The myth on not saving when hand loading 9mm ammo.

Status
Not open for further replies.
I can, and have, handloaded 9mm, but the calibers I handload the most are 38Super, 357mag and 10mm; followed by 45auto and 44mag. I practice/train a lot with 9mm, but I can't economically beat this, a brand that has worked for me in the past.

www.laxammo.com

LAX Ammunition 9mm Luger 124 gr Round Nose (RN) Reman (FREE Shipping! Orders $200 - $2000)

LAX 9mm Luger 124 gr RN Reman
www.laxammo.com www.laxammo.com

handload price compared to handload cost, free shipping plus a carry container. No hazmat cost for powder or primers, plus shipping.
 
CQB45ACP said:
Hasnā€™t cost me anything beyond the swapping of time doing yard work.
Click to expand...
What happened to all the fancy economic theories? Gone now that we are forced to apply the same standards to posting on a forum? šŸ«£

The question is specifically about 9mm. Now, most folks only want to talk about comparing steak off the grill to drive through burgers. I donā€™t have a pony in the discussion because I donā€™t look at handloading in economic terms. You own a gun, you feed it. End of story. With very few exceptions, shelf ammo in my experience is about like drive through burgers: safe enough, mostly not unhealthy, consistent quality, but about as appealing as dog food.
 
I skipped a number of pages. but I'm sure someone brought up the consistency factor. Sure you can buy bulk ammo for decent money, but have you ever actually looked at bulk ammo. Just to waste time awhile back. I bought a big bulk bucket of ammo and checked every round. the OALs were all over the place, 20%+ standard deviation. charge weights were likewise in about the same ballpark. 1/2 grain variance in some cases.

To the point. Bulk ammo is far and away lower quality than what I produce loading myself. if you want to talk cost comparison then. you really have to go with premium ammo.

I have yet to find a box ammo that shot better than my handloads. Some are just as good. but I have (as yet) never found an off the shelf ammo that was clearly better than what I could do myself.

reloading is a niche market. Always was. Always will be. all of us have done the math at some point as to what it "really costs" to load. and all of are still on forums like this - because after whatever rationalizations we make. we just don't care, we like reloading.
 
Loading RMR Nukes for $9.40 a box - Good
Not paying NYS to get on their ammo registry - Priceless
I consider time spent in the reloading room to be very enjoyable. It's just not fair for me to assign a monetary value to that. Same could be said for any hobby or leisure time activity. I do understand though that not everyone looks at time in the reloading room the same way. To some its like raking leaves. Hate to say it, but i actually like taking care of the yard. And yes - I'm retired.
 
.308 Norma said:
:thumbup:That's more than likely true.

That may be true for "most people." Not for me though - my wife is my hunting, shooting and handloading partner. And as I've posted before, the only time my wife and I got to where we were not enjoying handloading was back in the '80s when we were each going through a couple of hundred rounds of handgun ammo every week in IHMSA matches and practice for. So, we quit IHMSA, and handloading became enjoyable again. :)
BTW, there's a certain satisfaction to be had from cleanly taking down a head of big game (or tipping over a 200-meter steel ram) with one of your own carefully crafted handloads. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

That's a lot of rounds for silhouette!
 
It's a silly exercise, all this voodoo math and creative accounting. But - I've tried to calculate the "worth" of my time before too by following these steps:

Step 1) Baseline net worth of assets (cash, property, investments)
Step 2) Spend an hour with family, washing the dog, watching TV, cooking dinner, going for a walk, reloading, shooting, a drive in the country, etc...
Step 3) Note increase to net worth

After extensive testing and careful monitoring, discovered that the cash value of my time was $0.00 Only thing that pays me cash is "workin for the man..." :rofl:

Now the intangible benefits of those things in Step 2 are priceless to me, they (and a 100 more things) are what makes a life. No economic justification required.
 
CQB45ACP said:
Iā€™ve seen enough pictures of your set up to say with confidence youā€™re not saving money loading 9mm.
Click to expand...

I actually quit loading 9mm for many years, in the early 2000ā€™s Academy sold WWB for $3.99/50 and CCI Blazer for $2.99/50. Even when I started back up, it cost me more to make my own than buy it. I did it for the competitive advantage it gave me at that point though.

Iā€™m probably saving more money now than if I had to buy everything today, thatā€™s for sure. That said, I have components purchased back before Clinton signed the AWB and have picked up more as the even lower prices forced me to purchase them and even built things that facilitate the hobby (and keep my hands occupied.

Like my first post here 18 years ago, where I was loading 45 ACP for 1.8 cents a round and I still have some of those same components. So I can still load 1000 rounds of 45 ACP for $18 out of my pocket 20 years ago vs what it would cost me for 1000 rounds of factory ammunition today (~$400).

post #5 in this thread.

