by boingk » 08 Jun 2020, 3:56 am
I wrote this intended for another thread, but it ended up being longer than I anticipated. I've done a bunch of research into reloading lately after having last been involved with it over 10 years ago, and then only on the sidelines as an assist.
So, why reloading... for the economy? To develop your own loads? Just for the journey and experience? Self sufficiency? All are good reasons, but a lot of people like to know they can save a few bucks while enjoying this aspect of our hobby.
First question, what have you spent getting equipment to reload? Is it a budget $200 setup with basic (or used) press and loading dippers, or is it a full-on progressive setup in the thousands? Lets say you go entry-level midrange with a Lee Classic Turret setup. That's $500 (all costs as of mid 2020). Throw in a set of dies, that's about $70. That will cover you for your given cartridge and most operations required.
Now you need to get primer, powder and projectiles to factor in. Exclude your brass for the moment, lets say you have some saved or given from a mate. You're looking at roughly 8c a primer and 8c per 10gr of powder (32c for 40gr powder), obviously local pricing will affect this but this is using Abelas gun shop in Sydney as a yardstick.
Projectiles vary but lets say we're loading 308. For 308 you can go from a 50c/bullet Speer to about $1/bullet Nosler ballistic tips.
So you've got:
8c Primer
32c powder (40grain @ 4x 8c/10gr)
50c Speer bullet
90c round (excluding brass)
So, what are we comparing it against? Are we spending $1.50/rd on PPU or are we going for the exotic $5/rd stuff? Lets say we're somewhere in the middle, about $2.50/rd for something like a Remington BXC or Federal Premiums.
Right there you are saving $1.60 a round. Keep in mind you can also spend more on ammunition by using premium components, or simply wasting materials by not using them and switching to other types before you exhaust them. I am merely giving an example of a possible economical load for 308.
Anyway, if you divide your $570 loading kit investment by 1.6 and you're at 350 rounds to pay off the investment. It might seem like a lot of rounds, or it might seem like nothing - that's up to you. If you spent half that amount on your original setup with some very basic or maybe used gear then you'd be looking at half the amount of rounds - $280 investment means you only need to load 175 rounds.
What if we factor in the brass? Its often $1 a case. Say you reuse it 5 times before you get new stuff, add 20c per round. Now we're at $1.10 per round. That's still a saving of $1.40 a round, but eats into our figures so you have to load 400+ rounds for the $570 investment, or 200 for the $280 one. Every little bit counts.
If you resize your brass properly, however, it should last dozens of reloads. This is why I did not put it as a cost initially. But resizing takes time.
So lets talk about how much time you spend doing this. Are you factoring in your time as a cost? Do you have a young family, a long commute, a hectic work life? Some people have all of these (or none!) but if you are reading this then it is likely you want the experience regardless and do not want to value your time in a monetary sense for this exercise. Time is one reason I'd recommend a turret press over a single action - they are much more time efficient and you are likely to actually load the rounds you think you will. You see many single action presses for sale, not as many turret style. Think about that. Turret style often claim you can do 200+ rounds per hour, generally people say 100 to 150 is a more relaxed and methodical pace. Single stage are generally between 20 and 30, with bulk runs (ie big batches of one operation such as priming or sizing between die changes) pushing this a bit higher.
All of this is food for thought.
Personally? Say I get a new rifle. I bulk buy some factory ammunition and go from there. I know what the rifle will do with it and have a known starting point. Plus, I get to go to the range/hunt immediately and can go have fun with buddies, then have evening downtime and reload my freshly spent brass. Sounds like a good time to me.
If you've made it this far you'll have an idea of what you need to know in order to know the costs associated with reloading.
What about load development? How do you know what 'recipes' to follow? Search the ADI listings by going to adi-powders dot com dot au and go from there. You will find a lot of valuable information.
Loading is a meticulous task requiring you to clean and remove spent primers from the case, fill it with powder, seat a bullet and crimp it in place. This is the most basic of operations, there are also resizing and trimming operations you need to be aware of. If you don't feel comfortable about this there are many resources online you can utilize. Youtube is great for this stuff, check out hikok45 or iraqvet8888. Both have good reloading videos.
Hopefully my research will give you some idea of whether this is for you or not.
Cheers! - boingk
Nil