Mr. CUNNINGHAM. A "C" press or an "O" press will stand anywhere from
10 to 12 inches high with a 2-foot handle. Your turret-type would run
almost a foot and a half high above the table. And they are all made
very heavy because of your full-length resizing--not only on your
small revolver cartridges, but for all your hunting cartridges--that
takes great pressure. They are heavy duty. And you need quite a bit of
equipment. Most of the time there will be a case trimmer, your complete
press--there is a primer press, and then you have to have dies for the
cartridge you are loading--your sizing dies and your bullet dies that
you use to press the bullet into the cartridge case. Then there are all
sorts of sundry equipment that go along with hand loading--your powder
measurer, which is usually quite large if it is one that will do it
volumetrically. True, you can have a balance and weigh out a particular
amount for each one, but it takes an awful lot of time. Normally they
are volumetric powder measures. You tip it and it puts a certain amount
of powder into the cartridge case.
Representative FORD. Is it expensive equipment to buy?
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Originally, yes. Comparatively so. A good press, I
think you can buy one anywhere from $29 to over $100. You will have
to invest, I would say, $150 to have a fairly good outfit. But over
the years it is a cheap investment. Instead of paying $2.80 a box, or
$2.85 a box, you are turning out cartridges, once you have your brass,
for--even rifle, hunting cartridges--for about 7 cents, and lead bullet
cartridges down to around 3 cents apiece.
Representative FORD. $2.80 a box?
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. I have the component list here from Western. I do not
have the cost per box of ammunition, but it can run anywhere from
$2.25 all the way up to $6 to $8 for some of your larger hunting rifle
cartridges--boxes of 20 in hunting ammunition, boxes of 50 in your
revolver and pistol ammunition.
Even buying components, it is comparatively cheap. If you buy them
by the hundred, and they will run, for instance the .38 Special,
158 grain lead bullets per hundred, only $2.80, and that is for
original components. If you have the brass, your powder cost is
negligible--probably a penny a cartridge, half a cent a cartridge for a
.38 Special. So it saves you so much money if you are a target shooter,
for instance, it is advantageous to do it if you like to shoot.
Mr. EISENBERG. Is that a skilled operation, hand loading?
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Basically, no. Once you have the basic--if you do any
reading on it, and you take your time, and are very careful, it is not
a difficult operation at all.