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Reloading Just for Cost Savings


bgavin

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For amusement on this rainy day, I wrote up a spread sheet to see how many rounds I have to hand-load before my per-cartridge expense drops below that of factory ammo.

I factored in the Hornady Iron Press Kit, Federal primers, Missouri 125 gr RNFP and Trail Boss powder at 3 [edit] grains per charge.
The end result is the first 2361 factory rounds at $0.33 per round is the cost of the above supplies and press kit.
The hand load expense just for supplies and used brass comes to around $0.118 per round.

The clear advantage I see to hand loading is the ability to create mouse fart or optimal BHN loads that are not available in commercial ammo.


 

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You can save a lot of money reloading once you get past the original outlay of cash for the equipment. The real rewards aren’t the money saved. The rewards come from the learning and processes of reloading. They come from what I call “therapy”. Reloading is almost mentally therapeutic for me. 

 

There are many rewards that come with reloading your own ammo.

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50 minutes ago, bgavin said:

 and Trail Boss powder at 3 grams per charge.



 

Best be proofreading what you put for load data. By weight 3 grams = 46.29 grains. I want to see how you get that much Trail Boss is a 38 brass.

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I figure teh wife and I shot 10000 rounds of 38 special last year. The cost savings on smokeless ammo alone would pay for a new Dillon 1050. The savings are way more when you figure that about 6500 of those rounds were loaded with BP. Now I have saved enough to also pay for a case feeder. Add in the money saved because I also reloaded 200 rounds of 45-70 and 230 rounds of 38-55 for Cody Dixon and now I have saved enough for a bullet feeder as well. and this is only 1 year of shooting.  This is my 6th year of shooting CAS and every year reloading saves me in excess of $2000.00 vs buying factory ammunition.  

 

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Using Sportsman's Warehouse prices*, .45 Colt is about 66¢ apiece, or $33 a box of 50.

 

I can reload .45 Colt for about 20¢ each, or $9.80/box.

 

That's a savings of over $23 a box.

 

A new Dillon RL550C in basic configuration is $440 (provide your own dies; you can add the bells and whistles later).

 

Twenty boxes (ten monthly matches worth) of .45 Colt and the Dillon RL550C is paid for.  ;)

 

Of course, it'll take longer with .38's - I estimate about another ten boxes.

 

* Unique powder at $24.99/lb (.45 - @ 6.5 gr, .38 - @ 4.7 gr)

   Primers at $33/1,000

   Bullets at $35/250 (.45), $22/250 (.38). 

 

Oh... you can find components for less than these prices.  Cast your own bullets and the cost just dropped to less than three bucks a box.  *:D big grin

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I don’t load “mouse fart loads” so don’t know what they are. I do enjoy loading whatever load I come up with that works well for me. 

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25 minutes ago, Yul Lose said:

I don’t load “mouse fart loads” so don’t know what they are. I do enjoy loading whatever load I come up with that works well for me. 

Same here. I like to make a little racket. :D

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Reloading is fun.

 

What else do you need to know?

 

It will pay in the long run.  You are in this for the long run, aren’t you?

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I have loaded ammo for about 45 years. I don't figure I saved even one penny over that time. In fact, I spent a whole lot more. The bonus here being is that I got to shoot a whole lot more for the amount of money spent on reloading as opposed to buying factory. 

FWIW - The wife and I shoot about 15000 rounds a year.

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4 hours ago, Sixgun Seamus said:

Best be proofreading what you put for load data. By weight 3 grams = 46.29 grains. I want to see how you get that much Trail Boss is a 38 brass.


Absolutely.
I intended "grains" entered "grams", no beer involved.

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I find reloading to be therapeutic. Well, sort of. It's better than sitting in a chair and staring at the wall or cleaning out the cat box or listening to AOC. Hmm. Same thing really, but I digress.

 

Some people like to "stack" precious metals. I enjoy stacking Pb. ;)

 

Since I shoot 45 Colt I do save quite a bit of money by reloading. 45 Colt factory ammo prices can be anywhere from $40 to $50 a box. Smokeless and BP.  I figure I reload for somewhere between $10 to $12 a box of 50. 

