Heretical cost question

dave37

dave37

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Hi, I will qualify this with, I am not reloading, but thinking about it. Cost of equipment aside, with new brass at roughly $20 per 100, bullets at roughly the same, powder and primers I'm looking at $50 per 100. I can get Remington or Winchester value packs in 9mm at $60/250, which is considerably less.

Even with once fired brass of my own, I still can't beat the price of commercial ammo. How the heck do you guys do it? Is there a price advance to hand loading or is it just a quality choice?

Add the cost of equipment and it is even less economical. I would much appreciate input on this, thanks very much!
 
I agree there is no point to reload 9mm at those prices

I used to reload shotgun shells for trap but dont now since commercial loads are cheaper

I do for rifle because it is much cheaper; as shown
New 270 brass is $62/100 or 62 cents ea
Primers are 4 cents ea
Bullets are 30 cents ea
Powder is about 23 cents a load (50 grains = 140 loads / lb at $32 LB)
So 1.19 each or $23.80 a box (no taxes included in the calc's)
The 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th load is only 57 cents apiece since the brass is free so thats about $11.40 a box of 20

For fancy stuff like .257 wby mag ($45/bx or .338 $55/bx)etc it doesnt take long to pay for the equipment
 
Thanks for your reply, do you think we are we seeing an unusual price spike for 9mm brass or is it pretty normal? And how many reloads do you think would be safe for once fired 9mm brass (Rem or Win).
 
dave37 said:
Hi, I will qualify this with, I am not reloading, but thinking about it. Cost of equipment aside, with new brass at roughly $20 per 100, bullets at roughly the same, powder and primers I'm looking at $50 per 100. I can get Remington or Winchester value packs in 9mm at $60/250, which is considerably less.

Even with once fired brass of my own, I still can't beat the price of commercial ammo. How the heck do you guys do it? Is there a price advance to hand loading or is it just a quality choice?

Add the cost of equipment and it is even less economical. I would much appreciate input on this, thanks very much!
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$50/100 for primers and powder is far to high, i think you mean $50/1000.

bullets are my main cost for my reloads, powder, then primers. brass is free as i pick it up at my range and reuse my reloads.

here are my costs for 9mm with the current batch of bullets i got.


powder - 1lb bottles
tightgroup - $22 i use 4gr as i recall. 7000gr per lb
primers SPP - $34
5000 124gr - $385


$0.12 for 1
$6.10 for 50


i plan to start casting for my 9mm as well, which will drop costs even more pending where i get my lead from.



it's hard to keep track of how many times i've fired my 9mm brass as it is always mixed with mostly once fired stuff, but i did a test with my 357 mag and was able to reload the same brass 20 times. the mouth of the case just barely started ripping. i'm sure i could get more reloads, just stopped there as i was tired of loading it over and over. it was at magnum levels as well.
 
If you do the math correctly, it's always quite a bit cheaper, with the exception of some surplus ammo like 7.62X39. If you do the reloading correctly, it's always better ammo too.
 
Once you have reloading equipment (and experience) it keeps getting cheaper. The inital barrier to entry is high, so reloading that first cartridge might be prohibitive. However, add a second cartridge, or a third, and soon the reloading costs drop.

Sure, if bulk 9mm (or whatever) is super cheap, there is little economic arguement to get into reloading. However, most cartridges out there are not factory super-cheap, usually the opposite. Most rifle cartridges are like this.

Even if money-wise reloading vs. factory is a wash, reloading still wins.

Case in point. Federal 223 ammo-in-a-can is roughly $0.38 a round. It's pretty hard to justify reloading with that price. However, even with reloading being more expensive, ammo quality is a huge arguement. The Federal 223 ammo-in-a-can gave me 1.75" groups on average. Reloading with 69gr MatchKings over 24.5 gr of Varget gave me 0.4" groups average.

1.75" groups vs. 0.4" groups.

You are going to have to judge just how much shrinking your groups to 25% of their previous size is to you.
 
Moose makes a valid point - which is why i reload rifle as well - as previously stated it is much cheaper, but it is also my hobby, and the ammo is much much better than factory
 
dave37 said:
Ha Ha Ha! What you are saying is why i want to start loading!

Thanks much!
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Yup.
Your other responders pretty much have it covered.:)
Once a fellow gets accustomed to touching bullet holes with his home-brews, .... bang 'n spray with pricey factory box .... gets kinda stale.

Plus: consistency. Years go by with never a re-zero.

And: Some us are latent mad scientists, love to experiment.
 
