Calculation savings

[mniesen89]

Could some one provide me with powder proportion in a 1lb container so I know how much I am saving?

[WSM MAGNUM]

Not sure what you mean. But to start you off, are looking for how many grains in a pound of powder?
7000 grains to a pound of powder

[amamnn]

I'm guessing you are asking if you are getting away cheaper than buying bulk ammo? If so, you've missed the point of handloading.

[Zeek5793]

Think about the savings???, OK if you by you ammo you will shoot very sparingly?? have 1, ? 2? 3 ? guns only get out of the house twice a year??[ if your lucky] have a wife that hates guns and you,?? Have A good job and a good saving account??
If you reload you shoot when and what amount you want too ,Have 100 plus guns?? get out when and where you want to?? Have a wife that can out shoot you and loves her guns ?? { this is very dangerous} But loves you very much???? maybe a job ?? what the hell is savings?? This is not a proven fact but damn close
But your one of the happiest & luckiest men on earth
Think about It????

[mniesen89]

amam,no,i'm not missing the point of reloading,frankly it hasn't saved me a dime. in fact i spend more probably.

wsm,thanks,thats what I was looking for.

zeek,my wife is just about in between. She loves guns and such,just hates the amount of $ it costs!

[Sevens]

If so, you've missed the point of handloading.

Not possible for you to define the "point" of handloading for someone other than yourself. For any one person it can be economy, the pursuit of better ammo, the chase for faster ammo, the desire for non-standard bullet weights and styles, or just a hobby for the enjoyment for doing it.

Or all of the above. Or something else entirely.

For sure, it's not for you to tell anyone what they've missed.

[gunrac]

I'm just starting to get my feet wet in the hand loading game. It is something I have been wanting to do for years. I'm in the hunt for nearly everything. What I'm finding out is, there sure is a lot of idiots on e-bay. Been watching an bidding also, just can't get a decent deal on anything. Time after time I see used items going as much or more then you can purchase new at Midway or Natchez. I'm just about ready to purchase a master kit, then thinnning out what I don't need. I'd like to start pulling my own handle. Been using my buddies outfit for around a year. His wife is getting tired of me hanging out. I think she jealous. LOL

[MaineColt]

I save half of what factory ammo costs, IF, I ignore the cost of my equipment. This isn't an economics class, so I'll ignore it.

On top of everything else, I thoroughly enjoy reloading.

The cheapest factory ammo for 44 mag that I can find around my house is at Wally World. $33 for a box of 50. (Rem/Win) They are not very accurate and the bullet is not exactly what I want to shoot.

So the factory rounds cost me $66.00 per hundred.

What I reload is very accurate, (3/4" groups @ 25yds.), the bullet I want, and I can load them myself for $36.00 per hundred.

Kev

[DEDON45]

I'm just getting back into it as well... I figure I will save some money (actually a significant amount, but the savings will likely be spent on more guns to consume the ammo, and I'll probably shoot more) but it will take a year or so to recoup the cost of the equipment... I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't enjoy it as well. Back when I did when I was a teenager, I really enjoyed rolling my own... not to mention how well my "warm" handloads worked in my Marlin .30-30 back then... I made some shots that I couldn't have otherwise. I'm doing it for the enjoyment and the cumulative cost savings.

[Sevens]

Hey gunrac, I suggest you point your browser to www.midwayusa.com

I've been on Ebay since '97, so I'm not new to that site at all. But I completely agree, it's a lousy place to find reloading equipment. I haven't had any luck finding anything on there that's cheaper than new with shipping. It may be a good place to find stuff that isn't made any more if you really want a particular item. But for most tools for the bench? Not ebay, no doubt.

[Sevens]

When it comes to saving on the bottom line, it's like a lot of things, it comes down to buying in quantity if you want the biggest savings. Simply put, that means a large cash outlay.

Beyond the brass which we all hoard like gold, the bullets are by far the most expensive part of the equation. If you buy your bullets in boxes of 50 or 100, you'll save the least. If you can buy them in boxes of 500, 1000 or 5000, you'll save a heap. But that's a large outlay of cash. Powder runs $15-$25 per pound, and you can save some dough by buying 4 lb, 8 lb and larger heaps of it, but you've got to REALLY love one kind of powder to be buying 8 damn pounds of it. And primers seem to go up in price every day, so you typically buy them by the thousand... 1, 5 or 10 thousand at a time.

If you don't buy this way, you will never save as much.
But buying this way is big, big money. And that's just components, that's not for a single tool of any sort.

You can absolutely save money by reloading, but you've got to spend a lot of money to do that effectively.

[The Lovemaster]

Here's a good site to impress your friends with how much you're "saving" by handloading:

http://handloads.com/calc/loadingCosts.asp

[gunrac]

Ya Sevens, it's really nothing new to me. My wife and I were in the trap shootin game for around 8 yrs. We shot tons of reg. targets, and went thru tons of supplies.

