How much does reloading cost? How much do you save?

rumaco

Member

posted

I load 10,000 rounds per month and sell them to long range varmint hunters at $7 per 50 rounds and they buy the brass and bullets also.

Posts: 17 | Registered: March 29, 2011

Ignored post by rumaco posted

45 Cal

Avoiding
slam fires
Picture of 45 Cal

posted

quote:
Originally posted by rumaco:
I load 10,000 rounds per month and sell them to long range varmint hunters at $7 per 50 rounds and they buy the brass and bullets also.

Sure you do

Posts: 22422 | Location: Georgia | Registered: February 19, 2007

Ignored post by 45 Cal posted

Member

posted

quote:
Originally posted by joewger:
I find that I save money by buying powder that yields results and uses less grains. That is why I use Titegroup powder. 4.5 gr in a 124gr jhp at 7000gr/4.5=1,555 loads per pound. Or 5.0 gr in .45's.

If I load, I try to load premium hollowpoints or the most high priced bullets I can find for the best price. I dont want to spend time loading cheap bullets. I can buy blazer ammo for plinking. Pick your favorite most expensive ammo and load those bullets,like federal, hornady, remington etc. For example: I like Remington Golden Sabers 9mm 124gr. for feeding in my P226 and smaller 9mms. They cost $25 a box for 25 Rounds! or $500 for 20 boxes! and they are nickel cased. 500 Golden saber bullets cost $60 or a little over the price of 50 factory rounds loaded. I use my own Brass and if I buy ammo, I buy brass ammo and recycle it and buy cheaper round nose fmj ammo at the range. This way it costs me a little over half the cost of Factory to reload.
So the best way to save time and the most money is to recycle brass, buy premium bullets at the cheapest price, primers, and use powder that gives the best results with the lowest charge weight or in other words if two or three powders perform the same, pick the one that uses the least amount of powder to do the job.

Another way to save money is not to use media and a tumbler. I know I thought this was the only way. Now there are many ways to clean brass cheaper and white vinegar, dish liquid, and baking soda will do the trick. see 6mm benchreat sight for these formulas. Some people just use boiling water and dish soap believe it or not. The only thing in these methods are you have to deprime used brass first before cleaning
so as not to corrode the primer pocket.
Thats how I get the biggest bang for the buck. Shooters choice just came out with water based cleaners, I am going to try on brass to see if they work.

This is such false economy. Powder is the cheapest part of any pistol handload. So you save a whopping 3/10 of a penny using TG then spend 4-5c more for the bullet? Choose a powder that gives the overall performance you want, powder cost is almost nothing in any service pistol load. TG, only if I could get nothing else.

You want to save money reloading, real money, cast your own bullets. I can shoot 45acp for little more than quality 22lr using my own cast bullets.

IF YOU AREN'T HANDLOADING, YOU AREN'T SHOOTING ENOUGH!
NRA Instruc: Basic Pistol & Met Reloading

Posts: 7789 | Location: ca, usa | Registered: February 17, 2004

Ignored post by fredj338 posted

XSubSailor

Member

posted

quote:
Originally posted by fredj338:
quote:
Originally posted by joewger:
I find that I save money by buying powder that yields results and uses less grains. That is why I use Titegroup powder. 4.5 gr in a 124gr jhp at 7000gr/4.5=1,555 loads per pound. Or 5.0 gr in .45's.

If I load, I try to load premium hollowpoints or the most high priced bullets I can find for the best price. I dont want to spend time loading cheap bullets. I can buy blazer ammo for plinking. Pick your favorite most expensive ammo and load those bullets,like federal, hornady, remington etc. For example: I like Remington Golden Sabers 9mm 124gr. for feeding in my P226 and smaller 9mms. They cost $25 a box for 25 Rounds! or $500 for 20 boxes! and they are nickel cased. 500 Golden saber bullets cost $60 or a little over the price of 50 factory rounds loaded. I use my own Brass and if I buy ammo, I buy brass ammo and recycle it and buy cheaper round nose fmj ammo at the range. This way it costs me a little over half the cost of Factory to reload.
So the best way to save time and the most money is to recycle brass, buy premium bullets at the cheapest price, primers, and use powder that gives the best results with the lowest charge weight or in other words if two or three powders perform the same, pick the one that uses the least amount of powder to do the job.

