Has Reloading Been Economical For You?

[JDBraddy]

Best I can figure, it costs me an average of 16.5 cents in components to produce a round of .45 ammo today accounting for brass, lead, powder and primer. Using as an example Magtech 230gr FMJ factroy ammo wich costs me 24.0 cents per round, I a save around 7.5 cents per round by handloading over buying factory. So given my initial investment in my Dillon, scales, tumbler, hand-tools, etc..... wich I estimate at around $750, I should have broken even at about 10,000 rounds. I estimate that I have loaded and shot about 3000-5000 rounds per year, give or take, over a period of the past 20+ years. Of course, this does not account for the time I spend, the control I enjoy over performance of the handloads I produce, nor does it account for the Rifle/shotgun ammo I load. How about you?

[JD45]

For a .45? I couldn't hardly afford to shoot it without reloading.

With cast bullets, my latest components purchase worked out to $49 a thousand.

If I were to load 9mm, the bullets would be $12 per thousand cheaper. Even if you don't figure in the slightly smaller powder charge, that's $37 a thousand. How much is Win. white box 9mm now?

If you shoot cast bullets, ready-made ammo is always a lot higher priced.

Edited September 23, 2006 by JD45

[Vlad]

Also keep in mind that brass you reuse. In .45 you reuse brass a lot, in fact I lose it before I need to throw it out. The price of brass should be quite low.

[JFD]

I think I bought my last box of .38 Super in 1980, and maybe a few boxes of Cor-Bon for defensive purposes for several handguns. Other than that I've always loaded my own. I know I've never bought factory ammo for any of my rifles.

Until I started shooting .40 in Limited I used my own cast bullets in almost everything. 1K .45 bullets only cost me $5.

I'm saving money for sure, but I don't care enough about that to calculate it. I like being able to load to my own specs for my own guns enough that I'd pay extra to do so if I had to.

[Merlin Orr]

If I figure the cost of my 1050s and other stuff it will take me 114 years to break even....

But I do like the 169 PF loads MUCH better than the 193 factory loads....

[XD Niner]

My .45 ACP costs per round are about 11¢. The Zero JHP bullets are 9¢, primers are 1½¢ and the powder is around another ½¢. I consider the brass to be free since I get it from the range and reuse it so much. If you want to be conservative, add another ½¢ for the brass. I can get WWB from Wally World for about 22¢ per round so my reloads appear to be roughly half the cost of the WWB.

The real cost is of course well in excess of this. I have more than $1000 in the reloading equipment. This cost would need to be amortized across all the rounds reloaded. In other words, if you stop at 1000 round, the cost per round just for the equipment is $1.00. If you reload 10,000 rounds, the prorated equipment cost is 10¢ per round. If you add anything for your time, you'll quickly find that reloading provides a marginal savings at best.

The main reason I reload is to obtain loads that are lighter than commercial ones and more competitive for USPSA shooting. I also find it relaxing when you have a good press such as a Dillon XL650.

Edited September 23, 2006 by XD Niner

[warpspeed]

Saving money is nice but the real benifit to reloading is getting the accuracy & feel where you want / need it to be competitive in the games we play.

The one thing I will say is there is a certain satisfaction in rolling my own so to speak. Especially when that ammo performs well in competition or the field.

[shred]

Reloading doesn't save money; it allows you to shoot more for the same money.

[blkbrd]

Reloading doesn't save money; it allows you to shoot more for the same money.

+1

[kruger]

JDBraddy, how much are you paying for and where are you getting your components?

I'm reloading .45acp with plated bullets for around 10 cents per round and my own cast loads for less than 4 cents per round. This is significantly less than you are reloading for.

3000-5000 rounds per year is on the low end of consumption for folks seriously involved in our sport.

Respectfully,

Mark Kruger

[epj]

The cost of reloading .45's varies significantly with the cost of bullets. You can pay as little as about $.045 for cast bullets to $.08-.10+ for jacketed. If you buy cast bullets in large quatity, you can do better. My typical loads consist of a 200 gr LSWC and cost about $.08 per round. I'm changing my bullet supplier on the next order and that will drop the cost a couple of cents per round. If reloading cost as much as factory ammo, I might still do it. I can tailor my loads to what I like and what my gun likes. My estate can sell my Dillion for most of what I paid for it, so I don't bother to amortize it.

