Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Reloading equipment, methods, load data, powder and projectile information.

Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by juststarting » 14 Dec 2015, 11:24 pm

I’ve just purchased a bag of once fired mixed .308 brass. Thought, screw it, it was on a 'bargain table’ at the LGS, so I thought why not, set myself up for a while. I am not picky.

I haven’t culled them yet (they look fine at initial inspection, but I will inspect more when resizing), but ended up with:
Federal (case with primer sealant) - 36 cases
Federal (without sealant) - 150 cases
Winchester - 21 cases
S&B - 60 cases

…so not too bad, when opportunity knocks and all that. Seemed like a good deal (still does). That got me thinking, what is the actual cost of a reloaded round.

Before that, I understand that you can shoot more and make very good quality ammo, but this is purely a monetary train of thought though.

This is for me, for of the bench shooting, I am not buying in bulk yet.

I got something like this:

$9 for 100 primers (large rifle primers) = 9 cents per round
$57 for 100 Hornady Match .308 168GR BTHP bullets = 57 cents per bullet
$50 for 400 cases roughly ($50 for once fired brass I purchased + whatever I kept/collected) = 13 cents

$60 500gm (7716.18 grains) ADI A2208 powder.

Powder is a bit tricky, educated guessing, but I doubt it would make a lot of difference. Assuming the load is at 42gr (some less, some more), that's 182 loads (factoring in wastage, original 7716.8/42=183.73 loads, $60/183.73 loads = 0.33)

33 cents per powder load

9 + 57 + 33 + 13 = 112 cents per round

It seems a bit more than I expected. I was thinking sub-$1, maybe around 75-80 cents). However, considering ammo prices, this is at least (always more than) twice and at most three times cheaper than factory ammo in Australia.

I have not included equipment costs; or consumables like lubricant and tumbler media. I also did not factor the sliding scale where it gets cheaper as you reuse your brass more and more.

That’s about it. Thoughts/discuss?

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Last edited by juststarting on 20 Dec 2015, 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Chronos » 15 Dec 2015, 6:37 am

Welcome to the reloading world mate :thumbsup:

It's difficult to save money reloading when you buy cononents in small quanitites. Everything's more expensive. You can usually save at least 10% buying larger quantities. 1000 primers at a remind etc.

Where you'll make the biggest saving is being a bit wiser with stuff like bullets. You can walk into your gunshop and pay $57 for 100 bullets in one brand or you might pick up 250 from another company for a fair bit less per Buller. Nosler custom comps come to mind. Have a look at the better online stores and compare prices. I have at times purchased premium billets for 30-35c each.

Same goes for powder. $60 is premium pricing but if there's only one store in town you're buggered. Find are the days of paying $38 for 500gr of ADI powder but if you get into it but the 4kg tubs and save on every case full.

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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Baldrick314 » 15 Dec 2015, 7:14 am

From memory my 308 Handloads cost about 45c per round but that doesn't include brass because it was from factory ammo I fired. Also the powder and projectiles were bought a few years ago when prices were a bit more friendly. As said above you'll save more by buying components in bulk.

Another thing you could do is divide the cost of your brass by 10 since you're pretty likely to get that many loads out of it and will spread the cost over multiple reloads giving you a more accurate per round cost.

Somewhere there's an excel spreadsheet that works out your per round cost for you and you can even put in your cost of equipment and it will tell you how many you have to load to pay off your gear with savings lol. I think it might have been shared in a post on here a while ago.
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Chronos » 15 Dec 2015, 7:14 am

Forgot to add, if you get at least 10 reloads from those cases that almost makes their cost near enough to zero. (13c/10)

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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by southeast varmiter » 15 Dec 2015, 7:36 am

You need to include cost of reloading equipment too. As mentioned. If your reloading in the hundreds your not going to get scale of economy.
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by brett1868 » 15 Dec 2015, 7:54 am

