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Old December 19, 2012, 10:45 AM   #60
kraigwy
Senior Member
 
Join Date: June 16, 2008
Location: Wyoming
Posts: 11,061
Hard to put a price on reloading. I've been doing it for about 50 years, so the cost of my reloading gear is spread out that far.

I think the thing that saved me the most money is I cast bulltet, not just for pistols/revolvers but for rifles as well.

Prices of powder and primers have gone up in the last 50 years but no different then anything else.

Actually I can afford to pay 3.50 per hunderd for primers now more then I could afford .78 I remember paying long ago.

Some times I don't save as much. I do buy some fancy bullets for some of my target ammo, still cheaper then buying loaded match rounds.

I don't count my time, I'm retired, and enjoy reloading. Besides, I can load a lot of ammo for what it would cost me in time to drive to Rapid City or Gillette, (each 80 miles one way).

I don't buy lead, I get it by cleaning out the lead traps at our club's indoor range. A couple of 5 gal buckets of lead will cast a lot of bullets.

Don't get the idea you need to lay out a large sum of money to get started in bullet casting. Just last month I got a friend started in casting for their 40 cal pistols.

Lets see what it cost to get them started.

Lee Mold 25.98
Luber sizer 23.98
Ladle 5.98

Two cast iron pots (flea market) 5 ea or $10

They had a weed burner.

So that's $75.94


You can load a heck of a lot of bullets with that equipment. Except for the lube that came with the size, the rest will last forever with care.

Figuring 40 cal bulles are 25-30 bucks a hundred, it wont take long to pay for the loading equipment.

Here is another example of savings. Every buy 375 H&H bullets. I shoot a heck of a lot of them, dern near $1 per bullet. Not for me. I have a mold that uses 3/8 copper tubing and make jacketed 375 bullets pretty dern cheap. Actually they cost me nothing, I can always pick up scrape copper tubing, and as mentioned I don't buy lead.

You can shoot them at normal 375 velocities, pretty dern accurate, and I've shot thousands and never had the jacket seperate.

270 gr 375 H&H Mold:

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Kraig Stuart
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