Reloading estimates - what's your guess?

Don't be fooled by cheap cost per round?? All the equipment and extra everything on hand... powder, boolitts, primers, brass etc. etc....
It is not cheap.. You can fool yourself with fuzzy math.. But you will spend lots..
And it never stops$$$
 
GUB said:
Don't be fooled by cheap cost per round?? All the equipment and extra everything on hand... powder, boolitts, primers, brass etc. etc....
It is not cheap.. You can fool yourself with fuzzy math.. But you will spend lots..
And it never stops$$$
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Why wouldn't you use cost per round as a basis of comparison? Yes the up front outlay equipment and components is real but generally inconsequential as it is not hard to recoup the value of these items once your done with them. If you hold these items long enough you will even recoup the retail cost and their inflationary value, i.e. your use of the equipment and left over components will be literally free.

Additionally I really don't understand the argument how you can never stop spending money on reloading. Seriously is their something magical about reloading that inhibits your ability to make financially responsible purchases. I suppose you can make the same rabbit hole argument about gun ownership or whatever hobby your interested in.
 
I think the issue with the costs comes from everything related to reloading be lumped in together. To me I find there are 2 forms of reloading

1) as an add on to your hobby (shooting), you buy the setup and reload and replace equipment as needed. In this case it becomes cheaper to reload then to buy factory as the cost of equipment will get paid off faster (depending on how much you shoot)

2) as a hobby on its own. In this case a tleast for me its not about the shooting (totally separate hobby) its about working out the loads and the process. You buy equipment you could possibly do with out but you enjoy it. In this case you really don't care about the cost savings. It would be like buying firearms, do you really need that new rifle to add to the collection, probably not, but you buy it because its different or has features you want to try.
 
Boiling everything down to $ just takes the joy out of life...

If you want to "save money" don't do anything.
Just sit there in the dark thinking thoughts.
 
tomknotts said:
I think the issue with the costs comes from everything related to reloading be lumped in together. To me I find there are 2 forms of reloading

1) as an add on to your hobby (shooting), you buy the setup and reload and replace equipment as needed. In this case it becomes cheaper to reload then to buy factory as the cost of equipment will get paid off faster (depending on how much you shoot)

2) as a hobby on its own. In this case a tleast for me its not about the shooting (totally separate hobby) its about working out the loads and the process. You buy equipment you could possibly do with out but you enjoy it. In this case you really don't care about the cost savings. It would be like buying firearms, do you really need that new rifle to add to the collection, probably not, but you buy it because its different or has features you want to try.
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That's it. I don't think the guy who is looking for a kit to pay itself off in time will win that battle unless going through thousands and thousands of rounds a year, for years, depending on the cost of it. I think the trade off is being able to load the best product for your firearm and just eat the cost of a kit for the price of doing business.

I myself like to see a payoff when purchasing equipment over time. I used to have my laneway blown for $400 a year. I bought a good snowblower, do my own maintenance on it, and this year it will pay it self off in comparison to the contracted job. I still paid for the machine, I still have to blow it. Still have to maintain it. But I am good with that.

For my purposes, if and when I buy a reloader, for the times I shoot, I will just see it as a tool to use and not worry about the potential break even point. I also play golf 3x a week and ride my motorcycle 6-8000km a year so,..time is time, is time.
 
When I bought all my basic equipment (good quality RCBS stuff) I calculated that I would need to reload approximately 1000 rounds of match quality .223 to pay off the equipment. I was comparing my hand loaded ammunition to buying premium ammo like Federal Gold Medal Match as I figured I could load just as well myself. The savings from loading compared to buying premium "paid" for the equipment at approximately 1000 rounds. If I was comparing it to bigger calibers, it would have been fewer. If you're going to reload 338 Lapua, you will realize savings much quicker, especially when quality ammo goes for $100+ per box of 20....
 
tomknotts said:
I think the issue with the costs comes from everything related to reloading be lumped in together. To me I find there are 2 forms of reloading

1) as an add on to your hobby (shooting), you buy the setup and reload and replace equipment as needed. In this case it becomes cheaper to reload then to buy factory as the cost of equipment will get paid off faster (depending on how much you shoot)

2) as a hobby on its own. In this case a tleast for me its not about the shooting (totally separate hobby) its about working out the loads and the process. You buy equipment you could possibly do with out but you enjoy it. In this case you really don't care about the cost savings. It would be like buying firearms, do you really need that new rifle to add to the collection, probably not, but you buy it because its different or has features you want to try.
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This sums it up best.
 
