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I am finally getting my reloading area all setup, but have not yet bought any powder, primers, or bullets. I am reloading 45ACP. Can anyone give advice on a local shop that is good to get this stuff, or is my best bet to go to the gunshow or order online. I was hoping to pick up the powder and primers locally to avoid the hazmat fees. Thanks in advance for the help folks.

Spanky

Bu your primers in bulk, Midway is a good online source, but you pay hazmat fee. The large pistol primers are hard to find, and do not buy Wolf primers, nor magnum, just stick to CCI, Winchester, Remington, etc, the big name companies.

For casing's buy once-fired brass, there is a whole slew of companies on-line, just Google "once-fired brass" $80 for a 1000 rounds is about the best I've seen.

The cheapest bullets I've found are through Midway, I only load fmj, and the Rainer 230 gr are pretty good and cheap.

Lastly, powder, I can't speak for the area your in, but in Victoria, powder is in abundance. You can find cheaper on-line, but not enough to warrant paying the hazmat fee. Of course, if your paying it for primers anyways, then maybe its worth it. I buy from my local shops, whichever powder they have that'll work for 45acp, and download the data from the manufacturers site.

Good thing about 45acp is it is a fairly easy and low pressure load to reload.

Bass Pro out at The Rim had HP-38 for $20/lb not long ago - can't imagine the price has changed much since. It seems to be more abundant than W231 and some other .45 powders. Primers are still rare at local shops, but try Nagel's, too. Taxes/retail markup is probably a wash vs. hazmat fees unless you get a truckload.

Bullets will likely be best when ordered online. Haven't checked BPS lately, but Cabela's has Berry's plated for fairly decent prices, but they aren't truly "bulk" boxes - only 250/box. They also have Oregon Trail cast bullets in boxes of 500, but I have zero knowledge or experience with them.

UpTheIrons wrote:Bass Pro out at The Rim had HP-38 for $20/lb not long ago - can't imagine the price has changed much since. It seems to be more abundant than W231 and some other .45 powders. Primers are still rare at local shops, but try Nagel's, too. Taxes/retail markup is probably a wash vs. hazmat fees unless you get a truckload.

Bullets will likely be best when ordered online. Haven't checked BPS lately, but Cabela's has Berry's plated for fairly decent prices, but they aren't truly "bulk" boxes - only 250/box. They also have Oregon Trail cast bullets in boxes of 500, but I have zero knowledge or experience with them.

For bullets, I've found that both Montana Gold Bullet and Berry's are great, and inexpensive to boot. Both give free shipping for orders over $50, and I've found quality to be excellent on both. I received my orders from both about 3 days after my initial order. Since you're loading 230 grain .45, I'll list what I see on their sites:

Montana Gold Bullet:
230 grain FMJ: $170 per 1000
230 grain CMJ: $174 per 1000

Berry's:
230 GR RN DS (plated): $134.88 per 1000
230 grain RN (hard cast lead): $116.38 per 1000

Here are the links to their sites:

http://www.montanagoldbullet.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.berrysmfg.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know you're a little skittish on plated/lead bullets. I started out on FMJ for the same reasons, but quickly moved to the plated stuff once I had a few FMJ sessions under my belt. For the plated bullets at least (haven't done lead bullets yet), it's the same as FMJ. Make sure your bell is adequate, and they load the same way.

I'm still using these guys http://www.precisionbullets.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I purchase most of my reloading supplies at either Bass Pro or Cabela's (in Buda). The only component I have consistently ordered on-line is Berry's bullets and they provide free shipping for orders over a certain price. During the "crisis" I was picking up my primers at the gun show, but that's no longer an issue or cost effective.

I was last in Nagles about 3 weeks ago and they were still limiting customers to 100 primers also.

Was at Cabela's yesterday and picked up 4,000 small pistol primers.... They have plenty on hand...

GUNNER wrote:Was at Cabela's yesterday and picked up 4,000 small pistol primers.... They have plenty on hand...

How did large pistol primers look out there? It's a 1.5hr trip for me, so I want to make sure I'm not just out for a joyride...

Though a joyride sounds like fun since I just picked up an '02 Camaro Z28 w/6-sp yesterday.

GUNNER wrote:Was at Cabela's yesterday and picked up 4,000 small pistol primers.... They have plenty on hand...

I find all manner of primers locally, except large pistol.

How did large pistol primers look out there? It's a 1.5hr trip for me, so I want to make sure I'm not just out for a joyride...

Call ahead for Cabelas and ask them if they have it in stock. If so, reserve it. The Cabelas in FW will set it aside and tag it so it will not be sold out from under you while you are driving. They have done that for me several times. Don't daley around, they will hold it for a couple of hours or so, but not for a long period of time.

For bullets you may check out some of the smaller manufactures like http://www.precisionbullets.com/. Been using there lead for years and its great. Prices are competitive and include shipping
************* Sorry lrb, I looked over your post. ************* David at Precision gets my vote too ***********

johnferg69 wrote:For bullets you may check out some of the smaller manufactures like http://www.precisionbullets.com/. Been using there lead for years and its great. Prices are competitive and include shipping
************* Sorry lrb, I looked over your post. ************* David at Precision gets my vote too ***********

no need to apologize, most of these questions should be treated as polls.