How economically viable is reloading .44 magnum?

[Bremen]

Hi

I've never reloaded and mainly shoot 9mm which is around $120 for 250 which I'm told isn't much more than reloading. I'm curious however if there is noticeable savings in say .44 magnum handgun loafs?
S&B is about $53 for 50 240grn jacketed soft point. I need to use jacketed soft or hollow points or coated projectiles thus can't take advantage of cheap cast items.
Cheers

[No1Mk3]

G'day Bremen,
Reloading 44 Mag with 240g coated SWC and 2205 comes out to just under 1/2 price of factory ammo, Cheers.

[Bugman]

It is cheaper, sometimes by half the cost of good factory ammo. Plus the fact that you have more control over the loads themselves. I load all my own 44 crackers.

[Blr243]

I think 9 mm and 357 are the ones where we toss up loading own vs factory .....but 44 I think I preferred to load my own. I have never purchased factory 44 mag ammo

[bladeracer]

Hi

I've never reloaded and mainly shoot 9mm which is around $120 for 250 which I'm told isn't much more than reloading. I'm curious however if there is noticeable savings in say .44 magnum handgun loafs?
S&B is about $53 for 50 240grn jacketed soft point. I need to use jacketed soft or hollow points or coated projectiles thus can't take advantage of cheap cast items.
Cheers

Does "coated" include powdercoat?
PC is _very_ easy to do, easier than actually casting the bullets.

I would say it's definitely cheaper to reload .44Mag, way cheaper than factory ammo.
Berry's Copper-Plated hard-cast bullets are cheap and shoot great for me.
$56 for 200 bullets, 28-cents apiece.
If you shoot a lot of .22LR, salvage the lead and cast your bullets then powdercoat them.

[boingk]

I looked into this as I was going to use a mates 44 mag on a trip. Its significantly cheaper, especially if you aren't using full power loads and can take advantage of cost efficient powders like Trailboss.

Check out the Black Widow range of projectiles. They're coated lead and I've had good results so far in my 45-70 using them. They offer 44 mag projectiles like these (click here) which are 55 bucks a box of 250, plus postage or get them into your local gun shop.

So even at 60 bucks a box thats 24c a round. Add in 5c of primer and, what 10c of powder or so, and you're looking at under 40c a shot excluding your reusable brass. [ EDIT: They also do a 165gn projectile for 62 bucks per box of 400, thats 16c a round. Makes for good cheap plinking if you're so inclined. ]

40c a shot vs the cheapest PPU stuff which is usually about $1.20 a shot... you're well ahead and can tailor the loads as you wish.

Honestly I'd grab a box of PPU, see how you like the feel of those to shoot, and go from there. At least you'll have a box of 50 of them or so to go to the range / paddock with and then some brass to work with after that. I only recommend this as you can run the numbers, find out the foot-pounds, and then work around that when you pick up the reloading book.

[in2anity]

There’s really no need to shoot jacketed out of the 44 mag. Hard cast lead pills can be driven toward not too far south of 2000fps without excessive leading. Also there’s the Berry’s plated pills if yu really wanna push em hard. Moral of the story, shoot lead, then it’s certainly economical. The 44mag is a brute though - whadya using it for? Pigs?

[Bremen]

Thanks for the replies. It would be great if I could half the price but the projectile might be the issue.

It's for a Desert Eagle used in metallic silhouette. Because they use a non-serviceable gas port if it gets blocked you're up for a new barrel. No lead or exposed lead bases of projectiles can be used. Being MetSil I need a soft point etc; no fmj.

I looked online and jacketed soft point hornady appeared to be about $70 per 100?

I've searched forums regarding coated projectiles and it would seem the barrel strips the powder coating off (no evidence given just many people stating it). There's some talk the HiTek coating might be ok but of course at $800 for a new barrel no-one has given it a go. Plus, get a bad batch and you're back to square one.

Although the Desert Eagle requires a HP/HP+ type load to guarantee cycling I actually rarely use such stiff ammo. For MetSil you have plenty of time rack the slide if need be.

[Bremen]

Berry's Copper-Plated hard-cast bullets are cheap and shoot great for me.
$56 for 200 bullets, 28-cents apiece....
If you shoot a lot of .22LR, salvage the lead and cast your bullets then powdercoat them.

These look interesting and cheaper than JSP! I may have read about them today and assumed they were not available in Australia.

I wish I shot enough .22 to have that much lead

[bladeracer]

I haven't heard of PC coming off the bullet in the bore, the ones I recover are still coated.

Thanks for the replies. It would be great if I could half the price but the projectile might be the issue.

It's for a Desert Eagle used in metallic silhouette. Because they use a non-serviceable gas port if it gets blocked you're up for a new barrel. No lead or exposed lead bases of projectiles can be used. Being MetSil I need a soft point etc; no fmj.

I looked online and jacketed soft point hornady appeared to be about $70 per 100?

I've searched forums regarding coated projectiles and it would seem the barrel strips the powder coating off (no evidence given just many people stating it). There's some talk the HiTek coating might be ok but of course at $800 for a new barrel no-one has given it a go. Plus, get a bad batch and you're back to square one.

Although the Desert Eagle requires a HP/HP+ type load to guarantee cycling I actually rarely use such stiff ammo. For MetSil you have plenty of time rack the slide if need be.

[bladeracer]

Berry's Copper-Plated hard-cast bullets are cheap and shoot great for me.
$56 for 200 bullets, 28-cents apiece....
If you shoot a lot of .22LR, salvage the lead and cast your bullets then powdercoat them.

These look interesting and cheaper than JSP! I may have read about them today and assumed they were not available in Australia.

I wish I shot enough .22 to have that much lead

The salvaged lead is the icing on the cake, the real fun is shooting it all downrange so you can recover it
For $600, a case of 5000rds of 40gn .22LR gives you 200,000gn of lead, enough to cast 800+ 240gn bullets, on top of many useful hours of small bore practice.
I shoot into rubber so the bullets simply fall into a catch tray for recovery, very easy and clean.

[Jarhead]

Hey Bremen,

I am surprised that you are being told that reloading is not economical. I have some good news for you!

I recently bought a progressive reloading rig- mainly to reload 6.5Creedmoor. The salesman knows me well and he also knows that I am getting a 9mm soon. Being the good salesman that he is- he tried to sell me a set of 9mm dies too.

So I did the math to see if it was worth it and it is- I ran the numbers with the component costs for 9mm. Compared to a factory round, It costs 59% for a reload where you pay for once fired brass. It costs 38% for the next reloads with no brass cost. I bought the 9mm dies.......

I just did the same for 44Magnum- using South Australia components costs (except for powder- couldn't get a cost from a SA website- I used $180- should be close).

For 44Magnum, it is 60% with brass cost and 25% without!

All the numbers are below. I would estimate it would take the savings from about 1500 44 Magnum reloaded rounds to pay off a $650 investment in a reloading setup. Go nuts & HAPPY RELOADING!

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