How much will it cost?

O

outoftowner

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Ok, I am just weighing my options here, and you guys probably get asked this question a million times but how much will it cost to start reloading, just plain old .223, nothing special, I would just need bare minimum everything so I can just start pounding out the ammo like no tomorrow. So:
1. How much would it cost for all of the equipment?
2. How much is the brass/primers/bullets/powder?
3. Ive heard about a primer shortage, how hard is it to find all of those things?
4. How much would my final product cost?

Thanks guys.
 
No offence, but.... can's you figure this out on your own?

What you pay for everything will vary depending on where you shop and how well educated a consumer you are...

I'll take a guess and assume you want everything cheap.

Good luck to you sir :)
 
equipment = minimum lee turret = $200 for kit with all you need.
= $100 = other stuff like caliper, loading manual, etc

Supplies = Brass = free assuming you have kept yours
= Bullets = depends but prolly $150/1000
= primers = $30-40/1000
= Powder = $40/pound (not quite 1000 rounds depending)

Primers are hard to find for pistols, but you can still get em but buy alot when you can.

You can get factory .223 for as cheap as 40-50 cents a round so I assume reloading you can get it down to 20-30 cents a round depending on if you buy supplies by the 1000 or 10000. Like powder and bullets can be purchased in huge quantities. I am just giving you an estimate as I dont reload .223 but do for 9mm and .45. Dont forget to factor in the taxes. LOL
 
I don't really want to go cheap, but at the same time I don't want to have a 1000 dollar setup for someting simple. No I don't have any .223 brass, But i'm looking at a nice little bushmaster. So If anything I would buy stuff in the 5000 round quantities. Oh ya how much time a round does it take to load? Or lots of 50 I don't care.
 
outoftowner said:
Oh ya how much time a round does it take to load? Or lots of 50 I don't care.
Click to expand...

The beauty of it is you'll spend a couple hours prepping and loading the ammo that only takes a few minutes to blast... :D

For my AR I use Hornady bulk boolits in 55gr.
'Buy 'em by the case of 6000.
Primers... again, by the case of 5000. I use federal small rifle.
Powder... by the 7-8lb keg. Buy a few at a time to ensure supply. My current propellant of choice is H322
Brass... again I manage to buy by the 1000's. 'Think the last buy was 8k.

Sure, this represents hundreds of dollars alone, but it beats having to scroung around here and there for components.

All this crap gets made into ammo via the use of a brass tumbler, a Hornady single stage press, a Dillon 550 press, Hornady dies, a Hornady case trimmer, a chamfer/deburring tool, a Dillon Super swage 6000 for those brass with crimped primer pockets, a Hornady hand priming tool, Hornady One-Shot case lube, a Dillon case guage and probably a few other gadgets and tools I can't recall..

The longest job is prepping brass... Once that's done I can crank out about 400 rounds an hour on the Dillon...
 
Buy a Redding, Lyman, RCBS, or hornady set up. For around $500 you'll get what you need to last your life time. Just add dies and components. Lee makes kits for less and there is nothing wrong with them but go for the above for better quality. Used stuff is not all that much cheaper. You can try playing around with ebay but people pay top dollar for good used stuff.

There are some great contributing dealers on this forum so buy from them. Fair prices, great advice, and top notch service. I have not been disappointed yet. Just do your home work and read a manual before getting in to it. I recommend Lyman's
books as the instructional chapters are well illustrated and explained.
 
Stop it guys your getting me excited :) I'm pretty sure since you can get 400 rounds out an hour. I think I can give myself an easter break and crank out a 30000 round life supply lol. But then I would probably end up selling some of it to my dads friend, after spending the ~7 grand on everything on a 3 day a week job lol.
 
check with smacdonald here. He is one of the dealers and he can get you set up with a lee press as cheap as anyone. You can buy the anniversary kit which is a package that has pretty much everything that you need to start. I do not recommend the challenger press that comes with it. The aluminum linkage will break with use. It has for me twice at around 4000 rounds loaded.

