Is reloading even worth it now?

[DGY]

heating with wood is most defiantly cheaper for me. even factoring in the insurance difference. on propane i was 3500$ a year
electric when i go away for a week in the winter is noticeable on the bill. i would guess 5000$+ a year.

to get all my for for the buring season is about 1/2 tank of fuel in the truck and 5l of fuel and some bar oil in the saws.

under 300$ with a new chain or two.

I’m the same way wood is definitely way cheaper for us, electrical up here is insane, fuel well not much better, propane is definitely better, but even if it cost me $600 to do my own I save lots of money, even if you factor in a new saw like $1000( I still use my made in Brazil stihl chainsaw I bought 29 years ago! That like $30/year)! Anyway, last year some people had $2500elictrical bills per months for the cold months, me I need 6 cords of wood (128 cubic feet/cord) I do four loads with my truck and done, it is our main heating, and the stove is going today(bellow freezing in the morning)
And even if you buy wood at $500/cord it’s like $3k for the year for 6 cords. Some
People have paid nearly that in electricity for a month last year!!

 

[bearhunter]

heating with wood is most defiantly cheaper for me. even factoring in the insurance difference. on propane i was 3500$ a year
electric when i go away for a week in the winter is noticeable on the bill. i would guess 5000$+ a year.

to get all my for for the buring season is about 1/2 tank of fuel in the truck and 5l of fuel and some bar oil in the saws.

under 300$ with a new chain or two.

How big is your truck???? Are you living in a small trailer???? Are you getting wood from very close by???

An average size 1200 sq foot house, requires at least 3-4 cords of wood to heat over the winter, if wood is used exclusively, and depending on the type of wood being burned.

As the house gets bigger, of course, the amount needed increases as well.

I needed 6-7 cords per year, which took up 7-10 days to get into the woodshed and cost as much as you describe for a cord. Time is precious and worth money, wear and tear on the vehicle, saw, smokey house, etc. It all costs money.

I switched to NG about thirty years ago and haven't regretted it for a minute. My house is 3500 sq feet over two floors, and my NG costs are less than $2k/year.

 

[Licensed to kill]

I’m the same way wood is definitely way cheaper for us, electrical up here is insane, fuel well not much better, propane is definitely better, but even if it cost me $600 to do my own I save lots of money, even if you factor in a new saw like $1000( I still use my made in Brazil stihl chainsaw I bought 29 years ago! That like $30/year)! Anyway, last year some people had $2500elictrical bills per months for the cold months, me I need 6 cords of wood (128 cubic feet/cord) I do four loads with my truck and done, it is our main heating, and the stove is going today(bellow freezing in the morning)
And even if you buy wood at $500/cord it’s like $3k for the year for 6 cords. Some
People have paid nearly that in electricity for a month last year!!

That’s crazy electric prices. Propane would be cheaper if NG is not available. However, you did touch on the point, that point being, it doesn’t matter how much it cost you to put up several cords, what matters is what is the going market for firewood split and stacked. $500 sounds a little high but going with that, $500 cord IS your cost of burning wood regardless of whether you cut it or buy it because that is what it is worth. Another way to look at it, if you found a duffle bag stuffed with stacks of $100 bills, would you burn that in your stove since it cost you nothing???

 

[DGY]

That’s crazy electric prices. Propane would be cheaper if NG is not available. However, you did touch on the point, that point being, it doesn’t matter how much it cost you to put up several cords, what matters is what is the going market for firewood split and stacked. $500 sounds a little high but going with that, $500 cord IS your cost of burning wood regardless of whether you cut it or buy it because that is what it is worth. Another way to look at it, if you found a duffle bag stuffed with stacks of $100 bills, would you burn that in your stove since it cost you nothing???

$500 might sounds high to you but up here it is the going rate and I would say it is actually the low end of the going rate! We see some guys advertising for $550/cord!
Well I’m not known to be real smart, but if it costs me $150/cord for each cord I cut myself how can it be the same as if I would pay $500/cord to buy it??
Anyway at the end of the year it costed me less than $600 dollars to heat my 2x4 house insulated with belly button lint and that is in the Yukon where we get pretty cold winters.

 

[savagefan]

Picked up nearly 3000 cci large rifle primers at an auction for $200, seems high but locally they go for $16/100, when added to my existing stock, I'm set for life.

 

[Licensed to kill]

Well I’m not known to be real smart, but if it costs me $150/cord for each cord I cut myself how can it be the same as if I would pay $500/cord to buy it??

