Cost to Reload .223 ammo

If you're happy with commercial bulk .223 then by all means run with it, but if you're looking for a heavier low-drag match bullet in front of a powder charge tuned to your rifle, then reloading is indicated.

Likewise with 9mm, there's very little wiggle-room for interesting loadings that aren't similar to commercial vanilla there. It doesn't have the mousefart-to-magnum range of a revolver load.
 
MiG25 said:
Obviously YMMV, but I'll spend my reloading efforts on things I can't buy like 22 K-Hornet or unleaded 303 or where there is both a significant (to me) cost saving and performance advantage like 44-40 and just pony up for 9mm.

I do get it that reloading is a hobby unto itself. But I just don't see the savings on 9mm.

13 cents bullet
16 cents primer
6 cents powder
5 cents case (approximation)

Thats 40 cents each plus time (specific dies I'll amortize to zero).
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primers can be had for roughly 10 cents and brass is pretty much free (3 cents a piece for once fired that after a number of firings is worth almost the same in scrap metal) so that is already down to total of 30 cents : )

Add the consistency or option to tailor made velocity and then it might make more sense to reload 9mm.
Won't take long on a decent progressive to crank out 100 rounds
And some of us "hoarders" are still shooting 4 cent primers and powder that was half of the current the price :)
 
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If you look at what is happening price wise for reloading components there seems to be a pattern emerging for the DIY crowd. Prices are nuts so the savings get less and less. This discourages reloading so people go to manufactured commercial ammo. Then the prices of that go through the roof.

I saw a similar phenomenon happen with regards to making your own clothes. My mother was a seamstress and made clothes for people. The cost of cloth just kept going up until manufactured clothing became cheaper and she lost her business completely.

My advice is to build up your stock pile before we get priced right out. My tinfoil hat is telling me that the powers of the world don't want people to know how to do things for themselves.
 
MiG25 said:
I do get it that reloading is a hobby unto itself. But I just don't see the savings on 9mm.
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That's where I'm at. No kids at home and I don't watch much for TV. In the summer I stay busy outside, but when it's below minus 20 for 2 months, reloading keeps me sane.... or.... as sane as I can be :p

A good set of podcasts and I dissapear to the basement. On my single stage press weighing each powder charge on a manual beam scale, it takes me about 35 minutes or so for 50 rounds just for loading. Brass prep is done on different days. Once the weather turns, depriming, wet tumbling, and resizing will start up again for all the brass I shot and collected through the summer.
 
Part of it is knowing what to stockpile. Get ahead on powder then there's a primer shortage. Or maybe we might have gotten hit with a bullet shortage. Generally a reloader plans to cycle through their brass stock a few times going through the non-reusable components. But it's only your loaded stock that's ready-to-go and you hear far too many tales of someone showing up at a match with ammo that's only hours or minutes old because they left it a wee bit late!
 
Talltimber1 said:
Tell me you don't have a Dillon without telling me you don't have a Dillon.
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I wish, but no just a lee single stage press. I just really enjoy doing it and it is a good way to destress from work. I have a stressful and mentality excusing job. So doing something mind-numbing is a great break.
 
powdergun said:
My advice is to build up your stock pile before we get priced right out. My tinfoil hat is telling me that the powers of the world don't want people to know how to do things for themselves.
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The cool thing about guns and ammo is that an enthusiast can make nearly everything. Brass would be the most difficult but thankfully there are huge stocks available and they last a really long time. Not even the most determined govt will ever fully get rid of firearms and ammunition.
 
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