Price gap Reloads vs Factory

powdergun

powdergun

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Just curious as to what folks are seeing with prices these days. There is no mystery that the price of components is beyond silly.

Excluding the price of brass a box of 50 9mm costs me about $17 where as factory is going around $20-$25 which is not much of a gap.


Wondering what everyone else was seeing .
 
The savings margin is always less for the widely available cartridges sold in bulk. Conversely those are the ones that a reloader can usually get brass for free and bullets at more reasonable bulk pricing.

Biggest savings are on rare or specialty cartridges. Compare prices for 44mag or 45-70 where most could substitute lead bullets. Or look at Weatherby proprietary chamberings.

The biggest trick is one that doesn't help much today. Buy big 10 years ago. Most of my current primer inventory were less than $40/k and powder under $40/lb. When components start trickling in again look for deals and stock up. What you don't use will seldom lose value in the future.

Another big savings is to cast your own bullets.
 
powder gun - do not overlook the cost of the tooling that you used to produce those $17 rounds. "Head's Explode" to find out about $1,000 of stuff used to load up those rounds. Some things like press, dies, length trimmer, chamfering and caliper about minimum for reloading centre fire rifle, and then powder handling - weighing or volume - and so on. As you know, can just keep going on tooling costs - dedicated de-capper and then primer seater, bullet pullers, case tumblers of various types - about no end to it ... And now-a-days seeing plain ordinary press shell holder costs like $30 or more!!!
 
How did you get to $17 a box? Pistol primers start getting in and indeed they now cost twice. Just saw small pistol primers at TNA for $85 with the deal of buy 4 and get 5th for free. Campro bullets are about $110 a bag. Pistol powder is easy to source. It will work out about 2-3 cents per cartridge. Even with these crazy prices you still can fit into 25c per shot.

I am lucky, I have all those components accumulated before Covid and can shoot for a few years not buying anything. May be the market will go down a bit once the shelves will become full again.
 
For me I'm using old primers that i scored for $35 per 1k. So with tax we'll say $.04 for Primer. Another $0.02 for powder. Then i cast my own bullet with recycled wheel weights which is 1/3 of a penny but with powder coating we'll go $0.01. The brass casings i get for free from my range. So a complete round is costing me $0.07 (not including my time) or a box of 50 is $3.50.
 
Loading .38 spl a lot lately. Cabela's wants $40 for a box of 50.

So, almost $1 a round after tax.

Even at today's prices, with components it will cost me about 30c-35c to make a .38 at home. So, paying 1/3 the cost.
 
Helka said:
For me I'm using old primers that i scored for $35 per 1k. So with tax we'll say $.04 for Primer. Another $0.02 for powder. Then i cast my own bullet with recycled wheel weights which is 1/3 of a penny but with powder coating we'll go $0.01. The brass casings i get for free from my range. So a complete round is costing me $0.07 (not including my time) or a box of 50 is $3.50.
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You sound like me - doing reloading with stuff I bought a while ago - but for someone who does not know - you are not showing the cost of the tooling that you used to reload, or to cast those bullets, or to powder coat them. If you did not get that stuff 15 or 20 years ago, will need to buy it today - to make "cheap" reloads ...
 
Potashminer said:
You sound like me - doing reloading with stuff I bought a while ago - but for someone who does not know - you are not showing the cost of the tooling that you used to reload, or to cast those bullets, or to powder coat them. If you did not get that stuff 15 or 20 years ago, will need to buy it today - to make "cheap" reloads ...
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Thats true, we would need to factor in cost of electricity to run the melter, cost of equipment, cost of propane and such.
 
Having to amortize the costs of the equipment over your output is nothing new. And frankly, $30 for a press may sound cheap now, but when I was making $5.25 an hour the hit is if anything less now.

I agree, $17 per box is high. Shop around for components. I understand maybe you will pay what you have to today to get up and running, but these are not normal times, within a few months you should be able to get that around the $10-12 range without trying too hard.
 
