Pays less and less to reload

[mr surveyor]

Ditto what Jimbo said. That 1/3 reloading cost is exactly what inspired me to first start reloading .38 spl and.357 mag, and now also .44 mag. I also started out loading 9mm as well but the 20%+/- overall savings just wasn't an inspiration on the 9mm. I may buy .45 acp dies next and probably load for about 40% savings, but for now I seem to have a totally new love for these revolvers. I've only been reloading for a year and a half, but in that year and a half I've put three times more rounds down range than I did the previous two years of the "recession", and didn't break the bank.

 

[Donaldjr1969]

Depends on the caliber. Even buying new brass, it is still nearly one third the cost of factory loads for my .500 S&W at a reloaded cost of 1.16/round. That's still a LOT better than over 3/round! Even if I only get 3 firings per case (I suspect I will get FAR MORE), the per round cost drops to about 81¢ per round.

There was a great reloading cost calculator website posted here some time ago but the site is offline. Thankfully I saved the HTML file with the javascript. But there is another calculator hosted at handloads dot com.

http://www.handloads.com/calc/loadingCosts.asp

For my example, I paid 52 dollars for 100 new cases for my .500. If I get 10 firings per case, then I would enter the cost as 1000 for 52 dollars. Obviously, if one gets all their brass for free (such as range pickups) or saves their brass from fired factory ammo, then one would enter 0 dollars for any brass cost. And with that in mind, it is STILL cheaper than any factory loading period even shooting jacketed.

 

[Thumbcocker]

If you keep an eye out and buy in bulk wolf or Tula primers can be had reasonably. I have been very impressed with them.

 

[williamc]

I shoot a light .44 special load thru my Blackhawk (as previously mentioned). 4.4 grains of Trail Boss, Missouri Bullet Co 240gr. LSWC, starline brass and CCI primers. I got a deal on the powder at a gun show, paid $33/1000 for primers.

In total I spend $7.60/50 (assuming I can get 10 loads out of each case). The cheapest factory ammo I've found is $23/50, and that ammo is of lower quality than I produce. I'll pay off my reloading equipment in just over 900 rounds, and I bought pretty decent equipment.

That isn't even considering that if I use my .44 to amortize my equipment it makes making match / hunting .223 ammo super cheap. Or that reloading gives me something to do to scratch my shooting itch between visits to the range.

 

[steve b]

In some niche's, yeah the factories are tough to beat. Say, buying case lots of cheapo 9mm to go to a 500-1000 rd weekend course/class. Here, maybe better to buy. Money aside, its about flexibility. NOBODY factory loads .44spec full wadcutters. Its the specialty loads, the loads tweeked to perform in your gun, best, for hunting, etc.. This is reloadings 'hood. steve b

 

[DGW1949]

Depends on what you are shooting.
A 44Spl or 45LC, yeah, no contest. But a 9MM or .38Spl using factory equivelant componants?.....naw, I aint working for a dollar an hour.

DGW

 

[opos]

Let's see..Cost justification...I got a really nasty little 57 Chevy pickup in the garage....big block....spent a huge amount of my "play money" on it...it gets about 12 miles per gallon just driving and about 8 or 9 the way I like to drive it "sometimes"...have to mix 91 octane pump gas at $4.40 a gallon and av gas :100 octane lo lead fuel at almost $7.00 (old price...probably more like $9 or 10 now) a gallon to get it to run....can I cost justify it...nope...do I try to justify it..nope..do I enjoy it just for what it is....hell yes....and that's reloading for me. I can drive a hybrid and it will get me where I need to go and I can cost justify owning it....would I quit playing with the truck and buy a hybrid just based on cost..nope....Will I quit reloading because of the cost factor (one way or the other)...nope

 

[Sal1950]

Brass isn't something you buy, you pick it up off the floor-ground for free. Let the other dump schmucks pay big bucks to buy brand new brass and then throw it away. :lol:
Sal

 

[eric conrad]

opos, just wondering. Where do you find racing fuel for $7.00 a gallon :shock: and what brand. Its been about twelve years since i've seen it at that price. Thats retail price.
Sounds like a nice hot rod. Eric

 

[mr surveyor]

if I had to depend on "pick-up" brass from the range for my .357 and .44 mag reloading, I wouldn't be shooting much

 

[Tommy Kelly]

Well I must be wrong because by figures I am shooting 38 special for about a nickle a pop. Not counting my time of cource. I cast my own bullets and have a bunch of cases several thousand on hand and with the 4.0 gr load of 2400 behind my waddcutter bullets the primer is my most expensive part at around 3 cents apice with 1750 loads comming from 1 lb of powder and figureing the cases will last at least 10 loads. But yes every once in a while I will buy a box or two of cheap remington 38's just to have some more hulls on hand.

