Is it worth reloading?

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

Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by SCJ429 » 05 Jun 2018, 7:25 pm

Reloading is a must be rare or wildcat cases, owners of a 378, 416 or 460 Weatherby Magnum are faced with paying over $300 for a box of loaded ammo if they can find it. At $16 every time you pull the trigger you can bring that down to around $3 not counting the (expensive ) brass.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by bladeracer » 05 Jun 2018, 8:06 pm

SCJ429 wrote:Reloading is a must be rare or wildcat cases, owners of a 378, 416 or 460 Weatherby Magnum are faced with paying over $300 for a box of loaded ammo if they can find it. At $16 every time you pull the trigger you can bring that down to around $3 not counting the (expensive ) brass.


Those are the sorts of rounds that I wouldn't consider reloading to save money though, simply because you're unlikely to shoot enough through them. But they would certainly be worth reloading so you can shoot them a lot more at less painful energy levels than being stuck with full noise factory loads all the time.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by SCJ429 » 05 Jun 2018, 8:44 pm

They are the sort of thing that you need to shoot regularly to keep your eye in. I shot 18 416 rounds on the weekend. There is a guy here who is on his second 505 Gibbs barrel after he shot out the first one. It had over 4,000 rounds through. I shot it and it was quite a handful on the bench, jumped off the rest every time. It really pushed my recoil tolerance, made me appreciate my 416 pussy cat. I was considering a 500 A Square but though better of it. A set of Redding dies is $150, pills are around $1.50 each, a shovel full of powder and go and have some fun. Reloading big cases can be more difficult, need to get the lube right. You don't want to get one of those expensive cases stuck in your dies.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Rod_outbak » 06 Jun 2018, 8:01 am

We use about 50/50 of factory ammo and reloaded stuff.

My preference is for the reloaded ammo, if I have the time to do it.
In the case of my 7mm-08, I am highly unlikely to get factory ammo that performs as well as the 120Gn V-max loads my mate worked up for me.
[Most factory loads for the 7mm-08 are around the 140gn mark, and even those are like rocking-horse poop in outback QLD...]
Even in the case of the old .223 rifle we use around the station, the reloaded recipe we use, seems to out-perform the factory rounds I buy every so often.

The number of rounds you are shooting each year, is going to be a big decider on whether you spend the money on rolling your own.

However; as others have pointed out, it's hard to say that reloading has been a cheaper option, as there is ALWAYS something else I'm considering buying for the gunroom/reloading.

But if you want to get the best you can out of a particular rifle, I'd say there is a 90% chance you'll need to go into reloading.
[Obviously, I'm talking centrefire; bloody tricky reloading those rimfires...]
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by in2anity » 06 Jun 2018, 1:12 pm

SCJ429 wrote:Reloading is a must be rare or wildcat cases, owners of a 378, 416 or 460 Weatherby Magnum are faced with paying over $300 for a box of loaded ammo if they can find it. At $16 every time you pull the trigger you can bring that down to around $3 not counting the (expensive ) brass.

This. For example my latest craze is the 32H&R (through a rifle); I love this cartridge for so many reasons other than the obvious. And good luck finding factory 32H&R ammo in Australia, yet I handload it for a mere 29c/cartridge. And it will be significantly less when I eventually fall back to Trail Boss, probably in the realms of 20c/cartridge. And you can cook up weird s***t, for example I load checkless 30/30 pills over TB in my 308w - perfect plinking round for 30c/cartridge with near zero wear-and-tear on your rifle.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Flyer » 06 Jun 2018, 4:24 pm

bladeracer wrote:Unless you are shooting professionally, why would you put a price on your time?
Do you charge yourself by the hour to go and kick a ball in the park, or spend a few hours on a beach?
If you are shooting for pleasure, the shooting _is_ the value. Reloading your own ammo just adds to the time you spend shooting.
If you've ever built your own engine you would know the pleasure that comes every time you fire it up, even years later, I find reloading to give that same sort of pleasure. Being a part of the machine rather than simply an end user.

I do build engines, and I very much enjoy rocking up to the drags in my 11-second Charger and saying "I built that".

But I don't fool myself that it cost nothing in time and that it was pure pleasure. Never mind the fact that learning how to build that engine in the first place took time and money . . .

I didn't take time off work to build that engine. Would you take time off work to reload?

