Are my observations correct or do I have my head up my butt?

[David Milisock]

That's a lot more than 10-15c savings per round.

A quick calculation shows the following 30-06 handload costs with your bullets assuming you have to buy brass:

Interlock- $20/box vs $28+ shipping. That's over $0.50 savings per round vs store bought. About 33% savings.

$0.35 Bullet Interlock
$0.13 Primer CCI
$0.40 Powder Varget
$0.11 Brass Starline

Premium- $25/box vs $50-$75??+ shipping. That's anywhere from $1.25 to $2.50 savings per round vs store bought. 50% to 75% savings.

The quality of factory rifles and ammo has indeed improved, but reloading in bulk quantities and frugal shopping still offers significant savings.

For something like 223 Hornady Black 75gr BTHP or Federal Gold Medal 77gr OTM it's $25-$30/box retail vs $17 for handloads, over 33% to 50% savings:

$0.50 berger 75gr VLD ($0.40 Sierra MatchKing)
$0.13 Primer CCI
$0.18 Powder Varget
$0.07 Brass Starline

Starline lists their 30-06 brass at 48 cents + shipping for 250 cases, (223 at 29 cents). Powder 50 grains per load is 140 load per pound if I'm correct, that's 39 cents per load + shipping, 13 cents for a primer. That's a buck + shipping per round for 30-06. If I buy at 1.45 per piece and reload at 1.00 + shipping on both and only shoot 100 rounds a year that's a lousy $45. Quite frankly not worth 1/2 hour of my time. My 8MM Mauser is about the same cost wise but I do shoot it more.

If I apply the math to my 6MM Remington, (I shoot that more) but I can save a great deal, the cost of loading is less than 1/2 of the $2.25 per round from the factory. Saving maybe $250 a year so maybe or maybe not worth it. However, accuracy and velocity make it worth it.

My 444 Marlin cost from the factory $2.70 per round, I can load that for far less but it only gets shot 10 to 20 times a year. There's barley $25 savings.

My 450 Marlin 500 grain loads can't be bought at any price. So handloading it is.

My 359 Norma are $7.59 per round, and I can load them for well under $2.00, again I only shoot those 100 times a year, saving $500, worth my while. However, that throat is custom cut so handloads it is.

All my custom stuff I'll have to hand load for but, I'm going to load for fewer cartridges, shoot more wildlife photography and work on those grandkids. My 6MM ARC for my gas rifle I believe will eat only factory ammo, as will my A2 in 5.56.

 

[TaperPin]

My wife believes I reload because it saves money. Don't ruin it for me!

Exactly! The only reason I can afford a new rifle is because of reloading, so after picking up the rifle I should also stock up on components. Basic economics. It‘s also is a good idea to ask about container size when ordering powder - “Honey should I get 8lbs of something rather than 1 lb if it saves money?” That’s on her.

 

[jelenko]

Starline lists their 30-06 brass at 48 cents

But, it gets reloaded a bunch of times. Gotta divide the cost by the number of reloads but also add cost of getting the brass ready for the next loading.

 

[Evlshnngns]

For my 6.5 grendel

.60 brass
.30 powder
.10 primer
.30 bullet
$1.30

I bought Hornady black, it shoots great. I'll reload the brass.

 

[6ShotsOr5?]

Reloading saves me a lot of money because of all the time and effort I put into saving the $0.10 to $0.15 per round. If I had all that extra time, I would shoot a lot more ammo, shop for new equipment instead of reloading components, and go on more hunting / shooting vacations.

 

[Bill Norris]

Back in the mid 90s' when I started hand loading components were cheap enough to load than buy factory stuff. Today I'm not too sure that is still the case but if I could not hand load then I doubt if I would shoot. I love the challenge of finding a good load. I guess one could say I hand load to shoot.

 

[DiRTY DOG]

Starline lists their 30-06 brass at 48 cents + shipping...

...and only shoot 100 rounds a year

Brass can be re-used 5 or 10 times, or more. So devide 48 cents by being used maybe 5-6 times on average. It's not 48 cents each time you shoot it, it's more like 8 cents.

Reloading is most cost effective when buying in bulk. Ordering 1lb of powder and paing $20 hazmat plut $15 shipping is not cost effective. But it IS way cheaper when you buy a jug or two with your buddy plus primers in the same order and spread out the costs. Last 8lb jug of Varget I bought was $287 plus $20 hazmat plus $15 shipping = $40/lb. At that rate a charge of 30-06 powder is $0.28 per round. But it was actually less than that because I ordered several things together to save on shipping.

