I am already feeling the pull of the weekend, wishing it was here, longing for more freedom. I would rather be doing something else than reserving time from 4:30AM to 3PM for working. I know that even when I was at my last job there were times when I was engaged and happy to go to work and there were times that I was disconnected. I suppose when a human is in this position, it is a natural tendency. Even though the way I was working, of course not financially, felt more right. You do things because you have the opportunity or it absolutely needs to be done, not just clock 40 hours or more a week because you are expected to.

Regardless, that is not a Tacticool topic. Today I was going to write about what happens when my son is part of a trap team and there are no shotgun shells to be found. Typically there is a fee that covers shotgun shells or at least they are available for purchase through the team. This season it is bring your own. Irrespective of all the details, I need a minimum of 14 boxes of shotgun shells to make it through the season.

I suppose the good news is that I had six boxes already from last year and I just remembered that I have six boxes of steel shot for a specific fish and wildlife range. Plus if I really got desperate I have 20 gauge as well. I don’t really want to shoot it all up though.

I went to the local gun store here in town and talked to the owner. He is one of the coaches on the team anyway. He told me that he is buying shells at Walmart to sell at his store and that he can’t get any either. I asked about buying online (at four times what we were paying last year) and he said that even though inventory is showing in-stock, there is a high likelihood that it really isn’t and that it would be backordered. Shoot, my two best ideas were already dashed.

We went to a local box sporting goods store on Sunday. They did have some inventory. It wasn’t my preferred load but hey, we can’t be too choosy at this point. The biggest problem and the reason they still had inventory is that I could only buy two boxes at a time.

My next great idea was to reload. I already had primers and hulls but I didn’t have shot, wads or enough powder. I was able to get shot and wads but I still need powder. Looking online at auction sites, powder is going for $100/lb or more. When I do the calculations, 1 pound should yield at least 300 shells. When I do the math, for everything not including the primers I already have it is going to cost $10/25 to make. I paid $7 per box at the store last weekend.

Looking at the optics of the situation, reloading might be a position of having versus not having. I already have enough shells to barely finish the season and I am not sure that I want to commit to $100 worth of powder yet. Even though reloading is on my long term to-do list, that is why I didn’t have what I needed I don’t think that I can justify the cost at this point. The truth is, reloading shotgun shells has not been economically feasible in the recent past either.

  • 25lbs of shot
    • 25# = 355, 1 1/8oz loads/bag
    • $42 per bag = $0.11 per load
  • 1lb of powder
    • 7000grains/lbs = 466 loads/lb @ a nominal 15 grain charge
    • 7000grains/lbs = 280 loads/lb @ a nominal 25 grain charge
    • $100 per pound = $0.21 – $0.36 per load
  • 500 wads
    • $12 per bag = $0.02 per load
  • 1000 primers
    • $35 = $0.04 per load
    • Note: this is the price I paid, not the current price. I have seen 1000 primers going between $100 and $150
  • Now the truth
    • ($0.11 + $0.21 + $0.02 + $0.04) * 25 = $9 a box at the low end
    • ($0.11 + $0.36 + $0.04 + $0.15) * 25 = $16.50 a box at the high end

Shooting trap at this level, we are buying the cheapest thing we can get. Last year, I paid $5 a box on sale and $6 a box regular price for run of the mill target loads. There are other grades of shells however. I think Remington STS was more along the lines of $8 a box. I really don’t know what the true difference is but I heard a podcast about shot makeup and supposedly the alloy makes a difference in how many pellets deform leaving the barrel which in turn impacts patterning. In theory, reloading could make a more premium product at an affordable price. I just don’t think the trap season is the time to experiment yet.