Reloading costs

[miko]

I am pricing out the reloading options for my new Rem 7600 in .243.
My goal is to get a decent practice ammo cheapest.

The cheapest off-the shelf ammo seems to be about 60 cents a round.

Reloading:
Case (Remington) 18 cents even used 9 times is 2 cents per use
Bullet (Remington 100gr or 80 gr PSP) 7 cents
Powder ~$25/pound 40 grain (25*40/7000) is 14 cents
Primer 2 cents

Total 25 cents - over half of it for powder? Is that correct?

I thought of swaging bullets out of 22 cal. brass but even if lead was free, I would have to shoot over 9000 rounds to pay off the cost of required swaging dies. 7 cent bullets are just too cheap to bother.

Somehow I was under impression I could keep the cost of reloads under 15 cents.

miko

 

[rammy]

Their are several questions about this over in the reloading sections. Do a search in that section or just look you should be able to find them.

On the other hand if you look to reload to save money then in most cases you will not save money. but you will gain accuracy and pride in something YOU made.

 

[MarineTech]

You're forgetting a few things in your cost assessment Miko.

1)Capital outlay for the reloading equipment. By the time you end up buying press, dies, and various tools to equip a beginner setup. You're out between $150 and $500....... But if you get into the swing of things, you're going to want to invest more money to get things to make life much easier. I've been reloading for about 4 years, and I easily have about $1200 invested into tools and equipment.

The other factor you need to add into your cost assessment, is a price for the time. Unless you pickup some of the motorized or electric tools, case prep takes a lot of time and reloading itself takes time. Now, set a dollar amount on what an hour of your time costs and apply that to your calculation. (hint - even at minimum wage, you're going to be over the $.60 mark)

With those 2 factors involved, you're going to see that there is no real cost saving to reloading unless you're investing in a progressive setup and are going to be bulk loading. I have a friend involved with Cowboy Action shooting that has a progressive setup for loading ammo, and he does save himself some money. Of course, he's reloading and firing upwards of 25,000 rounds a year for that savings.

For most people, reloading is about tuning the accuracy of a cartridge for your rifle (finding the right bullet/powder mix can be costly), and coming up with ammunition types not readily made available by manufacturers.

Unless you're going to reload a LOT of ammo, you're not going to see much of a cost savings.

 

[Werewolf]

On the other hand if you look to reload to save money then in most cases you will not save money.

Have to disagree here. After you amortize the cost of the reloading tools in almost every case you will save money. How much depends on the components you use. The more you reload the more you save.

The rub is in how much you think your time is worth.

As an example I will happily spend a couple of hours making 100 .45LC cartridges at a cost of about $9.00 instead of paying $30 to $40 for 100 factory cartridges. I'll even spend two hours reloading 100 .45 ACP or $100 .44 Mag at a cost of about $11 rather than pay the $20 or so it would cost for decent .45 ACP or $35 for .44 Mag factory ammo.

OTOH I don't bother reloading 9mm or .40 S&W because the savings - even though there - isn't enough for me to bother with.

It all boils down to whether or not reloading is worth it to you.

 

[WayneConrad]

Powder ~$25/pound 40 grain (25*40/7000) is 14 cents

That seems high to me. One pound of powder at my local Sportsman's Warehouse is $15-$18 (depending on the brand) before tax. Your area must be much more expensive. The cost of your other components matches my experience.

20-25 cents per round is my usual for rifle reloading. Pistol (9mm or 38 special) costs me about 6 cents per round for hard-cast, or 8.5 cents for copper plated bullets.

 

[rammy]

Werewolf--- you hit the nail on the head. in the end thats what it is all about.

It all boils down to whether or not reloading is worth it to you

 

[miko]

I was only calculating the cost of consumable materials.

Even at 25 cents a round, I save 35 cents compared to store price. 1000 rounds would pay off for $350 worth of equipment.

If/when my pistol permit comes through, I would be able to use most of the equipment (everything except dies?) for the pistol cartriges.

I do not know how much I will shoot with real ammo (not .22 rimfire) but 1000 rounds per year is not that much.

As for time, I have dozens if not hundreds of hours of great lectures (economics, political science, history - most of them free) in mp3. I put them on every time I do manual job and that allows me to discount the cost of time as well as remove the "disutility of labor".

miko

 

[Dave R]

The rub is in how much you think your time is worth.

Ahh, yes. There is no doubt that reloading is trading time for money. But my favorite quip answer for that is...

I can turn out 50 rounds of pistol ammo in less time than it takes to run to [your store] to buy it.

 

[longrifleman]

I put them on every time I do manual job and that allows me to discount the cost of time as well as remove the "disutility of labor".

Reloading is not a job to do without concentrating on doing the best job possible. If you can multi-task, go ahead, but be aware that mistakes can lead to big Ka-Booms.

