New to the game.

[drunkensobriety]

A member of the forum offered to sell me his old set of reloading equipment at a really good price so I decided it was probably time I got into it. Then I started looking at the consumables I'd need to reload (powder, primers, brass, bullets). Just in order to gauge how much money I'd be saving to reload my own.

I used mostly brownells.com for price checking - not the best price I'm sure but probably better than gander mtn. I will eventually use my .44 to go hunting: but I'm a resident of illannoys so it's kind of a hassle I don't care to deal with just for now. So in the meanwhile I'm thinking a fairly light load, 240 grain swc over 10 grains of bullseye should be around 1,200 fps.

I know that if you load .44 mag down to .44 special ranges the brass lasts almost indefinitely, but with the load I'll be shooting I'm -hoping- to reload at least 5 times with the same brass. So I did a price comparison based on that - to judge reloading v.s. commercial ammunition.

brass (100ct) $19.49 (*10 = $194.90) (/5 = $38.98)
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=33926/Product/Starline-Brass

bullets (1000ct) $95.00
http://www.thebulletworks.net/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=44-240+SWC+BB

powder (1 lb) $15.99 ($2.28 per 100) (*10 = $22.80)
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=41154/Product/Bullseye-Powder

primers (1000ct) $35.99 (federal)
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=35322/Product/Federal-Primers



$192.77 per 1,000 rounds.

average price on commercial per box of 50: $30. $600 per 1,000 rounds.

This does not factor in shipping obviously: but the raw cost is clear. 3x cheaper to load your own instead of buying commercial.

 

[GT1]

I found out very early, firearms in general were not expensive, factory ammo is expensive.

Didn't take me long to do the math for reloading costs either once I looked into it and found places like THR.

 

[BYJO4]

Reloading not only saves money but it's a great hobby that I find to be very relaxing.

 

[blarby]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=656967

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=18835

 

[armoredman]

BYJO4 has it perfectly right, and the other thing you need to do is to calculate that again, without factoring the cost of the brass, as that will be your SECOND load cost. That's the beauty of reloading, recycling. Reloaders were "green" before being "green" was cool.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Was there a question in there somewhere?

 

[blarby]

I think its a statement thread, not a question

 

[blarby]

FWIW, I'm on my 6th reloading already of some of my new 44 mag brass from starline....and it hasn't moved a thou, and I have nothing that looks even close to failure..... and I'm certainly not loading 44 special loads.

 

[Mac Sidewinder]

I'm fairly new to reloading also and my biggest complaint is the cost of primers around here. The only stores I can find (Gander and Bass Pro) are very high. It's almost like they are charging you the full hazardous materials fee on every individual box of primers you buy. The cheapest they have (actually all of them are about the same price) is $45 a box of 1000.

I see them online various places for $25 to $30 a box. But then you have to pay the $27 hazmat fee. I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy 10,000 or so at a time online to get any type of price break.

Mac

 

[GT1]

I see them online various places for $25 to $30 a box. But then you have to pay the $27 hazmat fee. I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy 10,000 or so at a time online to get any type of price break.

That's what I ended up doing. Powder Valley, Graf's And Sons, Wideners. Good places to start. If you can combo it up with large and small, some powder maybe, you can get that hazard fee down to a couple bucks per item. It doesn't hurt so bad then.
Powder and primers keep well for years with decent care, thankfully.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

You can definitely get more than 5 loadings out of brass, even hot .44 mags.

Personally, I'd skip on those $36 Federal primers and use Tulas for more like $20 per 1k.

 

[kingmt]

You don't have any brass? I can't remember ever wearing out a piece of revolver brass.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Never worn out any revolver brass, either. I have .38/.357 brass that I got used over 20 years ago that has been loaded dozens of times. I just load it until it splits.

 

[gahunter12]

I'm fairly new to reloading also and my biggest complaint is the cost of primers around here. The only stores I can find (Gander and Bass Pro) are very high. It's almost like they are charging you the full hazardous materials fee on every individual box of primers you buy. The cheapest they have (actually all of them are about the same price) is $45 a box of 1000.

I see them online various places for $25 to $30 a box. But then you have to pay the $27 hazmat fee. I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy 10,000 or so at a time online to get any type of price break.

Check with some of your local gun shops. Sometimes they will order primers and powder for you. I had a local gun shop in town that offered to order CCI primers for $32.00 per K. I passed since I have a couple true reloading shops with in 20miles from the house that sales CCI, Win, and Federal for $27.00 per K. Lots of shop have vendors that offer reloading supplies, but choose not to carry any. Just a thought.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Even at .44 Special pressures you might want to use a slower powder with those 240gr bullets than Bullseye. I feel the pressures will be too high in that recipe for no reason.

I would use W231/HP-38, Unique, universal or another powder in that burn rate range. (with W231 at the top)

 

[GlockFan]

Drunken or GT1...where in IL are you? If you were close and I hadn't already ordered we could of split the haz mat and shipping fee for a Power Valley order i did on Friday. I got 8 Lbs of Bulleyes for $102 and 4000 CCI 500 primers for $104 plus the $27.50 haz mat and shipping. Maybe next time I will see if anyone here wants to go in on a order. :banghead:

 

[GT1]

I'm a short hop to the NW of you in Rockford.
Too bad, I did my last PV buy about a month ago for 8lbs of HP 38 and 10k primers. I never thought about a group buy.

Definitely a good thing to keep in mind for next time.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Unfortunately no one around me orders online so I can't do a group buy. BUT, my local dealer orders powder for me at a good price although the primers are still a little high.

 

[4895]

I agree with ArchAngelCD, Winchester 231 is a much better powder for those power levels. It seems to meter like water and burns pretty clean. Another powder that people love is Unique. It tends to be a little dirty, but velocity is very consistent. I load about 12.0 to 12.5 grains of Unique for 180 grain bullets. Very nice. Doesn't twist your arm off like 28.0 grains of H110 and 200 grain XTP's.