My tooling started decades ago with with a Lyman kit that was under $300 but all of the components were very well made. My press is finally getting to the point of tossing out. I bought a replacement for it ten years ago but the old Lyman just would not quit lol. But yes tooling is a big factor. Good thing reloaders tend to enjoy the process.

As for how I got the cost. Just bought components ( powder/bullets for 2000 rounds ) That was $369 so 18.5 cents + 14 cents for primers so$16.23 for a box of 50 ( Called t $17 because I know I will spill some powder and lose a primer or two lol..)
I load for my 45 colt and as was mentions the gap on this is quite a bit more than 9mm.

BTW includes tax and shipping
 
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powdergun said:
Just curious as to what folks are seeing with prices these days. There is no mystery that the price of components is beyond silly.

Excluding the price of brass a box of 50 9mm costs me about $17 where as factory is going around $20-$25 which is not much of a gap.


Wondering what everyone else was seeing .
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What I am seeing more often, lately, is folks who have "heard" that I do reloading and show up here with extremely unrealistic expectations - they start out that they are NOT GOING TO PAY $50 or $70 for a box of centre-fire rifle shells - can I make some for them to go hunting? No recipe, no information, no supplies - I apparently will have all that - by magic - so they can get "cheap shells". And I would need to buy a die set and shell holder for their cartridge - who is paying for that?? And they typically do not apparently have the time to sit at my press and churn out their product. I no longer load shells for anyone except for my son and grand-son, but am more than willing to have interested people use my tooling, under my supervision, to make for their own use.
 
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I never experienced the lawsuit thing - but in very small town Saskatchewan - I loaded up some 50 grain Blitz for a friend (22-250) who wanted some for fox hunting - he hit a fox on rear hip - going away - tore that thing in half - for years, was apparently MY FAULT - even though was his idea for bullet, and his shot. I gave it up at that point - most likely during early 1990's. My son and grand-son are using rifles that I bought new from store - son's rifle getting same loading I have used since 1980's (?) - grand-son's rifle getting fed a Start Loading.
 
Janeau said:
Different times..that 30 years ago..I remember driving with a beer between my legs too that long ago…:)
Will not go too far today…
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Times and places a bit different - driving / riding in truck with beer - out here is called a "traveller" - as, like, yesterday on trip from town!!!
 
I was just into Cabelas looking at current prices for bullets. 150 gr fmj that I use for my Garand are now 59.99 plus tax instead of 34.99 plus tax from the last time I bought them. I did some figures in my head on the way home. 100 rnds with components bought two years ago cost $82. Current prices add another $40 at least so over $120/100 rnds. A little disappointed with a $40 or more jump in price but buying factory rounds made for the Garand is a lot more. I usually shoot 80 to a 100 rounds when I go to the range. Some of the odder stuff I have is hard to get or expensive. 38-55 I have seen boxes selling for $90 to $100 plus tax for 20 rounds. I can reload that for under a dollar with my cast bullets. Component prices have risen but so has factory ammunition. I am glad I put in a good supply of components before this shortage happened. Even the 303 British would be expensive to shoot on factory rounds. I shoot them a lot using cast bullets. Definitely cheaper to reload but definitely fell down the gear rabbit hole. Just figuring what my 122 bullet moulds cost is an eye opener. Not sure how many presses I have. Four get used frequently. I don’t think I save any money but I definitely shoot a lot more.
 
Depends what you shoot..
Anything exotic, big bore, weatherby. Ect.ect.
Only way to shoot is to press your own @ 200 a box
Not to mention. Down loading or plknking loads are cheap, TIME? Not so cheap. Still buy from time to time some pistol or 223 ammo at shows not these new prices. Dang
 
Something else to consider that I didn't see mentioned, though I may have missed it, is that even if the cost to reload is cheaper than buying commercial ammo you may end up spending the same amount of money, if not more, simply because you are shooting more.

I've done it myself. "Hey, I made all this ammo for much less than store bought, I can shoot all day long now".

I consider reloading as more accurate than store bought. Not necessarily cheaper these days.
 
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