As far as the value of your labor, how much is the time spent watching the tube worth? It seems that most of the time I spend reloading replaces time veging out in the recliner. Maybe I'm the only one around here with a recliner.

On the other hand if you look to reload to save money then in most cases you will not save money.

Please, please, please don't tell my wife!

 

[Sunray]

Reloading isn't about saving money. It's about using the absolute best ammo in your firearms.

 

[20cows]

If I had to depend on factory ammunition, I couldn't afford to shoot much. This is mostly due to my choice of favorite calibers.

.41 mag
.45 Colt
.38-55
7.7-06 (wildcat)
8mm Gibbs (wildcat)
.45 acp
.38 long Colt

The .45 acp is the only one I've EVER bought factory ammo for.

 

[armoredman]

Reloading is a fun and productive hobby. We use the excuse of saving money to justify our expenses to our significant others, and then happily plug away at the press for a few hours a week, whilst the better halves silently agree it's better than bar hopping and golf....

 

[patent]

I can turn out 50 rounds of pistol ammo in less time than it takes to run to [your store] to buy it.​

LOL. Great point, though there are some of us who buy ammo by "click, click, click, type in credit card number, type in address, click buy. Done. ;-)

Of course, I'm usually buying by the case, where this is more economical. Buying one box kills you on the shipping.

patent

 

[duckslayer]

You won't save that much money with the very popular calibers, but if you plan to shoot something other than the super popular calibers, you can save appreciable amounts of money.

If you get a rifle chambered for stuff like .220 Swift, any of the magnums like .300 Win Mag, 7mm Rem Mag, any of the short magnums, or anything with the name Laupa, Weatherby, or Ackley attached to it, among others, you can save money while reloading, and getting better accuracy at the same time.

 

[Gunpacker]

Reloading Savings

For most of us that shoot a lot, reloading is the only way to go for those that compare it to new ammo. However, with milsurp ammo at under 10 cents a round, I love to shoot surplus. Since surplus is available only in a few calibers, reloading is a must for those that are not rich and want to shoot a lot.

 

[DarthBubba]

Maybe it is just me but I have always found that my hand loads are more accurate than any I have purchased off the shelf, we are talking the difference between 1 ½ '' groups and ½ '' groups at the range, If you are hunting the elusive and dangerous paper target at a range you can't beat a good hand load made for the gun in which it is being shot.
For my money being able to hit with accuracy and precision is what it is all about.

DarthBubba

 

[redneck2]

I'm a little simpler. With my cost of powder and using your figures for cases, bullets, and primer, it comes to $4.20 a box versus maybe $15-20 for store bought. So you save $13 a box.

Figure the cost of the press and "stuff" from $150 to $500 (depending on what you get) and you can figure the savings pretty quick. With a basic but very good set-up, you'll pay for the reloading stuff after 12 boxes.

Yeah, some guys reload for max accuracy. Not sure how much that really plays out with the great factory stuff we have now. I don't care. I can still reload for 1/3 or less of the cost of factory stuff and have something as good or better.

Let's see....I can pay $20 a box for .45 LC or shoot all afternoon for $20. Like I said, I'm just a simple guy and this seems simple to me

Now, the thing everyone above is missing is that you're talking rifle. I'm gonna assume you have pistols. If you don't, you have serious character flaws and need immediate, intense counseling. There are many individuals here who would volunteer their time.

Dude, when you talk pistol, reloading takes on a whole new dimension. You can save a TON with the more fun and worthwhile calibers (10mm, 45LC, .44 mag, 44-40). I can make 10mm and 45LC rounds that ROCK for 1/4th the price of crap factory stuff. I can load 45LC that would take anything in North America for maybe $5.00 a box.

Now you're looking a a GOOD progressive (Dillon, Hornady) that pops out 400+ per hour. Now you're talking FUN. HTH

 

[sumpnz]

You should be able to shave a bit off the powder cost by buying in bulk. Of course, the brand of a type of powder is the biggest factor, but shop around the various online places and you can often find really good deals so long as you are prepared to buy in minimum 8# quantities. If you do that, I imagine you ought to be able to get the powder cost down to ~$15/# or maybe less even after shipping and Hazmat fees. If you buy primers in bulk (min 1000) you can often find them for around 1.5 cents each. I think CCI is the brand most often found at those prices.

If you're willing to scrounge at the local range you can often find plenty of brass for free, assuming you're after a common caliber, like .243, .45ACP, 9x19, .308, etc.

Being that you're shooting a non-military caliber those Remington bullets are probably your best deal. Again, buying in bulk will get the per bullet cost down to the minimum. If you get into .223 or .308 (and related calibers) there are sometimes pulldown bullets from military ammo that can be had for super cheap.