So it all comes down to how much you value your free time.

In the above example, if I was a lawyer earning $300 an hour and had no idea how to build engines, then I'm better off earning $300 an hour and paying someone $50 an hour to build something for me.

In terms of reloading, you're competing with a machine that reloads thousands of rounds an hour or whatever at fractions of a cent per round (energy and tooling cost).

If you're going to spend hours of your time cleaning, weighing and trimming cases, deburring flash holes and uniforming primer pockets, depriming, sizing, neck turning, weighing charges, loading, seating and checking OAL and concentricity, then you're fooling yourself by saying you're "Saving money".

You're not - it's a false economy.

Arguing that it's time well spent because you enjoy it or that it's part of your hobby does not address the fact that you really haven't saved anything in fiscal terms, because if you spent that time earning money and buying factory ammo, you'd be way ahead.

I reload because yes, I do (in some masochistic way) enjoy the process, and because I get pleasure and reward from loading consistent and accurate ammo that's reflected in my scores at the target range.

But I certainly don't reload to save money. And I always have to balance time spent reloading against what other pleasurable activities I could be doing in that same time.

It's your time - spend it how you will.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Flyer » 06 Jun 2018, 4:33 pm

Gwion wrote:It's not a hobby for me... I would rather watch grass grow or blow dry paint... but it does give me good ammo and save me at least %50 on ammo costs. Finding a reliable supply of good ammo locally is tedious and near impossible as well as being expensive, both for the ammo and fuel to go to the shop.

I bought 20 rounds for my 7-08rem when I first got it... 60 something bucks! I estimate that bullet, powder and primer has me at about $1.25, then allow 25c for brass ($170 for 100 then allow 7 loadings: now on load#5 and all looks good). That's $150 for 100 rounds. Same 100 rounds (actually worse because I just have to buy what they have at the time) would cost me a minimum of $300 in the shop. It takes me between 1-2 hours to load 100 rounds (because I'm anal about charge weight). Even if I charge myself $30/hr for 2hr (which I don't), I'm still $90 better off.
So. In the 500 rounds I've put through my 7mm08rem, I estimate that I have saved approximately $700.
I haven't amortised the reloading gear against that because that was paid off by the roughly 2500 rounds I have loaded for my 223rem. Again, roughly 1/2 price or even less. Before reloading I was paying about $1 per round of 223 plus fuel to shop, etc... So my $600-700 worth of reloading gear saved me about $1200. Minus the cost of gear is $500, plus the $700 from 7-08 savings is $1200...

Think I just convinced my wife I can afford that new GRS stock for the 7-08! :lol:
I wish....

I don't want to argue the maths, but don't you also spend time and money on fuel when you buy powder and primers? Other things you can get in the post (and pay for it). And yeah, it probably takes me 1-2 hours to load 100 rounds of ammo, too. But that doesn't include all the preparation to get to that point. At the very least you have to deprime, clean, dry, resize and trim before you start weighing charges, loading and seating.

I'm not trying to argue for the sake of arguing - I'm just being completely honest about how much time and effort it takes. Something that not everyone - myself included - takes into account when they first start reloading.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by bladeracer » 06 Jun 2018, 5:00 pm

Flyer wrote:I do build engines, and I very much enjoy rocking up to the drags in my 11-second Charger and saying "I built that".

But I don't fool myself that it cost nothing in time and that it was pure pleasure. Never mind the fact that learning how to build that engine in the first place took time and money . . .

I didn't take time off work to build that engine. Would you take time off work to reload?

So it all comes down to how much you value your free time.

In the above example, if I was a lawyer earning $300 an hour and had no idea how to build engines, then I'm better off earning $300 an hour and paying someone $50 an hour to build something for me.

In terms of reloading, you're competing with a machine that reloads thousands of rounds an hour or whatever at fractions of a cent per round (energy and tooling cost).

If you're going to spend hours of your time cleaning, weighing and trimming cases, deburring flash holes and uniforming primer pockets, depriming, sizing, neck turning, weighing charges, loading, seating and checking OAL and concentricity, then you're fooling yourself by saying you're "Saving money".

You're not - it's a false economy.

Arguing that it's time well spent because you enjoy it or that it's part of your hobby does not address the fact that you really haven't saved anything in fiscal terms, because if you spent that time earning money and buying factory ammo, you'd be way ahead.

