With ammo being +$650/140 rounds, I'm seriously looking into a Lee .50 press and the prices of components to reload those expensive cartridges I just purchased (after I shoot them first). Anybody here already reload 50 BMG?
Yeah, I'm not going to be mass producing these rounds- a simple single stage press would be fine. My previous experience shooting 50 BMG was only 6-8 rounds per shooting session- so I'm probably only going to reload them in batches of 10. A box of CCI #35 primers (100 count) is $90, and EACH cartridge gets 240gr of Hodgdon's 50 BMG powder (1lb=7000gr/240gr per round=29 rounds per lb!). So, I need 3 1lb containers just so I run out at the same time as my primers. I didn't even get into the projectiles yet. I'm not going to be shooting this very much!
NO, HELL NO! One of the best things I ever experienced AFTER being trained on the big .50 was,...................338 Lapua Magnum, much less costs involved, much longer barrel life, even LONGER brass life, and it's much easier to hand load for any use you could want! I have a metric shit ton of experience with Ultra Long Range shooting, for REAL, and I can tell you, the Big 50 ain't it! We switched over to the .338 way back in 1990, I got the very first one the armory had accepted and my armorer and I spent a couple weeks getting it set up and tuned to MY physics and shooting style, over the next 16 years, that ONE rifle never needed to be rebarreled, I literally put thousands of rounds down range, including over the wire and it never failed to put rounds exactly where I chose to! Fast forward to my retirement, I celebrated by purchasing a Brandy New SAKO TRG-42 in .338 L.M. and matched it with all the goodies I needed, and she shoots lights out all day long! And Yes, I can absolutely Out shoot the big .50, both at range and more importantly, Precisely!
"I have a metric shit ton of experience with Ultra Long Range shooting, for REAL, and I can tell you, the Big 50 ain't it!" Yeah, if I was trying to shoot long range I'd look at other cartridges. Since I only have access to a 100 yard range where I can shoot the .50, I'm only going to slap my old Eotech 511 to the top and call it a day. I shoot .50 because I want to shoot .50!
I bought a bucket full of .50cal brass from a garage sale - was always going to take it along to a local gunshow and get $$$ nibbles
