i just dont see how some can say reloading is cost effective

[CrustyFN]

Not sure why people don't account their time into the cost of reloading.

Well let me ask you a couple of questions.

1) Do you figure an hourly wage when you are shooting?
2) Do you figure an hourly wage while you are watching TV?
3) Do you figure an hourly wage to talk to us on the forum?

I'm going to guess your answer is no to those three questions. If so then why would you figure an hourly wage just for reloading? If I'm going to figure an hourly wage ( which I don't ) then I'm going to figure it like this. I can buy 1,000 rounds of WWB 45 auto for around $400. I can load 1,000 45 auto with my own cast bullets for $25. I saved $375. It takes me around 7 hours to cast, lube and load 1,000 rounds. So I actually got paid around $53 an hour to reload my own ammo.

(or at least we think we save money).

I think I just proved I save money.

[Xfire68]

I have to add to Crusty's post.

If you really think you should consider the money that you are NOT making when doing a hobby you should rethink why you are doing it in the first place.

I started doing it back in the early 90's when I was in the Air Force to save money on 30-06 ammo for target shooting and hunting in South Dakota but, soon found that I enjoyed reloading so much it is more of a hobby then shooting is! At least I spend more time loading, sorting, cleaning, soon to be melting then I do shooting anyway.

[Unclenick]

This is a hobby. If you don't pay yourself to watch television or go fishing, take vacation, or for your time at the shooting range, why would you single out the reloading hobby to pay yourself for? And even if you did pay yourself for all these activities (well, OK, TV is really an inactivity), at least the money would go into your pocket for having fun, which deserves a discount in my book.

I do have one friend who does not particularly enjoy reloading. He's not mechanically inclined, per se. His solution was to buy a Dillon 1050 with all the bells and whistles, including the primer tube loader and other accessories, to keep his .45 ACP reloading time down to a minimum. He uses just one load, so he never has to set anything up. Just clean and lube from time to time.

With that gear, he can average 600 rounds an hour, primer tube feeding and case cleaning, odd stoppages and all other operations included. Amortizing the equipment over 200,000 rounds (he runs about 2,000 rounds of .45 ACP a month) that's in the ballpark of $0.01 per round over 8.3 years. If you reload the brass 15 times before it disappears or splits (I usually get twice that), that's about $0.01 per load at $150/1000 new cases (S&H included). Add $0.03 per primer, $.02 for powder, $0.07/bullet (he doesn't cast, but purchases in bulk from a local caster). So that's a material cost of $7 per box of 50, or $0.14/round. It's getting hard to buy loaded ammo—even re-manufactured—for under $15/50, but I did find some steel case Russian on line that was $13/50 before shipping.

If I assume I could find $10/50 at a gun show always, that's a $.06/round savings. At 800 rounds per hour, that's $36/hour he could pay himself and break even. If he hit a rough patch where only $15/50 ammo could be found, that's $0.16/round savings, or $96/hour. Hard not to be able to pay yourself that kind of money.

If time is your "expense" because you don't enjoy reloading, you can see how a progressive press can come to pay for itself.

[beex215]

it turns out it will cost me $25 a day to use my own ammo, instead of the regular $15 and to buy there ammo. i think its bogus they even charge to use your own ammo.

[CPTMurdoc30]

You also have to look at what you are reloading for.

In my 2 223's I am loading for varmint hunting. So I don't compair that to bulk milsurp ammo because I would never use that junk in either of my 223's.

My rem 700 gets a dose of 50gr V-Max bullets over Varget powder in a win case being lit by wolf primers.

My AR gets 60gr V-Max over AA 2015 in a Rem case and wolf primers. these loads get be the best velocity and accuracy of any load.

For my 45acp I load for plinking. So it gets a 200gr Rainer RN bullet over 5.5gr of Hodgdon titegroup in what ever brass I have laying around and win primers.

I think I paid $200 for 2k 200gr Rainer RN platted bullets the powder i got at a gun show for $18 a # and I bought 6 # of it.

