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What's your cost per round in this post-pandemic pricing world?


Baynewrady

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Wow what a difference in price everyone has. My cost today = .07 per coated bullit. .02 for win 231 powder at $30 dollar per pound, primer .07 per round for federal magnum primers, brass free = .16 cents per round. All components bought local within the last few months.

   I will say that I have enough components on hand that I only buy at a reasonable price.

   My price before Brandon was about .11 cents per round.  I used to have a local guy but he is now out of business.

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On 6/24/2022 at 1:21 PM, konkapot said:

Agreed on 550; don't overlook the Square Deal B either.

I only shoot/reload for handguns and started doing so in 1992. After much research and drooling, I purchased a SDB and have never regretted it. My ex and I used to shoot 300 rounds a weekend. I typically spent one evening after work reloading. My 45 ACP reloads launched out of my S&W 686-6 and (light) .357s out of my Python both shoot more accurately than I can, sans rest. SDB is currently $585 with a single caliber, RL550C is currently $619 with a 9mm conversion kit and then you have to buy dies, and the RL550C has manual indexing which may have some uses but overall, just slows down the process. Full disclosure, the only thing I didn't like about the SDB was the lack of a roller handle and 3 decades later I've resolved that with a purchase of a Roller Conversion from Inline Fabrication for $48.50. But I loaded without it for decades. I have a RCBS JR3 single stage for lower volume rounds like 45 Auto Rim & Colt. But clearly, I've gone way off topic.

 

The biggest shocker ordering on line are shipping and hazmat fees. Not surprising, lead bullets cost a bunch to ship as well. So, check out local gun shows and plan to pick up primers, powder and bullets there if at all possible. The sellers buy in bulk and repackage (except powder). Figure out a couple of recipes you want to load so that you aren't limited to a single recipe and might not be able to match the components. Calculate your costs including shipping and hazmat fees and consider yourself lucky if you walk out spending less. And remember sellers have show fees and you have the entrance fee to cover so try to not come out empty handed. You can always buy another gun.

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when components go up, loaded ammo goes up as well. Unless you have a stash of one or the other you just about always come out alot cheaper reloading..
Seems about 5 years ago ish....  Primers locally were going for about 39.99 and powder about the same a lb..
During that era 9mm and 223 simply were so cheap in bulk I couldnt load it for that.  I could get powder and primers from powdervalley for half that though, but decided to save my componenets. Glad I did.
I also always seemed to run into deals and had the cash to capitalize.
People getting out of reloading, a online reload store going out of business,, Heck walked into a non gun pawn store right before the madness struck and the had a shelf of reloadign stuff someone had pawned including several 5 k boxes of remington primers with an original price of 19.99 per k,,, They didnt know or care what they were,, I bought all 25k. 
So stay alert, be ready to jump, check the used gun trader newspapers and listing,, KNOW what suitable powders are for your loads.  while 320 is all fine and dandy there are a bunch of powders that will make near identical loads. IE why I have 10lbs of AA2 I bought at a garage sale last week for $25
 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Being as pessimistic as possible for .40 major, if I get exactly one brick of SPP's off Midway it's about 120 dollars. So, twelve cents for the primer alone.

If I'm stuck buying Gallant coated bullets by the box of 500 at Sportsman's for 60 bucks, that's another twelve cents for the bullet.

If my cost of brass amortizes out, which it tends to for pistol, we ignore that. It's easier if you can just rake up all the 9mm brass you want.

With 4.8 grains of N320, 153 bucks off Powder Valley (or 175 off Midway) for 4 pounds, that's still only two to three cents per round for my Gucci powder. So, 27 cents per round on .40 major.

The biggest thing that can save you money is bulk-buying bullets. That can knock a solid 40% off your cost of lead compared to retail. Likewise, a bit of patience on the primers and being able to get 5,000+ at a time to save on Hazmat can get your cost of primers down some, but not a lot. I think my last Natchez order wound up being "only" 9 cents per primer.

 

 

For .223, it's....not fun, but it's still cheaper than factory.

Same cost per primer, 12 cents worth of H335, and whatever 55 grain Hornady is cheapest (about 11 cents per).

For cases, it's a bit different, as I tend to only get 5 or 6 loadings out of them before the primer pockets become unacceptable, so my cost per case is divided by 5. Ideally, I get range brass and swage it myself, but if I don't, say I buy Top Brass for 25 cents a case (divide by five...) This winds up still being 40 cents per round. Powder and bullet selection can start to matter, but fortunately most of my needs are met by 55's. If you take your 3-gun rifle past 300 yards, that's when something heavier to actually smack the target can help you out, so you've got that choice to make as well. 

 

Don't even ask how much my He-Man rounds cost... :(

Edited by thermobollocks
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