Because you could SELL it for that so that is what it is worth regardless of what you actually paid for it. Example a guy I knew heated with wood exclusively to “save money”. He said he used 2 cords per month in the winter. Firewood st the time was $150 split and stacked so it cost him $300 to heat with wood while I was paying around $150-$200 per month on NG. He could have sold his wood for $300 per month and paid $200 to heat with gas and pocket the difference for his labour.

 

[REM3200]

Because you could SELL it for that so that is what it is worth regardless of what you actually paid for it. Example a guy I knew heated with wood exclusively to “save money”. He said he used 2 cords per month in the winter. Firewood st the time was $150 split and stacked so it cost him $300 to heat with wood while I was paying around $150-$200 per month on NG. He could have sold his wood for $300 per month and paid $200 to heat with gas and pocket the difference for his labour.

Put in two mini split heat pumps last year, one upstairs and one down and only made a wood fire three times when the power was off. Cut my own .

As to reloading just doing shotgun these days. When my supplies are gone will be selling my reloaders. Primers over $100.00 / 1000, powder when you can get it $80.00 lb and shot $75.00 a bag and scarce as well. Good for supplies for 5 thousand or so shells on hand then buying factory.

 

[Potashminer]

As to reloading just doing shotgun these days. When my supplies are gone will be selling my reloaders. Primers over $100.00 / 1000, powder when you can get it $80.00 lb and shot $75.00 a bag and scarce as well. Good for supplies for 5 thousand or so shells on hand then buying factory.

I am in about the same boat - I actually started to buy factory ammo when I found what I thought was a good deal on 6.5x55 - no doubt I could have reloaded that cheaper - I have bullets, primers, powder and cases for 6.5x55 , but I did not see the point of doing so at the time. I now have 40 rounds - factory - probably good enough for me. I have no clue how it will shoot in any of the 6.5xx55 rifles here - I'll probably use them all up to find out - then won't be able to get more, so I will reload then, I think. The purchase was intended to be fired in a CG63 - see how that works out - maybe get that one sighted in and reserve the rest for that rifle - reload for the others...

 

[iron cat]

I have a bunch of factory ammo for my walking around rifle I picked up so won't hand load for it .
My long range/ blind hunting rifle however I will still hand load for.
Cat

 

[regulate34]

How big is your truck???? Are you living in a small trailer???? Are you getting wood from very close by???

An average size 1200 sq foot house, requires at least 3-4 cords of wood to heat over the winter, if wood is used exclusively, and depending on the type of wood being burned.

As the house gets bigger, of course, the amount needed increases as well.

I needed 6-7 cords per year, which took up 7-10 days to get into the woodshed and cost as much as you describe for a cord. Time is precious and worth money, wear and tear on the vehicle, saw, smokey house, etc. It all costs money.

I switched to NG about thirty years ago and haven't regretted it for a minute. My house is 3500 sq feet over two floors, and my NG costs are less than $2k/year.

1 ton diesel with wood racks i haul 1.5 cord a load.
2200 sqft house
4-6 cord a year depending on the winter

i can cut off the back of the property. but the real gravy wood is 6km round trip.

i need a truck and saw regardless of heating with wood.

No NG here. propane or electric.

 

[regulate34]

I’m the same way wood is definitely way cheaper for us, electrical up here is insane, fuel well not much better, propane is definitely better, but even if it cost me $600 to do my own I save lots of money, even if you factor in a new saw like $1000( I still use my made in Brazil stihl chainsaw I bought 29 years ago! That like $30/year)! Anyway, last year some people had $2500elictrical bills per months for the cold months, me I need 6 cords of wood (128 cubic feet/cord) I do four loads with my truck and done, it is our main heating, and the stove is going today(bellow freezing in the morning)
And even if you buy wood at $500/cord it’s like $3k for the year for 6 cords. Some
People have paid nearly that in electricity for a month last year!!

cost savings aside. i just love cutting and splitting wood. i love playing with my saws. porting and tuning.

it’s like reloading. you get to play.

and like reloading. i always have heat and ammunition.

 

[Potashminer]

It's worth it for most calibers.

Buy components when you can, they don't go bad.

I just bought 303 bullets used. They were same price I would have paid for them 10 years ago. 600 bullets under $300. Sierra match kings. All unopened boxes.

I have started loading 45-70 with Tightgroup. Cheap and accurate for what I want. Campro bullets are a great bargain. Store had them on sale, 30% off. I have another 1000 to shoot.

All of my equipment is paid for. Factory ammo isn't cheap.

