lets take a .308 win
with all new brass
1984 $0.38 per round
2023 $1.62 per round

once fired brass
1984 $.21 per round
2023 $.86 per round

Actually, if you factor in inflation a 1984 dollar is worth exactly $3 today so to costs you have are just about what inflation caused

Ive spent more money reloading than if I had just bought a 100 factory rounds for each gun I own, but no! needed dies and all manor of equipment brass and bullets, and thousands of reloads for each gun over a period of over 70 years of reloading. Just depends on your persona and do-what-er!

Have ya'll looked at the cost of factory ammo lately?

When I started reloading my main motivation was actually that I didnt care for the bullets the factory stuff made available. I prefered to custom taylor my loads then and still do.

I think every house I've ever been in had a pretty much full/equipped kitchen. So if you buy a house and microwave a burrito, is that a $50,000 burrito? You could have all kinds of food made-to-order and delivered for a lot less, right?

A lot depends on what you reload for. If you start shoot big bores everything changes! Factory are loaded with premium everything! There are cheaper bullets that work just as well for say pigs!

My reloading equipment paid for itself many times over!
Even now when I crank out a box of mild 45 colt rounds at 7.25 per box that are better quality than what the store has for 59.00 I call that a success and when I get into the ++p Redhawk loads the cost savings is even greater and that is just 1 cartridge I load for. I got into the reloading game in the early 80s and still have stuff I bought then so if you think getting into reloading now is going to save you money it won't because a guy is 25 years to late.

it still costs about 50-60% of buying new ammo, even with the over priced components we are seeing.

some stuff saves maybe a dollar a box, the first load, and 2 the second.

but the first and the second and the third are the same bullet and powder and primer lot number.

other stuff saves like 50$ a box, versus if you can even find it.
got a 348 win, 25-20, 8mm lebel, 351 win, 28ga shotgun, how's about a .410?
shoot those enough and you can pay for a 50-K house with the savings in short order.

Ray:
You got it man!

I know most of the dies sets I have cost
at least $30 per. One I recall was $168
an 3 months wait. I have no idea for sure how many are on that shelf.
Well over 40 I'm sure. Then there's 4 presses---".

Sure am glad I stocked up on powder and primers
about 15 years ago. Everytime I see a new price
posted these days makes me feel richer.

Only once I recall actually paying $1 each for used brass (7mm & 300RUM). Other than as a kid buying from the scrap barrel at a dime a pound. The rest of what I'm fairly sure accounts for accounts 40,000 came from the brass buckets at the range. No, only about 3/4s of them are loaded.

George

reloading is about as cost saving as having your own milk cow, but the satisfaction is priceless.

Sometimes reloading is the only way to shoot.

I have dozens of rifles I built that have no factory ammo.

I don't think I saved any money over all.


Because what I saved was put back into ammo.

But what reloading allowed me to do was shoot many 10's thousands rounds.

More then I would have buying factory.

quote:

posted 25 February 2023 21:52 Hide Post
Actually, if you factor in inflation a 1984

yea i was talking inflation. ive been reloading 42 years. i used to shoot hundreds of rounds a year. i dont shoot near what i use to.. bullets $35.00-$55.00 a hundred, powder $48-55.00 a pound, primers $12.00 per hundred if you can find them.. when i first started, 1 doller would buy 100 primers, $14.00 per pound of powder..

I agree, its kind of depressing. There are things that can be done, like shooting more small rounds (less powder use), casting bullets or even swaging. I have found a few deals on bulk bullets and factory seconds. Bullets arent a problem for me anymore. But there is still the primer and brass costs/availability issues. Pretty outrageous. It feels like it is going to take a long time for the rest of the market to catch up to the inflation of components.

my "investment" in reloading was paid off in a single caliber, if we go by price of factory loads. i could buy factory 500 jeffe for roughly $20, now 50, per round - cases were 2 bucks, call it 10 reloads, so 30 cents, primers were 5 cents, mil surp powder was a dime, and cast bullets 25 cents. 70 cents per. .. i loaded up 200 of them, $140 bucks, and shot them call - vs $4,000 for the same in factory loads .. a conservative estimate would be 500 rounds, likely closer to 650 -- but that ONE caliber has paid off all my reloading spend up to that date...


and if you believe that I turned a profit reloading, I have a bridge to sell you

Yeah, started out reloading believing that story about cutting ammo costs in half. Truth is, after loading and thinking a while, I realized the cost never went down but the shooting doubled. Go figure.

