Reloading costs question.

The.22guy

The.22guy

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As the title states I am wondering the cost of reloading bullets. The cost being the bullets primer and powder and not including the brass if you could give me the aprx cost of each round the would be great. And please don't charge yourself a hour rate for your time.What setup do you have also ?. Any and all ammo references per bullet or per bulk will work great and also don't be afraid to list the components brands .Thanks and if you buy in bulk still list your price as per bulk that you buy and not if you bought a lesser number.
Hopefully we can learn for each other and cut are reloading expenses or show new people the advantages and price reduction in making you own ammo
 
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i asked a buddy of mine what his reloading costs are. for 38Spl he's at around $0.16 per round and for .45ACP he's at around $0.20 per round - that covers primers, powder, and bullets, since he obviously reuses his brass a lot of times.
 
My reloading costs are about 1/2 for pistol ammo.

But don't start reloading to save money....it'll never happen

I reload so I can shoot more for the same money and to constantly have access to ammo.
 
oh,

for the OP... if your planning to handload because you want to save money... send me your guns :)

the reality is that your going to make a better quality round for about half the cost of a cheap factory load... but your never going to see any savings... with all the extra trips to the range to go shoot plus beer, plus more stuff, plus more cleaning gear for your guns because your shooting more often... then of course your going to need more range gear because now that your going to the range more often people are starting to notice that your levis just aren't tacticool enough, and neither is that shoebox your hauling all those frikin handloads your bring to shoot...

then your gonna need a decen 4x4, a new gun, oh, and then your going to need one of each type of gun so you can load more often... then your going to need a new man cave to load in... oh yeah... save money ! sheeeit...
 
The only thing that I ever reloaded that saved me money into the black was 2 3/4" 12Ga Bizmuth waterfowl loads. They are expensive enough at the store that I could get the cost below half, didn't buy many bells and whistles and such and was able to pull it off.
 
MudChucker said:
neat idea...

Im going to make one in excel that will take your upfront investment, compare it to the cost of factory loads and have it tell you when your finally broke even :)
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That's easy, here's an example for 9mm:
A. Pay $13/box for factory ammo, OR reload at $6.50/box.
B. Shoot 1,000 factory ammo in 4 weekends, OR shoot 2,000 reloads in 4 weekends.

Break-even on the $1,000+ I spent on reloading equipment: NEVER. :eek:
Pure joy of shooting twice as much, with less recoil and more accurate ammo: PRICELESS. :D
 
just did some quick-n-dirty math, assuming 38Spl (taxes extra, but same on everything so can factor them out)

factory box of 50 = $16 = $0.32 per round

reload at home = $0.16 per round (estimate, seems reasonable, based on $36/1k primers and $80/1k bullets and some powder and reused brass)

difference = $0.16 per round

Lee Pro1000 kit for 38Spl = $230 or less

time to recoup cost = $230 / $0.16 (the difference) = 1400 rounds or so

assuming you're shooting the same as before and not blasting twice as much just cuz it's cheaper, then... figure out how long it would take you to go through 1400 rounds. for me, it would likely be under 2 months.

BUT... what's the "opportunity cost"? what could you do with the time you're reloading that would be better for you? once paid for, the reloading "saves" you around $230 every 2 months (meaning you get 1400 more rounds than if you bought factory loads). ok, let's go nuts - you end up shooting MORE than before, so you save $230 every single month (meaning you shoot an extra 1400 home-made rounds instead of buying retail rounds). can you find a way to earn an extra $230 each month? the reloading savings apply only to reloading. the extra cold hard cash can be applied to other things as well. but can you find a way to make that extra cash?

of course, if your main goal is consistency or being able to tweak your load, the $$$ is irrelevant. if you need this for economy, see above.
 
i think i just convinced myself NOT to bother with reloading and spend the time on other things :p
 
BP7 said:
just did some quick-n-dirty math, assuming 38Spl (taxes extra, but same on everything so can factor them out)

factory box of 50 = $16 = $0.32 per round

reload at home = $0.16 per round (estimate, seems reasonable, based on $36/1k primers and $80/1k bullets and some powder and reused brass)

difference = $0.16 per round

Lee Pro1000 kit for 38Spl = $230 or less

time to recoup cost = $230 / $0.16 (the difference) = 1400 rounds or so
Click to expand...

you'd rather assume $50/1000 primers and more than $100/1000 jacketed bullets. Taxes extra.
 
legi0n said:
you'd rather assume $50/1000 primers and more than $100/1000 jacketed bullets. Taxes extra.
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If you're doing this for cost reasons you take the cheapest stuff and those prices are roughly what I saw for Win primers from Higginsons and bullets from Marstar.

Yes, taxes extra, but like I said taxes are the same % no matter what you buy - components or factory loads or commercial reloads. Hence I kept them out.

The math and concept is still the same in the end, and the figures are approximate (yet still representative).
 
BP7 said:
If you're doing this for cost reasons you take the cheapest stuff and those prices are roughly what I saw for Win primers from Higginsons and bullets from Marstar.

Yes, taxes extra, but like I said taxes are the same % no matter what you buy - components or factory loads or commercial reloads. Hence I kept them out.

The math and concept is still the same in the end, and the figures are approximate (yet still representative).
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True, but in order to go cheap you have to buy local. Shipping for primers and bullets is a deal breaker. WSS in my area has $36/1000 primers but only in the catalog. Same for pistol bullets. Other gunshops have them on the shelves yet at the higher prices I quoted.
 
ok, so let's say it's $50 and $100, giving $0.15 a round before powders. how much powder would you use per round? i guess if you use the potent stuff, it's less grains per round, so... would you be in the 1-to-3-cents-per-round in powder costs?

how much does potent cheap powder cost in a 4lb container? $100? how many grains do you get out of that? hmm, 7000 grains per pound, so that's 28k grains, and the potent stuff uses what, 5 grains per charge? so that's 5k+ rounds. assuming all this is about right, you're looking at powder being... hmm.. $0.02 a round? so we're still roughtly in the same range, maybe a bit more. $0.16 to $0.20 per round, depending on powder.
 
Onagoth said:
I reload ................to constantly have access to ammo.
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This is my primary motivation as well.

I sleep better at night knowing I have plenty of ammo on hand and supplies enough to make plenty more.

Powder by the 8lb keg, bullets in 6000 pc. cases, primers by the case may seem like a lot of $$ when I go pick it up, but... I only have to do that a couple times a year.
 
Well, he doesnt say he is loading pistol rounds. So, IMHO, for sure you will save money loading rifle rounds, especially the bigger stuff.
338 at $50 a box minimum can be reloaded for easily less than half that...
308's cost me about $11 a box of 20 to load and that's with good bullets. $25 min at store

Plus you get to find the load your gun likes best.
 
The real priceless aspect of reloading is having the ability shoot what you want when you want. Before I got into reloading I don't how many times I left a store disapointed that the ammo I wanted was sold out, backordered or whatever. Then there is the aspect of reloading obsolete ammo that would not be available otherwise. There is a great deal more to reloading than just price.
 
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