I reload because yes, I do (in some masochistic way) enjoy the process, and because I get pleasure and reward from loading consistent and accurate ammo that's reflected in my scores at the target range.

But I certainly don't reload to save money. And I always have to balance time spent reloading against what other pleasurable activities I could be doing in that same time.

It's your time - spend it how you will.


I have not said anywhere that recreational activities don't cost us money, try racing motorcycles for several years if you have heaps of money you want to turn into noise. Although I have wondered if even that might not have been cheaper than my current firearm hobby :-)

If you were earning $300 an hour you could indeed save money by paying somebody else to build your engine, and totally miss out on adding that to your life experience. I consider doing that a loss, not a saving. The point of earning $300 an hour is so that you can enjoy life more when you aren't working, otherwise why bother? Why on earth would anybody prefer to go to work just to be able to pay somebody else to get all the enjoyment out of doing our recreational activities for us?
I had a good mate who had the same view, and he did indeed love working, with a passion - it truly was his recreation. But I eventually realised that his passion for "work" revolved around accumulating wealth, not the actual working at all.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by sungazer » 06 Jun 2018, 5:05 pm

You blokes can reload pretty quickly. 100 an hour is getting along. I rekon I am at about 50-70 in 2 hours. Thats not including the prep time.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Flyer » 06 Jun 2018, 5:21 pm

I agree. But it's all a matter of perspective, no? If the lawyer likes racing, but doesn't like getting his hands dirty, then it's obvious where he values his time. Same with the hunter or target shooter.

I started loading .243 because I thought it would be cost-effective, and because I had a limited choice of factory ammo where I lived at the time. Some ammo is always going to be more cost effective to load than others, but you probably wouldn't include .223 in that when you can buy it for as little as 50c a round in some places.

So for a long time I did not reload .223 because I didn't see the point. Until I did see the point - that was the point at which I started to outshoot my factory ammo and needed something more accurate and better at resisting cross-winds. So I started reloading .223, even though it costs me more than buying factory ammo.

If I were purely hunting, then it might be a lot harder to justify the outlay of reloading gear if I was only shooting dozens of rounds a year instead of hundreds.

Perspective.

Where I certainly agree is that money = freedom. It's the freedom to do what you want when you want. So all you really need to ask yourself is: what do I really want? Are the results of reloading worth my time and effort, or can I get similar results buying factory ammo?
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Flyer » 06 Jun 2018, 5:26 pm

sungazer wrote:You blokes can reload pretty quickly. 100 an hour is getting along. I rekon I am at about 50-70 in 2 hours. Thats not including the prep time.

I've got a Chargemaster Lite that throws as I load and seat. It's a great bit of kit. Two nights ago, I loaded 120 rounds of .223 in a bit over two hours with only one overcharge and one undercharge that had to be re-thrown. It's pretty consistent. I've got a mate who uses a manual powder-thrower and he's pretty quick once he gets into his rhythm, but I'm so anal I couldn't do it because I'd have to weigh every charge!
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by JimTom » 06 Jun 2018, 8:48 pm

Flyer wrote:
sungazer wrote:You blokes can reload pretty quickly. 100 an hour is getting along. I rekon I am at about 50-70 in 2 hours. Thats not including the prep time.

I've got a Chargemaster Lite that throws as I load and seat. It's a great bit of kit. Two nights ago, I loaded 120 rounds of .223 in a bit over two hours with only one overcharge and one undercharge that had to be re-thrown. It's pretty consistent. I've got a mate who uses a manual powder-thrower and he's pretty quick once he gets into his rhythm, but I'm so anal I couldn't do it because I'd have to weigh every charge!


I know what you mean mate. I am the same, I weigh every charge which is why I have just recently invested in a RCBS charge master lite.
Hopefully that will speed it up a little.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Sergeant Hartman » 06 Jun 2018, 8:55 pm

I been using the lee quick drum charger... found it to be very accurate on the lee scale. I am getting a frankford da750 scale so will see how that goes.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Gwion » 07 Jun 2018, 7:54 am

Flyer wrote:
Gwion wrote:It's not a hobby for me... I would rather watch grass grow or blow dry paint... but it does give me good ammo and save me at least %50 on ammo costs. Finding a reliable supply of good ammo locally is tedious and near impossible as well as being expensive, both for the ammo and fuel to go to the shop.

