Reloading $$ Savings NOW??

[Cranky CJ]

Now that everything is priced to the moon and back, how much does everybody think they are saving now?

Yesterday a LGS was selling .223 for $90 per 100 or 90 cents each. Based on what I bought all my components for, I can reload it for about 20 cents each, give or take 2 cents. That's about 70 bucks per hundred savings.

Now, I have two teenage boys, and at the rate they can pull the trigger on the Sig M400, the savings are mounting up.

Reloading is keeping the shooting sport affordable.

 

[GI_Jared]

I just started re-loading for the cost savings, luckily I have been saving my brass for a while. Just re-loaded my first 100 rounds of 45 acp for 18 cents a round.

 

[BP44]

I was cheap enough to start reloading years ago, and nothing is cheaper than buying in bulk. I have enough components to load for most all of my calibers for a very long time.

To answer your question, if you were already prepared then yes reloading is very much worth it and its currently saving me nearly $.80/rnd on .223/5.56 alone.

 

[RugerBob]

I am still using my stock from 2 years ago. I pick up compoments as I get under a certain amount. Looking at current ammo prices, its still cheaper then factory.

 

[greenlion]

Trying to get into anything in the gun world right now is a bad move financially. Just because your local gun store is fleecing people during a panic does not mean reloading is no longer viable. It just means you need to remember how much advantage the gun store tried to take of its customers and shop somewhere else when this is all over.

I understand the prices of AR's skyrocketing because of supply and demand, but I stopped in to look at a used 870 youth shotgun at one store a few weeks ago and the clerk quoted me a price 150 dollars over new, stating that "the price of everything has gone up because of Obama". I don't know of any MANUFACTURER who has raised the MSRP of their guns due to demand. Even after one of the biggest sales bubbles in history, some stores are still willing to insult their customer's intelligence making up crap about Youth Shotguns being in high demand. I don't think so.

 

[LiveLife]

Big savings for me. I tell people I have expensive paper hole punchers - $0.10/hole for 9mm and $0.11-$0.12/hole for 40S&W/45ACP.

Yesterday's range session of 500 9mm lead reloads costed less than $50. If I shot factory ammunition (that's if you could find any at all) it would run $140+. With 500 40S&W/45ACP, my cost would be less than $55-$60. If I shot factory, it would run $200 - $300+.

If you shoot 500,000 rounds in your life time, cost savings would be:
9mm - $100,000+
40S&W/45ACP - $150,000 - $250,000+

My current round count is well over 300,000 and probably will shoot 600,000 - 750,000+ before I die. And this is only pistol rounds, rifle rounds were harder to calculate but the cost savings is at least 50%.

 

[45lcshooter]

Since I started reloaded about 17 yes ago, I've been collecting supplies here and there. Not really hording buck collecting. The past few years its turned more to hording. I don't do as much shooting as I used to so I've kept a lot of projectiles and bullets.

.308 bullets always have been hard to come by in the classified market for under retail price. Sometimes you find deals.

.223 were always cheap to get components for. But since the king thinks that they are bad, prices sky rocketed.

A few weeks back I got an email from Magpul concerning PMags. It said that they have not raised their price to manufacture them or their price to sell them to retailers. So your local shops and online retailers are sky rocketing prices to go along with the king saying they are bad. Hmmmm if it would be supply and demand, then Magpul would charge more from factory. So the deal with online retailers and gun shops seems outragious, I thought we were to defeat tyranny together. Not having skyrocketed prices for those that have the same views as others.

 

[Cranky CJ]

I have seen that the independent LGS jacked their prices way up, yet the two big box suppliers her locally have only slightly raised prices.

Like several of the above posts, I've been slowly picking up components over the past two years. I went to lead bullets fro MO bullet company that I can get for about 7-8 cents each, so I can load 45/9/38/357 for less than 15 cents each. Can't find a box of 100 anywhere for $15. The 223 is saving me a good 70 cents per round.

Last time out we ran through about 300 .223/5.56, about 200 9mm, 100 45ACP and 100 38spcl.

Crude math savings of $210 in 223 and $80 in pistol, just guessing at prices nothing scientific here. Looks like I'm close to paying for most of my loading equip in my last shooting session alone. My boys and I are going out again today and will shoot about the same amount. I love it.

