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BigJimP · November 24, 2008, 02:02 PM

New shot at my club is up to around $ 40 a bag as well.

I've shot some reclaimed stuff in the past - and it really depends on who is processing it / how well they clean it,etc. 20 yrs ago, I saw high quality reclaimed shot - and I used quite a bit of it.

The reclaimed stuff I've seen lately is $20-$25/bag - with a lot of flat sided shot / mixture of 9's - 4's probably / a few rocks / even though bags were marked 8's. Seller claimed it was washed, screened, regraphited, etc - but if you put a teaspoon of it in your hand and rubbed it around - your hands were black, so there was a lot of grit in it/he used too much graphite or something.

I ran a bag of it - in 12ga (at 1 oz). I figured extra quantity of shot would offset the flat sides ones, a few 6's and 4's were not that big a deal ....but after 200 shells thru my Mec hydraulic it gummed up the charge bar so bad I had to break the press down and clean it. I washed and dried the rest of the bag - sorted out the oddball sized stuff a little, wiped it all down, etc - and it ran fine thru the press.

It got worse when I patterned it - there were a lot of flyers. So I went back to West Coast and I shoot the 20ga and 28ga more to keep the cost down a little.

About 18 months ago when price hit $20 a bag, some friends and I bought about 5 tons ( a ton is 80 bags ). Its easy to store / stack on concrete floor of my shop / so it doesn't take up much floor space ). I'm only shooting about 8K shells a year these days, so even at 1 oz I'm only using about 20 bags a year / less if I shoot more 20 and 28ga.

I see the commodity prices leveling off / dropping a little - and they've been down about 15% over the last month or so - but I don't know how long that takes to translate into the retail price we see (labor, insurance, delivery, etc might still eat all that savings up too) but its worth discussing a long term buy of 4 or 5 tons with one of the suppliers / processors in your area and see what you can do. In the meantime, I'd go back to WestCoast if I were you / unless your processor of reclaimed is a lot better than what we've seen out here in the last year or so.

November 24, 2008, 02:02 PM	#13
BigJimP Senior Member Join Date: February 23, 2005 Posts: 13,195	New shot at my club is up to around $ 40 a bag as well. I've shot some reclaimed stuff in the past - and it really depends on who is processing it / how well they clean it,etc. 20 yrs ago, I saw high quality reclaimed shot - and I used quite a bit of it. The reclaimed stuff I've seen lately is $20-$25/bag - with a lot of flat sided shot / mixture of 9's - 4's probably / a few rocks / even though bags were marked 8's. Seller claimed it was washed, screened, regraphited, etc - but if you put a teaspoon of it in your hand and rubbed it around - your hands were black, so there was a lot of grit in it/he used too much graphite or something. I ran a bag of it - in 12ga (at 1 oz). I figured extra quantity of shot would offset the flat sides ones, a few 6's and 4's were not that big a deal ....but after 200 shells thru my Mec hydraulic it gummed up the charge bar so bad I had to break the press down and clean it. I washed and dried the rest of the bag - sorted out the oddball sized stuff a little, wiped it all down, etc - and it ran fine thru the press. It got worse when I patterned it - there were a lot of flyers. So I went back to West Coast and I shoot the 20ga and 28ga more to keep the cost down a little. About 18 months ago when price hit $20 a bag, some friends and I bought about 5 tons ( a ton is 80 bags ). Its easy to store / stack on concrete floor of my shop / so it doesn't take up much floor space ). I'm only shooting about 8K shells a year these days, so even at 1 oz I'm only using about 20 bags a year / less if I shoot more 20 and 28ga. I see the commodity prices leveling off / dropping a little - and they've been down about 15% over the last month or so - but I don't know how long that takes to translate into the retail price we see (labor, insurance, delivery, etc might still eat all that savings up too) but its worth discussing a long term buy of 4 or 5 tons with one of the suppliers / processors in your area and see what you can do. In the meantime, I'd go back to WestCoast if I were you / unless your processor of reclaimed is a lot better than what we've seen out here in the last year or so.