ORIGINAL: The Rifleman
Just my opinion
But with the rising price of bullets and power and primers there is no way that a person starting out could justify reloading their own ammo.
My advice would be the rule of thumb that my dad taught me when I was a boy.
Dad gave me three 20 gauge shotgun shells to go hunting rabbits.
Everytime I came home with a rabbit, he gave me another shell.
Pretty soon, I didn't have anymore shotgun shells and when I had to buy my own, I took all my shots seriously. If I knew that it was a bad shot, I didn't shoot.
So instead of going out and shooting hundreds of shells in a weekend. Only shoot what you intend on shooting.
With this rule of thumb, a box of shells should last you a pretty long time.
Buying components and reloading your own will not produce a cheaper round.
By the time you clean the brass and clean out the primer pockets and buy all the components - you could have bought 2 boxes of factory loads to your one box of reloads.
Since the 223 is a modern firearm, it is already loaded from the factory to maximum specifications and there is not much improvement that you can make with a hand load over a factory load in that configuration.
I know a lot of people that get into reloading to "save money" over factory ammo. It never fails, that once you get into reloading, the reasons you do it change dramatically. I reload because I cannot buy a cartridge that is as consistently accurateas I can make myself. It is a hobby. You find yourself buying new tools to help make the perfect load from primer pock debur tools to neck turning tools, to micrometers to competition dies, to tumblers, to electronic scales, and on and on and on.
My contention is if you hope to save a fortune by reloading then I say you won't accomplish this goal, especially with the 223. When you get into large calibers and stuff the savings goes way up but then again, you will find yourself at Cabelas or somewhere when they come out with the new improved this or that and you will just HAVE TO HAVE IT so it all kind of evens out.
It's kind of like going 20 miles out of your way to get gas .03 cents cheaper.
Reload for accuracy not to just save money.