You need to get a bigger gun..then the savings become obvious.:D

I had to get into re-loading as I wanted to shoot .45 Colt and at $ 1.00/round for factory ammo I couldn't afford it. My re-loaded ammo costs me less than 10 cents a round but I cast my own bullets and use them for .45ACP as well,which reminds me I have to get busy and make up some ammo for the weekend range session.
 
I have never bought a piece of brass with the exception of 100 Lapua cases in .308. Those have been worth every penny giving me 2 sub 1/4 moa groups.

CCI Small Pistol Primers for $26.99/1000 in 5000 piece lots.
Zero Bullets 124gr JHP-C for $100.00/1000
Titegroup $22.00/Lb.

It takes 0.6Lb of powder to make 1,000 rounds so $13.20 + $100.00 + $26.99 =$140.19/1000
1000 rounds = 20 boxes of store bought ammo which equals $7.00 a box.

This compares favorably to the $12.00 a box you are paying.
This saves you $100.00/1000 rounds without even comparing the quality and accuracy benefits of home rolled ammo.
 
dave37 said:
i should keep picking up my brass.:cool:
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Spawn-Inc said:
indeed, wooden bullets don't seem to work very well...
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:)Add a reloaded primer(with a match head), some "whatever" salvaged propellant, chuck up that chunk of hardwood in a foot-powered lathe ... and be the last guy still up and shooting after the next Zombie Apocalypse.

The Swedes trained an army of snipers with wooden bullets.;)
 
If you are loading for handgun, you will get huge cost savings if you cast your own boolits. Also, brass for 9 mil can be very easily obtained free, and you can reload them almost indefinitely.

With most common rifle cartridges, it will cost you about the same price to load as to buy the cheap factory stuff. However, for just a bit more, you can get some really good handloaded ammo, using either match bullets for target or premium hunting bullets, in which case you'll pay about 1/3 the cost of similar ammo in factory stuff. If you load for the rarer or bigger calibers, the savings are huge. If you load for something like the 45-70 and so on, you can also use cast bullets, which are cheap to load.

The one thing I have found, though, is that you won't really save, in the sense of having more money in your wallet at the end of the day, but you will shoot a lot more for the same price, and it will usually be a higher quality of ammo. Also, there is an awful lot of pride in finding and developing that sweet load for your pet 30-30 that will allow you to light a match at 1000 yards.:D
 
dave37 said:
Is there a price advance to hand loading or is it just a quality choice?
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"Quality choice" !

The average Reloader cannot justify, on a cost savings basis, purchasing components and putting them together himself, particularly with common rounds like 9mm, 45ACP, 223 etc. Those who claim otherwise typically compare 50rd new ammo purchase prices to the breakdown pricing of components acquired in lots of a thousand or more. It is 1000 rd lots of commercially reloaded ammo they should use for a proper comparison. I reload myself and enjoy it but "rose colored glasses" advice to interested newcomers to reloading is ,, bad.

Now, if you're talking expensive calibers like .338LM, you can pay for a basic reloading setup by producing 100 rds.
 
Do any of you guys factor in your time into your cost calculations? It is clear to see that if you only compare components, reloading is way cheaper for all but the most popular handgun rounds. But how much time does it take you to load 1000 rounds, for example? I'm thinking of getting into reloading, but it has been hard for me to find answers to this question.

For now, I don't care about accuracy because I'm a really bad shot. Even cheap factory ammo is a lot more accurate than I am. (I do hope to change that eventually.) But I would like to save money (or shoot more for the same money).

But I'm also in a position where I can work more hours at my job to earn more money. If I can buy a box for $30 or load a box for $10 plus 3 hours of time spent reloading, well I'm better off buying the commercial ammo and working the extra 3 hours.

I'm not afraid to buy expensive equipment if that means reloading takes less time. I fully expect to shoot enough to pay off the equipment.

What do you guys suggest?
 
Everyone always asks "what is your time worth?"

Answer, nothing.

Sure, they will come back and say they can make $40/hr or something. However, they don't. You aren't reloading while you are working. You are reloading while you are not working. It's called time-off. At night. So really, you time is a sacrifice between reloading, or sitting around watching TV, or helping the wife with her To-Do list. Either way, you ain't getting paid.

At best you have about 80 years on this planet, then you are dead. You have to spend about 1/3 of that time sleeping. And another 1/3 of that time as a slave to the man. The final 1/3 is your time. If you want to spend it watching Golden Girls reruns, have at it. I'll do something more important thank you.
 
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