Re-loading

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Markgto

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I was hoping to gain some perspective on this forum from members who re-load their own ammo.
I am new to the sport and have purchased a glock 17 for my first gun. I have found a source that sells 1000 rounds 9mm 124 grain for $225 ($0.22 / round). When I search pricing for components I can't seem to reach a price below ($0.22 / round) never mind the investment on all the gear for re-loading.
I understand that re- loading works well for higher cal. However, seems to me 9mm isn't worth it?
 
There are some rounds for which reloading would - at best - take a long time to recoup the investment. 9x19 is one of them. 7.62x39 is sold at levels that cannot even be matched by reloading, so far as I can tell, and you can generally get .223 Rem cheap enough. Once you move away from those, the savings are more easily realized.

So far as the 9mm Para goes, you can reload it below retail cost if you use, for instance, lead bullets. Bullet Barn sells 500 for $49, 10¢ (call it 11¢ with tax and shipping), 4¢ for a primer, 2¢ for powder - total 17¢. If you cast yourself, it's cheaper still. But you have to factor in your time and equipment cost.

I am not sure that the situation will remain unchanged. It used to be that .303 British was dirt cheap, ditto .30-06 and 8x57 Mauser at times. Supplies of those dried up and prices rose. I suspect the same will happen with the cheap stuff sooner or later.

Have fun with the Glock.
 
I make mine for .15 each. Brass is free and plentiful for 9-mm.

Reloading for 9-mm can be argued either way. If it's your only centerfire caliber, then it might not be worth it for you.

But if you shoot anything bigger than 9-mm, the argument is over.
Start shooting .38-special, .45-ACP, or (gasp) .44-Magnum and the savings are beyond any argument.

Since I am already reloading for those larger calibers anyway, I might as well save a bit on 9-mm too.
 
Some ammo isn't worth reloading unless you're tailoring it to your gun. I'm curious if you included brass in your estimating, cause brass grows on trees, then hits the range floor. ;)
 
Markgto said:
I was hoping to gain some perspective on this forum from members who re-load their own ammo.
I am new to the sport and have purchased a glock 17 for my first gun. I have found a source that sells 1000 rounds 9mm 124 grain for $225 ($0.22 / round). When I search pricing for components I can't seem to reach a price below ($0.22 / round) never mind the investment on all the gear for re-loading.
I understand that re- loading works well for higher cal. However, seems to me 9mm isn't worth it?
Click to expand...

If the glock is your first handgun and your serious about shooting it well, you will need put way more than 1000 rounds downrange. It's not all that hard to put more money down range than what your gun cost originally to get proficient. Once you get bit by reloading you can look into casting your own bullets it's huge money saver. I can reload 9mm with my own cast projectiles for about the cost 22LR. Once you get tired of 9mm you will have most of the reloading equipment for your next caliber. What I love about reloading is that I always have ammo available, that is no always true when I go the store and frequently "get we are sold out come back later".
 
For the rounds I am loading, I use per round

$.015 for powder
$.036 for primer
$.0865 for plated bullets (in my revolvers I cast my own)

For brass, as was stated by Dexter, it can be free or up to $0.23/case . Keep in mind though that the brass is reusable and for pistols at reasonable pressures, that's a lot. For arguement sake, let's say you bought once fired brass at $6.00/100 and used it 10 times for $006 per shot.

Rounded up that's 14.4 cents a shot. Not much savings per shot but now you can shoot 30% more for the same money.

If you load anything else you will see it right away.
 
I save 50% on my 9mm over retail. Buy my supplies at gunshows and such. It's worth and you will learn a lot. You do not need the best press to start out with, unless you plan to shoot a lot and go big into IPSC.
 
as dexter said once you get into bigger calibers you can start saving big time. 9mm projectiles should only cost approx 120.00 per 1000. dont use lead in your glock, copper jacket only. progressive press is pretty quick for handgun ammo I can load an honest 400 rnds an hour with my dillion 550. Dillion has some better bigger better models that will do over 1000 rdns an hour if you spend the money for all the cool parts
 
I don't reload to save money. I reload to get exactly what I want, in the quantities I want, when I want it.

You can stretch your ammo budget by reloading cheaper components. At a certain point it stops being about quantity but quality.
 
Thanks for all the great info!
For me, I'm a few arguments with my wife away from owning some bigger cal guns. So, at that point reloading will be a no brainer!
Until then $0.22 / round isn't too bad.
 
Yeah on its own, reloading 9mm might not be worth the savings once you factor time and cost of equipment in, but when you start reloading other calibres in addition to 9mm then the combined savings add up really quickly. My 9mm reloads work out to be $0.13-15 a round. I churn out about 350 rounds an hour on the turret press, so compared that to the price you're paying for ammo, I'd only be saving about $25 for every hour I'm sitting at the press (or getting two extra boxes for the same price), but then I'm also reloading .38 special, .45 ACP, and pretty soon .357 mag and .223, so on a grander scale I am saving lots.
 