I had figured out long before the end of that, I would never be a worlds champion. lol But, cost did start to be a major factor.

The last Bag of shot we bought averaged around 13.00, that was on a skid price a few of us went together on. Run into a fella, told me he could get 25# for 42 bucks, and was tickled to death. WOW

I'm finding out , it is not near as hateful playing with rifle's an handguns, YET. and I really enjoy doing it.

After pissin an moanin in my earlier thread, I did win a bidding war on a elec. powder dispencer. I did real well on that, at least in my weak mind. I alway's did jump into things with both feet.

[BigJimP]

Like another responder told you there are 7,000 grains in a lb - so you can calculate the cost of powder in a given load.

As an example - for 9mm I just set up a simple spreadsheet and run the calculation as follows:

Reloading Cost for 9mm with 124 gr FMJ Round Nose bullet
7000 Grains / Lb
Tax 8.8% 437.5 Grains / Ounce
Weight Price Tax Total Cost
Hdogdon Tite Group Powder 8lbs $115.00 $10.12 $125.12
cost per grain 56,000 grains $0.0022343 per grain
for 124 gr Montana Gold bullet load 4.1 - 4.4 gr 4.2 grains $0.0094
Small Pistol CCI primers 1,000 $26.00 $2.29 $28.29 $0.0283

Montana Gold 124 gr RN 3,750/case $231.54 $20.38 $251.92 $0.0672
( 115 grain case lot is 4,000 and price is $243.10 )
Cost per Shell $0.1048
Cost per Bx 50 $5.24
Dillon XL 650 Loader 180,000 Rounds in Life of the Loader
For Each Caliber : $528.00
Loader will last 20 years 15 boxes per month = 180 boxes per year
180 Boxes X 50 per box = 9,000 / year X 20 = 180,000 shells in 20 years $0.0029
Cost per Bx 50 $0.15

Components $5.24
Cost of Loader $0.15

Per Box - Total Cost to reload $5.39


I plug in an amortization cost for my loader as well - but you don't have to do that if you don't want to. But setting this up on a spreadsheet makes it real easy to plug in new numbers for different calibers, etc.

[mniesen89]

lovemaster, thanks for the site, worked out well for me. Big Jim good idea with the spreadsheet,i think I'll give that a try!

[scsov509]

The topic of savings in reloading comes up here almost every week. We have a pretty fixed budget in our home, so that I have basically been spending a consistent amount of money on my recreational shooting for about the last ten years. My budget has increased a little with annual pay increases and such, but my point is that I have generally a set amount that I can spend.

So personally, I'm going to spend x number of dollars on shooting whether I reload or not which makes it hard to say that reloading has saved me money. What I can say beyond a shadow of doubt is that reloading makes my money go a lot further, and allows me to shoot some calibers (44 magnum for example) that I probably couldn't afford to if I didn't reload.

[BigJimP]

I agree - case in point, my 2 boys came for a visit on Tue from out of town ( and it was a wet rainy day ) so we hung out at the indoor pistol range for about 4 hours in the afternoon ........... and they went thru 16 boxes of 9mm, about 4 boxes of .45 acp, and another 6 boxes of .44 Mag and .357 mag.

We had a great day - and a lot of laughs - and since I reload - spending that time with them might cost me $ 125 / but if I was buying ammo retail ( it would have been $ 400 easy ). $ 125 is a lot easier to justify / and a few hours behind the loader / than $400. We could have probably had just as much fun - with have that much ammo - but it isn't like they come up here to visit every month either ........and it was fun.

[freakshow10mm]

I have a reloading cost spreadsheet made up in Excel format complete with a label printing template.

Send an email to: [email protected]. An email with attached ZIP file will be sent via an Auto Responder. Turn OFF your Anti Spam if you have problems. I did a test run and it works.

[Sevens]

We could have probably had just as much fun - with have that much ammo - but it isn't like they come up here to visit every month either ........and it was fun.

As an added bonus, you were able to empty a whole heap of brass, which is good! Because without empty brass, how the heck will you ever get to reload it?!

[ryalred]

I save money over factory ammo, but I find myself spending my savings on more reloading equipment. I also find myself wondering if I can beat my group sizes so I'll try different bullets, powders, primers, etc., so, I suppose in the long run I'm not saving money by reloading. However, I know I'm shooting ammo that shoots better in my guns, and I love the hobby. I keep reloading because I love to.

[BigJimP]

Sevens ..... I get at least 15 boxes an hour off my Dillon 650 without breaking a sweat - so like you said, its not that big a deal.

You can't get those days back ( even though they're both in their 30's now )...

[CrustyFN]

I find that I can reload for about half of factory for the cheap stuff, even more for the more expensive calibers.
Rusty