Also, watch the Trading Post Accessories forum. Every so often someone will be selling tons of reloading equipment and supplies for super cheap. Usually this is a result of an estate sale, someone just deciding to get out of reloading, or dire financial straights.

However, you will NOT save a dime reloading. You'll just shoot more. If you have $100 for ammo, you're not going to reload 6-7 boxes worth and just save the rest. You'll load up 20 boxes worth and really go to town at the range. Or, as soon as you have $30 you'll load up 6 boxes worth and shoot it rather than waiting until you have the $100 for the factory ammo (and repeat this 3 times until you've spent the $100 on the ammo). I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Quite the contrary. Just remember the savings issue is only for the benifit of significant others. It serves no other purpose, especially actually saving.

 

[Dave R]

However, you will NOT save a dime reloading. You'll just shoot more.

That is true in general, but not always. I'm time-contrained on my shooting. I don't shoot any more often now that I reload. So I really do save money. My whole setup is about $140 (and if I hadn't bought those $70 calipers it would be half that.) I bought it all used, and had some stuff given to me.

I shoot my K-31 in 7.5 Swiss for about $4.00 per 20. Vs. surplus GP-11 at about $7.20 per 20. And I'll cut that cost further by going to "pulled" surplus bullets on my next order of components. I wouldn't have bought the K-31 if I couldn't reload for it. (BTW, I also have a nice low-recoil load running about M1-Carbine levels--that's part of the fun of reloading.)

Likewise, .45acp runs me about $3.60 per 50, vs. about $11 per 50 for commercial ammo.

So some of us really do save money.

 

[sumpnz]

So some of us really do save money.

Well, there's always somebody at each end of the bell curve.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Reloading isn't about saving money. It's about using the absolute best ammo in your firearms.

I concur. I'm sure I do save a little money, but that's merely coincidental. The object of the game as far as I'm concerned is accuracy.

 

[dodge]

Another reason I reload is that I always have ammo on hand. I do most of my reloading during the winter and do my shooting when the weather is nicer. It's not well I decided to go shooting today but because it's Sunday the gunshop is closed so I have to run to Walmart or someplace like that which maynot carry what I want or need. This will take an hour round trip and if a buddy and I decide to go shooting who wants to wait that hour when you have limited time to go. With reloading I always have ammo on hand if only a box but I don't have to wait to go just grab my stuff and off we go.

 

[coonan357]

I have been reloading several years and it has me believing I have about broke even , yes the quality and quantity of my home rolled ammo is bette than store bought but the money I save buy supplying the free labor ( damn slavedriver )I have used up in buying more toys for the process and more firearms to fill the void of otherwise usless cases I have been given. I originally started out doing this to help my addiction to buying a case of 158gr jhp .357 rounds aweek at $200 a case ( good stuff) after about a month I realizedi could have bought a dillion 1050 . so I bought a rcbs rockcrusher and have been going from there . I just recently just eliminated the original shells I bought when I started (load conservitaly and they last longer) now I buy good cases , good powder , cheap and good bullets and good primers and have great groupings .plus I can tailor loads for the coonan . as when my freinds shoot my firearms they tend to do better also ( ammo is the reason for the season ) as for the trade off of labor TV is making people stupid ! so I think its worth while to do this instead .

 

[4D5]

The pleasant load factor...

Lots of us reload because, in addition to cost savings and being a great hobby, you can talor you loads to be much more pleasant to shoot. For example; I load 357mag and 44mag cowboy loads. You can shoot them all day and not feel like you've been punished by the gun, plus reduced powder loads = savings in powder costs. Same goes for reduced loads in 45acp.

 

[newfalguy101]

Powder ~$25/pound 40 grain (25*40/7000) is 14 cents

Unless my math is way off, I come up with just UNDER 3 cents per round

$25.00/7000 grains X 40 grains = $.028/round

that brings your figure down to roughly $.14/round

I have found that I DO not actually save money by reloading, but, I get to shoot 3 times as much.

I use a single stage and can load about 50 rounds an hour ( with the cases prepped in advance)

DONT spend a ton of money getting set-up and once you get the hang of it, then start getting some of the "time saving" goodies.

Start with a single stage, powder measure, balance beam type scale, and powder trickler, and a GOOD reloading book.

The CASE will be the biggest single expense, but hey if you dont think you have to have every last possible foot/sec out of it and back your charges off a bit, they will last for 15 or 20 reloadings.

Most importantly read ALOT and dont set off to "discover" new reloading technology or see "just how much pressure it'll handle", follow the reloading manuals faithfully and you will get along great.

I also buy some over the counter ammo, so just cuz you reload doesnt mean you HAVE to load everything you shoot.

For instance: I just cant justify reloading 7.62 X 39 and i havent loaded any .308 (except hunting ammo) in quite awhile. I also run Wolf .223, but its just blastin ammo, when I get a good quality .223, I will start loading that as well.