[dajarrel]

Reloading doesn't save money; it allows you to shoot more for the same money.

This is the primary reason I reload. The other is that I enjoy it.

FWIW

dj

[Vlad]

The other thing to consider is that reloading changes the curve of your expense. It make take a while to pay off the equipment, but after the original investment, your monthly expenses are less. In my case I find it easier to dump a large chunk of cash every now and then and then spend less every month, then to spend a more every month.

[JDBraddy]

Reloading doesn't save money; it allows you to shoot more for the same money.

Well Put, even though relaoding does save money for me, I find that one effect it has is helps me feel better about shooting a lot more. I find I'm less inhibited (Cheap) about budgeting for, and plunking down $100 for a keg of powder, $60 for 1000 bullets, $15 for 1000 primers, etc.... than I am about forking out $250 for twenty boxes of ammo every couple months. And I feel much more free about sending another fifty or so downrange knowing I've still got half a keg of powder and another 300 pieces of lead back at the house!

[JDBraddy]

JDBraddy, how much are you paying for and where are you getting your components?

I'm reloading .45acp with plated bullets for around 10 cents per round and my own cast loads for less than 4 cents per round. This is significantly less than you are reloading for.

3000-5000 rounds per year is on the low end of consumption for folks seriously involved in our sport.

Respectfully,

Mark Kruger

Well, considering I've competed in exactly one IDPA match, and intend to compete in my first USPSA match tomarrow, I'm kind of new to this sport, even though I've been shooting on my own for years. I'm sure my consumption will likely go up as I get more involved. As for my components, I based the estimate on approximations of my recent purchases, Federal 150 primers $15.00/1000 or 1.5 cents per round. Solo-1000 8lb keg almost $100, there are about 7000gr/keg and I use a charge of 4.5gr so (10000/7000)*4.5 = 6.4 cents per round. Precision Delta 200gr RNF's almost $30.00/500, or 6 cents each. I recently was running very low on brass, so I bought a five gallon paint bucket of mixed .45 ACP brass, estimated 4000pieces, for $120.00 that comes out to about three cents each. While I do reuse my brass most of the time, I also frequently loose a good bit of it, and since you still get to keep the brass if you want when shooting factory ammo, I decided to include the full price of the brass in my calculation. So we have:

Brass = 3.0 cents

Lead = 6.0 cents

Powder = 6.4 cents

Primer = 1.5 cents

Subtotal = 16.9 cents rounded down to nearest 1/2 cent for previous approximations

Total = 16.5 cents

If you know a cheaper way to produce similar quality ammo, short of casting my own lead, please enlighten me!

Edited September 23, 2006 by JDBraddy

[cking]

Here is what has kept me from reloading. I don't like the idea of scavanging brass. In a typical match I only got 50% of my brass back. Then I wanted to use jacketed rounds. So the cost savings plus the time and equipment didn't work out for me.

Then I switched to wolf and didn't bother with brass at all. But now wolf has jumped considerable. Over the 15 plus years of shooting I have been saving my brass almost a 55 gallon drum full. I've had a dillion 650 in the box since the second year they came out.

So now I guess ecomonics is going to cause me to start as I'm now shooting more calibers, and I now get 80% of my brass back.

But not until my stock pile of Wolf is exhausted!

[D.Hayden]

One thing.. there's 56,000 grains in an 8 pounder (7,000 grains per pound)

that's 12,444 rounds per 8#.. should bring you closer to .008 a round, not .064, you're down to ~ .10 a round already

[JDBraddy]

JDBraddy, how much are you paying for and where are you getting your components?

I'm reloading .45acp with plated bullets for around 10 cents per round and my own cast loads for less than 4 cents per round. This is significantly less than you are reloading for.

3000-5000 rounds per year is on the low end of consumption for folks seriously involved in our sport.