My costs vary from 12c a round for 9mm up to $11.11 per round for match grade 50BMG and this doesn't include cost of brass or labour. Considering my usual 50BMG round using Hornady AMAX projectiles costs $6.32 compared to $11.80 for factory I'm effectively saving $5 a shot by reloading. Match grade Lapua 50BMG projectiles are around $8.60 bring the round cost to $11.11 but still cheaper than factory. I don't shoot too many of the Lapua rounds :)
There's also some investment in equipment / time to be considered when reloading. I loaded 385 rounds of 9mm yesterday afternoon in less then an hour but the machine cost almost $2k.
If you are shooting a lot then get friendly with the shop owner and buy in bulk, I buy rifle primers in batches of 10,000, 50cal primers in 1000 lots and pistol primers in 5000 lots. Powder in 4kg containers for the 50 and try to buy 4 of the 500gm bottles at a time. Projectiles I buy small packs to load develop with then when I find a winner I'll buy the 500 or bigger pack cause they won't go off in storage. It's a big upfront cost but there are also significant savings to be made, I think of it as the Costco approach to shooting :)
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Elek » 15 Dec 2015, 8:48 am

juststarting wrote:I also did not factor the sliding scale where it gets cheaper as you reuse your brass more and more.


That's a biggy.

User the brass 13 times and is 1c per shot not 13c like you factored so...
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Bills Shed » 16 Dec 2015, 8:27 pm

Wow, I have not bought reloading components in a long time. Prices have gone through the roof! As stated above, I buy bulk and am still working my way through them. I am not a big calibre shooter any more and I only run the hornet family now and they are cheap to run. Projectiles run at about three cents each as I swage my own jacketed pills. Cost per loaded round is about 13 cents. The up front cost of the swaging gear was more than a rifle cost! The cost of tooling is on going and all reloaders tend to" collect" more as the years tick by. You can get some awesome dies these days at pretty good prices and they will last forever.
Again, $50.00 + for 100 projectiles, ouch!!
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by juststarting » 16 Dec 2015, 9:15 pm

$57, Bill, $57 for 168gr .308 Hornady. However, since this is all I know this is my baseline :/
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by NuZo » 16 Dec 2015, 10:33 pm

My 308 loads are about 46c per round and that's using the more expensive batch of pills I have. would come down to 42c with the cheaper batch.

Buy in bulk if you are really getting into reloading to save money. If you're getting into it because you're curious about different loads/pills/powder/cases but not saving money then it doesn't matter how much you spend.

Cheers,

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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by bigfellascott » 17 Dec 2015, 1:35 pm

I don't worry about what it costs to reload anymore, it's going to happen regardless of cost - only ready made ammo I buy now is 22's (not worth stuffing around to reload em and 12g still cheaper to buy em ready rolled last time I looked and I've still got 3 or 4 slabs of em waiting to go in any case.
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by juststarting » 17 Dec 2015, 3:12 pm

What's the breakdown on the circa 40 cent 308 rounds. I am interested how I could be almost 60% off.
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by NuZo » 17 Dec 2015, 4:25 pm

juststarting wrote:What's the breakdown on the circa 40 cent 308 rounds. I am interested how I could be almost 60% off.



0.21c = powder
0.19c = pills
0.05c = primer
Brass was free
Toal = 0.45c

Easy.

Cheers,

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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by newsteadvic » 17 Dec 2015, 7:25 pm

This is a handy table from Barry Wilmots book:
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Apollo » 17 Dec 2015, 7:31 pm

NuZo, how long have you had those supplies..???

I think the costing is a little understated. 19c Pills ... Do they come from the local discount Chemist..???
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by newsteadvic » 17 Dec 2015, 7:38 pm

Apollo wrote:NuZo, how long have you had those supplies..???

I think the costing is a little understated. 19c Pills ... Do they come from the local discount Chemist..???


The projectiles are the biggest cost, ranging from my time cost only cast lead (neglecting infrastructure again) to Woodleighs.
There are deals - not around 20c/projectile any more I think but 40-50c.
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Apollo » 17 Dec 2015, 7:45 pm

I think our friend asking for reloading cost information is not thinking of "cast bullets" so I wouldn't even think about costing that side. I would believe he is after a bit of accuracy.

And if you are looking at top grade custom target bullets well, they near double your reloading costs.

Quality comes at a price and no way around it.

