Is it worth it anymore?

[Bakerjd]

Currently I'm loading 9 minor for .30c a round. .07c of that is for prepped once fired brass that's cleaned, rollsized, deprimed and head stamp sorted. I'm ok with that. I do it so I can tailor a load to my guns. Although I may snag up some factory ammo anyways just to save time switching between 9 minor and 9 major. 

[RangerTrace]

I'm on the fence about this right now.  I have about 6k more loaded rounds in the garage and enough brass, powder and primers to load another 15k.  I don't "love" reloading, but I don't mind it either.  I'm thinking if primers are not back around .05 by the time I'm out, I will start buying Blazer Brass 115s again and make somebody a great deal on a 1050 complete setup with bullet feeder.

[Bakerjd]

@RangerTrace if I wasn't sitting on enough components and the girlfriend didnt shoot 9 major id be rught there with you. I honeslty hate loading ammo. I can do maybe 300-400 at a time before I'm bored out of my mind. 

[Sandbagger123]

30 cents a round after shipping and tax is what i see factory ammo averaging.  10 cents for primer ,7 for bullet and 4 for powder is what it would cost me to reload .so is it worth it to reload?   i still think so as long as you have a supply of brass.  if have to buy brass then i would say no. 

 

We are pretty much at the end of our season where i am.  i have around 5k end of the world ammo that i don't want to dip into for shooting sports . i have around 1k left for that . if in 4 months when the new season starts, i will have to decide if i am going to shoot the new season.   it just an odd thing that even though ammo is going down, primers are not .

[RangerTrace]

5 hours ago, Sandbagger123 said:

30 cents a round after shipping and tax is what i see factory ammo averaging.  10 cents for primer ,7 for bullet and 4 for powder is what it would cost me to reload .so is it worth it to reload?   i still think so as long as you have a supply of brass.  if have to buy brass then i would say no. 

 

We are pretty much at the end of our season where i am.  i have around 5k end of the world ammo that i don't want to dip into for shooting sports . i have around 1k left for that . if in 4 months when the new season starts, i will have to decide if i am going to shoot the new season.   it just an odd thing that even though ammo is going down, primers are not .

It sucks that we are still having to talk about this.  Of course I'm also paying $4.59 a gallon for diesel.   

[Sarge]

27 minutes ago, RangerTrace said:

  Of course I'm also paying $4.59 a gallon for diesel.   

That’s a buck cheaper than here in Ohio.

[motosapiens]

On 11/13/2022 at 8:25 PM, Bakerjd said:

 I honeslty hate loading ammo. I can do maybe 300-400 at a time before I'm bored out of my mind. 

 

I usually just do 100 at a time. sometimes I'll do 200 if it's a particularly boring conference call. I don't feel like I spend very much time reloading, but then I only load a couple thousand rounds a month for 2 people. less than 10 mins/day on average. I spend close to that picking up dog poop, which I enjoy less (but I have to do it to make my dryfire area safe to walk around).

Edited November 18, 2022 by motosapiens

[Modoc]

On 11/14/2022 at 3:08 AM, RangerTrace said:

It sucks that we are still having to talk about this.  Of course I'm also paying $4.59 a gallon for diesel.   

I’m bumping $6.00/gal for Diesel  right now. 
 

I’ll keep reloading because I’m still able to shoot 2x as much vs. factory.  This also takes into account shooting Cowboy loads in 38 Spl and 357 Mag which have been unobtainium for the last couple of years.

 

Until recently, just try and find 20 gauge “Non-Tox” shot shells to hunt with.  My Mec 600 Jr and Grabber have had the dust blown off and been brought back into use. Sportsman has Bismuth Upland loads at $50-75 for a box of 25.

[Farmer]

1 hour ago, Modoc said:

I’m bumping $6.00/gal for Diesel  right now. 
 

I’ll keep reloading because I’m still able to shoot 2x as much vs. factory.  This also takes into account shooting Cowboy loads in 38 Spl and 357 Mag which have been unobtainium for the last couple of years.

 

Until recently, just try and find 20 gauge “Non-Tox” shot shells to hunt with.  My Mec 600 Jr and Grabber have had the dust blown off and been brought back into use. Sportsman has Bismuth Upland loads at $50-75 for a box of 25.

Our clear diesel is $5.75 and dyed is $4.75. Try filling 2500 gallons at a time. 
I very rarely buy ammo, have always loaded everything I can even when ammo was cheap if you bought right you could still load for less.  Now it’s just not as much of a savings but I like to experiment and still enjoy reloading. 

[Bakerjd]

Around Detroit diesel is $5.40-5.75. I'll still reload mostly because I am now picky about my ammo for competition. 

[Chills1994]

On 11/14/2022 at 12:02 AM, Sandbagger123 said:

(Snip)…..   it just an odd thing that even though ammo is going down, primers are not .

The other night at my local Academy Sports,  (when I was looking to see if anyone had bought that 1 thousand round box of Winchester M193 yet) I noticed that there was an endcap full of Winchester Whitebox ammo in various calibers.  Then there was a banner hanging off one of the shelves saying that Winchester was running a rebate thing on their centerfire rifle ammo.

 

Now, you guys can correct me if I am wrong, but I could swear that is the first time I have ever seen Winchester run a rebate on their centerfire rifle ammo.

 

Rebates for their Winchester AA shotgun ammo?

