Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles you're in the Twilight Zone!

so out at my reload bench.... loading up some 223 cases, that I shot over in Klamath Falls last Thursday....

Day was a bust until about 4 PM.. to 6 PM... by 3 PM, I had managed to kill 3 sage rats.... at 4PM their Siesta was over and they were out everywhere...

Went thru 100 rounds+ in 2 hours... killed about 80 of the little grass gnawin' varmints....

Was reloading those cases tonight..... and then had a strange feeling come over me.... I had traveled back in time...

There was a 5 pound jug of Blue Dot I was drawing powder from.... the Price was marked $69.50 on the container.... 560 rounds per pound of powder yielded.......

I was using S & B primers.... I paid $15.00 per brick of a 1,000 marked on the box....

Was using Factory Seconds of 40 Gr V Maxes from Hornady..... 10 cents a bullet

It was like Biden wasn't in the White House.... even Obama wasn't in the White House... it was like Trump or George Bush 2 was in the White House...

Powder, primers and bullets were readily available, with no limit on what you could purchase.. supply was endless on the store Shelves...

Then was thinking, once I use all of this up....

powder will be well over $100.00 for 5 pound jugs....

a brick of primers will be over $100 for a thousand....

40 gr V Max bullets are currently selling for $22/ 100.....

Republicans in Office, vs DemocRats in Office....

time to go to bed... I suddenly felt sick....

Yeah, I was in the shop thinking about loading some 30-06 up, looked at my H4350, then the Big Game and then the H414. Was wondering if it is even worth trying to develop a load with the 165gr TTSX. I'd rather save the powder for my other cartridges. Before I'd just load stuff up without even thinking twice. The funny thing is I was at the range the other day shooting my 6x45 and burned up 200 rounds and didn't even think twice about that. Go figure...

Yeah, it's not cheap these days. I just bought a brick of Fed 155 and Fed 205 over the weekend, they were $75 and $80, respectively.

The almost empty brick of 205s on my shelf at home is price tagged $24.95, and it's not that old.

I finished up a can of 700X the other day with a $6.95 price tag on it.
With all the crazy stuff going on, I have been using up old powder that I have had for years that I was using in one round or another. Several cans had $10 or less price tags on them.

With apologies to Jerry Jeff Walker:

"If I can just get offa this Liberal Freeway without getting killed or caught!"

My last 1# can of Unique had an $12 price tag on it. The 8 pounder I bought last year to resupply set me back close to $200.

I just bought some more IMR3031 last week... $36 a pound.

Like most I've been picking components up as I am able to find them. I just paid $40 for my last pound of powder, and $79 for my last brick of primer. I emphasize " my last" because I have finally scrounged enough stuff to last the rest of my life. Dont want to figure the average cost now.

Aside from H4198 and H4895 I am pretty well set for life on powder now after buying that bunch last week. Good to go for many, many years on bullets, and most of my brass. Primers are the only thing I'm still not real thick on.

I'm not a huge volume loader, so I never kept a ton on hand, and until a few years ago, my finances didn't really allow me to buy bulk quantities of anything, anyway. I'm working on supplying myself for life now, and I'm getting there.

Seafire: I am glad you got in some righteous (price wise!) shooting.
I to find myself yearning for the good old days when ammunition, powder, primers, brass and bullets were "affordable" and in full supply!
Like "Ingwe" above me, on here, I more than likely have a lifetime supply of powder, primers (Federal Match!), brass and bullets for all my Varmint and Big Game Rifles.
I literally have to "keep an eye" on my shooting and Hunting buddies when they are in my loading room!
They peruse through my steel loading components lockers shelves and beg me for certain items therein.
I feel bad for their "needs" but I am not willing to sell my components or really wanting to join in on their searches for components - but alas I do help out when I am travelling and look for components for them - you should see the list I have in my wallet of my friends "needs".
Keep after those Gophers - there's more of them out there (snowing here right now so on hold!).
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I've had this weird fantasy for years now...

when my time comes.... all the rifles I have owned ALL have shot out barrels...

and I have had a lot of fun....making them that way...

Seafire: I like it!
I have only shot out maybe 4 or 5 barrels in my time!
Back when money was harder to come by for me if I noticed a Varmint Rifle loosing accuracy I simply sent it on down the road.
Then I got to a point where money was less of a factor in my decision making and did "re-barrel" some of my Varmint Rifles.
Then for the last 20 years the costs of new barrels and the Riflesmiths work AGAIN changed my habits. The costs of quality barrels and the Riflesmithing got me to simply buying new Rifles when needed or when the whim hit me.
I do agree with you "shooting Rifles is fun" - and always brings a smile to my face and soothes my soul!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I’ve had a major change in shooting “styles” over the past couple of years, I started casting for rifles instead of just pistols. I thought I was fairly well stocked with primers but not anymore. The only primers I was well stocked up on are small pistol so I’ve been casting for rifles that I can use spp’s in with light charges of pistol or shotgun powders. 450 Bushmaster, 350 Legend, 308 (with Lapua sp brass), 222 and 223 are what I’ve been loading for. Shooting them more than I’ve ever shot before and absolutely loving it!