Another way to save money is not to use media and a tumbler. I know I thought this was the only way. Now there are many ways to clean brass cheaper and white vinegar, dish liquid, and baking soda will do the trick. see 6mm benchreat sight for these formulas. Some people just use boiling water and dish soap believe it or not. The only thing in these methods are you have to deprime used brass first before cleaning
so as not to corrode the primer pocket.
Thats how I get the biggest bang for the buck. Shooters choice just came out with water based cleaners, I am going to try on brass to see if they work.

This is such false economy. Powder is the cheapest part of any pistol handload. So you save a whopping 3/10 of a penny using TG then spend 4-5c more for the bullet? Choose a powder that gives the overall performance you want, powder cost is almost nothing in any service pistol load. TG, only if I could get nothing else.
You want to save money reloading, real money, cast your own bullets. I can shoot 45acp for little more than quality 22lr using my own cast bullets.

I agree. The cost of bullets is what determines the majority of savings from reloading. In my case, loading .40S&W, $4.90 per 50 rounds using lead bullets (purchased) vs. $7.50 per 50 rounds using jacketed bullets...more than 50% more than cast lead (but still about half the price or factory ammo.)

If I was casting my own from a source of free lead, the cost would be $2.18 per 50 rounds (not counting the cost of bullet lube...I have no idea what that amounts to, but it's probably negligible)

If I had the time, I'd definitely take a stab at casting my own. As it is, as long as the USPS continues flat rate Priority mail shipping, I'm OK with buying my bullets and tossing my mailman a couple decent cigars to keep him in my good graces when those 50 lb boxes arrive at the door.

'down scope!

Posts: 627 | Location: Vancouver, WA | Registered: December 18, 2009

Ignored post by XSubSailor posted

Member

posted

quote:
Originally posted by XSubSailor:
[If I had the time, I'd definitely take a stab at casting my own. As it is, as long as the USPS continues flat rate Priority mail shipping, I'm OK with buying my bullets and tossing my mailman a couple decent cigars to keep him in my good graces when those 50 lb boxes arrive at the door.

Yep, if you can scrounge alloy, you can shoot 45acp for high end 22lr stuff, less than $4/100. Free alloy is getting tougher to find every day though. Even cheap is getting scarce.

IF YOU AREN'T HANDLOADING, YOU AREN'T SHOOTING ENOUGH!
NRA Instruc: Basic Pistol & Met Reloading

Posts: 7789 | Location: ca, usa | Registered: February 17, 2004

Ignored post by fredj338 posted

BBMW

Big Stack

posted

Just flipped through this thread. There's a lot of talk about the cost of consumables/supplies. However, no one seems to have discussed startup costs (unless I missed something).

Let's say your starting from scratch, and want to build up the capacity to do bulk reloading, meaning a progressive press and all the normal feeders and other misc gear necessary. Let's say you need dies for two pistol calibers and one rifle. Ballpark, what are your startup costs?

Note: I realize jumping right into progressive loadin may not be advisable. I'm just trying to get a handle on what the costs are.

Posts: 21240 | Registered: November 05, 2003

Ignored post by BBMW posted

atakawow

Member

posted

The biggest saving factor is based on what caliber it is you are shooting. These are my numbers and I don't cast my own bullets.

Factory ammo:

$10 for a box of 9mm.
$25 for a box of .357 mag.

Now let's look at reloads:

$4 for a box of 9mm. Compared to factory ammo, the saving is %120.

$5 for a box of .357 mag. Compared to factory ammo, the saving is a substantial 400%.

