cluttonfred
Member
I am curious about the economics of reloading for rifle cartriges, particularly .30-06 Springfield and .303 British. Looking at the prices of a basic press and other equipment, bullets, primers, powder, etc. it seems to me like I'd have to load thousands of rounds of ammo for reloading to make much econonmic sense compared to surplus ammo, steel-cased ammo or even low-cost commercial brass-cased ammo like Prvi Partizan.
For example, the 150 gr FMJ bullets alone for .30-06 are going to run about 22 cents each, the primers about 3 cents each, plus the powder, and the brass has to come from somewhere, plus shipping costs (or higher prices if buying locally). That's at least 40 cents per round in raw materials, plus amortizing the cost of several hundred dollars worth of equipment and throwing in my time for free. With those numbers, 60-70 cents per round ready to shoot doesn't look too bad.
Am I missing something? I'd love to hear from folks currently reloading for these cartridges on what the numbers look like for you.
Cheers,
Matthew
For example, the 150 gr FMJ bullets alone for .30-06 are going to run about 22 cents each, the primers about 3 cents each, plus the powder, and the brass has to come from somewhere, plus shipping costs (or higher prices if buying locally). That's at least 40 cents per round in raw materials, plus amortizing the cost of several hundred dollars worth of equipment and throwing in my time for free. With those numbers, 60-70 cents per round ready to shoot doesn't look too bad.
Am I missing something? I'd love to hear from folks currently reloading for these cartridges on what the numbers look like for you.
Cheers,
Matthew