newbie reloading questions

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tonysa13

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Hi all,

I do a fair amount of shooting, in a wide variety ... from 9mm at the range, to .223, 30-06, and 12ga out at some bush land that we have. I do both target shooting and hunting of all types.

I'm starting to wonder about loading my own shells. The main question is: is it worth it? As a hobby, absolutely I can see that. But, what about cost? Is it less expensive to load or re-load my own shells? How about set-up cost? Do all those costs far outweigh any savings in cost per round that there might be? In other words, is re-loading mainly a hobby or has it become a necessity for people who do a high volume of shooting? Do you guys re-load your own stuff because it's fun? Because it adds a new dimension to gun hobby? Or is it because you shoot enough that you save money by loading your own shells?

Could you give me some pointers/tips? I don't even know where to begin - is there a decent beginner re-loading set that you would suggest? Can one set load all types of shells (ie: shotgun vs rifle)? Is shotgun shell reloading easier than rifle shell reloading? As a complete beginner, would you suggest I stay away from certain things?

Basically, I would like to try it, but I don't want to sink many hundreds of dollars into all the bells & whistles and then find that I don't use it enough to justify the cost. It'd probably look to the equipment exchange forums to find some used equipment to try first.

Any comments, suggestions, and words of wisdom are very much welcome!

Thanks!
Tony
 
Get a book like The ABC of Reloading. A starter kit with a single stage press, a scale for weighing powder,
a powder measure or trickler. A measure will speed up the process. My starter came with a case trimmer
and loading blocks for holding all cases during the process.
Once you have been working with it a while, you may want to upgrade to a progressive press.
There is money to be saved. I have my 9mm's down to 17 cents each.
I have a RCBS Rock Chucker kit that ahs been churning out pistol and
rifle for 20+ years. It has earned its keep.
 
Depending on what you're shooting, it can definitely be worth it.

You're probably going to save the most money loading rifle rounds. \If you're using good components it might not even be that much in cheap calibres like bulk chinese .223 and even .308, but the trade off is the higher quality, custom ammo. I save a mint reloading for .303 british and 7.62x54r. I use my own cast bullets and light loads of pistol powder, and load a box of 50 for about 7 dollars. Hell of a lot better than $29 for 20 rounds :) For pistol you might not save as much because a lot of retailers are doing bulk deals on pistol ammo as well, but you'll save more on larger pistol calibres. For shotguns, well....if it's for 12 gauge, unless you're casting your own buckshot and slugs, you will not save much. Loading for trap/skeet, you'll save maybe a penny per round. Shotgun also requires a seperate set of reloading equipment (a different press at least, anyway).

As far as equipment goes, you may pay it off in savings in the first couple hundred rounds or you may never pay it off, depending on what you load and how much. A lot of guys start out with a single stage press to learn on and that's fine. They're cheap, and they do the job. they're also slow. If i could go back, i'd probably get a lee turret press. Faster for loading handgun rounds, and it'll handle most rifle calibres as well. The auto indexing can be disabled for loading rifle or for when you're just learning. As far as other equipment, the sky is the limit. You'll need a decent scale and a set of dies bare minimum. A loading manual is strongly recommended. A powder measure saves time, a trickler improves accuracy, a tumbler makes everything shiny. It all depends on how much time you have, space you have, how much you wan to invest. Some manufacturers offer kits for starting out which have most of the basics. A kit like this would get you more than started without a lot of frills http://leeprecision.com/50th-anniversary-breech-lock-challenger-kit.html
 
To set up for reloading all the sizes you've mentioned would likely cost up around $500 to $600 in initial expenses for a basic single stage setup with all the dies, priming tools, scale and cleaning gear. If you're shooting LOTS of ammo for handgun or .223 then you would want to consider a progressive press and CAREFULLY learning into how to setup and use it since all the steps are going on at the same time and that makes it easier to make multiple mistakes all to easily. If your shooting would justify a progressive then figure on closer to $1000 to get set up initially. But if you're shooting that much that a progressive is justified the payback time would be reduced as well.

Is it worth it? I'd suggest you go to a website such as Budget Shooter Supply and add up the cost of the primers, powder and bullets. You can figure out how many loads to a pound of powder using the fact that there are 7000 grains in a pound and the reloading data from the Hodgdon web site. You'll need casings as well. Depending on the cartridge pressure, rifle you're using and how you resize you can get from 6 to 30 reloads from the casings. Semi auto guns need full re-sizing each time and that is hard on the brass. Bolt rifles can often just be neck sized and if they run at a lower range of pressure the brass can last a long time. And even that can be extended with regular neck annealing.

http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/

And needless to say You Tube is also well stocked with reloading videos. Look a few over to get a feel for the whole thing. It won't replace a good reloading manual but there's still lots of good information to be gathered from those videos.