What does this mean? If my math is done correctly, you save a lot of money reloading 9mm. However, you will save a substantial amount of money reloading .357 mag.

Now if I were to cast my own, those savings would easily multiply themselves by 2.

Posts: 259 | Location: Washington | Registered: January 13, 2009

Ignored post by atakawow posted

maladat

Member

posted

quote:
Originally posted by BBMW:
Just flipped through this thread. There's a lot of talk about the cost of consumables/supplies. However, no one seems to have discussed startup costs (unless I missed something).

Let's say your starting from scratch, and want to build up the capacity to do bulk reloading, meaning a progressive press and all the normal feeders and other misc gear necessary. Let's say you need dies for two pistol calibers and one rifle. Ballpark, what are your startup costs?

Note: I realize jumping right into progressive loadin may not be advisable. I'm just trying to get a handle on what the costs are.

I agree with the above about caliber being important for time to repay your equipment cost.

I have a Lee 4 Hole Classic Turret Press ($150) and the four Lee carbide dies for 41 Magnum (full length sizing, powder through expander, bullet seating, factory crimp - total $60). Carbide is good because with straight wall cases you don't need lube.

So I have $210 in equipment.

41 magnum is the only thing I reload right now. I am going to start reloading precision rifle rounds but that's not really a cost saving measure.

At $25/box of 50 for the cheapest ammo available, and reloading fired cases with Berry's plated 210gr bullets ($139/1000=$.14/bullet) and figuring $.04 per primer and and a few cents for powder, I am at about $10/box of 50. So I save $15/box of 50, and my equipment paid for itself in 14 boxes of ammo. I can do about 3 boxes per hour.

Posts: 6320 | Location: CA | Registered: January 24, 2011

Ignored post by maladat posted

Mars_Attacks

Raptorman

posted

I have around $500 in my progressive press, including the bullet feeders and die collets.

I have around $300 in the dies and shell plates, but that's only from me building inventory.

____________________________

Eeewwww, don't touch it!
Here, poke at it with this stick.

Posts: 34562 | Location: North, GA | Registered: October 09, 2002

Ignored post by Mars_Attacks posted

Blue68f100

Member

posted

quote:
Originally posted by BBMW:
Just flipped through this thread. There's a lot of talk about the cost of consumables/supplies. However, no one seems to have discussed startup costs (unless I missed something).

Let's say your starting from scratch, and want to build up the capacity to do bulk reloading, meaning a progressive press and all the normal feeders and other misc gear necessary. Let's say you need dies for two pistol calibers and one rifle. Ballpark, what are your startup costs?

Note: I realize jumping right into progressive loadin may not be advisable. I'm just trying to get a handle on what the costs are.

When I got back into reloading (3yrs ago) I spend around $600 dollars. What I did was calculate my savings/round against the initial investment. My break even cost was around 5-6k rounds which was just 1 yr of factory ammo for me. This was with 9mm which can be purchased rather cheap. I did not calculate the additional savings that the 1000 free bullets did. If I was shooting a more expensive round like the 357sig the break even cost would have been around 2k. The same can be said for 10mm, 357Mag ..... In a lot of cases you actually load using a bullet that is more expensive than the low cost WM ammo, more toward premium ammo. So your savings need to be compared to what kind of round you are reloading too. For my rifle load I load for accuracy, which means a more expensive bullet. Then if you get into casting your savings are greater yet.

Jumping straight to a progressive press ok for a first press, provided you start off reloading only 1 round at a time. Once your comfortable and every thing is working right you can start letting the press do it's thing. The biggest mistake new users make is setting up their dies.

David

P229R 9mm, Nitron, Beavertail Frame, Night Sights, DA/SA, SRT & Short Reach Trigger

Posts: 3464 | Location: Piney Woods of East Texas | Registered: November 08, 2008

Ignored post by Blue68f100 posted

Member

posted

quote:
Originally posted by BBMW:
Just flipped through this thread. There's a lot of talk about the cost of consumables/supplies. However, no one seems to have discussed startup costs (unless I missed something).