I bought 20 rounds for my 7-08rem when I first got it... 60 something bucks! I estimate that bullet, powder and primer has me at about $1.25, then allow 25c for brass ($170 for 100 then allow 7 loadings: now on load#5 and all looks good). That's $150 for 100 rounds. Same 100 rounds (actually worse because I just have to buy what they have at the time) would cost me a minimum of $300 in the shop. It takes me between 1-2 hours to load 100 rounds (because I'm anal about charge weight). Even if I charge myself $30/hr for 2hr (which I don't), I'm still $90 better off.
So. In the 500 rounds I've put through my 7mm08rem, I estimate that I have saved approximately $700.
I haven't amortised the reloading gear against that because that was paid off by the roughly 2500 rounds I have loaded for my 223rem. Again, roughly 1/2 price or even less. Before reloading I was paying about $1 per round of 223 plus fuel to shop, etc... So my $600-700 worth of reloading gear saved me about $1200. Minus the cost of gear is $500, plus the $700 from 7-08 savings is $1200...

Think I just convinced my wife I can afford that new GRS stock for the 7-08! :lol:
I wish....

I don't want to argue the maths, but don't you also spend time and money on fuel when you buy powder and primers? Other things you can get in the post (and pay for it). And yeah, it probably takes me 1-2 hours to load 100 rounds of ammo, too. But that doesn't include all the preparation to get to that point. At the very least you have to deprime, clean, dry, resize and trim before you start weighing charges, loading and seating.

I'm not trying to argue for the sake of arguing - I'm just being completely honest about how much time and effort it takes. Something that not everyone - myself included - takes into account when they first start reloading.


Yes but as you say above, you are not taking time off work to reload and unless you are a complete nong or have a very cushy job, you are not reloading when you would otherwise be earning.

Free time IS more and more valuable as our lives get busier but do you charge your family restaurant prices when you cook them a meal? Do you have a taxi meter in your car for all the time you spend running around on personal or family business?

In real terms it does save money because you are not shelling out and you are only counting hypothetical earnings.
Yes, if you are really time poor you wouldn't reload but in that case you probably wouldn't put much time into hobbies and probably be happy shooting 1" groups at the range once a month or a couple of times a year. Mind you, you might spend a LOT of time and money trialing ammo to find a round that your rifle likes.

Totally agree you need to factor in the time but not so much that the time has a fiscal value unless it impacts your earning time.

As for case prep, etc, i do that while watching a movie, which i like to do in down time anyway. The only time i find inconvenient is the actual loading because it's tedious, repetitive and mind numbingly boring. I can think of quite a few things I'd rather do for 'contemplation' than reloading. Like fishing, making a knife or just staring out at the back 40.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by in2anity » 07 Jun 2018, 11:18 am

Gwion wrote:Yes but as you say above, you are not taking time off work to reload and unless you are a complete nong or have a very cushy job, you are not reloading when you would otherwise be earning.

Free time IS more and more valuable as our lives get busier but do you charge your family restaurant prices when you cook them a meal? Do you have a taxi meter in your car for all the time you spend running around on personal or family business?

In real terms it does save money because you are not shelling out and you are only counting hypothetical earnings.
Yes, if you are really time poor you wouldn't reload but in that case you probably wouldn't put much time into hobbies and probably be happy shooting 1" groups at the range once a month or a couple of times a year. Mind you, you might spend a LOT of time and money trialing ammo to find a round that your rifle likes.

Totally agree you need to factor in the time but not so much that the time has a fiscal value unless it impacts your earning time.

As for case prep, etc, i do that while watching a movie, which i like to do in down time anyway. The only time i find inconvenient is the actual loading because it's tedious, repetitive and mind numbingly boring. I can think of quite a few things I'd rather do for 'contemplation' than reloading. Like fishing, making a knife or just staring out at the back 40.


Well said gwion.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Stix » 07 Jun 2018, 11:33 am

JimTom wrote:
Flyer wrote:
sungazer wrote:You blokes can reload pretty quickly. 100 an hour is getting along. I rekon I am at about 50-70 in 2 hours. Thats not including the prep time.