44Mag, 44spl, 357Mag, 38spl, 45ACP, 9mm, 5.56. I could not afford to shoot my restricted firearms if I didn't reload.

M
 
Reloading 9x19 is worth it for me, only because I reload with lead bullets (needed for my club's Steel Challenge pistol shooting). If I didn't need to have lead ammo, I wouldn't reload for 9x19 - as it costs about the same as buying FMJ ammo (and I'm a lazy bastage :p ).

That said, I reload FMJ and lead ammo for my 45ACP. The savings are worth my time in that calibre.
 
Buying a thousand rounds at a time looks great on paper, but eventually you'll be at the point where 1,000 rounds is 2 range trips (or 1 and a half). The joy of loading your own is a 5 gallon bucket, that you can barely lift, full of 9mm.
 
tbhupe said:
For the rounds I am loading, I use per round

$.015 for powder
$.036 for primer
$.0865 for plated bullets (in my revolvers I cast my own)

For brass, as was stated by Dexter, it can be free or up to $0.23/case . Keep in mind though that the brass is reusable and for pistols at reasonable pressures, that's a lot. For arguement sake, let's say you bought once fired brass at $6.00/100 and used it 10 times for $006 per shot.

Rounded up that's 14.4 cents a shot. Not much savings per shot but now you can shoot 30% more for the same money.

If you load anything else you will see it right away.
Click to expand...


Almost the same for me, heres my 9mm costs
$.014 for powder
$.03 for primer
$.08 for lead RN bullets (plated after shipping and taxes are up around $.12 each
Brass was acquired when I started shooting and I bought 1000 Wolf 9mm bullets to start out.

So thats 12-1/2 cents a shot.

For my .45ACP its almost the same,
$.014 for powder
$.03 for primer
$.10 for plated bullets
I also acquired my brass for the .45 by buying 800 rounds of the Wolf bullets

So thats 14-1/2 cents per shot on my 45.

I enjoy making my own rounds, I find it kinda fun, but I mostly like it because I'm saving money....for another gun. I use the Lee Pro 1000 progressive presses, I bought one for each caliber so its always set up and ready to go whenever I want to reload, no changing die plates or setting anything up, just load the primer tray, fill the powder bowl and start crankin out rounds.
 
You can definitely reload 9mm for cheaper than you can buy it. You just have to consider what your time is worth. My buddy and i started reloading with a single stage Lee press and some other gear we got for $40 from a guy. Now we have another press and some other stuff and reload 6 or 7 calibers. But it has been worth it for 9mm alone. The cheapest we ever got 9mm factory was $0.30/rnd, and we do jacketed reloads for about $0.15/rnd... + our time. We just hang out and do some reloads, if we weren't doing that we'd just be hanging out doing something else, so for the most part we don't worry about factoring a dollar per hour value on our time spent reloading. In saying that at 1st things start out slow, and it can take a while to get not many reloads done, but once you get used to it and a groove going you can bang em out pretty quick even on a single stage.

Another thing to consider is reloading is another part of shooting in itself. Personally I feel just from participating in the reloading process that i have learned lots and am a more "educated" shooter in a way. Not that i'm a pro or anything but no doubt I have a more thorough knowledge about firearms and ammo and how it all works etc etc just from the experience of reloading. I would totally encourage anyone who wants to make shooting a fairly regular hobby to take up reloading and not just for the possible financial benefits.

Just my (and my buddy Duke's) $0.02 !! Happy shooting!! :)
 
Glock doesn't recommend shooting reloads or lead bullets in its guns. I am told this is due to their unsupported barrels which cause a slight bulge in the brass after use. Reworking this bulged brass will cause it to fail sooner than it would in a gun with a supported barrel.
 
For me reloading is part of the hobby. If I save money or not it doesn't matter to me because it's something that I enjoy just as much as shooting. That being said, I'm not shooting 10's of 1000's of pistol rounds annually like a competitive shooter would. If you're a high volume shooter than every penny you can save is to your benefit.
 
If you go with plated bullets like the ones from Berry, the cost is about half of what you pay for factory stuff. I reload 9mm exclusively and I worked out the payback time as 5500 rounds. For me it was a no brainer as that was about 4 months of shooting between me and the wife. And now that I have a sub2000 that I can hunt with, I have the ability to build rounds more suited to the longer barrel. The old rule with reloading it something like, you wont save any money, you just shoot more. To me it was well worth it, but if you are going to take years and years to go through 5500 rounds, then reloading is likely not worth it
 
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