Howler

I think the price of brass has risen the most out of the reloading compenants. But the price is still cheaper by about 3-4 times when compared to buying factory ammo. Once the initial cost of buying all the compenants, the savings still add up quickly!

Mountain Cur

Thanks everyone, I too won't have to worry too much about brass, although I do need to get some .45 acp brass. I think I'll wait for a gun show and buy the .45 brass in bulk. Another good thing about reloading is the ability to stock pile ammo, I've been saving my brass from my centerfire rifles ever since I've had them. I'm 38 and I've had the 7mm since 1986, the 06 I've had about 10 yrs. and the .300 I've had about 5 years.

kdvollmer

RELOAD AND SAVE MONEY:

I reload for everything.

9mm
.40
.45
.223
.308
.338 LM

You can save a ton of money by reloading. Some examples. a box of Match .308 from black hills runs about $20, and Match .338 from Black hills was (last box I BOUGHT) 82.50. I can reload my .308 with match components for about $7-8 per box, and my .338 for about 20 a box.

Think about the numbers for a 9mm
1 LB = 7000 grains of powder

5 grains per bullet = 1400 rnds

.01 Per Bullet for powder


Primers: 100 per box
1.50 for small pistol Primers

1.5 Cents per round

Bullets: (last box I bought)
25.00 for 500
.05 per round

Brass: FREE pick it up at the range. 9mm is a real commn round. SHould have no problem there.

Add it up

.01 + 1.5 + .05 = 7.5 Cents per round or 3.75 for 50. almost 60% saving on a 9$9 box of range ammo.

Just an example. My prices may be off some, since last time I bought components, I bought bulk, so they may have gone up, but the savings will still be the same. If they have gone up for you, they have gone up for the ammo companies too.
Have fun reloading. There is a real satisfaction of developing the "perfect bullet" for your rifles. The best grouping, best shooting...
After you see the difference, you will never want to shoot factory again when it counts.

herman

I am at the range at least one day a week and sometimes more,I shoot from 100 to 300 rounds a week,The rifles range from 223 to 7mag,if it wasn't for reloading I wouldn't be able to shoot but one day once in a while.Even shooting my muzzleloader runs close to $1 a shot.Cannot remember the last time I bought factory bullets except a couple boxes of 17 hmr's.
I don't shoot one load in one rifle but every week have different loads and bullets to try in each rifle,powders run about the same price for each number,primers about the same except reg to match,and bullets there is big difference from rem core-loc to barnes.
Back in the early 50's you could realize a big savings but today since I haven't bought any ,I don't really know how much the savings are but looking at factory bullet prices in the gun shop it has to be very good.
Reloading can be expensive to very expensive but it sure is fun.

whitetaildreamer

I agree that a significant aspect of reloading is the personal satisfaction of creating the bullet that you are harvesting with. A close second is the ability to fine tune the round to the specific gun you are hunting with. There is a minumun saving when loading smaller cartridges, especially when you factor in your time and effort. Where I see the greatest cost savings is when I am loading the larger cartridges. A box of 20 7mm mag rounds up here in Manitoba is about $43/box plus 13% tax(with a premium bullet). I make make the round with the same bullet for approx. $.67 so there is a significant savings (close to $2/round every time I squeeze the trigger). There is no way I would be able to afford shooting as much as I do at the range if I didn't reload.

kdvollmer

I'll buy that for a buck. You definatly save more on the larger cartridges. I think for my .338 Lapua I save almost $65-75 per box by reloading. Factory Black Hills last box bought 82.50 + tax. Reloads about $19.00

even though you save more on the big shells, if you reload the small stuff too, even if you only save $5-6 per box, eventually, if you put half that saveings into each of 2 jars. 1 jar for you to buy new toys with, and 1 jar to buy your wife something to keep her happy when you buy that new gun or scope, or Binos, or.... you get the point.

Pioneer2

The more you practice shooting ,the better you get so for me reloading is the way to go.I like to put together custom loads that can't be bought over the counter.I've used reloads for everthing from targets to grizzly over the last 25 years and never had a problem.I get a lot of people with unique guns say" I can't find ammo for this anymore" and end up loading for them.The initial reaction is ,oh reloads like they're not as good or safe as factory fodder.But when the smoke clears and the targets are checked they can't believe the accuracy difference....Harold

eldeguello

Believe it or not, reloading has always been a good deal from an economic standpoint for anyone attempting to save money. The only thing youmust do is to avoid sinking big bucks into your setup to start with. Something like an inexpensive single-stage press, a set of dies, and a powder scale are all the tools one needs to load your first rounds. Later, you can add a tool or two at a time, such as a powder measure and a case trimmer.

My first reloading was done with a Lyman 310 hand tool with a set of .30/'06 dies and a Pacific powder scale. I got my first pound of surplus IMR 4895 powder from Hodgdon in a paper sack for $.90, 100 primers for $1.50, and 100 M2 ball bullets real cheap from the DCM.