Let's say your starting from scratch, and want to build up the capacity to do bulk reloading, meaning a progressive press and all the normal feeders and other misc gear necessary. Let's say you need dies for two pistol calibers and one rifle. Ballpark, what are your startup costs?

Note: I realize jumping right into progressive loadin may not be advisable. I'm just trying to get a handle on what the costs are.

Cost depends on volumn of ammo needed. If you need less than 200rds a week, hten a Lee Classic Turret w/ all the goodies, say $400. You need more than that, then a LNL or 550B, about $700. More than that, then a 650 w/ case feeder & goodies, right at $1000. Figure on saving 1/2 of the cheapest factory, more for semi exotic like 357sig or 10mm, any of the magnums.

IF YOU AREN'T HANDLOADING, YOU AREN'T SHOOTING ENOUGH!
NRA Instruc: Basic Pistol & Met Reloading

Posts: 7789 | Location: ca, usa | Registered: February 17, 2004

Ignored post by fredj338 posted

XSubSailor

Member

posted

quote:
Originally posted by atakawow:
The biggest saving factor is based on what caliber it is you are shooting. These are my numbers and I don't cast my own bullets.

Factory ammo:

$10 for a box of 9mm.
$25 for a box of .357 mag.

Now let's look at reloads:

$4 for a box of 9mm. Compared to factory ammo, the saving is %120.

$5 for a box of .357 mag. Compared to factory ammo, the saving is a substantial 400%.

What does this mean? If my math is done correctly, you save a lot of money reloading 9mm. However, you will save a substantial amount of money reloading .357 mag.

Now if I were to cast my own, those savings would easily multiply themselves by 2.

Your math IS wrong...using your figures, the cost savings would be 60% for 9mm, and 80% for .357 Mag.

It is mathematically impossible to save more than 100%...unless someone is paying YOU to take it off their hands.

'down scope!

Posts: 627 | Location: Vancouver, WA | Registered: December 18, 2009

Ignored post by XSubSailor posted

Mr.EliteSig

Member

posted

So i just did a midway shop, and used the handloader calculator...

.41 cents a round. thats not cheap at all.

Posts: 302 | Registered: January 31, 2011

Ignored post by Mr.EliteSig posted

Member

posted

quote:
Originally posted by XSubSailor:
quote:
Originally posted by atakawow:
The biggest saving factor is based on what caliber it is you are shooting. These are my numbers and I don't cast my own bullets.

Factory ammo:

$10 for a box of 9mm.
$25 for a box of .357 mag.

Now let's look at reloads:

$4 for a box of 9mm. Compared to factory ammo, the saving is %120.

$5 for a box of .357 mag. Compared to factory ammo, the saving is a substantial 400%.

What does this mean? If my math is done correctly, you save a lot of money reloading 9mm. However, you will save a substantial amount of money reloading .357 mag.

Now if I were to cast my own, those savings would easily multiply themselves by 2.

Your math IS wrong...using your figures, the cost savings would be 60% for 9mm, and 80% for .357 Mag.

It is mathematically impossible to save more than 100%...unless someone is paying YOU to take it off their hands.

Somebidy has their calculator upside down, damn public schools at it again.

quote:
So i just did a midway shop, and used the handloader calculator...

.41 cents a round. thats not cheap at all.

