Reloading 9mm....is it even worth it?

[fredj338]

Originally Posted by RobFMJ

This a hobby or a job?

Well it's a hobby but loading 200rds a week, every week, on a single stage is a job! If you have limited time, it only makes sense to make the best of it. A progressive let's you spend less time handloading & more time shooting, working, playing w/ the wife or kids, your choice. If it were my money/time, I would spend the money for the progressive. There is no downside over the years, the cost will only go up every year, you may shoot more, spend more time w/ the wife &/or kids, sure it's a hobby, but let's not be foolish about it.

[xd in the oc]

Originally Posted by jtkratzer

I have 157 pieces of 9mm brass someone can have if they want it...it's on the pay it forward thread as well...

If you're going to shoot a lot, get at least a turret press and my personal preference is a progressive. You pay more, but you'll reload more and faster and you'll probably not have to/want to upgrade as soon.

+1 Get at least a turret press if money is an issue. MidwayUSA has a Lee Turret 4 hole press with auto-indexing for $64.00 (item#880135). Progressive is the way to go for high volume. A tumbler you can get from Pistolgear for $40.00 or from Harbor freight. Just remember, to buy your walnut shells for cleaning from Petsmart. It's a whole lot cheaper than at the gun store.

Also, welcome to the forum.

[fredj338]

Originally Posted by xd in the oc

+1 Get at least a turret press if money is an issue. MidwayUSA has a Lee Turret 4 hole press with auto-indexing for $64.00 (item#880135). Progressive is the way to go for high volume. A tumbler you can get from Pistolgear for $40.00 or from Harbor freight. Just remember, to buy your walnut shells for cleaning from Petsmart. It's a whole lot cheaper than at the gun store.

Also, welcome to the forum.

Harbor Freight sells crushed walnuts shells for "sand blasting", pretty cheap.

[RobFMJ]

Originally Posted by fredj338

Well it's a hobby but loading 200rds a week, every week, on a single stage is a job! If you have limited time, it only makes sense to make the best of it. A progressive let's you spend less time handloading & more time shooting, working, playing w/ the wife or kids, your choice. If it were my money/time, I would spend the money for the progressive. There is no downside over the years, the cost will only go up every year, you may shoot more, spend more time w/ the wife &/or kids, sure it's a hobby, but let's not be foolish about it.

Eh, good point. Guess being a college student with a month off for christmas and absolutely nothing to do changes things

[fredj338]

Hey, I hear that! When I was a youngster, my time was worth very little. I used to load several nights a week so I could shoot all weekend. Then you get kids, job, etc. the progressive becomes a god send. No the kids are grown & I still have the job, but I actually have timne to cast my own bullets again.

[phildavis516]

I just got a new Dillon 550 so that I can get into reloading. I shoot on average about 200-300 rounds per week. I traded my original XD-9 Service to a friend for the 550 (new in the box still) and a Ruger Mark II .22. Do you think I got a good deal??

[Cannibul]

I will be getting a true progressive press (Hornaday) and not a faux progressive (Dillion 550) soon.

Don't drink the Blue Kool-Aid.

[Philadelphia]

Originally Posted by phildavis516

I just got a new Dillon 550 so that I can get into reloading. I shoot on average about 200-300 rounds per week. I traded my original XD-9 Service to a friend for the 550 (new in the box still) and a Ruger Mark II .22. Do you think I got a good deal??

Sounds like a good enough deal to me if your XD9 was a safe queen. Why not trade it for something you will use. OTOH, I've only ever sold one gun and even though I thought it was a POS (was a Kel-Tec -- no offense to Kel-Tec fans but it just wasn't for me at the time), I often wish I still had it.

I also want to get into reloading and ask myself the same question as the OP about 9mm. I think I'll bite the bullet and get a progressive press once I start shooting more .45. I am saving all my 9mm and .45 brass looking toward the day I might be able to reload it. I do lose a some of it at the range but it still piles up pretty quick.

I'm also pretty paranoid about my brass. The way I look at it, it has my fingerprints and my gun's breech marks all over it and I don't like just leaving any of it at the range for anyone to pick up if I can help it. Another good reason to clean up after yourself at the range.

[fredj338]

Hey Philly, I wouldn't worry too much about the "fingerprint" of your fired case. If you're not there, if you have no motive, that would be pretty circumstantial. It's one reason the ballistic fingerprinting of cases is so much BS. It's too easy to just pick some up at a range & leave them lying around a crime scene.

[medicstimpy]

9mm because I shoot enough of it not to have my bank card melted every time I want to go to the range. Also because of my IPSC load/bullet recipie. Lastly because we (me and a buddy) cast 9mm LSWC's and they are the greatest thing for our 9's. OK, actually .38's that are put through the 9mm resizer.

If you're going to reload 9's, don't forget to get .45 dies as well as I read somewhere you got one of those, too. You'll be sorry you didn't get them as well. Actually I would get the .45's before the 9mm as that's where you'll really get a cost saving!

Oh, our XD45's and 1911's just love to be fed, don't they!