Welderup Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 Hi all, I’m looking to start reloading for my .223, mainly due to the cost of the rounds my rifle likes and was also given some reloading gear with my rifle when I bought it second hand. My question is how should I be storing the smokeless powder? I’ve searched for an hour or so and read lots of conflicting info regarding storing the powder. I see black powder must be licensed and stored in a wooden box, I’m happy to store the smokeless in the same way but where should the wooden box then be kept? Also the primers and bullets, I will only be using expanding as I don’t target shoot only vermin/fox. So I’m guessing these should be kept in my ammo safe regardless if they are just components? Hopefully someone can help shed some definitive light on the subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIGHTCHOKE Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 Why not email your FEO? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walshie Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 (edited) There's no legal requirement to keep any of those securely (except black powder). All my reloading stuff is on a shelf. Until recently you had to keep expanding bullets locked away as they were S5 items. Now they are S1 there is no need. Only completed rounds need locking away. Edited January 2, 2020 by walshie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUNKS Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 (edited) No help for you I fear but I load black powder and FEO suggested the powder in it's box was best kept in my workshop and secured to the bench with a chain Loaded black powder cartridges I store under the wifes bed. You cant trust the stuff! Edited January 2, 2020 by DUNKS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
team tractor Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 (edited) If your trying to save money you’ll be better off buying rounds . I love reloading and it’s a great way of getting the best out of your gun but it’s not cheap until you’ve loaded hundreds . powder is £80 for 300 shots bullets £25 for 100 cases are around £50-60 per 100 primers £5 per 100 im on my second tub of N140 for 223 and 243 in 3 -4 years ish of loading my own . obviously cases are reused Edited January 2, 2020 by team tractor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snow white Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 It cost me 44 pence each round to reload 17 hornet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rewulf Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 8 hours ago, Welderup said: My question is how should I be storing the smokeless powder? I’ve searched for an hour or so and read lots of conflicting info regarding storing the powder. No licencing condition as stated, but think along the lines of where would you store fireworks, or petrol, I have a large garage , so all my reloading gear is left there, a completed cartridge comes home and gets put in the safe. Primers the same , they wont spontaneously go off, they need a decent hit to ignite. 8 hours ago, Welderup said: Also the primers and bullets, I will only be using expanding as I don’t target shoot only vermin/fox. So I’m guessing these should be kept in my ammo safe regardless if they are just components? Only completed rounds need to be in the safe, nothing is sec 1 until its a viable round. 7 minutes ago, snow white said: It cost me 44 pence each round to reload 17 hornet That seems a little high, but Im not sure how much hornet bullets cost. My .223 recipe. 53gn Hornady Vmax about 25 p a bullet , this is a quality bullet, you could get this down to 10p for PPU ect 27 gn of CFE 223 (which isnt that cheap) about 20p a charge A CCi primer 5p So 50 p a bullet, without the brass , but thats easy to come by and re use. This makes a top quality round that would be at least £1.20 to buy (My reloads actually group better than the factory round of the same components 😎) A cheaper powder like Vit 133, and cheaper bullets, could get you down to 35 p a round. Or look for surplus cartridges, I recently bought some excellent Chinese 5.56 for 11p a round, grouped OK and Ive reloaded the brass about 5 times now. Obviously theres plenty of cheap Russian stuff about , but its steel cased and unreloadable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welderup Posted January 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 Thanks all for the replies I’ve sent an email to my FEO to confirm how he would prefer I store reloading bits and bobs. Im not so sure buying rounds would be cheaper for me, Currently paying £30 per 20 rounds. with the rifle I was given approx 300 cases some new some fired, around 600 primers, loading dies and storage boxes. ive just bought the press that corresponds to the dies cheap second hand (lee single stage) so would only need some scales, case length gauge and trimmer etc to get going. I can get n133 locally for £80 a KG and based on there being 15,432 grains in a KG and a rough load estimate of 25grains per round that’s over 600 rounds per tub of powder? And the bullets the rifle likes and that work well for me Hornady 50g vmax I can get for £25 per 100. feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but as the primers and brass cost me nothing I would be looking at 0.38 pence per round for a while until I’ve used the primers and the brass has enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snow white Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 Hornet cost £30 hundred primers £4.90 then powder hogdens 4198 - 11.2 grains a round not much change out of 44 pence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rewulf Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 19 hours ago, snow white said: Hornet cost £30 hundred primers £4.90 then powder hogdens 4198 - 11.2 grains a round not much change out of 44 pence Thought so , the main cost is the bullets. The more popular the calibre , the cheaper the bullet apparently. 