 

Oh, yeah!  Rebates out the wazoo especially for the trap shooters who buy flat after flat of 12 gauge AA’s.

 

soooo, that makes me think that Winchester (Olin) knows they are having trouble getting their rifle ammo moving off the shelves.  
 

which, in my opinion, gets us one step closer to seeing primers more available….for cheaper.

 

 

 

[Farmer]

On 11/19/2022 at 5:09 AM, Chills1994 said:

The other night at my local Academy Sports,  (when I was looking to see if anyone had bought that 1 thousand round box of Winchester M193 yet) I noticed that there was an endcap full of Winchester Whitebox ammo in various calibers.  Then there was a banner hanging off one of the shelves saying that Winchester was running a rebate thing on their centerfire rifle ammo.

 

Now, you guys can correct me if I am wrong, but I could swear that is the first time I have ever seen Winchester run a rebate on their centerfire rifle ammo.

 

Rebates for their Winchester AA shotgun ammo?

 

Oh, yeah!  Rebates out the wazoo especially for the trap shooters who buy flat after flat of 12 gauge AA’s.

 

soooo, that makes me think that Winchester (Olin) knows they are having trouble getting their rifle ammo moving off the shelves.  
 

which, in my opinion, gets us one step closer to seeing primers more available….for cheaper.

 

 

 

Before all this happened they were offering rebates on some handgun ammo but don’t recall any for rifle ammo either. Speer ran a bunch back then too and now you can’t find hardly any of their components. Hopefully your right. 

[RangerTrace]

Well, I just case gauged some match ammo and I'm down to the very bottom of my large ammo can.  Still have two of the small ones full and about 1500 practice rounds left.

 

So, it's time to dust off the 1050 and fill up some ammo cans.  I picked up 2k Federal Small Pistol primers from Brownells a while back.  Are they any good or should I just break into my small stash of CCI SPP?

[HOGRIDER]

10 minutes ago, RangerTrace said:

Well, I just case gauged some match ammo and I'm down to the very bottom of my large ammo can.  Still have two of the small ones full and about 1500 practice rounds left.

 

So, it's time to dust off the 1050 and fill up some ammo cans.  I picked up 2k Federal Small Pistol primers from Brownells a while back.  Are they any good or should I just break into my small stash of CCI SPP?

Been using Federal Match SPPs for MANY years, and have never had an issue in ANY of my pistols!  And your load of 3.5 N320 pushing a 147g JHP is a tack driver!

 

[RangerTrace]

41 minutes ago, HOGRIDER said:

Been using Federal Match SPPs for MANY years, and have never had an issue in ANY of my pistols!  And your load of 3.5 N320 pushing a 147g JHP is a tack driver!

 

I'm considering a change to 124 grain projectiles when I run out of 147s. I think I'm sitting at 5k in the garage.  Bruce Gray thinks I might squeeze a little bit more accuracy out of the P320 with the 124s.  

[HOGRIDER]

2 hours ago, RangerTrace said:

I'm considering a change to 124 grain projectiles when I run out of 147s. I think I'm sitting at 5k in the garage.  Bruce Gray thinks I might squeeze a little bit more accuracy out of the P320 with the 124s.  

Trace:

I too switched to the 124g JHPs after talking extensively with Luke at KKM; and having TSA install a KKM 1:16 match barrel.  So far, the right powder/bullet combo is providing pretty impressive results.

 

I think you'll like the switch..........

 

[GrumpyOne]

3 hours ago, RangerTrace said:

Well, I just case gauged some match ammo and I'm down to the very bottom of my large ammo can.  Still have two of the small ones full and about 1500 practice rounds left.

 

So, it's time to dust off the 1050 and fill up some ammo cans.  I picked up 2k Federal Small Pistol primers from Brownells a while back.  Are they any good or should I just break into my small stash of CCI SPP?

Those Federals won't work for you at all. I think you need to break into that CCI stash and send the Federals to me for proper disposal.

[Dutchman195]

On 11/4/2022 at 9:08 AM, HesedTech said:

If you reload to "save money," well frankly you have the wrong motivation and will quickly tire of the whole process.

I'll give a few reasons and maybe others can add more.

1. You want the perfect combo of ammo and gun.
2. It's hobby in itself.
3. The equipment is just cool.
4. There are bragging rights.
5. It's cheaper than professional therapy.
6. It fills that obsessive nature.
7. Red neck rocket science.

Yea literally none of those reasons matter. Its purely cost savings. Even if I paid myself for my time at what I make during the day job I'd still be ahead by a large margin. 

[HesedTech]

6 hours ago, Dutchman195 said:

Its purely cost savings

At the old prices (about 3 years ago) I estimated it would take around 50k rounds of 9mm to break even on my equipment investment (Dillon 1050 automated with all the goodies). These days with high primer prices it has probably doubled.  And that didn’t include paying for my time.  
 

On the other hand simple reloading of rifle rounds in low volume level on my Lee Challenger does save money for 30-06, 6.5 CM, 308… The reason is quality accurate rifle ammo is really expensive. Hey a Black Friday sale on 6.5 of the ammo I would buy costs $44 per 20 plus shipping. 
 

Per the OP, 9mm takes a very long time to break even. And that’s the question at hand. 
 

My point was, most of us don’t reload to “save money.” It’s about the whole process of producing volumes of quality ammo I can’t or won’t buy. It’s a hobby in itself and a fun one at that.