Magma Engineering Master Caster?

Anyone have experience with the Magma Engineering Master Caster? I lube-sized a few thousand .45 Auto bullets the other day using their Star unit and it's simple and easy. I won't even think about buying anything else...are their casting machines just as easy to operate? Ed
www.thehighroad.org

If nothing else it beats auto racing as a hobby. We always said, ā€œYou know how to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a large one.ā€ Probably similar with other, more expensive hobbies, boats, RVā€™sā€¦
 
Mostly Lead said:
It's a silly exercise, all this voodoo math and creative accounting. But - I've tried to calculate the "worth" of my time before too by following these steps:

Step 1) Baseline net worth of assets (cash, property, investments)
Step 2) Spend an hour with family, washing the dog, watching TV, cooking dinner, going for a walk, reloading, shooting, a drive in the country, etc...
Step 3) Note increase to net worth

After extensive testing and careful monitoring, discovered that the cash value of my time was $0.00 Only thing that pays me cash is "workin for the man..." :rofl:

Now the intangible benefits of those things in Step 2 are priceless to me, they (and a 100 more things) are what makes a life. No economic justification required.
Click to expand...
Talk about silly.
 
I'm seeing some misrepresentations in this thread. Either you enjoy reloading (i.e. it's a fun hobby) or you probably shouldn't be doing it. If it's a hobby, then you shouldn't attribute labor costs, otherwise, you might as well pay someone to go to the range for you and shoot for you.

Even if you do include labor, it shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes to load up 100 rounds of 9mm. If it's taking you more than that, then you clearly don't have a progressive press and either shouldn't be reloading 9mm (or any pistol round for that matter) OR shouldn't be complaining about the time it takes.

Next up is the costs. If you want to shoot the same junk you can get for $12-13 a box of 50, you can reload that for less than $9 per 50. You can save even more if you buy blems or pulled bullets. If on the other hand you want to shoot more accurate, reliable and expanding HP ammo with a customized recoil profile (i.e. pick your burn rate powder) you can do that for $10 per 50. If you could even find factory rounds like that it would likely cost you at least $26 (probably more) per 50.

Primers can be had for $62 shipped per 1000 on American Reloading. RMR, Delta Precision and Montana Gold can be had for around 10 cents per bullet in bulk. 9mm cases are about the easiest to get, and I have about 40K of them and stopped bothering to pick any up for the last couple of years. If I get down to 10K I guess I'll start collecting them again.
 
rhino465 said:
That's a lot of rounds for silhouette!
Click to expand...
Hardly. A regular IHMSA sanctioned match was 40 rounds, a "regional" match was 60 rounds, and a "state" match was 80 rounds. For that matter, one year we drove clear up to Coeur d' Alene, Idaho for the "Internationals," and that was a 120-round match. Both my wife and I were competing (in different classes) in the matches, we were both practicing during the week, then driving to a match somewhere at least once a month, and sometimes every other weekend.
So, I wasn't exaggerating when I wrote we were going through "a couple of hundred rounds every week" - that was a low estimate. :)
 
AJC1 said:
9mm might just be the thinnest margin in reloading.... check the delta in 45 colt. The best reason to have the stuff is you have a supply when there is none.
Click to expand...
Yes, this is the answer. 9mm range ammo is around $13-14 box in my neck of the woods. .45 Colt is darned pricey anywhere...if you can even find it in stock...and if you want 25-30K PSI .45 Colt hunting ammo for your rifle, you can either pay $$$ to Buffalo Bore, or load it yourself. .45 Colt is why I got into reloading.

And to the original poster: you should add in the amortized cost of your reloading equipment (and space). I don't know what that would be in your case, but it is certainly nonzero.
 
packetloss said:
I'm seeing some misrepresentations in this thread. Either you enjoy reloading (i.e. it's a fun hobby) or you probably shouldn't be doing it. If it's a hobby, then you shouldn't attribute labor costs, otherwise, you might as well pay someone to go to the range for you and shoot for you.

Even if you do include labor, it shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes to load up 100 rounds of 9mm. If it's taking you more than that, then you clearly don't have a progressive press and either shouldn't be reloading 9mm (or any pistol round for that matter) OR shouldn't be complaining about the time it takes.

Next up is the costs. If you want to shoot the same junk you can get for $12-13 a box of 50, you can reload that for less than $9 per 50. You can save even more if you buy blems or pulled bullets. If on the other hand you want to shoot more accurate, reliable and expanding HP ammo with a customized recoil profile (i.e. pick your burn rate powder) you can do that for $10 per 50. If you could even find factory rounds like that it would likely cost you at least $26 (probably more) per 50.