I know how NuZo reloads and I'm still laughing after a long time thinking about it.
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by juststarting » 17 Dec 2015, 8:43 pm

I started with cost in mind, lol! So ignoring intial outlay the cost is indeed a lot cheaper. Like I said, 50% reduction or more. That said, now I am actually addicted and after making some nice rounds, but cost is the primary motivation.

I think it may be possible to find some larger caliber rounds in smaller grain and that could be around 36c or so, but it does take effort to fund those deals. I think the sub 40c cost came from old supplies. Primers in bulk is definitely doable, but pils and powder regardless of quantity (up to 4kg) is not that cheap these days.
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by juststarting » 17 Dec 2015, 8:45 pm

P.s. hi newsteadvic :)
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Gwion » 17 Dec 2015, 9:03 pm

I think my 7-08 costs me just over $1 a pop. Better than near $3 a pop for the factory stuff.

Taking that nto consideration, i have saved about $300 just loading for my 7-08 and well over $500 loading for my 223rem, which costs me between 40c-52c, depending on pill and charge.

Reloading gear has easily paid for itself in the last 2 years!
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by bigfellascott » 17 Dec 2015, 9:14 pm

You could just use a reloading calculator to work out what everything costs if that's ya thing - quick and easy to use.

http://www.handloads.com/calc/loadingCosts.asp
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by sbd3927 » 17 Dec 2015, 11:19 pm

Same as the OP, for .308
Priced as economically as I could Melbourne retail supplies Jan 2015, allowing for brass life, I couldn't get significantly below $1/round. Still happy with that as I get a more accurate load, tuned and formed for my rifle, but I did expect a greater saving from the info I researched prior to gearing up. I guess there's been a massive leap in cost in recent years. Especially Australia Tax, even on Australian powder! I think I calculated my break even point after reloading equipment would be around 500 rounds fired, will eventually get there.

As for brass... a bulk purchase of ~200 ADI Outback rounds was the best I could manage, empty brass was not only scarce but ridiculously priced, I think $1/case was the best I could find.
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by NuZo » 18 Dec 2015, 1:02 am

Apollo wrote:NuZo, how long have you had those supplies..???

I think the costing is a little understated. 19c Pills ... Do they come from the local discount Chemist..???


I think our friend asking for reloading cost information is not thinking of "cast bullets" so I wouldn't even think about costing that side. I would believe he is after a bit of accuracy.

And if you are looking at top grade custom target bullets well, they near double your reloading costs.

Quality comes at a price and no way around it.

I know how NuZo reloads and I'm still laughing after a long time thinking about it.


Haha ask Chronos if you have doubts about my figures. They're legit. Right place, Right time kind of deal. All quality target pills too :D All purchased in the last 24 months.

Does this mean I will continue to get them, nope. When they run out I will have to go back to normal priced pills :(

Also I don't use the lee loaders much anymore but they have come in handy on the range when doing a bit of follow up load testing. I use a single stage press for the rifle loading now, I've evolved! hahaha.

Cheers,

Nuzo

P.S. I actually just bought an old lee loader kit for 12G shotgun shells. Should be a bit of fun! :D
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Bills Shed » 18 Dec 2015, 5:57 am

19 cents per projectile?? That is a bit lite I think. Even to swage a projectile the lead wire alone would be 15 cents then there is the cost of the jacket. Where did you get your projectiles? We're they from a garage sale or a LGS that was closing up?
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by bigfellascott » 18 Dec 2015, 6:14 am

I got some 55gn Sierra Super Roos a few years ago for $110 a box of 1000 (I bought 4 boxes) now I've seen em advertised for $160+ on special! :shock: I also bought a 4kg bottle of powder at the same time for $275 from memory now I see them up around $400+ :shock:

I'm just glad I don't waste my time and money on paper etc, I'd be broke if I did :lol:
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Chronos » 18 Dec 2015, 9:52 am

Bills Shed wrote:19 cents per projectile?? That is a bit lite I think. Even to swage a projectile the lead wire alone would be 15 cents then there is the cost of the jacket. Where did you get your projectiles? We're they from a garage sale or a LGS that was closing up?
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People sell stuff when they retire from the sport or are forced to change disciplines dilute to ill health.

