Reload or not???

It all depends how much you shoot?
I do reload not to safe money but for more accurate loads,
better combination loads for hunting, for pistol shooting,
and for fun.
Just got two pounds of Benchmark couple hours ago. :))
 
Now these numbers are from my own experience and they
are an educated average;
Rifle (.308, .223, 6mm) between 25% and 30%
savings over store bought. The real BIG advantage here is accuracy
and consistantism!

Pistol (9mm, .40, .45auto) shop around and buy in bulk, between 50% and 55% savings over store bought. The real BIG advantage here, is you
can create whatever load you want! I like specific weights and HP's, so
that's what I make.
 
I agree with WithoutWarning. I reload rifle ammo for the accuracy with premium bullets mostly; the 260 Rem I load becuase I had it throated in a way that factory ammo will not fit anymore.

I did a calcualtion the other day and I figured I would be paying about half the ocst per box for 9mm from buying it at Lebarons, which is not exactly expensive. The nice thing here too is that you are not held hostage by availability of a fair priced ammo that works in your firearm; this is a problem with Lebarons.

If you really want to save money, and shoot quite a bit, buy for loading at least 1000 rounds at a time.
 
I had read somewhere that reloading for the .357mag, using your old brass, the cost worked out to be something like 25% of factory ammo.thats like 3rds for the cost of one,So,working up loads will probably come later,but to start with I just want cheep ammo.
so,after start-up cost of the tools needed how many rds of .303Brit can be rolled for the cost of a $20-23 store bought box of 20???
and the same for a $23 box of 50rds .30carbine???
 
ok, first you have to change your thinking as bullets and cases typically are sold in hundred round lots- or 500, or 1k- so a better question is a hundred store bought ( 5 boxes) is x dollars, and i roll my own for y dollars- bullets run 20-30 dollars per hundred, depending on brand etc- you pay far more for the likes of speer, nosler, etc than you do for winchester/remington bulk- primers used to run about 3 -4 bucks /hundred, and you start really saving when you buy 500/1000 lots- then there's your powder- somewhere about 20-30 bucks a POUND-( there's 7000 GRAINS to a pound, so divide by 40 or whatever your manual tells you for your bullet weight to get your shots per pound) -you'll get at least 3-4 reloads per case, so you don't have to start figuring the cost of the case until your 3-4th reload- the only real advantage with factory is that you're using virgin brass every time out, but the downside is that you're confined to THEIR loads, where as your own you can tune to your rifle, preferances, etc
 
Well, as you can see there are two big bonus's to re-loading (yes there are more but let's stick to the big ones), cost savings and accuracy. If cost saving is the main point, you would have to shoot a lot for re-loading to start paying off (in my mind) and with more than one caliber, so I would caution getting into re-loading just for saving $$. Most get into it because they can't get factory ammo for their firearm or they want to "tune" a load for their firearm giving them the best accuracy they can.
 
If it just plinking ammo it's not really worth it for 303 (but I am not sure on milsurp supplies as I sold out of 303 a few years back)

But 30 carbine could pay for it by itself A qick look at the wholesale site gives me a price of 43$for 50 Remington, I have a reloading cost spreadsheet and a quick calc gives me 16.90 for 50.

There are rounds that are absolute slam dunks you should reload 22 hornet and 30 carbine are prime examples. other rounds are not so obvious 223 is one of those mostly because of the availability of good cheap ammo. Though if you are comparing priemium loads to handloads you would shoot 25-30%more.
 
I'll have to see what receipts I can find and see if I can figure out the cost of the rounds I reload. I know that by re-loading .40 S&W , .50 S&W, and 30.06 I have paid for a big chunk of my startup costs in the first year!

I don't know how to factor in the brass when figuring out the reloading cost as it is re-used .. so say you buy .40 S&W brass at $.10 each ..... what does it cost when you load the next time with your used brass? Primers, bullets, and powder are a one shot deal and the cost is easily calculated but brass is hard to figure. I guess once you're done with it and you have a final tally of how times you re-loaded it you could more accurately determine your cost per round.

For the .50 S&W in my Avitar, I have dropped the cost from over $3/round to I believe about $.85/rd, but that's with the cost of the new brass, the next time I load it will be cheaper yet!
 
aulrich said:
If it just plinking ammo it's not really worth it for 303 (but I am not sure on milsurp supplies as I sold out of 303 a few years back)
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The milsurp .303 is pretty much dried up now.

