How to reload 9x19 economically?

Casting your own bullets is the only way to make reloading 9mm less expensive than bulk but that takes time to do and costs $ to get set up. Might be worthwhile if you shoot higher volume. I buy remanufactured 9mm from Wasp Munitions myself
 
Personally I would take up golf before I'd start casting, been there done that and not even remotely interested.
 
There is no question that the most expensive component for all reloading is the bullet cost.
For 9mm, a plated, standard bullet is around 12 cents each. So reloading these 9mm bullets (12 cents) primer (5cents) powder (tenth of a cent) tax in, you should be able to make a complete cartridge for 18 cents each.

After you setup your casting process & reach the break-even point (just like the cost of a reloading press) your 9mm bullet cost is,,,,,lets say, a penny, & then recalculate.
Bullet, a penny, primer, a nickel, powder 1/10 cent, 9mm cases amortised over their useful life = zero. Cost per 9mm .....7 cents each.
 
Roger that guys, thanks for the tips.

I've dipped my toe into the casting hobby and have successfully cast round ball, so now I think it's time step up to a cast 124 grain bullet c/w powder coating. It's something I can do over the winter in prep for the summer shooting season.

In the meantime, I'll keep my eye open for bullet / primer deals and scoop them up whenever I see them.
 
I think I've been loading 9mm for about 18c/round before taxes, compared to about 22c/round before for the cheapest I can find them (although the bought ones are a lighter bullet so not 100% fair comparison):

Brass: Free
Primers: 4.395c (CCI Small pistol from Lawry's Shooting Sports)
Bullet: 11.792c (147gr Campro plated bullets from Lawry's Shooting Sports)
Powder: Either 1.839c (CFE Pistol that I'm getting used up) or 2.513c (HS-6, partial jug that I'm trying) (from Lawry's Shooting Sports) - Also thinking of trying Titegroup but savings from that won't be too significant.

Total: 18.03c - 18.70c / round

(Note: I don't pay shipping on any 9mm components because I live close enough to Lawry's that I just pick stuff up at the factory after work)

At the rate that I make them, if I count my time I'm losing money (maybe not if I count it at an after-taxes minimum wage rate) but I'd prefer to be home making them than at work for another few hours making money to buy them so I consider it worth it.

I'm also not worried about amortizing the cost of my reloading gear by making 9mm because I currently load a couple other rounds that save me a lot more money per round.
 
I'll be able to load 9mm at .17 per round (all in) for the foreseeable future. As someone else has already stated that's approximately an $80 savings per 1K when compared to the cheapest 9mm readily available for purchase. Shooting at least 20K a year means that I save $1600 on 9mm alone.

Personally, I don't factor "my time" into the equation because I'm not some big shot with better things to do. Remember, watching TV doesn't pay well either, lol.
 
4n2t0 said:
Personally, I don't factor "my time" into the equation because I'm not some big shot with better things to do. Remember, watching TV doesn't pay well either, lol.
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I get why people factor in thier time but it still seems illogical to me for the reason you stated above. Unless you never give yourself time to relax, you'll always be spending some time not making money.
 
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For cheap 9mm I have been using the xmetal diy kit. They are 136.99 for 1000 rounds worth of primers, powder and bullets and seem to run well for me.

It is much cheaper than buying the components.
 
tigrr said:
I have it down to $2.90 a 50 round box for my 9mm reloads. Same for 45acp 50 round box.
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If you're casting your own bullets with free range lead & can get primers for around 4 cents each this cost is pretty accurate, at least for 9mm. As I probably shoot an average of 3-4 boxes of 9mm per week @ say $3/box it's significantly cheaper than factory or reloaded with plated. When I have time I also powder coat them. Thousands of bullets per pound of PC so no real difference in cost from cast with no leading issues and a lot less smoke.
 
9mm becomes economical if your loading 147grn. You can load for around 180/case. And buying would cost you 280. However they do go on sale once in awhile.
 
Steve.693 said:
For cheap 9mm I have been using the xmetal diy kit. They are 136.99 for 1000 rounds worth of primers, powder and bullets and seem to run well for me.

It is much cheaper than buying the components.
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That's awesome, never heard of a deal like that before. I would absolutely do this if shipping wasn't so expensive.
 
I’ve reloaded not quite 100000 rounds of 9 mm. Pretty close. I buy bulk every time. 8 cents per bullet, 3.5 cents per primer and about 1.4 cents for powder. I’ll reload 9 mm as long as I shoot it. It makes sense for my shooting/economics. Other caliber make more sense but I shoot less volume. Math.
 
bigi said:
Two major factors influence your costs:
1) how much you shoot - 3 shooters in my family
2) Buying supplies on sale(with rebates) only in large quantities

Example:
1) Not long ago Tenda had Federal spp at 38.95/1000 with a U$ rebate of 20% up to max of U$100. So we bought 12000 with free delivery. Recently the US cheques arrived. U$98 x 1.35=CND$133. Now do the math = 3.3c per primer.
2) Get into a group buy say at your club for Campro. I was able to buy 125gr plated RN at $90/1000 tax in, So I bought 20000 which will be good for about 2 years. That was a heavy load!
3) I use Tightgroup(I tried many others) since it's cheapest, buy again on special in 8 lbs jugs. Usually under $30/lb with tax.

https://ultimatereloader.com/tools/reloading-costs-calculator/ so my cost = $136/1000 using 3.4gr powder
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^^ Roughly the same for me. But even when buying in "small" quantity, it's not that much more expensive.
Bullets: 100$ per 1000 => 0.10$ per round
Primer: 40$ per 1000 => 0.04$ per round
powder: titegroup at 31$/pound (a pound is 7000grn) => 0.015$ per round

total: 0.155$ per round, or 15.5¢, or 155$ per 1000. So you get a saving of a little less than 100$ per 1000. It's not much but for some people it's about a grand per year.

Wanna try a calibre that doesn't work economically? Try plinking 223 rounds. Twice as long to reload and the savings per round are even more dismal.

The large rifle rounds, you save the most per round. Per minute, the most I save is on 44magnum, where I save 65¢ per round, so a batch of 1000 and I save 650$. That's about 2-3 hours of reloading.
 
If your just buying a couple thousand here and there it’s not worth it IMO. However when you buy your powder 20+lbs at a time and bullets and primers 20k or more at a time the price per unit goes down. Even better if you get a few high volume shooters together on a group buy.
 
OK so my own cast bullets cost me nothing but time. Brings my 9MM cost down to $3.00/50 cartridges. Using BDX 124 gr bullets for match events drives my cost to $9.00/50 cartridges. I get to shoot a lot of lead bullets for next to nothing. If you have the time and I do now that I am retired and my two sons are on their own. Casting makes for a very enjoyable hobby. Makes shooting the handguns so much more enjoyable on so many levels.

Take Care

Bob
 
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