reloading cost

B

bobeano

Active member
i shot 22-250.is it cost less to reload,then buy shells from store?if so how much does it cost to load a box of 20.with good stuff.not counting labor.where is cheapest place to get componets.
 
On the average you will save 50 percent or better. Don't let any savings fool you though. Most of us spend the same amount of money, but we shoot a lot more. That's the real advantage to reloading, along with being able to tailor your ammo to the rifle.

Powder and primers bought locally saves you shipping charges as does bullets if you find a good deal. I order stuff from Cabela's and Midway.
 
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Powder and primers bought locally saves you shipping charges as does bullets if you find a good deal. I order stuff from Cabela's and Midway.



Buying locally doesn't save me any money. We have 8% sales tax and that offsets shipping costs. For powder and primers I go in with a friend so we can max out the haz-mat fee. Whats more SW and Gander Mtn rarely have what I need whereas Midway and MidSouth always can fill most orders.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
I think it cost's around 70cents for good loads. I was just talking to my local gun dealer about the cost of reloading vs buying ammo. He reloads his 22-250 and has found some good bulk ammo that was around the same price as reloading.
 
As a newbie you convince yourself "it's about saving money" ....... and if you are frugal ..... you will ......

....... but time is money!

....... and later on ..... you read about this tip and that tool ........

..... and there goes some more bucks!

And if you like the hobby .......... spending more is fine ......

Me .... I would not take the past 32 years back and buy all that ammo commericial.

I don't drink but a very little and never smoked ......... my smoking is out of the end of gun barrels. So the reloading bucks come out of "those accounts" ..... LOL!

Another grossly overlooked advantage with handloading is this:

When you buy ammo ..... you are buying whatever they stuff together. And if the lot number changes ..... that once fine group may have just bit the dust.

When you build your own ..... and are wise ..... you buy more in bulk ........ and as such ..... your "lot number" does not change until those components dry up.

Now, you may have to make substitutions for lot numbers on your components .... but as a handloader .... you also can steer destiny as it were ........ tinker with the load or do some more switching and retinkering.

With commercial ammo ...... you take what it gives you. If it shoots "south" ..... that's all there is!

And do you think that the cheaper bulk ammo will shoot with good handloads .....?

Three 44s
 
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My wife whines about the cost of reloading, hunting, fishing, a very little trap shooting ......


My answer is if I quit those I will take up golfing (not really I hate it, unless they let me hunt geese at the same time). My first purchase will be a $10,000 cart, a $2000 trailer and a $1000 putter. Then we have to start trying different club and ball combinations until we get just the right load for different lengths of fareways, etc......


That shuts her up for at least 5 minutes.
 
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My wife whines about the cost of reloading, hunting, fishing, a very little trap shooting ......


My answer is if I quit those I will take up golfing (not really I hate it, unless they let me hunt geese at the same time). My first purchase will be a $10,000 cart, a $2000 trailer and a $1000 putter. Then we have to start trying different club and ball combinations until we get just the right load for different lengths of fareways, etc......


That shuts her up for at least 5 minutes.



You forgot to tell her how much country club dues cost. That'll definitely put a kink in her plans. Hobbies cost money...end of story.
 
Quote:
Buying locally doesn't save me any money. We have 8% sales tax and that offsets shipping costs. For powder and primers I go in with a friend so we can max out the haz-mat fee. Whats more SW and Gander Mtn rarely have what I need whereas Midway and MidSouth always can fill most orders.



I used Powder Valley for powder.
Better prices yet.....
http://www.powdervalleyinc.com/

You gotta buy big to save big though.
Buy primers in minimum 1000 count(case)quantity
8# powder kegs are always a better deal than 1# cans
Buy bullets in boxes of 500 or larger (I prefer 2000)

For example;
From Midwayusa
2000 count Remy bulk bullets 55 grain soft point $166.99
or 8.3 cents each
Buying bullets at that price puts a box of 20, 22-250 reloads at about $4-6

Too bad you missed the days when those same bullets were $45 for 2000.
 
Brass is reusable so I do not figure it in. Powder is about twenty five bucks a pound depending on area, Bullets dependant on caliber, type, and brand, fifteen to thirty bucks a hundred. Primers twenty four bucks a thousand. You get seven thousand grains per pound of powder so devide your charge wt into seven thousand to get the number of chages. I do not load 22-250 I do load 243 WSSM though So 7000 / 40 = 175 + 3.60 for primers + 25.50 for bullets = $53.10 total for 175 rounds Factory cost of 175 rounds 8.75 Boxes at $30.00 each = $262.50 total cost of factory ammo. Disclamer I have not bought factory ammo for four or five years my cost per box is based on that. You can figure it our for yourself though useing tha formula I set out. If you buy Factory brass add the cost of that. As you can see it don't take long to amotorize the cost of setting up a load bench the more chambers you set up for the more you can save. It gets to the point that when you begin planning on a new firearm you add in the cost of dies and shell holder I also add in the cost of one hundred pieces of brass and apropriate bullets as well that way I start develping loads for THAT firearm while I am breaking it in.
 
