Why I'm a Happy Reloader...

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RidgwayCO

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I stopped by the local sporting goods shop today and checked their ammunition supply. Seems like they must have received a large shipment recently, because they had just about everything in stock. Then I checked their prices... ouch!

Remington's 246gr LRN .44 Special (the low-tech round they've been making forever) was priced at $48.99 for a box of 50 (that's $52.66 with sales tax). Considering I can reload custom .44 Specials for around $13 per hundred, this hobby is making more and more financial sense. (It was always fun, but now it feels like I'm making money every time I pull the handle.)

Anybody else have horror stories about their local prices for commercial ammo?
 
$10.99 for a box of 9mm Blazer BRASS box of 50. thats not too shabby. 13.99 for the winchester white box and 12.99 for independence and american eagle
 
Winchester 38-40 rounds currently $81/box of 50 at ammobank.com.

That is precisely what caused me to take up reloading again after a hiatus of 25 years or so.
 
The only factory ammo I buy goes into carry guns so a box of 50 may last me for a while!!!! Reloads have a MUCH shorter life span... :D
 
I went to the store to buy my first box of .45 Colt, they wanted $40. for 50 rounds.
I ended up buying a set of dies, primers and some powder and ordered some cast bullets from Mike at http://www.mastercastbullets.com/
Now it cost me a little over $6. for 50 rounds (not counting brass) and their good clean accurate loads.
Glad I stocked up when I did!
 
Arm) Glad to hear it! ;)
Still setting things aside of course, but managed to find only about 16 boxers of your liking since we last spoke.

That said, I benefitted from getting into loading and shooting at the same time. Of the dozen or so rifles I own, only four have shot even a round of factory ammo. Seeing that I could load "Federal Premium" ammo for all my rifles at about 6-7 bucks per 20 instead of 40, it's never been a bad decision (and now gladder than ever).

I do have a great friend with an FFL, which helps... but even the last order I made is WAY above loading and nowhere near as much fun. Picked my old man up 10 boxes of Speer Lawman 40SW (185 TMJ i think) at 14 bucks each since a "free truck" was available. And that's probably the "best" deal on ammo I've made for anyone in the last year. Keep reloading :)
 
I bought my wife a Sig/Sauer P232 380acp last fall. I bought a box of Speer GD for carry ammo. $30/20...ouch!! :cuss: Glad I bought the reloading dies at the same time. At least pratice ammo is cheap when I reload.
 
I saw a 50 rd box of run of the mill Remington 230 grain 45 acp ammo for........... $49.99 back in May!!!

I threw up in my mouth a little....
 
A 125gr bullet won't "explode" at the velocities it will be pushed to from that reduced load. The loads on the Hodgdon Youth load page have been tested and used for many years. They will work as advertised.
 
I just did some fresh 7.62x39 Loads

Even after paying extorted rates for some of the Components I came out ahead. This is a caliber that many don't reload because there is cheap combloc stuff available.


7.62x39
Privi Brass 10.00 per 100 0.100 (Assuming ability to load it three times)
H4895 30.00 per LB 0.120
Hrn 123gr 17.99 per 100 0.179
Win LR Primer 33.00 per 1000 0.033

Per Round 0.432
Per Box of 20 8.64
Per Box of 50 21.60


I dare anyone to find 7.62x39 with RELOADABLE BOXER PRIMED BRASS 7.62x39 these days for less than $20/box.

I do have to admit however that in this particular case, if you are willing to accept STEEL Cased Berden Primed Wolf, you can beat the price easilym but you would not be able to reload it again later. :(
 
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Just came from the gun store where I do my indoor shooting and just a month or so ago I was buying PMC .223 ammo for $7.99 a box of 20. Today that same box is $11.99 glad I started reloading!!!
 
I don't have any horror stories about factory ammunition prices because I don't ever shoot factory ammunition. I did recently buy some new brass Georgia Arms .444 Marlin ammunition from a local pawn shop. It was marked $31.00 for 20 rounds, but the owner is a friend, so I got it for $18.00 per box. Since new .444 brass goes for almost that much for 20, I bought both boxes he had. I suppose I'll burn the ammunition at the range, but my rifle is sighted in for my handloads, so I might actually pull the bullets and reload the cases with my powder and stick my bullets on top.

I simply couldn't afford to shoot if I didn't handload. I was in the local ChiComMart not too long ago and decided to look and see what the ammo prices were like. .45 ACP WWB was $32 for 100 rounds. I can load 100 rounds for something like $6 or $7.
 
Ammo for a 303 Savage doesn't even exist anymore, the only option is to reload. But I can do that cheap!
 
Also happy

I echo some others here in that if I did not reload I would not be able to shoot much. During this past week I managed to replenish my SPP stock with 4 more bricks of CCI500.:neener:

As I only shoot cast boolits and have much powder on hand primers are the only thing that is tight. Hopefully this state of affairs will change soon.
 
With Federal 416 Rigby going for over $200 per 20 and 338 Lapua at around $120 a box you bet handloading is a bit cheaper. Shoot even my 50BMG handloads with a 750gr A Max's are around $3 a pop. I shoot enough that it's expensive even with shooting handloads but my shooting would be nil right now if I had to rely on factory fodder.:cool:
 
Since I shoot a lot of .223 it only makes sense to reload. My cost for reloading with a 55gr fmjbt, H335 powder, wolf small rifle magnum primers and my used brass is about 14 cents a round. That compares to around 37-40 cents a round for factory ammo from the stores.
 
Went to a gun show today in san angelo. Holy cow! Primers 80 bucks.
Blazer brass 28 bucks. 380 magtech $48.99. Are you kidding me. Wore out 1911's were 1500 bucks plus. Hell they are cheaper than that new.
Glad I reload. I almost offered to sell the idiots some of my stash for that price.
 
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