Lsfan wrote:This is prompted by another thread regarding reloading 308 versus factory ammo.
I don't shoot that often, but if I choose to start reloading on the basis of economics, can someone suggest how I would get the best value? I'm in south west Sydney and only have a 223, but may also get something bigger in future. Eg. Should I buy all supplies from somewhere like abelas/ horsley park, Western firearms? Or would I buy powder only from them, order brass and primers online? I think for someone inexperienced like me, I could buy all the components at the wrong price and end up costing as much as factory ammo.
Also, is there a minimum number of rounds I should consider reloading to make it economical?
I look forward to the feedback.
First you need to decide how much ammo you want to shoot, and what it will cost to buy.
If it's a deer rifle you might only be shooting 20rds a year, maybe 50rds if you zero every time you go out. With a premium round you might be paying as much as $5 apiece for .308, so $100 to $250 a year, but there is much cheaper stuff. If you're into shooting tiny groups you might burn 50rds a month, at $3-5 a shot for match ammo - that's 600rds at $1800-3000 a year. If you're just enjoying plinking and field practice you might just use the cheapest bulk ammo and find 1000rds for $1500 to last a few years.
Even the low-count exotic deer ammo can be made significantly cheaper, but at $200 a year how long will it be until you recoup the outlay of reloading equipment? If you go for something exotic like a Barnes TTSX, Swift A-Frame, or an RWS bonded bullet, you might be paying $3 or more just for the bullet. But if you can make a conventional soft-point bullet work, like more than 99% percent of hunters do, you might find the Speer HotCor or Hornady SP for 50c apiece on special. You can make your ammo so much cheaper (perhaps a fifth of the price) that you can get out practicing more and not have to rely on an expensive bullet to make up for less than optimal bullet placement.
The cost of match-grade ammo makes loading your own obviously cheaper, especially because you shoot so much of it. The Lee Breechlock Challenger kit is $310, and you'll need some sort of caliper for measuring things. A die set runs from about $60 for the RGB to $120 for a four-die collect set. That is probably all you need to do the job, but you're likely to want other things as you learn, trim dies, digital scales, ammo boxes, etc.
Then you just need the components of the ammunition you want to make.
Powders are about $130 per kg for ADI, the 4kg is about $450 and will make about 1300rds of .308. If you are serious I'd suggest a 4kg bottle of AR2206H as it's very versatile, you can use it in virtually anything you're likely to load in the future. And with powder supply issues, 4kg is better on your shelf than in a gunshop where it might be gone when you need another kilo bottle. I keep a sealed 4kg and the one I'm using I dump into 500gm bottles for ease of use. Before I open the backup bottle I buy another to replace it.
Primers are an issue but there are still stocks around. Primers, ammo and powders you will have to buy from a local dealer, they can't be shipped. You'll have to ring around your locals to find what is available. Buying a case of 5000 primers does save you money, but might last you decades if you don't shoot that much.
Brass is pretty easy, either buy factory ammo and save the brass, buy somebody else's once-fired factory brass, or buy new brass. If for some reason you can't get .308 brass you can make it from other stuff, like .25-06, .270, .30-06, 7mm-08, 6.5mm Creedmoor, 6.5x55mm, .260Rem, 7x57mm, 8x57mm and anything based on those. But I'd be amazed if you can't find .308 brass. Reducing your pressures greatly increases case life. Dropping your velocity by just 250fps will reduce the pressure by about a quarter and your brass will probably last your lifetime.
Now, finding the bullet you want becomes the issue. Projectile Warehouse has good stock of Outer Edge bullets just now, but they're too expensive for my tastes. They, like most places, have very little in the way of conventional bullets. Some of the online sellers have good websites that track stock. I prowl through these fairly regularly to keep a feel for the supply situation. Dealers now generally have less stock of all components than some of us reloaders have. A big dealer I looked at last week had less than 3000 6.5mm bullets in stock (most were expensive Nosler match bullets), two others had less than 500 6.5mm bullets.
Sign up to all the shops and jump on the deals when they email them. Last week I scored some bullets I've been chasing for years via an email telling me stock had arrived, and at an awesome price - they arrived today.
Otherwise, you can look at casting your own bullets, which requires a mould for $50, a ladle for $15, some Lube for $15, and a gas torch to melt the lead in the ladle. If you or your friends do any .22LR plinking, recover the bullets to make free .309" bullets. Otherwise, Bunnings do rolls of lead sheet, a 9kg roll is $85 and will make 900 150gn bullets. But they're soft so you can't push them fast. Bunnings also do 60/40 stick solder for $50/kg. Add one-part of solder to nine-parts pure lead for a 6% alloy for bullets around 10BHN.
A simple way to get harder bullets is to buy Magnum hard shot, which is about $120/10kg bottle, enough for 1000 150gn bullets. Doing a 1-to-9 mix of this with 60/40 solder bumps the BHN up to around 15.
If you want even harder bullets the easiest way is to buy hardcast bullets on special and melt them down to make your own bullets.
If you want to push them even faster then you need to look at a cheap toaster oven and a bag of powdercoat.
Free brass, Trailboss powder charges, and casting your recovered .22LR bullets is about as cheap as you can shoot .308. You're paying for a primer and under ten-cents for powder, about 16-cents a shot. If you shoot a lot, even new brass at a buck apiece becomes "free" by the time you've loaded it fifty or a hundred times. It can be cheaper than shooting .22LR (I paid $980 for 5000rds of Eley Standard a few months ago, 19.6c per shot), and very likely just as accurate.