 

[DGW1949]

Well I must be wrong because by figures I am shooting 38 special for about a nickle a pop. Not counting my time of cource. I cast my own bullets and have a bunch of cases several thousand on hand and with the 4.0 gr load of 2400 behind my waddcutter bullets the primer is my most expensive part at around 3 cents apice with 1750 loads comming from 1 lb of powder and figureing the cases will last at least 10 loads. But yes every once in a while I will buy a box or two of cheap remington 38's just to have some more hulls on hand.

Didn't say that I can't reload 9's or 38's cheaper than I can buy them. And yeah, casting your own bullets will save even more. I been there done that too. But when I figured in the extra time involved with scrounging-up the metal, casting the bullets, lubing the bullets, and cleaning/maintaning the equipment I used.....I was still working for a dollar an hour. :roll: .

Can't say that I've ever used a 4 grain load of 2400 in anything though, so I guess ya got me on that one. :wink: .

DGW

 

[opos]

opos, just wondering. Where do you find racing fuel for $7.00 a gallon :shock: and what brand. Its been about twelve years since i've seen it at that price. Thats retail price.
Sounds like a nice hot rod. Eric

Made a little change...and sent you a p/m....I use 100 octane "low lead" Aviation gas as my mix....not pure racing fuel (think it's something like $15 or $20 a gallon now days)...Last a/v I bought from a friend that is a bulk supplier was over $7 and we've had the truck down for a while working on it so I'd bet it might be $9 or better now. Nice thing on the lo lead is it doesn't turn to crap in about a month or two...with or without Stabil...

 

[Sal1950]

Well I must be wrong because by figures I am shooting 38 special for about a nickle a pop. Not counting my time of cource. I cast my own bullets and have a bunch of cases several thousand on hand and with the 4.0 gr load of 2400 behind my waddcutter bullets the primer is my most expensive part at around 3 cents apice with 1750 loads comming from 1 lb of powder and figureing the cases will last at least 10 loads. But yes every once in a while I will buy a box or two of cheap remington 38's just to have some more hulls on hand.

Didn't say that I can't reload 9's or 38's cheaper than I can buy them. And yeah, casting your own bullets will save even more. I been there done that too. But when I figured in the extra time involved with scrounging-up the metal, casting the bullets, lubing the bullets, and cleaning/maintaning the equipment I used.....I was still working for a dollar an hour. :roll: .

Can't say that I've ever used a 4 grain load of 2400 in anything though, so I guess ya got me on that one. :wink: .

DGW

9s are about the toughest to save substantially on. But I can buy 1K of genuine jacketed, (not plated) FMJ 124's from Precision Delta for $85 shipped. Plugging that into the calculator with 4.4g of Universal powder at $22 a pound and $30 a thousand for primers and a box of 50 costs $6.44 to build, about half the cost of the cheapest Federals at Wally World. My Dillon 450B will do 200 an hour without pushing it, making/saving me $25.76 an hour. Not a bad wage IMHO.
Now you want to talk about the savings of loading for my 460 S&W Mag and the numbers will make you head spin.
Sal

 

[wizofwas]

Free lead (so far), free brass. Less that $0.05 a round for any revolver round. No matter how you look at it, it's quite a savings there. I haven't tried to figure out any rifle rounds yet. Have to add the price of GC's and more powder but still under $0.30 a round.

 

[DGW1949]

Well I must be wrong because by figures I am shooting 38 special for about a nickle a pop. Not counting my time of cource. I cast my own bullets and have a bunch of cases several thousand on hand and with the 4.0 gr load of 2400 behind my waddcutter bullets the primer is my most expensive part at around 3 cents apice with 1750 loads comming from 1 lb of powder and figureing the cases will last at least 10 loads. But yes every once in a while I will buy a box or two of cheap remington 38's just to have some more hulls on hand.

