This is really just an academic question for me but I am curious.

When we look at low production calibers such as big game calibers (.375 H&H, .458 Lott, .577 etc. etc.) these rounds are usually insanely expensive commercially and I get that. Low, low demand yet still require all the startup costs, tooling, packaging etc. etc.

My question is if one simply loaded their own .375 H&H magnum would they be able to do so DRASTICALLY cheaper? I cannot imagine there is a massive difference in raw materials between even a .45 ACP and one of these? More material/powder etc. yes but not DRASTICALLY so on the grand scale no????

Like I said nothing more then a bored moment where my curiosity center kicked in.

Take care, shoot safe
Chris.

I'll let someone else with experience with big game calibers chime in with specific cost breakdowns, but I do know that savings when reloading "oddball" calibers depends partly on a few factors:

If the round is based on a common parent case, it gets cheaper. You can cut down or fireform your own brass from cheaper, widely-available parent cases.

And if it uses commonly available bullet sizes/weights just in a different format, it gets cheaper.

But when you stray further away from the norm into custom brass and custom bullets, even reloading can be expensive overall (although still cheaper than commercial).

I can reload 375HH for about half of commercial ammo. Sometimes better, sometimes worse, depends on how much I paid for the brass. I essentially covered the cost of my dies after reloading 20 rounds.

You are correct, loading 9mm or other calibers doesn't make a lot of sense financially until times like now.

My oddball calibers 300wsm, 375HH, 17Rem etc are all considerably cheaper, but more importantly and probably why most people get into reloading, the rounds are tailored to my rifles.

There is a relatively substantial cost involved in getting set up to reload (press, dies, various tools, not to mention bench space). If you don't currently reload, IMO it's probably not worth that expense to load your own low-volume calibers. If you do already reload for some other caliber(s), then it's easier to claim that the basic equipment cost has already been amortized, or at least is in the process of being amortized. After that the only cost is for components - brass, primers, powder, bullets. The largest component cost by far is the cases, but again you can amortize that somewhat by reloading them multiple times (if you pay $1 per new case, you effectively reduce that to $.20 per case by loading and firing each one 5 times).

The other "cost" to factor in is the value of your time. Reloading bottle-necked rifle cartridges involves a number of steps, all of which take some time. How much time, depends on the number of rounds you're loading. All of that time is time that you could be spending doing something else - household maintenance, kids/grandkids/dog, other hobbies, going out shooting, or just relaxing doing nothing. How much is an hour or two of your time worth? Only you can answer that one.

It all depends. I load for everything I shoot, but I don't have to many "exotic" calibers. I load a ton of 9mm...the only reason that makes any sense at all is the volume of savings, because the savings per round is minimal (at least, during non-panic times...right now it's the only way to get any ammo at all). But there is an abundance of free brass, the bullets are cheap when purchased in bulk, and when you load 4-5000 of them in 2 months, even a few cents per round adds up.

The most exotic stuff I load is 6.5 Grendel and .45-70. both of those are close to $1/round for factory ammo. I can cut that in half for .45-70 if you don't count the brass, and do even better with the Grendel. The downside is, you're not going to find .45-70 or 6.5 Grendel brass lying on the ground at the range...so you have to buy it. And it's expensive.

I shoot .45-70 out of a lever-action, so I can usually count on recovering 100% of my brass. The straight walled cases also hold up really well over multiple loadings, and the lever-action is easy on them. So that brass is a one-time purchase that goes a long way.

The Grendel gets shot out of an AR that throws brass everywhere, so you lose some in the grass every time. It also beats up the cases, and the higher-pressuee round has a tendency to split necks...so you lose a lot that way, too. I usually only get 2-3 loadings out of the Grendel cases that I recover...so you have that cost to factor in as well.

quote:

I can reload 375HH for about half of commercial ammo. Sometimes better, sometimes worse, depends on how much I paid for the brass

Interesting so you are still outlaying a fairly significant amount to load a caliber like .375 H&H. I guess you are still at the whim of low production brass and bullets.

Most of these calibers seem to run the gamut from $4-$10 a shot and I was curious if that would be brought down to the around a buck a shot range. (Assuming you are already set up to load etc.)

Again this is purely a curiosity and I am not sure why I thought about this today (I have no intention to own or load for a big game caliber).

I appreciate the insights.

Chris.

This one would require a book. Times have changed a bit over the last 60 or so years. Some calibers can be added on for almost nothing. An example would the the 25 ACP. I had to find and buy the dies. That was about 30 years ago. And I had to locate some bullets. Not hard and it wasn't a fixed expense. You shoot up bullets, just like primers and powder. What attracted me was the difficulty of finding ammo, and the high price when I did. Different rules seemed to apply. Most folks with that caliber only buy one box, ever. They load their magazine (one), toss the rest of the box in a desk or dresser drawer, and never give any thought to it again. If you're a scrounge, you pick up brass at the range. All calibers. Once you get to maybe 2 boxes of brass, you don't really need more.

At our gun shows, there often are component tables. You get a significant discount on bullets when you buy 500 or so. Call it bulk bullets, not tiny little boxes of 100. I just use primers that I already have and powder like Bullseye. Some of the old/ancient manuals even had data on all calibers.

I use the 25 as an example because its the tiniest one, and costly. But there are others. I was once taken to task for my purchase on the day Para joined this forum. I remember it because it was my Bday and I wanted a weird caliber. I chose my Bday present that day because it seemed to be interesting to me. My friends back then, 20 years ago, was the .30-378. factory ammo was a cool $80 a box of 20. My shooting friends (if they really were that) made fun of me for buying a caliber that cost so much per shot. Keep in mind, as I did, that none of them reload. So the main antagonist shot a .308. Buying his ammo at a rural hardware store. He was paying full retail. So he was spending around $28 a box, and thought I should use better sense.