I would recommend upgrading to the lee classic cast press. I think it is 30 dollars extra and would be pretty difficult to break. My lee turrent press has seen thousands of rounds and is no worse for wear.

Dillon makes a great product and it is supported by a no BS warranty. Buy a dillon and something breaks they will send a replacement free forever.

Dillon and cheap do not go together though. A dillon 550 b and all everything else that you need to load with will cost you about 900. A lee anniversary kit with the upgrades will be about 200.

After 5 years of loading I ended up springing for a dillon 550 this year. I was getting ready to load for next years IPSC ammo. About 5000 rounds.

With a turrent press at 100 rounds an hour that is 50 hours of work assembling the cartridges. With the dillon it will take about 10 hours.

By the way I still use the lee. I use it for sizing bullets, and making ammo for rifles and pistols that I shoot less. It is not a waste of money even if you decided to buy a dillon or whatever later.
 
667 said:
You don't plan on living too long do you?
Click to expand...

Not if I spend all of my money on ammo and not food!

So What I'm getting from you guys is that lee is cheap and you'll get everything you want it might just break. Dillon is expensive and it is the last reloading equipment you'll ever need. And hornady and all of them are about mid-quality?
 
Pretty much nailed it. However, any good O-type press made of cast will last forever if you take care of it and use it properly. My Lyman set up is 20+ years old and is still going strong. I'll wear out before it does.
 
Hornady is as good quality as a dillon (in my opinion better, lnl ap progressive) however they can be more expensive as there progressive has the same features as the dillon 650 so again 1 step higher in the expense department.

I went with hornady for the lock and load bushings and easy of changing calibers. Changing the dies requires less than a minute with no re adjusting (except for the powder drop). The shell plate on the bottom is 1 bolt so again a minute or so there and the plates are only 35 bucks where the dillon 650 is an 85 buck change over kit with a few pieces where the hornady is one shell plate. Lastly to change primer size on the hornady is a snap where the dillon can be a pain and takes a while (some disassembly required). The hornady offers auto indexing where you have to go to a dillon 650 to get that feature. The dillon 650 and hornady also offer you an extra station which can be nice for a powder cop die.

I am in no way putting down the dillon as it was my second choice and a great press. Both dillon and hornady offer no BS lifetime warranty and both are a great choice for a press it all comes down to how much you plan on making and what your budget is.
 
outoftowner said:
Not if I spend all of my money on ammo and not food!

So What I'm getting from you guys is that lee is cheap and you'll get everything you want it might just break. Dillon is expensive and it is the last reloading equipment you'll ever need. And hornady and all of them are about mid-quality?
Click to expand...

No a challenger press will probably break with extended use. I am just saying that spend a few bucks more and buy a lee classic cast or a lee turrent press and it will probably last forever. The other makes are more expensive and are guaranteed to last forever. They all can make good ammo regardless of thier price.
 
Why dont you start like almost everyone here with one tool at a time.

Get a good press and a bunch of hand tools. Slowly start replacing things here and there.

Everything I have is RCBS and I consider it to be middle of the line for quality and price.
 
Ya I was looking at the hornady stuff and I kinda like it. Like I said i'm not going to be one of those guys that is going to use different bullet weights and amounts of powder and s***, I just want to make darn near factory style ammo, and once I find that right mix, I want to be able to pound out the rounds faster than you can say momma.
 
I think the purpose of reloading is to make accurate ammunition, at cost cheaper than store bought. If it were my decision, and I was loading 223 to "blast all over he place" I would skip buying the reloading equipment and just buy bulk ammo when it is on sale.
 
The presses talked about here have all been progressive and if that's what you want/need go for it. I try to reload for accuracy and find i need a good single stage press and am currently using the best I've ever tried, a Forster Co-ax. As someone else said, if you want speed, go with the Dillon, if you want to reload many diff. cartridges for accuracy, you're gonna need a single stage press.
 
I reload for accuracy and as a hobby. I like sitting down to take my time working on building loads.
If you just want ammo for cheap, I'd suggest buying surplus ammo and spend your time shooting instead of reloading.
 
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