I've got a Chargemaster Lite that throws as I load and seat. It's a great bit of kit. Two nights ago, I loaded 120 rounds of .223 in a bit over two hours with only one overcharge and one undercharge that had to be re-thrown. It's pretty consistent. I've got a mate who uses a manual powder-thrower and he's pretty quick once he gets into his rhythm, but I'm so anal I couldn't do it because I'd have to weigh every charge!


I know what you mean mate. I am the same, I weigh every charge which is why I have just recently invested in a RCBS charge master lite.
Hopefully that will speed it up a little.


Im with Sungazer...you guys are really cranking it...!!
Id be down at the 50 rnds end of the scale in 2 hours, not including prep...thats using a not so accurate thrower, onto the scales & trickle.

The only time i ever used a RCBS Chargemaster (someone elses), it either over or under threw more than 50% of the charges--I had 70 odd rounds at the end & it had thrown over 130 charges--that experience really did nothing for calming down the OCD nerves & giving up controll to trust in a machine...

I realise this is out of the ordinary, or people wouldnt buy them...
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Sergeant Hartman » 07 Jun 2018, 11:56 am

Question does the hornady trickle actually work... it's the red vessel with a tube sticking out
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by in2anity » 07 Jun 2018, 12:59 pm

You blokes gotta get into straight walled! I have a Lyman GEN6 and I can turn around a batch fresh from the range real quick, much faster than bottleneck cartridges. It does sometimes throw +- .1 grain, but this is rather insignificant in relation to straight-walled accuracy, and if this is an issue you can just redo these ones (as is trickles straight onto the scales).
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Flyer » 07 Jun 2018, 1:56 pm

Gwion wrote:Yes but as you say above, you are not taking time off work to reload and unless you are a complete nong or have a very cushy job, you are not reloading when you would otherwise be earning.

Free time IS more and more valuable as our lives get busier but do you charge your family restaurant prices when you cook them a meal? Do you have a taxi meter in your car for all the time you spend running around on personal or family business?

In real terms it does save money because you are not shelling out and you are only counting hypothetical earnings.
Yes, if you are really time poor you wouldn't reload but in that case you probably wouldn't put much time into hobbies and probably be happy shooting 1" groups at the range once a month or a couple of times a year. Mind you, you might spend a LOT of time and money trialing ammo to find a round that your rifle likes.

Totally agree you need to factor in the time but not so much that the time has a fiscal value unless it impacts your earning time.

As for case prep, etc, i do that while watching a movie, which i like to do in down time anyway. The only time i find inconvenient is the actual loading because it's tedious, repetitive and mind numbingly boring. I can think of quite a few things I'd rather do for 'contemplation' than reloading.

The only point I'm making is that if you are reloading purely to "save money", then it's a false economy.

Obviously that goes for anything we do, but the difference is we don't usually choose our hobbies or past-times to save money. It's like making your own beer or bread - you're probably not saving as much money as you think, but ultimately the pleasure is in the process of making something enjoyable that you can't necessarily buy off the shelf.

In that respect, I agree. After all, I reload myself! :D
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by bladeracer » 07 Jun 2018, 1:56 pm

Ziad wrote:Question does the hornady trickle actually work... it's the red vessel with a tube sticking out


I can't say about the Horny one, but I have two different tricklers of similar design and they work fine. But it's very rare that I bother with them, I just trickle granules from a dipper. I made sixty rounds last night, ten of each in half-grain increments with AR2206H. I actually got a trickler out for it but didn't bother using it.

If I'm making milsurp ammo I just use the Lee powder measure, it's more than accurate enough. And for reduced Trailboss loads I just use dippers.

I find the tricklers to be fiddly and always in my way. I want to make a drop chute a few inches long so I can put the trickler further away from the scale, above and out of my way..
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Flyer » 07 Jun 2018, 1:57 pm

Stix wrote:Im with Sungazer...you guys are really cranking it...!!
Id be down at the 50 rnds end of the scale in 2 hours, not including prep...thats using a not so accurate thrower, onto the scales & trickle.

The only time i ever used a RCBS Chargemaster (someone elses), it either over or under threw more than 50% of the charges--I had 70 odd rounds at the end & it had thrown over 130 charges--that experience really did nothing for calming down the OCD nerves & giving up controll to trust in a machine...

I realise this is out of the ordinary, or people wouldnt buy them...

I think the original Chargemaster design was flawed, which is why so many modified theirs with drinking straws to enable them to trickle properly and not overcharge.