I have a couple of rifles that, if I was buying factory ammo, would cost about $100.00/20 plus any taxes.
Once I have acquired brass, I can load for about $30.00/20, taxes in. At a saving of close to $70.00/20,
it does not take long to recover the cost of dies, press, scale, etc.
Once you have the equipment for a reloading setup, all one has to do is add a set of dies to load for another
chambering.
Keep in mind, if you load ammo, you are likely to shoot more, so net savings may be not so great. However,
it is a great hobby that will provide a lot of satisfaction. Dave.
 
I started reloading in the 60's with a lee hand loader and replaced it with a lyman expert kit which I still use today, and you know what. I saved so much money that I retired. Best investment I ever made. :)
 
When I was heavy into trap, skeet and then sporting clays over a period of about 25yrs. I had done the math and redone the math over the years and it was most economically beneficial to reload, plus you got the exact load you wanted. I was also an avid duck, and pheasant hunter over the years and I had excellent loads tailored to what I wanted for a much less than store bought. I saved so much over that period of time as we were shooting high volume amounts of ammunition so we were buying high volumes of reloading components. The higher the volume you bought the cheaper it was. Shot was always bought several hundred pounds at a time, powder in 12 Ib. kegs, wads by the thousand, primers by the 5000. The preferred hull was Win AA compression formed along with Rem. Blue Magic also compression formed a close second. We liked shooting stateside as the yanks often shot brand new Win AA and would just leave the hulls on the ground. Depending on the club they were either free for the gathering or dirt cheap by the green garbage bag full at the club house. When we shot anywhere near Rochester NY it was a must to stop at Bikirks and stock up on whatever you could legally bring home. There were no ITAR regs to hinder you then.
I figured I saved enough over those years that I am still shooting for free for the little bit of target shooting and hunting I do now. Like Eagle Eye I have several rifles now that eat very expensive ammo if store bought. So I have the components and I reload for them. It's a hobby. I could spend money on other hobbies but this is one of my paid up ones.
By the way it certainly does not take a specialized computer program to figure how much a 12 ga skeet load or a 30-06 round is costing to reload. If it does the school system has badly failed you.
 
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A lot of money is tied up in your inventory ..So you are only saving when all your inventory is used up and then you stop reloading
Then you can factor in the total cost of ALL your equipment back into how many rounds you have loaded
 
If you're only reloading for rifle you should be able to put together a decent setup for 3-400 bucks. Subtract your component per round cost from your factory ammo per round cost and figure out what your break even point is from there. I'd assume that shooting .338 Lapua you'd probably pay off your gear in a couple hundred rounds.
 
nowarningshot said:
Really common calibers can be purchased inexpensively. Unusual calibers, or high performance is were there is savings. I always thought cost was 30-40% of factory.
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Yes making high quality ammunition tailor made to your needs and at a lower cost is the advantage. Many years ago the cost of decent commercial ammo was giving reloading a run for it's money so to speak. Fellas were buying flats of Challenger shells for not much more than what they could reload for. And they did not have to spend time each week behind the handle making shells. I am not sure were the economics stands at this point in time. Many factors would come into play, like how much your shooting, how often, and the current costs of getting set up and components.
When I went to sell off some of my reloading stuff, Challenger flats were fairly inexpensive. I ended up giving one Mec press, hulls, wads, reloading manuals, etc. etc. to a young fella to get him started. He reminded me of myself years back, eager to shoot with not much money. Some older fellas helped me, so I passed it on.
I still think if you watch and shop wise for components reloading does save you money if your into the sport for the long haul.
 
Come on guys, we can do a lot better than: "It depends."

If you intend to shoot more than 100 rounds of 338 Lapua in your lifetime, there's a compelling case to get setup for reloading.

I already have a full reloading setup, and starting with once-fired brass (at a cost of $2/piece) and from which I assume I can get five (5) reloads, it costs me about $2.50 per round:

Here's the math:

- bullets - $1.50/piece
- powder - $0.50/piece
- primer - $0.05/piece
- brass cost $0.40/piece

With ammo running $7+/round, After the first 20, I recouped the cost of the dies, and after the next 50, the cost of a good reloading press if I didn't already have it.

Going forward, That's a lot less than what it costs for me to buy new ammo, even if I then sell the once-fired brass for $2 a piece.
 
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Andy said:
Come on guys, we can do a lot better than: "It depends.".
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I'm guessing most of the reloaders here did not feel like doing the math for OP.
If OP at least tried to come up some simple math and asked "Is this right or did I mis something" a cost breakdown like yours would have been posted way sooner.
 
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