I'll bet that first stuff cost less than $50.00 total for my first 100 rounds of reloaded .30/'06 ammo. And after that, all it cost was power, bullets, and primers.

The Rifleman

I've probably replied to this post 1000 times on other forums.

But my answer is probably different than everyone else's.

By the time you go out and buy a press, scales, tumbler, spend hours hand polishing brass, buy your primers, powder, bullets, case trimmer, and all the bells and whistles, you still have to buy the die's and you still have to sit in front of the bench for hours - just to get a couple of decent boxes of shells with a single stage reloading press.

As for a .35 Remington, I went that route once, never again. You could not buy the 150 gr. bullets that Remington uses in the factory loads and the 200 gr bullets were too heavy. When I sold my Remington Gamemaster 760, .35 Rem, I had 12 boxes of reloaded shells that went along with it. Along with powder, bullets , dies etc.

The whole shooting match went for $500!

As for .222, .243, .270, 30/06 govt - the very best you can do is break even if all you use those calibers for is a once a year deer hunt or a twice a year groundhog hunt. Seriously, how many boxes of shells a year are you going to use? I used maybe 10 shells all last year to sight in my rifle and another 10 shells all of deer season - and that was to harvest 4 whitetail deer.

When you get into the magnum calibers, you can see a substantial savings, once you get past the price of the brass. My .270 WSM has a case life expentency of maybe 3 reloads. My 300 Winchester Magnum maybe 2. My Remington Ultra Mag - maybe 2.

I have several boxes of 300 Winchester Mag shells that will only fire in a bolt action rifle. Only problem is that I own a Browning Pump Rifle.

I bought several sets of dies and sent several sets of RCBS dies back to the manufacturer and always got the same results.

After careful inspection, - I am a machinist by the way, I noticed that the only difference between the factory loads and the reloads was that the headstamp area where the extraction groove is cut swells .002 in my gun after you fire a round. Also the belt is swelled .0015

No set of die's that I have came across can take that out of the round.

I run the press the whole way until the shell holder hits the bottom of the dies and I still get the same results.

So here I am with $100 in reloading dies and another $300 worth of ammo that I cannot shoot.

I am half tempted to chuck up a couple of these rounds in a lathe and just cut off the excessive material.

The price of new magnum rounds is going out of this world.

The .300 Weatherby Magnum that I just sold was $40 and up for a box of shells. It's getting redicilius.

Reloading is great, when you have a gun that you would like to tinker with and time on your hands where you don't have anything to do and would like to start a hobby.

But reloading with friends and family is like a ticking time bomb.

My father and his father and brother went in together on a New RCBS outfit in 1973, before his dad died. They reloaded for a couple of years and then my grandfather died. One day at camp, my uncle ran his mouth about how they went 50/50 on all the reloading supplies and that he didn't think that it was fair that my dad had 3 sons and he only had one.

We were shooting up his ammo.

Now come to think of it, he is a school teacher - the highest paid school teacher in our school district before the school district made him retire.

My father worked in a carbon plant and then in a machine shop and never made more than $24,000 in his whole life in one year.

My dad bought dozens of cans of IMR powder, there are can's that still has the price tag on them and dad only paid $3.50 a pound.

There are boxes of primers wheredad paid $.01 each. Maybe 10,000 primers in the drawer.

Sierra bullets, dad liked Sierra - he must have bought 20 or more boxes of PSPBT 150 gr 30 caliber - out of his own pocket.

But since they are feuding, it is all just sitting down there. Along with dies for 300 savage, 30/30 win and .308 All of them belonged to my dad.

Then my dad got out his Lyman press and built a bench, he didn't have anyplace to put it, so he took it down to my brother in law's house.
The kids were little back then and dad enjoyed babysitting and going down reloading shells. Back to the same story. We bought powder, primers, bullets, dies everything we needed.

Then my sister got a divorce and left everything in my brother in laws house. So now I have two sets of everything that is just sitting there collecting dust and not saving me a penny.

If all you do is shoot one or two boxes of shells a year, forget about reloading. Go up to Wal Mart and pay the man what ever he wants for a box of shells and let them lay on the ground after you shoot them.

More hours of my life has been spend searching in the woods for a empty shell than in a bar drinking beer and chasing girls. What a waste.

kdvollmer

You are right about most of this, reloading can be more of an expense if all you do is shoot a couple boxes a year. If you are somebody that shoots alot, then, reloading makes alt of sense. Some guys I now will say that by reloading you can get the exact bullet that you want to hunt with. Sometimes that is a comination of bullet, weight, powder...etc that isn't avail in the factory load.
For me, I shoot about one time a month, someties more. 60 rounds of .338 Lapua Ammo will run just shy of $300 by the time I buy it, pay the tax, and drive to a store that carries it. I reload it for about 20 a box, so I save $240 a month just on that. MY press and dies, and all my powders for the things i reload are paid for already in savings. SO, t just depends, on what you are reloading, and how much you are shooting it. But the possibility to save a ton is there.