The Chargemaster Lite is a different beast. It's a little bit slower than top-end machines, but it's been very reliable for me. For the price, I'd recommend it to anyone thinking of buying an automatic dispenser.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Sergeant Hartman » 07 Jun 2018, 2:17 pm

Well I just did the sums again..ppu shoot reasonably. And a packet in my lgs is 28... if you buying a few hundred and regularly maybe you could bring it down to 25 in a few areas. Sell the brass for 5bucks.... gives you dollar a round... also seen sometimes big boxes for even cheaper than a dollar a round
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Southpaw » 07 Jun 2018, 7:50 pm

juststarting wrote:If you exclude brass, it's definitely doable. At Melbourne prices, doubt it's doable in Tasmania.

It’s definitely doable in Tas, especially when the local shop has nothing on the shelves!
Not sure if the rest of the country was as bad as it was down here, but during the ammo drought we struggled to get regular supplies of all the 2s (22, 22-250, 222, 223, 243 etc). Was definitely glad I had the basic reloading gear stashed away, along with primers, powder and projectiles...
Hang on, is this the prepping forum? :problem:
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by bladeracer » 07 Jun 2018, 8:23 pm

Ziad wrote:Well I just did the sums again..ppu shoot reasonably. And a packet in my lgs is 28... if you buying a few hundred and regularly maybe you could bring it down to 25 in a few areas. Sell the brass for 5bucks.... gives you dollar a round... also seen sometimes big boxes for even cheaper than a dollar a round


But my .223 80gn ELDM loads are only 56c a shot, for a high-quality, long-range precision load. I know Hornady do offer long-range precision ammunition, but not the 80gn ELDM unfortunately. But RebelGunWorks list the Hornady TAP 75gn BTHP at $29/20rds. I would think ELDM ammo would be more expensive but it gives us a ballpark for ammo costs - about $1.50 a shot, and you can probably sell the brass for 25c a piece. Still more than double the price of making your own.
For cheaper small-game ammo I see RGB list Buffalo River packs at about $1.00 per shot, less a return on the brass, say 75c a shot.

Let's say you're going to spend $500 on your reloading setup, without components.
And, that you're shooting 1000rds per year in .223Rem.
If you're hunting, Buffalo River will cost you $750 after you sell off the brass.
If you're ringing steel at long range, high-BC ammo will cost you about $1200.

You can make equivalent ammo yourself for about 40c and 60c a shot, about half the price. With good load development your ammo might even be better than what you can buy.

At the end of the year you've spent $500 on equipment, and $400 or $600 on components to make 1000rds. Even in the first year you're already $100 ahead, and probably only made a time investment of 10-20 hours to make that 1000rds. If you're loading two different cartridges to shoot 1000 of each per year, you're even further ahead (you already have the gear and just need some extras, dies for that specific cartridge basically. If you splash out and spend $1000 on gear, you're still ahead in less than two years.

If you want to load the best ammo you can, then a portion of your loaded ammo is going to be burned up just refining the load for that bullet, in addition to the 1000 rounds you want to shoot each year. If you want to do this with several different bullets, then the number of rounds burned up outside of your originally-intended 1000rds increases significantly, as does the number of hours invested into making your ammo. This is offset, to a degree only you can judge, by significantly more time spent actually shooting, including improving your abilities, to be able to get the best data during load development. Additionally, if you enjoy practicing your shooting, you can make even cheaper ammunition than your competition or hunting ammo, just for practicing.
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by bladeracer » 07 Jun 2018, 8:27 pm

Southpaw wrote:It’s definitely doable in Tas, especially when the local shop has nothing on the shelves!
Not sure if the rest of the country was as bad as it was down here, but during the ammo drought we struggled to get regular supplies of all the 2s (22, 22-250, 222, 223, 243 etc). Was definitely glad I had the basic reloading gear stashed away, along with primers, powder and projectiles...
Hang on, is this the prepping forum? :problem:


How do you guys get powders now? I read that nobody can currently courier it across the gap from the mainland? I assume that reps and licenced firearm owners can still transport as much powder as they want though, so I guess reps just take large loads across on the ferry? Have powder prices risen?
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Gwion » 07 Jun 2018, 9:08 pm

:D :clap: :drinks:

Flyer wrote:
Gwion wrote:Yes but as you say above, you are not taking time off work to reload and unless you are a complete nong or have a very cushy job, you are not reloading when you would otherwise be earning.

