30-06 to or not reload? Lets do the math

If you're in Québec; W 760 is very good in the '06 - Last time I bought some at LaTulippe (last summer), it was more or less 23.00 $ / pound. It may have increased in the 26.00 $ / 27.00 $ a pound. As for bullets, you can get Winchester, Remington, PPU (prvi Partizan), Hornady, Speer and many more for very little money. Since you take the "standard" grade of Remington Ammo, the Core-Lokt bullets might be the one you're using, and they're one of the cheapest (cost wise) bullets you can buy (about 20.00 $ - 25.00 $ for 100).
LaTulippe carries a big bunch orf the Hodgdon/IMR/Winchester and some Alliant powders but often runs out of stock, but if you can make it there when they got their stock, then, you're good to go. If not, then, in Montreal's area there are many places where you can shop, too.
 
Another good reason for reloading is what if you suddenly want a gun in the future that is very expensive to feed? Even having good bullets shipped to me, and pro rating the cost of brass over 10 loads and lee 50th reloading kit over 1000 loads, and using expensive alliant powder I can make boxes of 20 .444 marlin for about $15 as opposed to $56 prerolled. Even cheaper with cast.
So unless you plan to never buy another centerfire rifle it is worth reloading because you are much less limited to caliber choice when gun shopping.

But as mentioned before if you only plan to shoot cheap ammo from ONLY a 30-06 then it wont be worth your time to bother reloading. It takes alot of patience and time to reload and while saving money, it is really a true "gunnut" thing to do that is probably not worth it for the average seasonal shooter/hunter with one 30-06.
 
I've been reloading for years in pistol calibers but never really went into the rifle stuff I was able to do 223 on my lee pro 1000 but the 30-06 is a much bigger case to resize and the lee can't handle it.

Over all costs I guess if I buy myself a single stage press to make it worth the while I should buy exotic caliber guns.

Just another reason to get more guns in the house.

I always wanted a 30-30 :)
 
I got into reloading for cheaper 9mm, and to build the 'perfect' 30.06 hunting round for the small deer we have on the island. One upside is that I have a much better choice of bullet via mail order than I do of 'over the counter' ready rolled.

I did the cost recovery calculation, and, well, lets say I'll be a very old man by the time it goes cost neutral. However, I will have shot more, better and also had some fun developing the loads in the interim.

No brainer of a decision, do it, particularly if you shoot seriously or often (kinda the same normally I know!)

Candocad.
 
Anyone who thinks you can make math justify reloading isn't very good at math. There are lots of really good reasons to load your own, but none of them include saving money.

I day do it. It's absolutely fascinating.
 
rral22 said:
Anyone who thinks you can make math justify reloading isn't very good at math. There are lots of really good reasons to load your own, but none of them include saving money.

I day do it. It's absolutely fascinating.
Click to expand...

I must politely disagree, for my total investment to start loading .444 for example;

-lee 50th anniversary kit $135
-100 pieces new rem brass off the EE $70 shipped to my door
-300 bullets $110 shipped to me
-300 primers $15
-.444 dies $40
-2 lbs reloder 7 $70

Total of $440 to startup and make 300 bullets, or 15 boxes of 20 .444 marlin.
To buy 15 boxes of pre-rolled from remington or hornady at $56 a box would cost me in the neighbourhood of $840 by my math and would make owning/shooting this gun financially unfeasable for me.

Even if my cost calculation was off by several hundred dollars which it isnt, and i paid myself $100 for the 6 hours it would take me to load up 300 rounds it would still become cost neutral in under 300 rounds, but my numbers are dam close making the production cost neutral after roughly 150 rounds.

Of course this is the cheap way i pursued but it works. if you are going to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on high end gear like RCBS Lyman, Redding, chargemasters, tumblers, and all the bells and whistles to reload for a 308 or 30-06, of course it will take you years to amortize the cost of startup.

So i wouldnt say that saving money is not a good reason to reload, its just another one of many great reasons to start.
 
If you get into reloading in any "serious" way, you will spend much more money on your shooting hobby than if you didn't reload. You WILL want good equipment. You WILL try various manufacturers products and then switch to another later because of what you learned/heard/read on the web/saw at a gun show/or your friend bought. You WILL shoot hundreds (maybe thousands) of rounds testing, experimenting, playing, and just making things go bang that you wouldn't have shot if you weren't reloading. You WILL, no matter how well your present loads shoot, continue to experiment as manufacturers of bullets, powders, cases, primers, and other gadgets give you new things to try. You WILL search endlessly for another few tenths of an inch off your groups, and for that perfect game bullet. You WILL end up with your "ideal" loads for every species from gophers to grizzlies (whether you hunt them or not) and for different ranges, under different weather conditions, and phases of the moon.

But if you start reloading, you WILL NOT spend less money on shooting than if you never begin this hideously addicting hobby.

There, I'm much better now.
 
Wholesale Sports 30-06 Fed Fusion, 150-165-180grains, $23.99/box. If I ever lowered myself to own another 30-06 I'd never reload it. I'd buy 5 cases of Fusions, a BOSS equipped rifle I could tune to the Fusions to close to MOA and hunt with it until the day I die.
 
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