New to reloading, is it worth starting .308 in this market?

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Fieldcannon

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I'm looking at reloading .308, i have no dies, no powder, no casings, etc. I have a RCBS Supreme, is it worth it to jump into reloading right now? I'm always seeing stuff about primer shortage and powder costs.

Can someone with a more deep knowledge give me some advice, i have a 308 rifle, no ammo. Looking for a cost effective way to get ammo and seems like an interesting hobby.


Where is the best place for me to start, should i use the RCBS press or upgrade? Where should i get supplies and which dies would work best for my press

Thanks
 
You won't save any money for the first couple of thousand rounds (and that's a conservative estimate right now: reloading could end up being a black hole for your finances, with you eventually investing hundreds in reloading for calibers you don't even have if you're not careful:).

Reloading, like target shooting, is a wonderful and rewarding hobby. It covers so much technical and scientific and opinion based information that you'll end up learning things you never even thought you'd want yo.
But spend some money on some match ammo and see if you even enjoy shooting, before going all gung hoe on rolling your own. Because you need an excuse to even think about going down that rabbit hole.
Which you also could do with a $200 22 repeater at 15¢ a round instead of $2.50.

Now is pretty much the worst time, ever, to try and get into reloading for the financial gain of it:(
 
I do not load for 308 but:

1) The biggest shortage now is for primers. You can still find cases for 308, bullets and powders: BlC2, CFE 223 and IMR4064, plus occasionally Varget.
2) The price of components has increased dramatically lately.
3) RCBS supreme is great. You do not need anything else.

So if you are an occasional shooter and able to find some good ammo for your gun, handloading is not worth it. If you want to shoot often, I would suggest that you do a simulation. Take, say 100 cases. Calculate the cost of cases, primers, powder and bullets for loading 100 cases. Do another simulation without including the cost of the cases this time as you will be bale to use the cases around 7-8 times. Compare the cost with factory ammo. Factor in the time spent and then you can decide if it is worth it for you. I bet you will find out the saving is marginal at best.
 
Right Foking NOW is the right time because you never know what's gonna happen down the road. Everyone will tell you about the primer shortage, powder prices that ski rocketed and bla bla bla but supply will come back to normal eventually. Get your components and enjoy a passion shared with not enough people, reloading and shooting. Not a lot of people will tell you how gratifying it is to achieve sub fuking MOA at said distance with your home-made recipe, I still have the flame. Now go get yourself a good single stage press, don't cheap out on a lee, been there done that and I regret it. RCBS rockchucker or better to start and you gonna be golden. Get some experience before buying a progressive press. 1000$ was the bare minimum to get into reloading a couple years ago.
 
Well - If you intend to shoot your 308 regularly, ie at a range, then reloading has appeal beyond economics. Simply, you can tune a load to suit your rifle. I enjoy this aspect of reloading, with the net result being ammo that shoots better than factory.
 
It's the components like primers that are hard to come by these days - but you can still get them if you really really need them - now would be the perfect time to pick up a couple reloading manuals (not google/internet) stuff and read them over a few times. Talk to people at the range you never know who is thinking about getting out of reloading since they just want to get out of reloading due to the price of stuff and having less time.

I used to reload large rifle primers before the prices went to the moon but now just reload for 1 caliber (223) and I am fine with this.

good luck
 
My single stage Lee I think I paid $89 bucks for plus taxes gets more use than my Forster co-ax press that I have not used in years - they both produce very very accurate reloads.
 
IvoB said:
My single stage Lee I think I paid $89 bucks for plus taxes gets more use than my Forster co-ax press that I have not used in years - they both produce very very accurate reloads.
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People still buy jobmate tools and like it believe it or not.
 
Now is the time. Life is short. The "market" is not predictable.

I find reloading is enormously rewarding, experimenting with different loads and tuning them. Every trip to the range has a purpose beyond just hitting targets.

Its very gratifying to be able to load rounds whenever I want. For me, reloading costs are rationalized as part of the shooting sports I love, its part of my life, so its a sunk cost. There are bargains from time to time, and buying in bulk when the price is good, "saves" money in the long run.....although "saving" money in this lifestyle is still spending money because once into reloading, you are likely going to shoot more. You will probably buy more guns and optics. "Saving" money is a debatable concept.

Some powders load-able for .308 look like they may be coming in now in small quantities, (in higher prices than last year). For example, Varget appeared in several online shops last week and this week (snapped up in about one day), but its still available in one online shop I frequent.

The Hodgdon reloading website I find very helpful to scan calibers and bullet weights for several powder brands. Vihtavuori also has an online manual for their powders. And of course there are the published hard copy manuals. These are essential resources to help when a powder you are not familiar with becomes available and you are wondering if it will work with your bullet weights.

Primers are very hard to find as we all know. You need to monitor several online shops every day, morning and evening, for the updates. Supplies are often gone in half a day after being discovered. I just found small rifle magnum primers available yesterday and snapped up a brick. .308 takes large rifle (unless you can find .308 Palma brass which takes small rifle primers).

You might find a friend at your local range who is flush with primers/powder, and willing to sell you some to get you started. Many shooters have several years worth of supplies, and can spare some. In fact some guys will go out of their way to help a newbie get started. Just spread the word where you shoot and good things can happen.