 

Money and time well spent.

 

 

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13 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

As for mouse fart loads. I would be surprised if any of the shooters in the overall top 10 percent of any match shooting them.


No doubt, but I will never be a top 10 in any match, nor do I even have any desire to be.
The intended mouse fart loads are for the enjoyment of my wife, so she can learn to love the sport.

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12 hours ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

How many beers did you have before do'n the math? :rolleyes:----------:lol:

Your 'numbers' are way off.

I can load SASS .38's for about 5-6 cents each.

My 44's are a couple of pennys more.......;)

OLG

 


Please demonstrate.

Federal Primers are $0.03 each in boxes of 5,000.
Missouri 125 gr coated bullets are $0.07 each in boxes of 2,000.
Trail Boss powder is $0.012 for 3 grains from a 2lb bottle.

I'm all ears:  please tell me how you reload for 5 to 6 cents.


 

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If I was rich I'd buy all my ammo!!

 

That said and I'm not rich I can reload for about $5.00 for 50 rounds of .38's, about $4.50 for a box of 25 12 gauge. You save a ton of money reloading!!;)

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13 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

There are many rewards that come with reloading your own ammo.

Like shooting more???

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I like not having to hope the next ammo shipment arrives in time for the next shoot. 

I like sitting down and reloading in a quiet room. Either alone or with my daughter. 

I like being able to say "Dang. Almost out of ammo. I better make a couple thousand to go with my couple thousand."

I like shooting a LOT more and still saving money.

I really enjoy casting my own bullets. When I'm all done and the bullets are all laid out with the Alox drying it's very satisfying to look at. 

I like making and trying different loads for different things. This isn't so much anymore because I've found loads I really like for the things I do.

It's VERY satisfying to hear my daughters rifle bark on a quiet morning, knowing that a buck just dropped. Shot with a rifle that has never seen a factory round.

 

I've got more but I'm supposed to be working right now.

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All the above are valid reasons for reloading.
Enjoyment of the game and its processes is paramount.

My original post was only intended to itemize my costs of hand loading vs factory ammo.
In my case I would have to hand load more than 2300 rounds before I saved any money over buying Fiocchi factory ammo.
The point being made is, reloading for the sole purpose of saving money is valid only if one shoots a LOT of rounds.

Here in CA, the gov't has made shooting painfully difficult and expensive.
I would shoot every day if it didn't cost me many hours of travel time and hundreds of dollars to do so.

It ain't like it was, when I was a kid, when I could walk a hundred yards out into the desert.

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10 minutes ago, bgavin said:


In my case I would have to hand load more than 2300 rounds before I saved any money over buying Fiocchi factory ammo.

 

There are folks in this sport who shoot 1000 rounds a week in practice. (I’m obviously not one of them.)

 

Maybe your break even time wont be too long after all.

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1 hour ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

If I was rich I'd buy all my ammo!!

 

That said and I'm not rich I can reload for about $5.00 for 50 rounds of .38's, about $4.50 for a box of 25 12 gauge. You save a ton of money reloading!!;)


Your costs and mine are nearly identical.
I figure $0.118 cents per round.

My neighbor reloads 12-gauge, says it is different than straight wall 38s... learn those first, he says.

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4 minutes ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

 

There are folks in this sport who shoot 1000 rounds a week in practice. (I’m obviously not one of them.)

 

Maybe your break even time wont be too long after all.


I have not shot 1,000 rounds in the last 30 years.
We are trying VERY hard to get out of CA and move to AZ, where I hope to shoot every day.

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1 hour ago, bgavin said:


I have not shot 1,000 rounds in the last 30 years.
We are trying VERY hard to get out of CA and move to AZ, where I hope to shoot every day.

In CAS you will buy primers in lots of 10,000, bullets in 70-lb flat rate boxes, and powder in 8-lb kegs.  You will probably buy a progressive reloader.  You will also buy shotgun shells by the case to get discounts.  One thousand rounds is just a couple practice sessions preparing for a big CAS match.  All this shooting is fun!

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12 hours ago, bgavin said:


Please demonstrate.

