't have to be exact figured or nothing just a guess'timate would do.

From what I've seen, a complete reloading press kit runs somewhere between $350 and $400 for the lower end models. On top of that, you have to buy a die set for your caliber, which looks to run about $50. So $400 to $450? I'm guessing it can be done cheaper, I've never reloaded so I don't know for sure.

I was looking into reloading stuff today... not sure reloading would work terribly well for me. I have 2 Mosin-Nagant rifles, and surplus 7.62x54R is not only dirt cheap, but reloading kits seem generally unavailable for this round. It's unfortunate, because I'd definitely be into reloading SP rounds for hunting if it made any difference in price.

For my pistol rounds, it does seem like there's equipment plenty available for reloading 9x18, but I don't see anything in cost-saving for this. Even brass-cased FMJ S&B ammo costs about 26 cents/round. Bullets for reloading by themselves cost about 16 cents/ea, then powder and primers on top of that. New brass by itself seems to run 30 cents/ea. A new 9x18 handload will cost 50 cents, and reloading a piece of used brass would cost about 20 cents (16 per bullet, and I'm guessing ~4 for powder, primer, and other stuff). It would take 6 reloads of each new case to match the cost of simply buying new S&B every time.

Maybe I'm just not seeing something here, but reloading doesn't seem all that economical for me. Maybe it's just me and my weird calibers.

I think the heart of the problem is copper (and subsequently brass) has gone WAY up in price in the past year or so. I think jacketing is a bigger factor here than the casings, as there's a lot more mass (and therefore expense) in a jacket.

Personally, I'm having a very difficult time finding decent JHP handgun ammo. My pistol shoots 9x18 Makarov, and it seems like a lot of manufacturers recently decided to stop producing much of it. I can find Silver Bear and Wolf aplenty, but everyone is running out of S&B and Hornady. I'm decently set for now on FMJ (ordered 1200 rounds of the S&B surplus stuff from aimsurplus while they had it), but my gun is kinda picky on JHP ammo, and Wolf/Silver Bear don't cut it. I found *1* box of Hornady XTP in town. The shop that I went to that normally carries it says that he's got it backordered from 3 different suppliers with no firm ETA.

Anyone know of good JHP ammo in 9x18 besides Hornady? I read that Speer used to make Gold Dot in 9x18, but apparently no longer. I just found that Georgia arms loads Gold Dot, so I may give them a try. I'm also considering Cor-bon Pow'rball, though they are a bit expensive at almost $1/round. I have read that they are good for penetration and and expansion, though.