Respectfully,

Mark Kruger

Well, considering I've competed in exactly one IDPA match, and intend to compete in my first USPSA match tomarrow, I'm kind of new to this sport, even though I've been shooting on my own for years. I'm sure my consumption will likely go up as I get more involved. As for my components, I based the estimate on approximations of my recent purchases, Federal 150 primers $15.00/1000 or 1.5 cents per round. Solo-1000 8lb keg almost $100, there are about 7000gr/keg and I use a charge of 4.5gr so (10000/7000)*4.5 = 6.4 cents per round. Precision Delta 200gr RNF's almost $30.00/500, or 6 cents each. I recently was running very low on brass, so I bought a five gallon paint bucket of mixed .45 ACP brass, estimated 4000pieces, for $120.00 that comes out to about three cents each. While I do reuse my brass most of the time, I also frequently loose a good bit of it, and since you still get to keep the brass if you want when shooting factory ammo, I decided to include the full price of the brass in my calculation. So we have:

Brass = 3.0 cents

Lead = 6.0 cents

Powder = 6.4 cents

Primer = 1.5 cents

Subtotal = 16.9 cents rounded down to nearest 1/2 cent for previous approximations

Total = 16.5 cents

If you know a cheaper way to produce similar quality ammo, short of casting my own lead, please enlighten me!

Wow! I just spied a MAJOR error in my calculations, there are 7000gr/pound of powder, not per eight pound keg. There would be 56,000 grains per keg. This changes the math significantly! (10000/56000)*4.5 = 0.80 cents/rnd so we have:

Brass = 3.0 cents

Lead = 6.0 cents

Powder = 0.8 cents

Primer = 1.5 cents

Total = 11.3 cents/rnd including cost of brass or 8.3 cents/rnd excluding cost of brass.

[Kevin Kline]

warpspeed is right. The cost savings is nice, but it also allows you to shoot a load that recoils/feels the way you want it to.

It has been a great savings for me over the 12years Ive loaded.

[EricW]

Reloading doesn't save me money. It allows me to afford to shoot more. My Dillons have been the best investment in my shooting, period.

[Gregory_k]

Reloading doesn't save me money. It allows me to afford to shoot.

[AlamoShooter]

If I figure the cost of my 1050s and other stuff it will take me 114 years to break even....

But I do like the 169 PF loads MUCH better than the 193 factory loads....

114 years ? You gata get out more! Just think if you shot more you could pay for your 1050 much faster.

Come on up and shoot with us on Sunday I promiss it will help pay for you press

Jamie

Edited September 30, 2006 by AlamoShooter

[hiropro]

Well when I started to buy my own reloading gear I was still in the red until I started to shoot IPSC. Then it took roughly 1 season before I was saving cash.

What I bought for the intitial purchase

dillion 650 with casefeeder

45 dies and conversion

5 pounds of 231

8 k of 230 fmjs

5k winny primers

took me roughly a year to feel a savings. them of course I bought more convesrion kits and stuff. I dont svae money but I shoot more.

Now I am shooting service rifle so I spend and shoot more. but I am still not spending a buck a round. so that makes me happy

I have given up on thinking I can do this hobby cheap I reload so I dont spend too much cash and I keep the wife quiet.

Hiro

[Harmon]

free brass off the range

dave longs precision bullets 230 grains

federal 150 primers

CLAYs, WST or Titegroup...depends on what i have at the time.

i figure powder is about a penny, primer a penny and a half. and the bullet is 5.2 cents. so with that in mind it cost me about 8 bucks a hundred for 45 ammo vs the 22.50 a hundred at wal-mart...

The only way i can do this is there are a bunch of people at my local range(with 2k + members) who shoot the factory ammo and leave the brass. If i had to buy brass, i wouldnt come out as cheap.

last year i bought 10K lead bullets at 28.00 a thousand for 230 grainers...that really made practice cheap!

Harmon

[epj]

free brass off the range

dave longs precision bullets 230 grains

federal 150 primers

CLAYs, WST or Titegroup...depends on what i have at the time.

i figure powder is about a penny, primer a penny and a half. and the bullet is 5.2 cents. so with that in mind it cost me about 8 bucks a hundred for 45 ammo vs the 22.50 a hundred at wal-mart...

The only way i can do this is there are a bunch of people at my local range(with 2k + members) who shoot the factory ammo and leave the brass. If i had to buy brass, i wouldnt come out as cheap.

last year i bought 10K lead bullets at 28.00 a thousand for 230 grainers...that really made practice cheap!

Harmon

Yep, it is a real good thing that not everyone reloads. I'd sure hate to have to buy brass. Thanks to all who leave it on the ground.