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BUY?
Feeding the
Heavy Metal
rifle
STORY AND PHOTOS BY PATRICK
KELLEY TY-14401
I
s your Heavy Metal rifle eating livered for 147 FMJBT military surplus cents per, so to make our 1000 loads go
you out of house and home? Are to $180 per thousand for Speer bulk bang, another $18 to $22 are needed.
you tired of loading bottle-necked 150 FMJs. These may not be your first Cases? “We don’t need no stinking
cases? Need to work more with choices for ultra match ammo, but let’s cases.” Maybe not in the final analysis,
the “big rifle” but even with handloads finish up assembling components and but let’s keep $40 per thousand in
practice is too expensive? Well, fellow see where we go from there. The pow- mind for once-fired cases, amortized
heavy metalist, have I got a deal for der needed for 1000 rounds at 45 with three reloads each before replace-
you! grains per shot (give or take) will re- ment.
quire seven pounds of powder, with a
little left over in the powder measure. You now have a shop full of low
Up Close And Personal: The end components, so fire up your fa-
If you buy surplus “Data” powder or
Reloading Option your favorite name brand, you will vorite progressive and turn that pile of
A quick perusal of online reloading part with $80 to $120 to make this parts into ammo. Tick, tock, tick,
component suppliers nets the follow- work. Primers are cheap, right? They tock…ding! Two or three hours later
ing: bullets from $90 per thousand de- were. What was a penny apiece way you might have it all loaded and ready
to shoot!
With your time worth….. (Oh
yeah, I forgot, it’s “relaxing”). OK,
skip the time element. So you now
have 1000 rounds of “less expensive”
ammo in front of you that out-of-
pocket cost you between $228 and
$362 depending on your choices and
how well you squeezed your nickels.
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