With that said, a LGS has lots of small rifle primers in stock and haven’t has small pistol in ages. I called them last week and asked if they’d be interested in a trade and they said “sure, we can work something out”. So, I’m going to see about trading up to 10K primers, which should last me quite a while. I can go to my rifle range and make 100 rifle rounds last an hour to two, cripes in certain pistols, that might be 15 minutes or less...

And Seafire, you can’t imagine how envious I am of you going out and shooting 80 varmints in an afternoon! While I was growing up I hunted woodchucks all summer long and my highest count ever was 64 for the entire year! But, they were good hunts and I’d love to have some of those days over again…

these sage rats out here in Oregon, 80 is a slow day....its still early in the season also...

I've had times that that I've shot over a 1000 in a 3 or 4 hours.... that is rotating 3 bolt action rifles, every 15 shots to keep from the barrels over heating...

Several times strictly using a 10/22 with 25 round mags, I've shot two boxes of the Federal 550 boxes of ammo... and keeping shots at under 75 yds, I was making contact about 90% of the time....that was between about 4 PM to 6 Pm.... that night the coyotes showed up, and the seagulls and other birds like Hawks and Eagles were hitting them when I wasn't shooting in their direction....

the next morning was back out there, and ALL of the remains were pretty much gone... eaten over night....

its much different than back east... I am a Virginia native...

I grew up in Nevada where we kilt the chidt out of jackrabbits and ground hogs or prarie dogs, much like you describe the sage rat colonies. BTDT as well. After leaving Nevada, I took some time away from killing. Most guys here have no clue how much chidt one man has killed here. They demand one to post up pics of dead critters like it matters. That's childish and laughable. I think a lot of chidt is different, not only the amount of chidt guys kill, but even the amount of time guys go shooting. Where we live, we should count ourselves lucky J. We can pretty much shoot whenever we want. I see proof of just the opposite in a lot of peoples posts here, whether its the guys that just cant get used to shooting a right handed bolt action rifle, left handed. That means you haven't practiced enough. Guys having issues, even shooting off the bench: that's the easiest way to shoot. That's not even shooting from the hind legs. Try that while shooting at a running jackrabbit. People have issues with 3-9, 4-12, 4.5-14x42 or similar rifle scopes and having to adjust power. All that chidt should be so engrained and second nature, but its not for some because they didn't grow up packing a rifle every day, shooting at live game. Guys like JOK often wrote about the things I speak of. He learned at an early age and developed skills that made him proficient, not blundering or fumbling when it counted. Shooting is shooting, killing is killing. A lot of guys don't get it.

I've noticed one has to keep at it. At the beginning of each season, I am no where near as proficient I was at the end of last season...

however after just a few outings I get right back into it real quickly...

I'm probably making kills about 80% of the time I pull the trigger....

When action is hot and heavy, I just concentrate on shooting the ones within a 100 to 125 yds, as there is often as many that close, as there is beyond that...

I use loads where I can see my hits in the scope sight... which also keeps the barrels cooler.. and time it out so that I can shoot a sporter barrel for hours straight, without seriously heating it up...averaging a shot a minute or say 3 every 2 minutes.... maybe give a brief pause after 10 minutes or so... I've shot over 500 to 600 rounds in an afternoon and never cleaned nor stopped to let a barrel have to cool off...

This past year I have had comments about those lighter loads are only good for short range..., well yeah... I only shoot short range, say 200 yds and under... yet most shots are at least 50 to 75 yds to start with.... a sage rat for those back east members is only about the size of an 8 ounce water bottle, and run at 90 mph.. and stop on a dime..
Single shot bolt action use tho, its not like straffing them with an AR.... I kinda like efficiency, hence single shots out of a bolt action...

It definitely sharpens other types of shooting skills..

my bench is usually off my truck's hood..... but come deer season, at deer at 300 to 400 yds, looks like a dump truck out there...

This past winter I've been loading up loads of 10 to 12.5 grains of Blue Dot or Alliant Steel shooting 40 grain bullets...
been going over to the range, and knowing the distance, ringing Steel pretty consistently at 300 and 400 yds... so the accuracy is plenty good enough for that...
Probably why I was so efficiently hitting them on my first outing this season....

but 500 to 700 rounds out of a pound of powder, goes a long way in having a lot of fun.... now just if you could figure out how to get 3 or 4 shots out of a primer, I'd be in better shape...

Shooting varmints is about as much fun as one can have with their clothes on...

I made a good trade with the primers. I ended up with 1000 Large Pistol (for my son, he loves his 45 ACP and I only have about 200 cases with small primer pockets), 2000 CCI SRM’s, 1000 Federal SR and 1000 Remington SR. It was a 1 for 1 trade and the shop was happy to get SPP’s because they haven’t seen any in awhile.

I’d be down the road in a cloud of smoke to some land I ain’t bought.

Sage rat killin’ is like a wet t-shirt contest at an open bar on a cruise ship full of sorority girls in the Caribbean.

I’m not sure I could take that, sure would like to try though…

It’s like being in the TOILET zone .