And if you're only shooting 100 rounds per year, forget about reloading.

 

[AccelR8]

...it IS way cheaper when you buy a jug or two with your buddy plus primers in the same order and spread out the costs.

If only I knew another person who reloads, but I don't. Otherwise I would love to employ this strategy. It would make no sense to hook up with another via the internet for mutual orders and cost sharing because by the time you ship half the order or some one drives a distance (time, gas) the savings are negated.

What I'm running in to now is this; I do have at least a year's supply of everything I use but as I use some of that supply and I find replacements at reasonable cost, I buy to keep my stocks up. But the wife is saying, you have so many reloading supplies how about using them up before you keep spending money buying more? I try to tell her it doesn't work that way, that there's periods of unavailability and/or high cost. She doesn't think so. She thinks you can always get it when you want it.

If I shoot a hundred rounds, I'll stop and pick up 100 primers. When I've used about a pound of powder, I'll stop and pick up a pound if I can find it and it's reasonable. She sees 5,000 small pistol primers on the shelf or 6 pounds of RL 16 and can't understand why in the world I should buy more.

 

[AccelR8]

But back to the original post, I understand what he's saying. For example it's almost always cheaper to buy for example 9mm ammo than it is to reload it unless you're doing it on an industrial scale and the ammo you can buy about as good as it gets.

 

[DiRTY DOG]

But back to the original post, I understand what he's saying. For example it's almost always cheaper to buy for example 9mm ammo than it is to reload it unless you're doing it on an industrial scale and the ammo you can buy about as good as it gets.

No way! I can (and do) reload 9mm for less than the cheapest 9mm out there. I'm currently shooting a mid price bullet (Precision Delta 124gr JHP $200/2000 free shipping) and expensive primers (CCI $100/1000) and I'm still beating every single factory load price out there.

My awesome JHP load is currently $11.00/box 50. Even if cheap factory fmj stuff is $11.50 or $12.00, my load is super accurate and it's a JHP!

I could reduce my cost from $11 to $9-10 by shooting bulk Ginex primers and Blue Bullets (polymer coated) but I don't like coated bullets.

 

[DiRTY DOG]

If I shoot a hundred rounds, I'll stop and pick up 100 primers. When I've used about a pound of powder, I'll stop and pick up a pound if I can find it and it's reasonable. She sees 5,000 small pistol primers on the shelf or 6 pounds of RL 16 and can't understand why in the world I should buy more.

It's significantly cheaper to buy powder in jugs and primers in sleeves, but whatever.

 

[DRK]

I have loaded metallic ammunition for approx. 20 years. When I started it was about saving $, in reality shooting more for the same $.

In the past 15 years I have had my license we have seen several periods of lack of availability of guns, ammo, & components. This is why I now load my own ammo more than anyone reason and buy components by the skid. There are other benefits as stated above too, however, when I want to run a couple hundred rounds through my Thompson SMG, I have that ability w/o having to go try to find ammo on the shelf somewhere.

I have quality equipment too I like to run & maintain. Three Stars, a Lyman T8, Dillon 1100, and a Camdex. I enjoy fixing equipment and improving it. My Camdex is the old relay controls, I am looking at recontroling it as a project just to see if I can.

 

[AccelR8]

It's significantly cheaper to buy powder in jugs and primers in sleeves, but whatever.

I agree about the powder but where I buy primers the cost per is the same whether I buy 100, 1,000 or 5,000. I WIll buy on line in bulk if the price, hazmat and shipping all add up to no more than what I can buy locally for but that rarely happens.

 

[AccelR8]

...and when your wife is an accountant sometimes ya gotta play the game

 

[Zero333]

Between my brother and I, we shoot about 2,000 rounds of rifle ammo per year and at least 2 or 3k of pistol ammo at the same time.

We save THOUSANDS of dollars every year by loading our own ammo.

BTW: I'm in Canaduh, thus ammo prices are stupid crazy. Even component prices are astronomical, yet we still save tons of cash.

On the other hand,.. Having a hobby you love keeps our minds satisfied and stops them from wondering into stupid places.

 

[wildcatter]

I must be missing something here, I have never found a single factory round that is capable in firearm I own that shoots close as good as I load myself. But every rifle I own is capable of better than .5 moa accuracy.

He'll I can't even buy 22LR as good as I tune, for less than $20 a hundred. But any rimfire ammo I shoot, I run through my Waltz die, and improve it, that includes Lapua Center X.

