brasscollector
Member
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2016
- Messages
- 373
Save money reloading, ??
You're doing it wrong!
You're doing it wrong!
What's wrong with you man!!!!Save money reloading, ??
You're doing it wrong!
Care to sit down at the bench and see how the Walmart special stacks up against my ammo? Just to make it interesting let's stretch the distance out to 500 yards or so. Tell me how much you like cheap then.
Hmmm, I posted I can reload 9mm for less than $7/50 in a bunch of threads ...I've read a bunch--well, a few--pages that claim you can load 9mm for around $7/100 in consumables.
Yes, since I reuse brass, I am not counting brass cost (I tell you, shooting 9mm carbines with brass catcher is great for capturing 100% of my spent brass)I assume that's not counting brass
Here's current actual cost of reloading 9mm with RMR 115 gr FMJ (using 5% THR discount):when I look, it looks like 2¢ for a primer, around 3-5¢ for powder, and I don't see any bullets for less than 12¢. I can't make that come out to much less than $20/100 and I can buy range ammo for as low as $28/100.
And now you've got me hungry for pancakes on this Sunday morning..... Very good analogy. You did leave out the part about you tend to eat more pancakes.....Re saving money and our time vs getting what we want.....
I've used a "Boxed Pancake Mix" vs "Making From Scratch" analogy.
Using a boxed mix is the easiest, most time-efficient way to get pancakes on the table. But the price you pay for that convenience is no control over what was put in the box at the factory. For the right personality and right circumstances boxed pancake mix is a perfectly fine way to get pancakes on the table. But, if you like to have the pancakes just the way you like them, and you don't mind taking the time...heck maybe you even ENJOY the process of taking the time to customize your pancakes....you can get EXACTLY what you want and use your second hobby (cooking....the other "hobby" being eating pancakes) as an added benefit way to get exactly what you want.
It can be done, but that's usually a figure reached by people who are getting free range pickup brass, casting their own bullets, can find primers locally for $20 per 1000 and can buy powder for $25 a pound. You may not be able to realize such prices where you live and in my experience $7/100 is a figure most people are going to realize.
If you have to pay sales tax on components that adds to the cost. If you have to mail-order bullets, shipping will increase your unit cost. If you have to mail order primers or powder and incur shipping and Haz-Mat fees those too add to the bottom line as will purchased brass if nobody is giving it to you.
In my case, the case runs 3 to 4 cents, the primer 3 to 4 cents, the powder ($32.50 per pound after adding in sales tax) comes in just under 2 cents a round and I buy jacketed bullets in bulk for less than 10 cents each, so my cost for 9mm comes in around $18/100. That doesn't include the $3+ for the plastic boxes I store the loaded rounds in, the cost of gasoline or wear and tear on my car driving around North Texas to pick up components, amortization of my reloading equipment or the value of my time.
When I started reloading in the 1970's, it was possible to save a considerable amount rolling-your-own, but as time marched on prices changed and my rationale for reloading shifted from economics to being able to control the process and create loads that were not commercially available, until it became a matter of pride that I only shot ammunition I had reloaded.
Re saving money and our time vs getting what we want.....
I've used a "Boxed Pancake Mix" vs "Making From Scratch" analogy.
Using a boxed mix is the easiest, most time-efficient way to get pancakes on the table. But the price you pay for that convenience is no control over what was put in the box at the factory. For the right personality and right circumstances boxed pancake mix is a perfectly fine way to get pancakes on the table. But, if you like to have the pancakes just the way you like them, and you don't mind taking the time...heck maybe you even ENJOY the process of taking the time to customize your pancakes....you can get EXACTLY what you want and use your second hobby (cooking....the other "hobby" being eating pancakes) as an added benefit way to get exactly what you want.
I have actually reloaded a bit ... about forty years ago ... so please assume I know very little about anything. I principally shoot handguns, and have been trying to kind of standardize on 9mm since the more exotic calibers (to me) are much spendier. I occasionally shoot .45 ACP, .380, 10mm, and .44 Special. The last two I can rarely find for less than .60 a round and sometimes more like a dollar.
I've read a bunch--well, a few--pages that claim you can load 9mm for around $7/100 in consumables. I assume that's not counting brass, but when I look, it looks like 2¢ for a primer, around 3-5¢ for powder, and I don't see any bullets for less than 12¢. I can't make that come out to much less than $20/100 and I can buy range ammo for as low as $28/100. Also, I haven't been saving 9mm brass, though I can start.
Near as I can see, it's about the same cost for .44 Special (and I have brass--yeah) so I'd be getting a little savings on 9mm and more than $.40 per round on the less usual stuff. Is my addition just wrong? Maybe the $7/100 figure is ten years out of date, or maybe those guys are digging bullets out of their backstop? If it'll take me years to break even, I may need to come up with a different plan...
I read a bunch of posts on the group and they're fascinating, but didn't seem to address such simple questions. If there's some old posts I should read, please just direct me there.
RMR fmj-$75-1k
s&b primers-$19 on sale
brass-free
powder-$20-does about 2k rds.
I figure I'm about $7.75-$8 per 100 seeing how I can use the same powder for 2 different calibers. sure beats the $11-12 per 50rds.
I've said it several times that we need a 12 step program
That's why I said figure-guess.Your math doesn't add up: 7.5 (bullet) + 1.9 (primer) + 1.0 (powder) = 10.4 cents per round or $10.40/100
I'm loading 9mm for 5-8 cents a only round becasue I bought most of my bullets circa 2005 when they were about half what they are now, along with most of my powder and primers, although I've recently had to buy more primers and powder to have enough to load all the bullets still in inventory, current prices, while improved from a year ago, still hurt. I did this in September, before the election when available improved and prices retreated a bit figuring it was better to pay a bit more then and have it, in case the old Hag won and we hit another Sandy Hook type panic where primers and powder were hard to find and ridiculously expensive when you did.
Back circa 2005 I stopped reloading as I could buy Wolf steel cased .45ACP ($120/1000) and CCI aluminum cased 9mm ($3.86/50) ammo for about what it would cost in components, but I started stockpiling components for retirement while shooting the cheap ammo! My "investments" in reloading components have been about the best performing part of my retirement portfolio
I'm currently seeing Wolf/Tula 9mm FMJ for $150-160/1000 which is ~$8/50 making it IMHO marginal to reload 9mm FMJ at present. I'm close to stop shooting my reloads in 9mm again except for the 147gr plated loads for the suppressors.
"Less popular" calibers like .45ACP and .380 have better savings, reloading .45 is still generally less than half the cost of factory ammo per shot.
We might be in a similar situation for the next few years so I'd continue to shoot the cheap ammo and start setting aside components for the next price rise or panic as finances permit, think of it as an investment or hedge
shhhhh my wife thinks theres only 6 steps related to my addiction...imagine how upset shed be if she knew how much time i spent online making imaginary shopping carts...LoonWolf
You forgot Step 1 accepting we're powerless over reloading, you also forgot purchase components, hangout on forums, go to gun shows and gun stores so that's 10 and I'm sure there are two more we're both forgetting
I also take the consensus wisdom that I won't really save anything, I'll just shoot more.