Federal Primers are $0.03 each in boxes of 5,000.
Missouri 125 gr coated bullets are $0.07 each in boxes of 2,000.
Trail Boss powder is $0.012 for 3 grains from a 2lb bottle.

I'm all ears:  please tell me how you reload for 5 to 6 cents.


 

Buy in much larger quantities, and I look for sales. ;)

I buy primers in lots of 25K. SASS bullets in lots of 10K

I will never use Trail Boss:excl: Unique does it all in SASS.

Not my first circus-I've been reloading for 50+ years.^_^

Start your education here-You can have it delivered to your house.........

https://www.powdervalleyinc.com/

Carry on,

OLG

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3 minutes ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Buy in much larger quantities, and I look for sales. ;)

I buy primers in lots of 25K. SASS bullets in lots of 10K

I will never use Trail Boss:excl: Unique does it all in SASS.

Not my first circus-I've been reloading for 50+ years.^_^

Start your education here-You can have it delivered to your house.........

https://www.powdervalleyinc.com/

Carry on,

OLG


There you go...  big cost savings from huge bulk purchases.
It is one thing to make big claims, quite another to back it up with hard fact.
Thanks for explaining your very low reloading costs.

I have shot less than 1,000 rounds here in CA in the last 30+ years.
Shooting in CA is prohibitive on every aspect...
This is one of the many reasons we hope to relocate to AZ in the very near future.

Delivered to my house?
Nope.
CA does not allow much of anything delivered anywhere except to an FFL.
Starting July 1, the FFLs will be charging me to receive any incoming ammo or product.
I will also have to purchase a background check and a firearm safety course for $50.
This is why I am stocked up to the max until such time as we move.
 

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If I didn’t reload I could not afford to shoot cowboy action! 

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23 minutes ago, bgavin said:


There you go...  big cost savings from huge bulk purchases.
It is one thing to make big claims, quite another to back it up with hard fact.
Thanks for explaining your very low reloading costs.

I have shot less than 1,000 rounds here in CA in the last 30+ years.
Shooting in CA is prohibitive on every aspect...
This is one of the many reasons we hope to relocate to AZ in the very near future.

Delivered to my house?
Nope.
CA does not allow much of anything delivered anywhere except to an FFL.
Starting July 1, the FFLs will be charging me to receive any incoming ammo or product.
I will also have to purchase a background check and a firearm safety course for $50.
This is why I am stocked up to the max until such time as we move.
 

I live in PRK also ;)-You are wrong when you say that reloading components can not be delivered to to home(unless a city/county regulation is in place). 

The new ammo law here, does not affect components in any way.

OLG

 

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18 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

You can save a lot of money reloading once you get past the original outlay of cash for the equipment. The real rewards aren’t the money saved. The rewards come from the learning and processes of reloading. They come from what I call “therapy”. Reloading is almost mentally therapeutic for me.

 

I used to reload. While reloading was fairly therapeutic in itself, the time spent at the range trying to police up my brass, and spending a half-hour looking for that ONE case that was still missing drove me absolutely up the wall. Every time I'd come home from the range with 49 out of 50 cases, or 99 out of 100. It triggered my OCD like there was no tomorrow so I stopped reloading, especially once cheap range ammo became nearly as cheap as the stuff I reloaded.

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I enjoy the wet tumbling (shiny brass), the casting and powder coating--again shiny bullets, and reloading where  you take a bunch of 'parts' and put them together for a great looking finished product.

 

All of that ▲ are fun hobbies as much as cowboying.

 

 

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17 hours ago, Sixgun Seamus said:

I have loaded ammo for about 45 years. I don't figure I saved even one penny over that time. In fact, I spent a whole lot more. The bonus here being is that I got to shoot a whole lot more for the amount of money spent on reloading as opposed to buying factory. 

FWIW - The wife and I shoot about 15000 rounds a year.

 

No one ever has saved anything by reloading.

 

(Most) everyone has money set aside for their hobby, you will spend all of that money on said hobby.

 

If you reload, after initial investment has been recouped, cost per round goes down, therefore you get to shoot more.

 

If you buy factory ammo, cost per round is higher, less shooting.

 

$ + reloading = more bangs for the buck.:D

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