For what? Even buying brand new brass, you must amortize the cost of that over say 10X reloaded min. Of course buying new brass doesn't save anything, might as well buy ammo & shoot it, save the brass, it's about the same. The most expensive part of a pistol handload is: brass case, bullet primer & then powder.
Yes, reloading your own, buying components in some bulk can save you a minimum of 50%. On magnums, rifle rounds, as much as 75%.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fredj338,

IF YOU AREN'T HANDLOADING, YOU AREN'T SHOOTING ENOUGH!
NRA Instruc: Basic Pistol & Met Reloading

Posts: 7789 | Location: ca, usa | Registered: February 17, 2004

Ignored post by fredj338 posted

Mr.EliteSig

Member

posted

Yeah im saving my brass for that day I get into reloading because of that. New brass really just slams your savings to the ground! lol. I have to keep that in mind

Posts: 302 | Registered: January 31, 2011

Ignored post by Mr.EliteSig posted

Member

posted

quote:
Originally posted by Mr.EliteSig:
Yeah im saving my brass for that day I get into reloading because of that. New brass really just slams your savings to the ground! lol. I have to keep that in mind

There is almost no savings buying new brass. The smart reloader buys once fired. If you are buying new brass, might as well buy loaded ammo, pretty close to the same price, then save the brass. I hate saying this, but even if you are NOT a reloader now, you'll kick yourself down the road if you haven't been saving your brass. Ouch, that hurt. It's how I get all my 9mm & most of my 40 brass, from the factory ammo shooters leaving it behind.

IF YOU AREN'T HANDLOADING, YOU AREN'T SHOOTING ENOUGH!
NRA Instruc: Basic Pistol & Met Reloading

Posts: 7789 | Location: ca, usa | Registered: February 17, 2004

Ignored post by fredj338 posted

Paladin24

Member

posted

quote:
Originally posted by fredj338:
quote:
Originally posted by Mr.EliteSig:
Yeah im saving my brass for that day I get into reloading because of that. New brass really just slams your savings to the ground! lol. I have to keep that in mind

There is almost no savings buying new brass. The smart reloader buys once fired. If you are buying new brass, might as well buy loaded ammo, pretty close to the same price, then save the brass. I hate saying this, but even if you are NOT a reloader now, you'll kick yourself down the road if you haven't been saving your brass. Ouch, that hurt. It's how I get all my 9mm & most of my 40 brass, from the factory ammo shooters leaving it behind.

You are correct sir. I went to Cabela's just the other day. They wanted $32.00 for 100 Remington 45ACP brass. With a 10% discount that I get though a friend at Wally World I'm paying $31.00 for loaded up and ready to go Winchester white box ammo. The Winchester is a 100 pack.

**********************************************
Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth. - George Washington

Posts: 109 | Registered: January 12, 2011

Ignored post by Paladin24 posted

blueiron

Member

posted

It cost me too much in the way of time.

Sorting brass, cleaning brass, inspecting brass, load development for particular guns and applications, setting up the press, actually reloading the ammo, chrono testing of the ammo, evaluation of the results, etc.

For a few calibers, it isn't bad.

For a bunch of calibers, it was a pain in the rear and I quit doing it.

I wish I had kept all my stuff now that I am retired and have more time.

Posts: 4350 | Location: 10 feet from Hell | Registered: November 20, 2004

Ignored post by blueiron posted

unokubi

Member

posted

quote:
It is mathematically impossible to save more than 100%...unless someone is paying YOU to take it off their hands.

'down scope!

Posts: 274 | Location: Vancouver, WA | Registered: December 18, 2009 Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Mr.EliteSig
Member

Posted May 17, 2011 10:18 PM Hide Post
So i just did a midway shop, and used the handloader calculator...

.41 cents a round. thats not cheap at all.

Posts: 157 | Registered: January 31, 2011 Reply With QuoteReport This Post
fredj338
Member
Picture of fredj338

Posted May 17, 2011 11:03 PM Hide Post

quote:
Originally posted by XSubSailor:

quote:

I've started molding my own bullets and that REALLY drops the cost. I scrounge lead and brass from my local gun club, so the cost of a box of 9mm of .38 is down to about $3.50

tk

www.malabargunleather.com One-stop shopping for civilians who want to carry concealed.

Posts: 2657 | Location: Central Florida | Registered: May 05, 2008

Ignored post by unokubi posted