 

[Magnum Shooter]

Early last summer I reloaded 5000 rds of 9mm with my own cast 124gTC bullets. The total cost came to $381.93, that includes powder, primers, lead, bullet lube, and all shipping and haz-mat charges. I did not include brass because it has been loaded several times bringing it’s cost down to almost nothing. I also did not include the cost of electricity for the furnace, case feeder, and lube heater because it would be to difficult to calculate accurately.
Before all this madness the lowest price I could find locally was $13/box, total for 5000 was $1300. Thus my savings of $918.07 would have gone a long way toward paying for the cost of reloading equipment if it had not already paid for itself long ago.
Now I will have to admit it took a lot of time to cast, size, lube, load, and inspect that many rounds, but I enjoyed myself and I know of no other activity that will actually reduce the cost of something as fun as shooting.
This is just one example for one caliber, I could show others for 45acp, 38spl, 40s&w, not to mention even better savings for 357mag and 44mag.

 

[oneounceload]

Current prices for supplies have risen in direct proportion to ammo so the savings in relationship should be similar as a ratio

 

[LiveLife]

Not really. Here's before panic increase and after comparison - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=8712779#post8712779

$1 more per 50 or $20 more per 1000.


Before:

200 gr SWC (MBC, ZCast): Shipped cost of $73 - $86/1000 (order 2000 to save on shipping - Can also order MBC bullets from Powder Valley for ~$83/1000).
Tula LP primer: my last gun show price was less than $18
4.0 gr Promo: my last gun show price was $95
Cost: Less than $0.10/round, $5/50, $100/1000


200 gr SWC: Shipped cost of $73 - $86/1000 (MBC, ZCast)
Winchester LP primer - my last gun show price was $20
5.0 gr W231/HP-38 - my last gun show price was $129
Cost: Slightly more than $0.10/round, $5/50, $105/1000

After:

200 gr SWC: Shipped cost of $73 - $86/1000 (MBC, ZCast)
Primers: ~$40/1000 (wherever/however you can get it)
4.0 gr Promo/Red Dot: $90 or $106/8 lbs + HazMat (Powder Valley has both in stock)
Cost: Slightly more than $0.12/round, $6/50, $120/1000

 

[BHarada]

My most recent component purchase were some Wolf SRMP at $15/K, which actually dropped my per round cost as previously I've only used CCI 400 @ $26/K. I stocked up on powder and bullets early last summer so I'm good for a while on those fronts.

I haven't noticed a significant increase in cast lead bullet costs, just the delivery time.

My per round .223 cost is at 16¢...at least until I have to buy new brass.

 

[RustyFN]

Now that everything is priced to the moon and back, how much does everybody think they are saving now?

I am saving even more now than before. The components sitting on the shelf in my garage haven't gone up in price at all. I have enough components to last a couple of years or so. The best part is I can go shooting any time I want because I don't have to count on wallyworld having ammo on the shelves.

 

[tcanthonyii]

I'm not seeing a price spike locally of reloading supplies so reoading now, if I an find the components is the same price as it was before the panic. I haven't been reloading very long so I don't have stockpiles of components etc. I've been working to build up my brass quantities. Even during this crazy time I can still find once fired brass for decent prices. It does take some searching but it's out there.

Next up is working to cast my bullets. They the costs come WAY down.

 

[LiveLife]

Since the last "shortage", I have used tax refunds and surplus funds to stock up on components whenever they went on sale or I saw a good deal. I arranged group buys to save on HazMat and shipping.

If you shoot/reload, I suggest you use the tax refund money and stock up now on components that have not significantly increased in price (over the decades, bulk bullet prices and reloading components have only gone up) or hang onto your tax refund and wait for the "panic/hoarding" to subside and stock up when the prices bottom.

 

[HOWARD J]

I have not worried about the price for a long time.
I reload so I have ammo when I want it.
The only loaded ammo I have purchased in years was a box of .380 & a number of russian 7.62 x 39--20 round boxes

 

[rdhood]

Savings are bigger now than ever. At the beginning of 2009, I bought about 20,000 primers and about 15 lbs of powder. Since then I have expanded a little bit, but in just the last week I made up 300 45acp, and 200 7.62x39. When I look at what that would have cost retail.... if I could purchase it at all!.... I would not have been able to afford it.

Except for an assorted few calibers, I reload 100% of what I shoot.