I started loading .303 as my first caliber a little while ago. As I wanted to go easy on the first round, I bought a bag of winchester brass ($23/50), and Hornady jacketed bullets ($22/100), I already had the power and primers (I'd guess these would be around 10-15c a shot). So to factor all that in, its 46c for the brass, 22c for the bullet, and 10c for the powder/primers, which would total $0.78 a round, compared to $1.15 for federal or winchester factory.

Don't forget, once you reuse the brass, or find cheap used brass, you can bring that down to an average of 10-15 c, you can cast bullets for pennies, or find cheaper factory bullets. You could easily bring the cost down to 50c a shot I'd guess, and with some more work to 25-35c. I haven't tried these 2 last things yet, but I plan to start soon.

EDIT - fixed some calculations
 
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TPK said:
I don't know how to factor in the brass when figuring out the reloading cost as it is re-used .. so say you buy .40 S&W brass at $.10 each ..... what does it cost when you load the next time with your used brass? Primers, bullets, and powder are a one shot deal and the cost is easily calculated but brass is hard to figure. I guess once you're done with it and you have a final tally of how times you re-loaded it you could more accurately determine your cost per round.
Click to expand...

3 ways you can calculate the cost of brass:

1: factor in FULL cost of brass on your 1st reload with it, the others are free
2. Be an accountant and separate your brass by brand, and keep a tally on how many times each was reloaded (you'll need a good system and computer)
Then devide the number of times each was reloaded into your initial cost and don't forget to deduct cases that split, are lost etc...Don't forget to stock up on an important element in this system, infinite patience !!

3. F... it and use No.1 like most I do.
 
Really the only thing that doesn't pay to reload is shotgun shells, they are so cheap and the lead shot is really expensive. Other than that I reload everything else. I make my own rifle and pistol bullets out of used Wheel Weights and only buy the fancy nosler/speer bullets for moose hunting. Reloading is a lot of fun and the accuracy difference is unbelievable sometimes. I have an 1886 winchester lever in 45-70 that when I shoot store bought 300 grn winchester ammo thru it, the best I can get is 3 1/2" for 10 shots at 100 yards. I cast my own bullets and fire them with IMR 3031 and that group shrinks to 1.2" for 10 shots (basically one big hole). Here is a great calculator to see how much you save reloading. http://www.handloads.com/calc/loadingCosts.asp

Lets plug some numbers in for .44 magnum.
Powder 2400 ~30.00
21 grn of 2400
primers 1000 for ~30.00
Bullet (make my own) so free
Cases (have my own) so free
Punch in the calculations and we get 6 bucks a box for reloads.
Buy your own Lead bullets at lets 100.00 for 1000 and we get 11 bucks a box.

Try .303 British
Powder Imr 3031 ~30.00
37 grn. is what I use
Primers 1000 for ~30.00
Bullets 180 grn ~20.00 for 100
I make my own bullets at 4 cents a round with gas check and lube.

Store bought bullet reloads are 39 cents a round or 7.80 a box
My own lead 19 cents a round or 3.80 a box

So there is definite money to be saved in reloading. If you buy all your gear on ebay or on this site used for lets say 200.00 bucks then it would take you
(19.00 a box for .303 - $7.80 for reloads so you would save 11.20 per box) or another wards $200.00/11.20=18 boxes of .303 British to pay for itself not to mention all the other calibers that you have to reload.

Like others have said, it depends on how much you shoot. If you only shoot 2 box's of ammo a year in .303 then it wouldn't be worth it but if you shoot 2 boxes per firearm per year it wouldn't take you long to pay the initial cost off.
 
To reload or not to reload? Cost savings?

.... As a "Ball Park" figure, I estimate the cost of reloads to be about 50%, to a low as 30% ,of the factory stuff. "Rolling my own" offers a couple of other, perhaps more important benefits. Firstly, reloading always assures that i have enough ammunition of hand for a trip to the Range. Accuracy, well, I guess my rifles are not accurate enough for that to be a factor, nor am I that good a shot over open sights to worry. The biggest plus, for me is that it's fun ! ...... David K. .....:dancingbanana:
 
I have a question because I am looking into reloading as well once I get into shooting.

What would you say your average Casing last? Im sure some of you have examples. Also what is the best/longest lasting cases to get?

Thanks, Good information.

Steve
 
iconix said:
What would you say your average Casing last? Im sure some of you have examples. Also what is the best/longest lasting cases to get?
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Steve,

As far as pistol ammo is concerned (9mm, 38spl and 45acp) I'll usually loose the empty cases before they wear out... I had one lot of old Dominion 45 that started splitting at about the 8-10 reloads.

As a rule of thumbs, the hotter the reload, the shorter the case life.

Mike.
 
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