Thread: quick question
View Single Post
Old August 20, 2012, 02:22 PM   #8
Sevens
Senior Member
 
Join Date: July 28, 2007
Location: Ohio
Posts: 11,755
If the GENERAL question is... "Is it worth it to me, money-wise, to get in to handloading?", then we can really answer that question, too.

Take two different cartridges and you'll see two different angles on the same question.

Let's say you only own one firearm and it's a 9mm. Currently, 9mm is the most popular selling center fire ammo on this planet and typically, you can find a single box of 50 rounds of it for around $12 out the door. More or less depending on where you are located and where you shop.

When handloading, the bottom line dollars are obviously manipulated by the costs of your components and BY FAR, the most certain way to get the lowest cost in your components is to do two things:
--buy extremely popular items that are made by many competing places
--buy AS MUCH IN BULK as you can possibly pull off

If I buy a pound of powder, I can expect to be out the door for $22-$24. But when I buy most of my powders, I get them 8 pounds at a time, dropping my price per pound under $16.

If you go to the local place and get a sleeve of 100 primers, you are looking at around four bucks. I buy mine 10,000 at a time in a group buy and I'm at about $2.50 per hundred.

If you buy a box of Hornady XTPs at the gun shop, you are looking at around $17 for a box of 100. Myself, I use a 125gr commercially cast LRN for 9mm, and the last time I bought them (3,000) they ran me $6.18 per hundred, shipped to my door.

At the end of it all, I can turn out my favorite 9mm round for just a hair under five bucks for a box. If I bought primers 100 at a time, powder by the single pound and if I bought those expensive XTP slugs at retail, a box would cost me just under $12 for 50.

Why do I bring up 9mm? Because 9mm is the rock bottom. As it's the most popular ammo in the world (center fire), it's also the cheapest.

.45 Colt on the other hand, it's HORRIBLY expensive.

I make .45 Colt also... currently, using a 200 grain plated bullet. Buying my stuff in bulk as I do, but using a powder that I only purchase by the pound, I can make 50 rounds of .45 Colt for just under $9 a box of 50.

What's .45 Colt cost in the stores? How much cheaper when you buy a case lot online or by mail order? I see .45 Colt in gun stores for like $30 a box and more. It's horribly high priced.

So... if your question is, "Is it worth it to handload?", my answer is always going to be "YES!", even if you only need 9mm. But if you need something like .45 Colt, my answer is, "you'd be CRAZY not to consider it and the savings will be unbelievable."
__________________
Attention Brass rats and other reloaders: I really need .327 Federal Magnum brass, no lot size too small. Tell me what caliber you need and I'll see what I have to swap. PM me and we'll discuss.
Sevens is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.03586 seconds with 8 queries