"Don't go bad" - if not stored correctly, powder and primers can deteriorate - an acquaintance advices that he had to toss at least one 8 pound jug of powder because it "turned" - as per him, the effects of heat (above room temp) are NOT reversible with powder. (I presume that is similar with primers, but I actually do not know that). I have also got "good deals" on bullets and brass - they were tarnished - nothing that concerned me, but might be a "deal killer" for some people. Read up on "stress corrosion" cracking in brass - sometimes cases that just sit for 20 years will crack the neck when fired or re-sized - annealing seems to help with that.

 

[Deathrawt]

I bought a bunch of old stock win 209 primers a while back when you couldn’t get them and I paid “enough” for them, 130 bucks a brick
Bought 3 bricks and then discovered later that they had not been stored properly and around 35-40 percent of them were corroded
That was aright pain in the ass sorting through 3 bricks to separate the good ones from the bad
I loaded some corroded ones just to try them and they still went off so they may be ok for just playing around ammo

 

[hogie]

"Don't go bad" - if not stored correctly, powder and primers can deteriorate - an acquaintance advices that he had to toss at least one 8 pound jug of powder because it "turned" - as per him, the effects of heat (above room temp) are NOT reversible with powder. (I presume that is similar with primers, but I actually do not know that). I have also got "good deals" on bullets and brass - they were tarnished - nothing that concerned me, but might be a "deal killer" for some people. Read up on "stress corrosion" cracking in brass - sometimes cases that just sit for 20 years will crack the neck when fired or re-sized - annealing seems to help with that.

There is always a risk with powder and primers.

I put my primers in zip lock bags. Powder I buy in 1 pound containers. When I buy powder I like to buy 4 pounds at a time if possible to have same lot numbers. I'm loading with powder that's over 10 years old with no problems. I went from lots of shooting to very little. I'm trying to correct that problem.

If you only shoot a 40 rounds a year then reloading wont pay off. Shoot over a hundred then it starts to make it worth looking into. Caliber depending of course.

All my equipment is paid for in double with savings. Redding single stage press and a Dillon 550b. My savings on 45ACP when I shot lots paid for the Dillon quickly.

 

[Licensed to kill]

cost savings aside. i just love cutting and splitting wood. i love playing with my saws. porting and tuning.

it’s like reloading. you get to play.

and like reloading. i always have heat and ammunition.

A buddy heats with wood, house snd shop, and he live “making wood”. His favourite pass time is cutting firewood. Of course, he could sell all that wood for much more than it would cost to just heat with NG but he likes wood heat (which I get because nothing beats wood heat IMO, it’s just different than gas or electric. When we camp together he brings a whole truck load of dry, split firewood and wants it all gone so he can “make” some more.

 

[Potashminer]

A buddy heats with wood, house snd shop, and he live “making wood”. His favourite pass time is cutting firewood. Of course, he could sell all that wood for much more than it would cost to just heat with NG but he likes wood heat (which I get because nothing beats wood heat IMO, it’s just different than gas or electric. When we camp together he brings a whole truck load of dry, split firewood and wants it all gone so he can “make” some more.

Sort of what we were caught up here at Lake in Western Manitoba - no utilities available except electricity and hard wired phone. Neighbour and I were building our places - had to make choice how to heat - not a minor thing in Manitoba - he decided to go with wood heat and electric back-up - I see him now making trips to his wood shed to get firewood during winter - he is circa mid-70's, as am I. I am sure getting a logging truckload of birch delivered to his farm's quonset - bucking that up and splitting it - storing it - then trailer in a winters worth to the "cabin" to burn, having enough space close to house for winter's worth, is getting "old" - it probably was "fun", even into his 60's. He had to do a chimney because of wood heat - now his chimney cricket is leaking - builder did not do it correctly - a good portion of his living room wall taken up with his wood burning fire-place - and the water soaked drywall. We chose to do all-electric - no chimney at all - therefore no leaks - since we are in Manitoba, is mostly "green" electricity - not coal fired like it was in Saskatchewan. But not likely as "cheap" as Natural Gas heating and hot water used to be in Saskatchewan. Among others out here, I see most variants - massive geo-thermal installation (20 x 200 feet deep wells), propane pig that get re-filled every summer - most everyone has stand-by generator and "Generlink" unit - although there is also "old school" pony panel and manual switch for "stand-by" power, and the Geo-Thermal guy has a free standing diesel gen-set.

From October 2025 through September 2026 we averaged 4,000 KWH with peak in coldest months circa 8100 KWH. Actual cost will vary depending on where you live in Canada. Manitoba is NOT the cheapest to be for electricity.