Free time IS more and more valuable as our lives get busier but do you charge your family restaurant prices when you cook them a meal? Do you have a taxi meter in your car for all the time you spend running around on personal or family business?

In real terms it does save money because you are not shelling out and you are only counting hypothetical earnings.
Yes, if you are really time poor you wouldn't reload but in that case you probably wouldn't put much time into hobbies and probably be happy shooting 1" groups at the range once a month or a couple of times a year. Mind you, you might spend a LOT of time and money trialing ammo to find a round that your rifle likes.

Totally agree you need to factor in the time but not so much that the time has a fiscal value unless it impacts your earning time.

As for case prep, etc, i do that while watching a movie, which i like to do in down time anyway. The only time i find inconvenient is the actual loading because it's tedious, repetitive and mind numbingly boring. I can think of quite a few things I'd rather do for 'contemplation' than reloading.

The only point I'm making is that if you are reloading purely to "save money", then it's a false economy.

Obviously that goes for anything we do, but the difference is we don't usually choose our hobbies or past-times to save money. It's like making your own beer or bread - you're probably not saving as much money as you think, but ultimately the pleasure is in the process of making something enjoyable that you can't necessarily buy off the shelf.

In that respect, I agree. After all, I reload myself! :D
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Sergeant Hartman » 07 Jun 2018, 9:09 pm

Any how, my new projectile in 308 will cost me 0.36 cents. It's supposed to be pretty good. For me to practice my 308 round will cost me 72 cents. Plus time. Damn my next trip to little river will cost me nearly 200 bucks, makes me think my car hobby was cheaper (well track day was 180 entry)

Compared to my cz that is very happy shooting eley standard works out about 15cents a round...
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by Southpaw » 07 Jun 2018, 9:34 pm

bladeracer wrote:
Southpaw wrote:It’s definitely doable in Tas, especially when the local shop has nothing on the shelves!
Not sure if the rest of the country was as bad as it was down here, but during the ammo drought we struggled to get regular supplies of all the 2s (22, 22-250, 222, 223, 243 etc). Was definitely glad I had the basic reloading gear stashed away, along with primers, powder and projectiles...
Hang on, is this the prepping forum? :problem:


How do you guys get powders now? I read that nobody can currently courier it across the gap from the mainland? I assume that reps and licenced firearm owners can still transport as much powder as they want though, so I guess reps just take large loads across on the ferry? Have powder prices risen?

We get powder at the local gun shop like everyone else :)
But yeah as far as I know it’s still a killer to try and buy any reloading components on the net that go bang. No one will send it over here, at least not affordably anyway.
All our shops here are well stocked, but we do pay more it seems when comparing ours to mainland prices. (The most expensive stretch of water in the world apparently...) :problem:
The biggest pain now is the ferry has limited us to 5kgs, doesn’t really effect me, but a lot of the comp blokes traveling over and taking their own ammo find it a right pain...
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by in2anity » 07 Jun 2018, 10:21 pm

Ziad wrote:Any how, my new projectile in 308 will cost me 0.36 cents. It's supposed to be pretty good. For me to practice my 308 round will cost me 72 cents. Plus time. Damn my next trip to little river will cost me nearly 200 bucks, makes me think my car hobby was cheaper (well track day was 180 entry)

Compared to my cz that is very happy shooting eley standard works out about 15cents a round...

Have you tried cast 30cal pills over TB in your 308w?
At what point does lack of maintenance become patina?
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Re: Is it worth reloading?

Post by brett1868 » 08 Jun 2018, 1:29 am

Is reloading worth it....from a satisfaction and accuracy viewpoint, definitely. As an economical argument, that depends on how much you shoot. Not counting brass the average CF rifle reloading cost is roughly around %50-%60 the price of buying factory. Based on a .308 using mid spec components you're saving about a dollar per round so you can extrapolate the saving per round against the cost f your reloading kit to calculate the break even point. Assuming $600 was spent on kit you'll need to load and shoot 545 rounds to break even. How long it takes you to shoot that many rounds will be the deciding factor if "saving money" is the sole reason to reload. I turned my reloading into a small business, my gear has now fully paid for itself and I'm making just enough to cover the operating costs.
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