Didn't say that I can't reload 9's or 38's cheaper than I can buy them. And yeah, casting your own bullets will save even more. I been there done that too. But when I figured in the extra time involved with scrounging-up the metal, casting the bullets, lubing the bullets, and cleaning/maintaning the equipment I used.....I was still working for a dollar an hour. :roll: .

Can't say that I've ever used a 4 grain load of 2400 in anything though, so I guess ya got me on that one. :wink: .

DGW

9s are about the toughest to save substantially on. But I can buy 1K of genuine jacketed, (not plated) FMJ 124's from Precision Delta for $85 shipped. Plugging that into the calculator with 4.4g of Universal powder at $22 a pound and $30 a thousand for primers and a box of 50 costs $6.44 to build, about half the cost of the cheapest Federals at Wally World. My Dillon 450B will do 200 an hour without pushing it, making/saving me $25.76 an hour. Not a bad wage IMHO.
Now you want to talk about the savings of loading for my 460 S&W Mag and the numbers will make you head spin.
Sal

A 100 pack of Fedral 9MM FMJ's is $19.95 around here, so that makes your reloads close to 2/3 the cost of what I'm buying factory loads for.
I aint got a Dillon, I gots an old single stage, and I'm real anal with my proccess....so it takes me about a hour and a half to do a 100.
All that said though, it does seem that I was mistaken, meaning that I'd actualy be working for about $2 an hour.

Back when I was younger, I did stuff like that because I was raising a family and money was tight. Nowdays, I'm an old guy who aint got a lot of time left, so working for a dollar or two per hour aint on my list of important things to do any more. Neither is combing though the grass out back so's I can reload every stinkin' empty that my gun ejects.

Just sayin' that we aint all the same, so the way we look at things aint the same.

I do agree about the big bores though. All of my 45LC shooting involves reloading. And most all of my rifle shooting.

Heck, if I weren't a handloader, I wouldn't even own most of the guns I have. :wink: .

DGW

 

[gunners]

The last packet of primers I bought cost me $6:00 per 100 over here in Australia and $44:00 a pound for reloder 19. But when factory magnum rounds go for 50-60 dollars a box you recoup your money pretty quick. A couple of years ago for my 45-70 the local gunshop was charging $76:00 for a box of Remington's, now that makes your eyes water. For my 7 mm Rem Mag it costs about $1:15 per round and $1:46 for my 45-70 which is a 350 grainer at a chronographed 2060 fps. Yeah love my reloading

 

[Donaldjr1969]

Back when I was younger, I did stuff like that because I was raising a family and money was tight. Nowdays, I'm an old guy who aint got a lot of time left, so working for a dollar or two per hour aint on my list of important things to do any more. Neither is combing though the grass out back so's I can reload every stinkin' empty that my gun ejects.

Just sayin' that we aint all the same, so the way we look at things aint the same.

That basically sums it up. I hear ya. For me at age 42, reloading is a nice way to kill some time on a rainy day. From my point of view, I am a person that LOVES to tinker. But what is important is that we enjoy shooting regardless of our source of ammunition.

I do agree about the big bores though. All of my 45LC shooting involves reloading. And most all of my rifle shooting.

Heck, if I weren't a handloader, I wouldn't even own most of the guns I have. :wink: .

DGW

Same here. I never would have purchased my 44 Magnum had I not intended to purchase a press. And I definitely would not have purchased my .500 S&W Magnum if I did not already own a press.

 

[gramps]

opos, just wondering. Where do you find racing fuel for $7.00 a gallon :shock: and what brand. Its been about twelve years since i've seen it at that price. Thats retail price.
Sounds like a nice hot rod. Eric

opos wrote" pump gas at $4.40 a gallon and av gas :100 octane lo lead fuel at almost $7.00 (old price...probably more like $9 or 10 now) a gallon to get it to run.

I think you missed the aviation gas part.
gramps

 

[Iron Mike Golf]

You should buy powder in 4 or 8 lb jugs. The price drops to $13-15 a lb.