I know the bullets Nuzo is using are either Sierra or Dyer 155 full bore bullets. Someone sold off all their full ore stuff and he grabbed them. FYI the full ore Dyers run about 40c each new so he was smart to buy a bulk lot at less than half price.

I also know the 19c ones aren't the ones he got the best price on, 14c per rings a bell. Then there's the .224 bullets he bought thousands of at closer to 10c each :lol:

Once you find a bullet you want to use you must buy in bulk if you want to save any kind of money. Last year I bought 1000 165gr game kings at nearly 30c each. I'll never shoot them all but it's better than buying 100 at a time at nearly 65c each.

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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Chronos » 18 Dec 2015, 9:54 am

bigfellascott wrote:I got some 55gn Sierra Super Roos a few years ago for $110 a box of 1000 (I bought 4 boxes) now I've seen em advertised for $160+ on special! :shock: I also bought a 4kg bottle of powder at the same time for $275 from memory now I see them up around $400+ :shock:

I'm just glad I don't waste my time and money on paper etc, I'd be broke if I did :lol:



I've seen some of your targets posted and you're right, you're wasting your time :lol:

:friends: jokes mate :thumbsup:

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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by bigfellascott » 18 Dec 2015, 11:16 am

Chronos wrote:
bigfellascott wrote:I got some 55gn Sierra Super Roos a few years ago for $110 a box of 1000 (I bought 4 boxes) now I've seen em advertised for $160+ on special! :shock: I also bought a 4kg bottle of powder at the same time for $275 from memory now I see them up around $400+ :shock:

I'm just glad I don't waste my time and money on paper etc, I'd be broke if I did :lol:



I've seen some of your targets posted and you're right, you're wasting your time :lol:

:friends: jokes mate :thumbsup:

Steve


Yeah only time I shoot paper is in load testing other than that I save em for fur (I find poking paper bloody boring to be honest :lol: Those Sierra Super Roos (Sierra Game King) go alright for a cheap bulk projie, I've shot some fantastic groups (.3's) in the Howso 22.250 and man don't they smash the fur way out yonder too :D

If anyone wants one pill to do it all in regards to hunting I reckon it's hard to go past em for things like rabbits, foxes, roos, deer, pigs etc - shot placement is important on the deer and pigs but they certainly can handle em if use correctly no worries about that, :thumbsup:
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by sbd3927 » 20 Dec 2015, 11:22 am

Chronos wrote:Once you find a bullet you want to use you must buy in bulk if you want to save any kind of money. Last year I bought 1000 165gr game kings at nearly 30c each. I'll never shoot them all but it's better than buying 100 at a time at nearly 65c each.

Chronos


Was that also a right time/place purchase, or can you get better pricing from a LGS or range in bulk?
Only hint I can find of 30c pricing is midway and other stores in usa, (USD) nothing in Australia.
Doesn't help that most of the australian websites seem to be deliberately badly designed. Hard to search, often needing to scroll through an entire brands listing, just to find they don't stock what you're looking for, or they don't have pricing at all.
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Re: Cost of reloaded ammunition/round

Post by Chronos » 20 Dec 2015, 1:23 pm

sbd3927 wrote:
Chronos wrote:Once you find a bullet you want to use you must buy in bulk if you want to save any kind of money. Last year I bought 1000 165gr game kings at nearly 30c each. I'll never shoot them all but it's better than buying 100 at a time at nearly 65c each.

Chronos


Was that also a right time/place purchase, or can you get better pricing from a LGS or range in bulk?
Only hint I can find of 30c pricing is midway and other stores in usa, (USD) nothing in Australia.
Doesn't help that most of the australian websites seem to be deliberately badly designed. Hard to search, often needing to scroll through an entire brands listing, just to find they don't stock what you're looking for, or they don't have pricing at all.


I guess it was kind of a right place right time type deal as well. Someone started an online business importing brass and bullets. I ordered a huge amount of 162gr Vmax at a very good price, it's what you have to do to keep costs down but it kills you when you run out and go to buy again only to find prices have doubled.

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