 

[Potashminer]

Looking at our last power (electricity) bill - 10-Aug-2026 to 09-Sep-2026. We used 1,347 kWh. Total bill was $153.37. Previous month bill was circa $157 - probably the two lowest bills we will see this year. Should not have been any heat - just lights, hot water, well pump and water treatment system (water softener) I think the AC ran for a couple weeks. Several months for us are north of 5,200 KWH once the in-floot heating boilers kick in. (One for House basement floor and separate one for Attached Garage floor). Basement Thermostat set at 22 C and garage at 19 C. We do not do "average" billing each month over the year, although we used to do that. Manitoba does not seem to have a distribution cost broken out, like some other Provinces - so the bill total was what was due for all - energy and distribution to us. Like most residences in Canada, we are billed for "Watts" - not "Volt Amps" - at the mine I used to work at, we were billed for "Volt Amps", not "Watts".

 

[bearhunter]

There is always a risk with powder and primers.

I put my primers in zip lock bags. Powder I buy in 1 pound containers. When I buy powder I like to buy 4 pounds at a time if possible to have same lot numbers. I'm loading with powder that's over 10 years old with no problems. I went from lots of shooting to very little. I'm trying to correct that problem.

If you only shoot a 40 rounds a year then reloading wont pay off. Shoot over a hundred then it starts to make it worth looking into. Caliber depending of course.

All my equipment is paid for in double with savings. Redding single stage press and a Dillon 550b. My savings on 45ACP when I shot lots paid for the Dillon quickly.

If you're shooting a hundred rounds per year, figure out that it will take 3-5 years to recoup the costs of equipment and brass. If you shoot more, less.

There is a myth going around that Premium ammo will shoot as well or better than handloaded ammo. I don't believe that to be true, other than in about 10% of the off the shelf offerings.

Handloaders who take the time/effort/expense to tune a load to their particular rifle will be able to duplicate and usually better the accuracy from any mass produced commercial offerings.

I've proven this to dozens of folks, but it doesn't mean they started handloading, they were just careful after that to be careful who they spread the myth to.

There are a lot of firearms out there that will never shoot better than two moa, no matter the brand of premium ammo or how many handloading recipes the shooter uses. That's just the maximum capability of certain rifles, and it can be from any manufacturer.

I have a very cheap, off the shelf Norinco bolt action JW103 that will shoot everything I put into it (7.62x39) into 2 moa+-. No matter what diameter bullet, from .308-.312. No matter the powder charge from min to max spec.

It has never shot worse or better.

I've seen custom rifles and off the shelf rifles do the same.

I will admit today's commercial ammunition is better than it has ever been and has given a lot of older rifles a new lease on useful life. That's fine for the folks that don't require more, for whatever reason.

Handloading has allowed me to sail through at least a dozen "ammo/component" droughts," without a worry about where my next box of cartridges is coming from.

Not only that, I don't have to settle for what the LGS or big box store has on the shelf, and I don't have to worry that the "next #lot" of ammunition will shoot well in my rifles.

Many newbies don't realize they have to find which manufacturer's cartridges will shoot best in their rifles, and this can cost a lot of money, if they're fussy about accuracy or the manufacturers switch out component providers, which is not an uncommon practice. Most premium brands will use the same components, other than powder lots, which usually isn't "cannister grade" but a proprietary type, made up especially for their offerings.

 

[jethunter]

I do save $ by reloading, sort of.

I am fond of old guns and obscure calibers. 455 webley, 41 LC, 303 Savage, etc. Factory ammo is "available" for these to some extent but not regularly, and it's expensive.

I can reload all of them for a fraction of cost of factory ammo. Twenty cents a shot compared to $2 a shot in 455, for example. So I "save money". I own dozens of old guns that I don't need and paid too much for so I can load cheap ammo for them. I'm saving buckets of money.

I like shooting, so i reload. Reloading gives me options and availability and versatility that factory ammo can't. I spend less on my shooting than my BIL spends on golf. It's not about the money but money is part of the equation.

 

[big bear]

I love shooting my Winchester 71,348Winchester. Price check today showed a box of 20 for $124! Hell yes, reloading is still worth it. I shoot 30-40 rounds of 348Win every time I go to the range because it is a very satisfying round....the feel of the 71 when cycled, the lovely "whack" sound when it hits the backstop.a greatb load for every thing except maybe a big grizzly, and I have some NorthFork bullet loads and Barnes 250gr loads that would work on a grizzly.
Since I was gifted a nice Garmin chrono I have discovered my reloaded ammo has a much better SD and smaller extreme speed spread than store bought ammo, really surprised me, given the cost of factory ammo.
Buy components when you see them on sale,pays off down the road