Cost per, trap loads

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Gopher Slayer

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I’ve never reloaded for my shotgun and I’m just getting back into shooting trap. I was just wondering what it costs you guys per shot for your reloaded 12 gauge target loads? (Just components)
 
With Powder about $40 a pound, and shot approaching $60 for 25 pounds, reloading costs more than any of the on-sale Trap loads, Winchester Super Target, Federal Top Gun or Challenger.
 
Shotgun loading is dead. At least, 12/20ga target loads aren't worth it. Slugs, buck, or 16ga, 28ga, .410 can all be worthwhile but 12/20ga target loads are too cheap to bother with.
 
Ya that’s kinda what I figured, but wasn’t sure how many loads a guy could get out of a pound of powder. The local club has pretty good deals if you buy 10 cases at a time, almost $10 a case cheaper then anywhere else
 
Cost per round is whatever you pay for a case divided by the number of rounds in the case. My father has been shooting trap competitively since the mid 90s and even owns a nice progressive setup. He hasn't used it in over a decade because its cheaper just to buy ammo. He waits for a sale and will buy 10+ cases for less than the components to load that many rounds. The only thing still cheaper is slug and buck loads, especially if you cast your own.
 
To calculate powder costs you need to know what your load will be. Powder is usually sold in one pound increments, 7000 grains in a pound. If you are using 17 grains of 700X for instance, divide 17 into 7000 for the number of available charges per pound. Using your total cost for 1 pound simple math will give you the powder cost per cartridge, for a box or for a flat. Sometimes you can find a good deal on powder, especially in larger containers but shot is the real problem in most places now.
 
Gopher Slayer said:
Ya that’s kinda what I figured, but wasn’t sure how many loads a guy could get out of a pound of powder.
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The cost of powder is not the biggest concern, it's all about the lead.

Shot seems to vary from a low of about $45 in southern Ontario to almost $70 out here on the prairies (25lbs bag). So you're looking at a range of 11 to 17 cents per ounce. By comparison, the primer is about 6 cents, the powder something like 8 cents. I haven't bought wads in a long time but I think they are around 5 cents. So that's a range of costs from 30 to 37 cents a shell, depending on what you can buy lead for.
 
To get around the cost of shot. You can shoot reclaimed. Or if you really wanna bit the bullet make your own. Lots of time invested. But cost per box can be under 4$ if you shop around for the rest of the components.
Joe
 
Suther said:
And it's not uncommon to find cases for $75-80+tax... How much do you value your time? If it takes an hour to do up 250rds, your time is only saving you a few bucks per case, hardly worth it IMO.
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It all depends on one's situation. My time during some cold winter months is a non issue and I am looking for something to do
Even in 12 ga and 20ga I can reload up to 500 per hour ( not boxed just in the bucket) on a 9000 progressive once I am zoned in and produce quality shells unlike the promo loads
Cheers
 
Works out to 8.95 a box for equivalent to AA 1 ounce loads for me, assuming Hummason is equivalent hardness to Win AA shot. Reloading isn't cheap any more.
 
saskbooknut said:
Works out to 8.95 a box for equivalent to AA 1 ounce loads for me, assuming Hummason is equivalent hardness to Win AA shot. Reloading isn't cheap any more.
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I doubt it is.

I’m at 5.80$/box last time I checked for 12g. I can buy fairly cheap and shoot factory for competitions but most of my shooting is reloaddd still. I have three 12g progressive presses

I will say, if you don’t like reloading, don’t even consider getting into it. It’s not all about saving money.
 
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