nksmfamjp

You need to look at what you arre getting. When you reload, you are making ammo which perfectly fits your gun and has a premium bullet in it. When you buy ammo, premium ammo starts at $40 a box. Then consider all the partial boxes which don't shoot in your gun. . .

Compare that to ~$500 + 60 for each additional caliber. Cost per 1000 is: Case - $300 Primer - $25 Powder - $200 Bullet - $250, but divide your case price by 10 as you should get ~10 loads out of a case. Bullet price is a huge variable. You can buy bullets for $70 /1000 cast to $1000/1000.

nksmfamjp

I think it has all been said here. The trouble is you can't buy ammo as good as you can reload, so the cost is hard to compare. For example, in my 300 WSM, I make 190 gr Berger/Rel 19/Win case/ Fed GMM Prrim ammo for $690 per 1000. I can buy normal ammo for $800 per 1000. Do I save a bunch? . .NO. I don't consider $110 over 5 years a big savings, but I can make ammo so good, it can't be replaceed by store bought ammo at any price.

Buy good equipment. If you are fiddle farting around with fussy equipment, you won't load.

spaniel

I recommend doing your homework, then acquiring only the new/used equipment you NEED. If you get a kit, you'll get some of it but also stuff you either won't use or want to replace immediately due to quality issues. Buy good stuff ONCE versus replacing crap.

Offhand, you want your dies, a press, trimmer, scale, caliper, primer pocket cleaner, primer seating tool, ogive OAL attachment for caliper, shoulder measuring attachment for caliber if you shoot a semi-auto, deburr/chamfer tool, brass case brush, and some sort of powder trickler.

As for cost effective, even shooting a common 300WM I am floored at ammo prices. If I had to buy factory ammo I could not get myself to ever shoot the thing. Both pistol and shotgun you can get cheap ammo that makes it break even with reloading (but you get better quality reloading); rifle there is no comparison, the cheap .223 and .308 disappeared with the war.