Cost per round is cheaper than anything I can buy. Is it a money saver for me NO, why because I keep buying more reloading equipment.

If you use a standard depreciation model of equipment and figure you can get a RCBS rock chucker for $200 and you can load for say 60 years at 1000 rounds a month on it your looking at 720,000 rounds of ammo on that $200 press that is .00002777777 cost per round.

If I save money by reloading I spend it all on buying more reloading stuff so there for it really doesn't same me money.

Like has been said before.

9mm
45acp
5.56
7.62x51mm

are all mil calibers and are going to have tons of surplus ammo for sale real cheap.

[brickeyee]

A lot of the savings come from buying thing in bulk.

Remington .45 230 gr FMJs are almost 0.25 each if you buy one hundred.

Buy 2000 and the price drops to about 0.18 each.

The problem is that you have to front $352 to buy 2000, and only $25 for one hundred.

Powder in 8 pound jugs saves on both the powder and the hazmat fee.

Many place will ship four 8 pound jugs for a single hazmat fee.

Of course that means you will be spending over $432 on 32 pounds of powder (around 13.50 a pound) but that surely beats about $15 per pound in 1 pound cans, and you cannot ship 32 one pound cans for the same price.

The only thing I buy in smaller quantities are things like hunting bullets.

A couple hundred are going to last a good while.

[oneounceload]

Not sure why people don't account their time into the cost of reloading.
Well let me ask you a couple of questions.

1) Do you figure an hourly wage when you are shooting?
2) Do you figure an hourly wage while you are watching TV?
3) Do you figure an hourly wage to talk to us on the forum?

I'm going to guess your answer is no to those three questions. If so then why would you figure an hourly wage just for reloading? If I'm going to figure an hourly wage ( which I don't ) then I'm going to figure it like this. I can buy 1,000 rounds of WWB 45 auto for around $400. I can load 1,000 45 auto with my own cast bullets for $25. I saved $375. It takes me around 7 hours to cast, lube and load 1,000 rounds. So I actually got paid around $53 an hour to reload my own ammo.
Quote:
(or at least we think we save money).
I think I just proved I save money.

If you would be doing nothing of added value during this time, like managing your investments, collecting rents from investment properties, etc......then that is one thing. I calculated my hourly cost to reload versus buying factory - it is $20/hour.....for me that means if I can be making $20/hour or more at the time, then it is cheaper for me to buy factory

[CrustyFN]

for me that means if I can be making $20/hour or more at the time, then it is cheaper for me to buy factory

I can see that but I don't take off work to reload. I do it during my free time. I can't figure an hourly wage if the time is free.

[twins]

Wow! I guess I touched a sore nerve for some. Wasn't my intention. Just giving my thoughts as to how I see the use of my time at the reloading table vs. going to WM and buying a box of ammo.

I do reload myself but I don't see it as a hobby but then each his own. It is just another event (like cleaning a rifle at the end of the shooting day) to get accurate ammo for my rifles.

If you enjoy it at whatever cost (or savings as some of you stated), I'm truly happy for your love of reloading. I've not reach that level of nirvana yet. Not sure if I want to get there since I'm already spending more than enough on shooting supplies.

[alloy]

What does a box of 20 high-zoot .357 rounds, or .300 Weatherby Magnum cost these days anyway?
If you don't save money your shooting/reloading the wrong calibers.

[DiscoRacing]

I know for a fact that you CANNOT come close to buying a box of factory 500mag or 460 mag for what you can reload them for If we were figuring my hourly wage on reloading them would be somewhere around $50 per hour... maybe a little more.

[CrustyFN]

Wow! I guess I touched a sore nerve for some.

No sore nerve here. I actually think it's funny how some think they only need to figure an hourly wage while reloading but not for anything else they do. Never will figure that one out.

[DiscoRacing]

NO sore here either.... I myself reload for a hobby....my current inventory of brass and bullets I may not be able to shoot in my lifetime alone....I love to reload... as much as to shoot.