With the cost of supplies you can pretty easily figure out the cost per round to reload. Then from there figure out how much you'll save and get a feel for how soon the initial cost for gear will be paid back in the savings.
 
tonysa13 said:
Hi all,

I do a fair amount of shooting, in a wide variety ... from 9mm at the range, to .223, 30-06, and 12ga out at some bush land that we have. I do both target shooting and hunting of all types.

I'm starting to wonder about loading my own shells. The main question is: is it worth it? As a hobby, absolutely I can see that. But, what about cost? Is it less expensive to load or re-load my own shells? How about set-up cost? Do all those costs far outweigh any savings in cost per round that there might be? In other words, is re-loading mainly a hobby or has it become a necessity for people who do a high volume of shooting? Do you guys re-load your own stuff because it's fun? Because it adds a new dimension to gun hobby? Or is it because you shoot enough that you save money by loading your own shells?

Could you give me some pointers/tips? I don't even know where to begin - is there a decent beginner re-loading set that you would suggest? Can one set load all types of shells (ie: shotgun vs rifle)? Is shotgun shell reloading easier than rifle shell reloading? As a complete beginner, would you suggest I stay away from certain things?

Basically, I would like to try it, but I don't want to sink many hundreds of dollars into all the bells & whistles and then find that I don't use it enough to justify the cost. It'd probably look to the equipment exchange forums to find some used equipment to try first.

Any comments, suggestions, and words of wisdom are very much welcome!

Thanks!
Tony
Click to expand...
One turret press can load all the brass you need. Lee turret press kit (even the value one) costs about $200. Add dies at $40 per calibre (another $120). Then add a Lee LoadAll for the 12ga ($75).
Components, now there's a challenge.
 
Reloading is cheaper than buying factory ammo. Always. The only exception would be buying cheap ammo vs reloading much better stuff. (I mean like comparing the price of a crate of milsurp 5.56 vs the cost of reloading 1000 5.56 rounds with premium hunting bullets and new brass) Certain types of ammo are so affordable in bulk that reloading just isn't worth the time though - 12ga target loads come to mind.

The biggest factor in what you buy is the volume you shoot. If you shoot 200 rounds of 9mm 200 rounds of 223 and another 50 rounds of 30-06 each week then you will be going CRAZYYYY trying to reload all that on a single stage press. Meanwhile if you only shoot maybe 100 rounds every two weeks total its a much more reasonable task.

Because you are shooting 9mm and 223 I am guessing you shoot a decent volume. For this reason I suggest a turret press like others have. I would look at Budget Shooter Supply. http://www.budgetshootersupply.ca/frame.cfm?ItemID=4&CategoryID=19

Unless you shoot a lot of shotgun for hunting I wouldn't bother reloading for it until you've got the hang of things and know what you are doing. Its not that shotgun reloading is difficult or anything but it requires its own setup and isn't all that cost-effective if you only use it for target loads and cheap buck/slugs (which can all be had for reasonably cheap if bought in bulk). If on the other hand you hunt a lot of birds then reloading shotgun might be for you.
 
You won't save a lot of money but as they say you will get to shoot more and have better quality / more accurate ammo..maybe for a dollar figure overall you'll save 40-50 % of the cost of purchased ammo but learn a whole lot.
 
I have to agree with Suther on the shot shell thing. I'm not sure I could buy the components for much less than the cost of new shells. Certainly one would need to put a lot of time into reloading them to pay back the equipment costs and begin reaping any savings. And that is time I'd rather put into other things.

9mm is almost in the same situation. I reload for 9mm mostly because I'm already set up for it due to the very real financial need to reload my other sizes of ammo. If I were ONLY looking to reload for 9mm I'd likely just buy lower cost factory stuff and line up for the bigger Christmas sales and buy a few thousand at the reduced prices.
 
I hate to say it,but with all the hoarding going on you may be frustrated in getting pistol powders at this time .

I haven 't run my press for pistol ammunition for about 9 months.
 
It requires frequent visits to the local gun stores but I've seen enough that reloading is possible and doable.

Depends on the area I guess.
 
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