20 hours ago, Welderup said: Im not so sure buying rounds would be cheaper for me, Currently paying £30 per 20 rounds. with the rifle I was given approx 300 cases some new some fired, around 600 primers, loading dies and storage boxes. ive just bought the press that corresponds to the dies cheap second hand (lee single stage) so would only need some scales, case length gauge and trimmer etc to get going. I have some RCBS scales , but mostly I use a set of ebay electronic ones that cost £12, just to check the powder measurer (worth investing in, I use a Lee one) I can get n133 locally for £80 a KG and based on there being 15,432 grains in a KG and a rough load estimate of 25grains per round that’s over 600 rounds per tub of powder? Sounds about right. And the bullets the rifle likes and that work well for me Hornady 50g vmax I can get for £25 per 100. Buying boxes of 250 or 500 further reduces the cost per bullet, whats your barrel twist ? feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but as the primers and brass cost me nothing I would be looking at 0.38 pence per round for a while until I’ve used the primers and the brass has enough.Again , yes ,sounds correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoBodyImportant Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) 21 hours ago, team tractor said: If your trying to save money you’ll be better off buying rounds . I love reloading and it’s a great way of getting the best out of your gun but it’s not cheap until you’ve loaded hundreds . powder is £80 for 300 shots bullets £25 for 100 cases are around £50-60 per 100 primers £5 per 100 im on my second tub of N140 for 223 and 243 in 3 -4 years ish of loading my own . obviously cases are reused Wonder what it would take to ship from the states? Powder might be hard but the bullets are probably importable. I end up paying about .05 cent for bullet, and .04 for powder and .02cent for primer. Or roughly 11 cent USD each for .223. Or google says £.08 pound sterling. The cheapest store bought is steel case Russian at 16-18 cent each. Edited January 3, 2020 by NoBodyImportant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rewulf Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 5 minutes ago, NoBodyImportant said: Wonder what it would take to ship from the states? I didnt think that was possible for a private individual to do ? 6 minutes ago, NoBodyImportant said: The cheapest store bought is steel case Russian at 16-18 cent each. Strangely enough, I can buy Russian steel case at about the same money, the Chinese brass cased even cheaper when its about. But those component prices make ours look silly ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoBodyImportant Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 1 minute ago, Rewulf said: I didnt think that was possible for a private individual to do ? Strangely enough, I can buy Russian steel case at about the same money, the Chinese brass cased even cheaper when its about. But those component prices make ours look silly ! I honestly not sure if companies would do it, I bet if it was a group buy they would if legal. I figured Russian ammo would be cheaper for you guys since the channel is narrower then the pacific. I have shot a good bit of the Chinese ammo from Canada but Chinese ammo is illegal here. We have to smuggle it across the border. Norinco and polytec got all Chinese arms and ammo banned because the where importing full autos. Everyone had full auto Norinco Ak47s back in the day. Hell I still run across them in pawn shops. I remember Chinese SKSs and enfield mk4s in oak barrels at the department stores for $69 buy two get one free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rewulf Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 5 minutes ago, NoBodyImportant said: $69 buy two get one free. 😂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoBodyImportant Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) 14 minutes ago, Rewulf said: 😂 I used to buy Canadian 303 ammo and shoot it into the pond to watch it splash. My cousins and I would crack a can, I don’t remember how many but close to 1000rds. We would set on the hill side and have a conversation about life and mindlessly take pop shots at the water. Sometime aiming sometimes hip firing. It’s just a little more expensive then 22lr but cheap enough we would finish the can so we didn’t have to haul it home. I want to say a can had 4 boxes of 288rds each. Edited January 3, 2020 by NoBodyImportant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rewulf Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 11 minutes ago, NoBodyImportant said: I used to buy Canadian 303 ammo and shoot it into the pond to watch it splash. My cousins and I would crack a can, I don’t remember how many but close to 1000rds. We would set on the hill side and have a conversation about life and mindlessly take pop shots at the water. Sometime aiming sometimes hip firing. It’s just a little more expensive then 22lr but cheap enough we would finish the can so we didn’t have to haul it home. I want to say a can had 4 boxes of 288rds each. Cant even imagine being able to afford to shoot that much, never mind having the room to do it. Over here just admitting to doing that would probably cost you your firearms licence 😂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoBodyImportant Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 6 hours ago, Rewulf said: Cant even imagine being able to afford to shoot that much, never mind having the room to do it. Over here just admitting to doing that would probably cost you your firearms licence 😂 If I was smart I would be setting on a million rounds of that surplus 303. But at the time we thought it would never dry up as there was so much of it. Back around 2003-5 ish I want to say it was 7-10 cent each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cervusman Posted January 4, 2020 Report Share Posted January 4, 2020 I reload for my 223 and it only costs me around £41 per 100 reusing fired cases Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.