If you live near a bricks and mortar gun shop that orders in reloading supplies, make sure to buy stuff there, cultivate a good relationship with the owners, get on their waiting lists, and they will do their best to get supplies in for you. Online shops can get to know you as well when you are repeat customer and talk to them on the phone and by email.
 
Reloading is a very interesting hobby in its own right. It produces loaded ammo that you have to go shoot, so you get the cases back to load again.

It is the economical way to get ammo that works well in YOUR rifle. 0.3 gr of powder, more or less, can make a big difference in accuracy.

Your press is good. Any brand of dies will work. Check EE to see if any 308 dies are for sale.
 
I would definitely recommend you reload 308 if you plan on shooting more than a few boxes a year. You have the press. Brass is free IMHO (range pickup). Campro makes 147gr FMJ projectiles for target practice. I see 0.308" dia hunting projectiles in my local (Ontario) stores. Rifle powder is available. Unfortunately, large rifle primers are not available anywhere in SW Ontario (that I am aware of).

Dies are available. I like the Lee 3-die set as it comes with a shell holder and the crimp die. If your 308 rifle is a bolt-action, the 4 die set will save issues as you won't need to full length resize your brass.

What do you need?
- manual
- maybe a second manual
- dies (min 2 - FL resize and bullet seater)
- shell holder
- ideally a scale, but if you buy a Lee red or black box set it comes with a yellow dipper that will work
- a method of trimming your brass (or just chuck them when they are too long if you have lots of range pickup brass)
- primers (good luck!)
- powder
- projectiles
- case lube for FL resizing
- caliper for measuring overall length.

I might have forgotten something, but that is the basics.....
 
Right now is probably the best time to get into it. The primer shortage is going to be the biggest challenge that you are going to run into but there's no telling what is going to happen over the next few months or next few years. The primer shortage might turn into an ammunition shortage and you're in a better position having a reloading setup. Yes the powder prices have gone up quite a bit in the last year or two, I know there are some out there who think that will change in the prices maybe go back down. That never happens, once the prices go up they stay there if not keep getting higher. Might as well stock up now and then when the other components are available you're good to go. The 308 is really easy to load for and a very versatile cartridge with factory ammo and even more versatile with reloads. It's not hard to get good consistent accurate loads out of the 308 with a little bit of practice and load development. You will find that you're probably going to shoot a lot more once you start reloading so the actual cost savings are negligible, or you might even spend more than you were before.
 
Fieldcannon said:
I'm looking at reloading .308, i have no dies, no powder, no casings, etc. I have a RCBS Supreme, is it worth it to jump into reloading right now? I'm always seeing stuff about primer shortage and powder costs.

Can someone with a more deep knowledge give me some advice, i have a 308 rifle, no ammo. Looking for a cost effective way to get ammo and seems like an interesting hobby.


Where is the best place for me to start, should i use the RCBS press or upgrade? Where should i get supplies and which dies would work best for my press

Thanks
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OP - I bolded a portion of your post - I run into that thought several times - that somehow reloading gets you some "cheap" ammo. And perhaps it once did. But today you will need typically $500 of used tooling to get set up to reload - your press sounds like a great start - shell holders go like $30 now-a-days - used to be $3 or $4 each. Dies. Case trimmer. A scale of some sort - maybe also a trickler, depending on the type of scale. Measuring tool - like caliper - a tape measure or ruler not likely "good enough". Most people that approach me about that, have never had $200 tied up in ammo at one time - you are going to spend much more than that to produce "cheap" ammo - if you can find primers and powder today - and do not forget loading manuals. Some of us have been "in the game" for perhaps 50 years - is 23 sets of dies on my shelf now - 6 reloading manuals that I use and perhaps a dozen older ones - but that was not purchased today - I know some of that was bought in the 1970's - which might influence the thought that reloading creates "cheap" ammo at today's prices of things.
 
Fieldcannon said:
Thank you very much everyone for the replies, I'll look at getting dies and used brass. Where is the best place for projectiles and powder?
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I'm in SW ON and have a lot of affordable 308 brass. pm me if you are interested.
I also have a box of 308 campro bullets 147gr fmj bt that I bought in bulk (500 pcs) that I would be willing to sell you 100 pcs or so of.
That won't make you match grade ammo but would be very good to start out with and learn the basics before you start spending big bucks on bullets.
 
Yes if you buy small primer brass (for now due to lrp shortage) and shoot alot. Like 150 plus rounds a month and care about the best accuracy. Otherwise 1$ per round on ball ammo will give you better groups than thos cam pro bullets. Those bullets suck. It's costs about 1.3$ per round of match grade reloaded ammo. Everyone else has covered the other points.
 
kmoney159 said:
Yes if you buy small primer brass (for now due to lrp shortage) and shoot alot. Like 150 plus rounds a month and care about the best accuracy. Otherwise 1$ per round on ball ammo will give you better groups than thos cam pro bullets. Those bullets suck. It's costs about 1.3$ per round of match grade reloaded ammo. Everyone else has covered the other points.
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You get what you pay for, and for off hand plinking out of a semi these bullets will be fine.
A great number of the dealers on cgn are selling these and if they would really suck would they all still sell them?

These bullets are only 30 cents a piece taxes included so you can reload these absolutely cheaper than a buck you'd pay for a standard ball round and accuracy will be as good.
So it all depends on what you want to achieve.
 
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