[steve1147]

Yup, reloading is a great and productive past-time especially in the cold Missouri winters.
I shoot mainly 45acp, 38spl. and 357mag. I saved my brass for years before I started reloading, and bought the rest at 6cents per cartridge by the thousand from a range.
Also scavenged lead and wheel weights when/where I could. I cast my own bullets for 38 and 45 and shoot 90% into a home-made 1/2" plate steel bullet trap, so I can recover and re-cast most my alloy. With all my carts bought and reusable, as well as a good stock of re-cyleable lead alloy, my cost for 38's and 45's is under 5 cents per pop. QUITE a savings I'd say. I keep 3-4 thousand rounds loaded all the time, so I can walk out the back door and pop off a few hundred anytime I want.
Don't know when/where/if I'll ever recover the 'initial' investments, and really, don't care! It's fun.
Steve W.

[alloy]

I know for a fact that you CANNOT come close to buying a box of factory 500mag or 460 mag for what you can reload them for If we were figuring my hourly wage on reloading them would be somewhere around $50 per hour... maybe a little more.

I don't know those calibers, but when I peek at the local shop at .357 and .300 Weatherby mag, boxes of 20, top shelf ammo, not Wally World plinkers......that stuff is hovering around $28 and $55 respectively.

20 rounds......................................................

[DiscoRacing]

here...

500mag is $65 to $70 per 20rd
460mag is $70 to $75 per 20rd

[alloy]

Jeez for me that is bordering on cost prohibitive. Not ashamed to admit it either. I would rarely shoot those guns.
You really wanna buy a couple hundred of those to keep some on hand once you find something that works well....don't you?

I got some free time to piddle around on rainy days.

[DiscoRacing]

When I got my 460 a month ago... I couldnt find any brass for it..and starline was BO for two months.... so I got 5 boxes...100 rds..and they had them marked at $70.99 at the cheapest store I could find...and he gave them to me for $60 per box....So I got the 100 rds for the cheap cheap price...of $300 bucks... ouch!!! I can load my own now....with the same barnes copper bullets that the ones I bought had..... for $77.00 per 50rds....if I only use the brass once and toss it...and $56.00 per 50rds if I use the brass 6 times.

[alloy]

56.00 per 50rds if I use the brass 6 times

Is that the life of your brass, bout 6 firings?

[DiscoRacing]

NO.... I just used that number to show the increased saving.... I have some brass that I got when i first bought my 500 mag...which was before the 460..and I reloaded several of those rounds ten times now...and still see no sign of wear.

[dahermit]

i just dont see how some can say reloading is cost effective

Evidently you do not been shooting .380 for the last year or so.

[zxcvbob]

Evidently you do [have?] not been shooting .380 for the last year or so.

Yeahbut, imagine how much more money you saved last year by not shooting your .380 at all. (that was the other alternative to reloading)

[Kyo]

i feel like i have this conversation with someone on this forum every year. i read the thread title and though "oh, this must be a thread from the dead" but its not. it was made a few weeks ago?
long story short- initial start up costs for anything is larger than what you want to spend. blah. afterwards, worth it. i paid off all my stuff within the FIRST 1000 rounds of reloading. me and my dad are past 2 i think. been doin lots less shooting cause im trying to study/graduate.
the money we will save over the years is way worth it

[DoubleUp]

Simple solution! If you don't think handloading is worth the effort/expense/savings, then please don't do it. Your absence will likely not be missed by those who roll their own, and in fact we might be appreciative in that more components will be available to those of us who do. To each his own, and I won't try to talk you into something you don't want to do. Me, I don't play golf, but lots of people do. I'm glad for them, keeps them out of my hobbies.

[Mike Irwin]

One way to save on powder and primers is to get a group of friends and acquaintances together and put in a large group order from Powder Valley or one of the other suppliers.

I did that a few years ago.

Ended up getting something like 70 pounds of powder and about 55,000 primers, IIRC.

Everyone knew in advance what it was going to cost them, and I informed them in no uncertain terms that they were to bring EXACT change with them.

It worked out great. Everyone got exactly what they ordered, the money came out spot on, and I now have enough powder to last me quite awhile.