I also never paid more than $1.20 a hundred for primers, those were new Federal 205M for my 6mm ppc BR rifle. My 6BR and 222 Rem. Target guns, as well as my 17MK IV (try buying ammo for that with a tight NK) shoot just good with $8.00 a hundred Reminton 7 1/2 primers. Plus most all my rifles are tight NK.

My handguns, well forget it, if you could buy as good, in many cases its not even loaded. Like in the 45 Colt my own 340 grn WFN @ 1270 fps is only available from one supplier at that power level and wieght. A box of twenty cost more than I can load 300 rounds for, I have only time in my bullets and no money except about $2.50 for the amount of tin bulion I add to a 20# pot. And once again factory will not shoot as good as my under 3/4" at 25 yards groups.


My 357 with its 180 grain WFN HP, is about the same, except I can't even buy that bullet!


I won't carry on any further, but I will say my 327 federal with 140 WFN HP would be impossible find, let alone anything factory that could shoot as well or in that power range is only a fantasy.


Price the 475 Linebaugh crap they sell, I doubt I could even afford to shoot it if I didn't reload!

Like I said, I know im doing something different, but then again, I never dreamed of buying any ammo, for any centerfire, to me its just a waste of money, let alone way more expensive, and in most of my situations, not even possible to buy what shoots best.

 

[David Milisock]

Brass can be re-used 5 or 10 times, or more. So devide 48 cents by being used maybe 5-6 times on average. It's not 48 cents each time you shoot it, it's more like 8 cents.

Reloading is most cost effective when buying in bulk. Ordering 1lb of powder and paing $20 hazmat plut $15 shipping is not cost effective. But it IS way cheaper when you buy a jug or two with your buddy plus primers in the same order and spread out the costs. Last 8lb jug of Varget I bought was $287 plus $20 hazmat plus $15 shipping = $40/lb. At that rate a charge of 30-06 powder is $0.28 per round. But it was actually less than that because I ordered several things together to save on shipping.

And if you're only shooting 100 rounds per year, forget about reloading.

That's what I'm going to do for my low count standard cartridges. High count and custom cartridges will be reloaded.

 

[David Milisock]

I must be missing something here, I have never found a single factory round that is capable in firearm I own that shoots close as good as I load myself. But every rifle I own is capable of better than .5 moa accuracy.

He'll I can't even buy 22LR as good as I tune, for less than $20 a hundred. But any rimfire ammo I shoot, I run through my Waltz die, and improve it, that includes Lapua Center X.

I also never paid more than $1.20 a hundred for primers, those were new Federal 205M for my 6mm ppc BR rifle. My 6BR and 222 Rem. Target guns, as well as my 17MK IV (try buying ammo for that with a tight NK) shoot just good with $8.00 a hundred Reminton 7 1/2 primers. Plus most all my rifles are tight NK.

My handguns, well forget it, if you could buy as good, in many cases its not even loaded. Like in the 45 Colt my own 340 grn WFN @ 1270 fps is only available from one supplier at that power level and wieght. A box of twenty cost more than I can load 300 rounds for, I have only time in my bullets and no money except about $2.50 for the amount of tin bulion I add to a 20# pot. And once again factory will not shoot as good as my under 3/4" at 25 yards groups.
View attachment 1507041

My 357 with its 180 grain WFN HP, is about the same, except I can't even buy that bullet!
View attachment 1507035

I won't carry on any further, but I will say my 327 federal with 140 WFN HP would be impossible find, let alone anything factory that could shoot as well or in that power range is only a fantasy.
View attachment 1507042

Price the 475 Linebaugh crap they sell, I doubt I could even afford to shoot it if I didn't reload!

Like I said, I know im doing something different, but then again, I never dreamed of buying any ammo, for any centerfire, to me its just a waste of money, let alone way more expensive, and in most of my situations, not even possible to buy what shoots best.

I get it, custom cartridges can bet $8.00 per shot so I reload them.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

I get it, custom cartridges can bet $8.00 per shot so I reload them.

I sure get your point on sporting rifle ammo. If you can buy it in the current $.50 range it makes since to get it just to have the stockpile of brass to load later.

 

[rjtfroggy]

0.73 per round for my 30x47, but you can't buy it so it has to be reloaded.
0.70 for my 30BR, here again can't be bought.
0.70 for the 6BR it can be bought but will not be as accurate.
I haven't run the non "specialized" cartridges in a long time but still have components and I would reload them any way before I went and bought it. Just me.
I don't shoot the shot gun anymore so I made a young fellow on here a deal that couldn't be refused, I even through in a 20 gauge single shot for his new born baby boy. 4 mec loaders, powder, primers, shot, 4-5000 wads, all the empty cases I had (a lot of them)