Bobeno, yes you can save about 1/2 on the cost of bullets comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges. What I mean by this is if you go out and buy Winchester bullets, brass, powder, and primers. Load the stuff up, you will save about 1/2 the money after reusing the brass four or five times. This is the reason why I orginally got into reloading: Too Save Money.

Today, I'm a little more flush so I now reload for accuracy. I just bought four boxes of 53 gn 224 dia Barnes Triple Shocks at a cost of 33 dollars per 50 bullets. By the time I get powder, primer and brass depreciation into the price I'll have 85 cents per round, and this doesn't include depreciation on my reloading equipment and my time. It is actually quite expensive for me.

With that said, I'm shooting ammunition that you cannot even purchase for my caliber of rifle that are fine tuned to my gun. You cannot buy that in off the shelf ammo.
You may get close using Federal Premium but can never duplicate your reloads with off the shelf ammunition.

By the way, stay away from Federal Brass if you are trying to save money. The stuff suffers from case seperation quicker than the other brands.
 
I just started reloading a year ago,and it will be a lot of ammo down the road before I break even and thats only if I quit buying stuff.lol
Bob.
 
This is the reason I started reloading:

I tried the Hornady Vmax load and it cost me $17 per 20 rounds. On weekends I wanted to go out nad shoot jack rabbits and rockchucks and at 75-100 rounds per day htat gets very expensive.

So a buddy said that I could use his press and all his stuff if I bought the supplies. It was costing me around $4 per 20 rounds doing it myself. Then I learned that I could get a lee anniversary press for $70 and got my own and have shot lots more for the same ammount if not less it is a no brainer for me. Shoot more and spend the same or less /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

Now when you become more proficient at reloading time is really not that big of an issue. To sit down and reload 50 rounds it will only take at most an hour, hour and ten minutes(if brass have already been cleaned). For me it was a 20 minute drive to get to the sportsmans to get more shells when I needed them so it wasn't much more time to reload.
 
i do know it not all about saving money.i was gust wondering if it would be worth it,gust to make my gun a tack driver.i wouldnt include my time,i would probaly just be watching tv at the time i would be loading.
 
TV may (gust) not be the best choice while reloading. Not to bust your balls, but reloading is not like building model airplanes. It should be considered dangerous if not done correctly. If you start reloading, set up your bench in a place with absolutely NO distractions.
 
Hi there,

All of you guys are talking about the cost of reloading. This is great and very interesting. However i can not chime in on the price of reloading, as I do reload for everything I have, from shotguns to rifles. I consider myself very lucky and very unfortunate at the same time. When my father passed 20 years ago I inherited all of his reloading supplies. Was everything for our hunting rifles. EVERYTHING.
When my wifes father passed away 2 years ago I inherited everything he had. Including some very nice rifles and shotguns. I've inherited everything from presses,dies, powder,manuals and tools, primers, bullets, powder,etc. I've purchased a few tools here and there, but not a lot of stuff. My biggest expense has been powder, primer and bullets that I have used up.

So for me, the cost of reloading ammo is probably quite a bit less for me than the rest of you. I have enough shot, powder and wads and hulls to last me for 20 years and my only expense would be the primers.

If i had to buy the reloading components today to do this, I probably wouldn't reload. But reloading is very enjoyable for me. I've worked up some great rounds for my rifles.


RTLOF(TONY)
 
yotekyllr,

I think bobeano was saying that instead of watching tv, he would be using that time to reload.

bobeano,

I ran the numbers on reloading .300WSM vs. buying factory ammo. I calculated for 50 rounds. For 50 rounds of factory .300 WSM ammo it would be roughly $110. For loading 50 rounds myself with the same bullets the factory ammo had, it would only cost around $70 at most. That is with buying the first batch of brass, then you can use that again next time.

In my opinion, reloading is the way to go, it does take some money at first to get started, but I believe it will pay for itself within the first year, if you do some shooting. But if you load for Magnum rifles, you will see a lot more savings than with a standard cartridge. Again, this is just what I have came up with from running numbers for myself.
 
bobeano,

This is what i picked up today and their prices. Other than needing a little more powder I can produce enough rounds to last my coyote rifle for a year or more. But as it was said before, I will probably just shoot more. For another $24 to add another can of powder and a box of primers, I can load 250rnds for $124. And have them tailored to my rifle. VS 225 for the preassembled product.

hornady 50gr v-max 250pk = $ 36
22-250 WIN brass 100pk = $ 37
fedral 210 primers 100pk x2= $ 6
Varget powder 1lb can = $ 21
Total = $100

hornady 50gr v-max ammunition = $18 for 20rnds

Good luck, Allen
 


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