Primers can be had for $62 shipped per 1000 on American Reloading. RMR, Delta Precision and Montana Gold can be had for around 10 cents per bullet in bulk. 9mm cases are about the easiest to get, and I have about 40K of them and stopped bothering to pick any up for the last couple of years. If I get down to 10K I guess I'll start collecting them again.
Click to expand...
Donā€™t know about misrepresentation but certainly straying off original topic which was can you save money vs buying and not is it worth it to reload.

One can certainly enjoy a hobby while also trying to figure out how much it costs even if the end result is holy moly is this expensive.
 
Savage30L said:
Yes, this is the answer. 9mm range ammo is around $13-14 box in my neck of the woods. .45 Colt is darned pricey anywhere...and if you want 25-30K PSI .45 Colt hunting ammo for your rifle, you can either pay $$$ to Buffalo Bore, or load it yourself. .45 Colt is why I got into reloading.

And to the original poster: you should add in the amortized cost of your reloading equipment (and space). I don't know what that would be in your case, but it is nonzero.
Click to expand...
If you want to be accurate you are correct.
 
jmorris said:
I actually quit loading 9mm for many years, in the early 2000ā€™s Academy sold WWB for $3.99/50 and CCI Blazer for $2.99/50. Even when I started back up, it cost me more to make my own than buy it. I did it for the competitive advantage it gave me at that point though.

Iā€™m probably saving more money now than if I had to buy everything today, thatā€™s for sure. That said, I have components purchased back before Clinton signed the AWB and have picked up more as the even lower prices forced me to purchase them and even built things that facilitate the hobby (and keep my hands occupied.

Like my first post here 18 years ago, where I was loading 45 ACP for 1.8 cents a round and I still have some of those same components. So I can still load 1000 rounds of 45 ACP for $18 out of my pocket 20 years ago vs what it would cost me for 1000 rounds of factory ammunition today (~$400).

post #5 in this thread.

Magma Engineering Master Caster?

Anyone have experience with the Magma Engineering Master Caster? I lube-sized a few thousand .45 Auto bullets the other day using their Star unit and it's simple and easy. I won't even think about buying anything else...are their casting machines just as easy to operate? Ed
www.thehighroad.org

If nothing else it beats auto racing as a hobby. We always said, ā€œYou know how to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a large one.ā€ Probably similar with other, more expensive hobbies, boats, RVā€™sā€¦
Click to expand...
My brother in law owned a marina until he retired a couple years ago and sold it.

Know how he made money?

I just told youā€”he retired a couple of years ago.

Except for the clubs, greens and cart fees, and other supplies, golf is really economical except for the club membership and monthly minimum. But itā€™s a hobby so you donā€™t count all that, right?

My total reloading costs including equipment are probably less than the cost of the pistols I shoot. But I donā€™t want to think about that.
 
CQB45ACP said:
One can certainly enjoy a hobby while also trying to figure out how much it costs even if the end result is holy moly is this expensive.
Click to expand...
That's for sure. I guess it's probably been 20 years or more since I estimated how much we were spending on deer hunting. As I recall, I figured out that venison was costing my wife and me about $15.00 a pound back then.
We're still deer hunting though, and as a matter of fact - before we retired, if we wanted to figure out how much venison really cost us, we really should have included the cost of the time we spent hunting - because we had to use vacation time in order to go hunting in the first place. ;)
 
.308 Norma said:
That's for sure. I guess it's probably been 20 years or more since I estimated how much we were spending on deer hunting. As I recall, I figured out that venison was costing my wife and me about $15.00 a pound back then.
We're still deer hunting though, and as a matter of fact - before we retired, if we wanted to figure out how much venison really cost us, we really should have included the cost of the time we spent hunting - because we had to use vacation time in order to go hunting in the first place. ;)
Click to expand...
Iā€™m not a hunter but my wife and her family were. A couple of rifles they used were way too nice to take into the woods. But it was obviously worth it to them. Venison was good but duck and goose awesome and very expensive.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

E
  • Locked
Benefits of reloading
Replies
22
Views
1K
45ACPUSER
4
T
  • Locked
I'm not seeing much savings
2 3
Replies
54
Views
2K
RustyFN
R
BigBore45
  • Locked
looking for more cost savings 45 acp loads
2
Replies
34
Views
2K
mdi
mdi
H
  • Locked
I just saved $1,000
2 3
Replies
62
Views
3K
Walkalong
Walkalong
C
  • Locked
Calculations that FINALLY make sense!
Replies
10
Views
493
chrt396
C
Back
Top