But keep in mind I could shoot the same bullets as he did for relatively little. I did learn that to get the velocities up to reasonable, I did use a bunch of powder. And that wouldn't work so well in my .30-06. Didn't matter to me. I foolishly didn't realize that each round seems to take a full pound of powder... But that was why I bought it. Kind of like a tank round going off.

OK, it still doesn't cost that much per round after harvesting the first box of empties. If you're a reloader, you understand things like brass life. Less is more and the brass lasts a good long time. Most handgun shooters go out and shoot 100 or so rounds at a time. Magnum rifle shooters don't. And now I can shoot a box of 20 magnums in .30 caliber for just a little less than he can shoot a box of 308s. Thats because I burn so much powder with each shot. Bullets cost the same amount in the same grain weight.

But things have changed over the last 20 years. Loaded ammo has gone through the roof. So have premium components. But there used to be bsrgains at gun shows. You've got to buy the deals when you see them. Odd old boxes of .30 cal bullets used to show up all the time. These days you need to go to tiny shows to find real deals. Or yard/farm sales.

So if you don't need the newest progressive press, and are willing to dip powder instead of metering it. Reloading can be done cheap. The question asked here by the OP had the flavor of getting into it all at once. If you're into it for the long run (and have a little extra cash) you can buy things for future use. Then also consider once you get started, only buy in that caliber in the future. Keep in mind that a .308 slug is the same as a .30-30, a .30-06 or a ton of other calibers. And large rifle primers are the same, too.

Ammo doesn't go bad. Or over the course of a human lifetime. I've still got some of my dad's reloads from the 1950s. It lasts forever, or almost. The brass, too. In my life I've never see a bad primer. I've seen a bunch of light hits. Most brass will outlast you, and so will bullets. I don't trust ancient powder.

I'd suggest the new reloader is better off starting with one caliber he/she shoots a bunch of. My wife and I've cast bullets, but to me its not a good use of our time. I've given away our lead pot and some of the molds. Cast bullets can be found cheap if you look, cheaper than casting yourself. Maybe better, too.

Its all relative. I think the cheapest 375 bulletes run about .50ea, x1 fired brass runs about .50ea, sometimes more. Im pretty cheap when it comes to buying components. I could probably trim a bit more off the cost per round. If you use new brass, I dont think 1.00 per round is possible.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:

quote:

I can reload 375HH for about half of commercial ammo. Sometimes better, sometimes worse, depends on how much I paid for the brass

Interesting so you are still outlaying a fairly significant amount to load a caliber like .375 H&H. I guess you are still at the whim of low production brass and bullets.

Most of these calibers seem to run the gamut from $4-$10 a shot and I was curious if that would be brought down to the around a buck a shot range. (Assuming you are already set up to load etc.)

Again this is purely a curiosity and I am not sure why I thought about this today (I have no intention to own or load for a big game caliber).

I appreciate the insights.

Chris.

Dirty secret - when using more than enough gun you can shoot cheap bullets.

Now I haven't bought any biggish bore bullets since before Bush Jr. left office, so there's that. But even then it was a huge savings to reload for .300 Win mag, .375 H&H, 45/70 etc. Especially comparing to premium factory ammo which, like I said at the beginning, just isn't necessary IMO.

When I had my Bren Gun the cost of .303 British drove me to reload. I could get up to 10 reloads and with going to Sierra and buying bulk Jap bullets I had cut the cost of ammo to 1/3. I usually ran 5-600 rds. at the range and could not find decent brass to just buy it. I too load 45/70 and have got the cost down to about 1/2. I load .308 to FGMM standards and go to Sierra and buy "seconds" by the lb. I also load 30-30 and 5.56 and 30-06 just because I have more powder ,primers, bullets and brass that I've collected over the years. I moved and gave away 10 5gallon pails of brass and kept a bit. I will die before I get all my components used up. I'm also starting to reload .45 Colt !

quote:

Originally posted by john crusher: I will die before I get all my components used up.

Don't feel all alone, many of us feel that way.

I reload, but not those calibers,

I also buy and flip estates, firearms, accessories, reloading gear etc etc,


a few years ago I picked up a rather larger estate where the guy that passed loaded big game stuff,


big bore brass, and bullets sell at a bit of a premium compared to the 'normal caliber' stuff,
even in the secondary market,



meanwhile, there are several reloading calculators on line, or you can do the math yourself, to see your cost of reloading vs buying,

keep in mind they do not account for your time or equipment cost,

big bore dies can be costly as well

As far as odd calibers are concerned, 375HH is only marginally so. Now, a caliber like 416 Rigby, the savings are huge.

The cheapest 416 Rigby Ammo is Hornady at around $110 for twenty, give or take. Federal big game is around $160 for twenty. Once I have the brass, I can load them in the $1.75 a shot range. More if I use fancy bullets like Woodleighs or A-Frame. New empty brass runs 2.50 or so, but it is only available periodically. These African game cartridges run low pressures (excluding 458 Win/Lott and 416 Remington), so the brass will last a lifetime. In fact, I barely have to work the 416 Rigby brass between firings.

In summary, yes, it almost pays for itself in the first 20 rounds to load for the 416 Rigby. As an added benefit, you can ensure ammo availability, something you must consider when shooting odd calibers.

The 5.7 would probably be the ultimate payback to handload. Factory ammunition is expensive, but the components to load it are dirt cheap. If I owned a PS90, I’d load that round by the bucket full.