When you see components on sale you stock up. I still have 30-50 pounds of powder that cost $15 a pound, LR and LP pistol primers that cost $15-17 per brick. Still have a bunch of Nosler partition seconds in 30 caliber 180 grains that cost me $11.99 per 50. Think I bought 60 bags.
Always buy more than you think you will use as the stuff is great for trading.
I still remember buying a bunch of Sierra .223 bullets for $2.99 a box on close out maybe 20 years ago. Finally loaded some of them up last month. I can easily load up a box of .270 or 30-06 for under $10 using the same brass.

quote:

Always buy more than you think you will use as the stuff is great for trading.

For sure because every time you pull the trigger it goes away.

Except for the brass

Reloading is one of the few hobbies, besides eating, where you buy things to burn and throw away.

(down range, in the case of reloading) <grin>

quote:

Originally posted by bpesteve:
Reloading is one of the few hobbies, besides eating, where you buy things to burn and throw away.

(down range, in the case of reloading) <grin>

The same might be said of eating - but flushed, instead of thrown away...

Still we enjoy our food well beyond the nutrition it gives us...

Hell I'm still shooting ammo I reloaded for $6.00 a box 25 years ago. .35 Remington today IF you find it is $50+, 45LC must have 500 loaded up at around $5.00 box today $40+, 30-06,270,223 etc a thousand each. I run in streaks shoot like hell for a while then a lapse...Thank God I have enough of some sort to keep me the years I have left. Sold my Lott sold my 416 Rigby sold my 12 ga (s) don't need the big boomers anymore.

If you can get the components I still save money, sometimes big money, reloading.

Some Nitro express cartridges are more than $25 per pop, if you can find them.

Price of loaded ammo has gone crazy in Aus lately.

I guess I amortised the cost of press and scales decades ago but I'm not sure reloading saves me much yet. The main cost is working up loads - by the time I've got to factory velocities most of my bullets are gone

The most expensive ammo I load is 375 H&H. I stocked up on 400+ brass and a great deal on Hornady/Remington round nose bullets at an estate sale.
With the current price of components and and ammo at $80+ dollars a box when available. I get a sense of satisfaction out of 375 at $15 a box.
Even at today's prices for components there is money to be saved. I have had my rcbs outfit for 30+ years. But I happened across a vintage 375H&H Lee loader. I haven't tried to use it, but it lives with the rifle.

sambarman338,

Understand your ammo use dilemma; mine is by the time I find "the" load, the barrel is well worn.

I look at it as saving money only when shooting high volume stuff like pistols.

I use reloading for rifles to tailor the load to the rifle for top accuracy and terminal performance.

When I figure my time, I've lost a ton of money over the years but it's just what I do to keep me sane and my rifles shooting tight groups.

With all the shortages, no doubt your favorite factory ammo will be loaded differently than what you were use to so you've got that going against you.

I can't imagine not reloading!

Zeke

Remind me not to hire most of you for financial advisors. It takes one round to kill a deer or elephant, I load up one box for sight in and two boxes to take hunting, thats 59 rpunds that didn't get shot and I sold them at 25 to 50 cents each, are they remain stacked in my shelves in the thousands for auction at my demise! thats not profit...lets not get into the sale of broken boxes of bullets, mostly 1/4 filled cankisters of powder, worn out brass that I never sold by the coffee can full..I could go on and on of my waste and abuse..I would be way ahead if I had bought two boxes of ammo per gun but ya have to tell your wife something to justify such waste,or she will pack up, take the kids and promptly dump your dumb ass.

Well with 500 Jeffery cartridges costing $20 per round and reloads costing $3 per round with Jamison brass and TSX bullets, reloading seems like a no brainer for me.

Reloading does not save you a cent----It just allows you to shoot more for a set amount of money!

Hip

P.S. When I retired I said to mysef that I have to get rid of some of this crap (reloading stuff)! I ended up buying 4 times as much stuff and a bunch of rifles that I needed more reloading stuff for!

That's where my time has gone!

I used to buy old books, thinking I'd have plenty of time to read them when I retired. In fact with travelling and waiting for trains and trams each day, I had more reading time then.

Conversely, I used to reload once in five years but now seem to be at it all the time, if only to have something to shoot with when my buddy drags me to the range.

I started reloading to save money on a .308 and .300 Winn. Then went up to a .340 Wby for a Moose hunt that I convinced my wife I needed something bigger. Over the years and many more from .223 Rem up to .416 Rigby and investing in all the stuff cost a lot of money but helped me shoot thousands of rounds perfecting loads for all my family of hunters. I have no regrets of all that investment because now they will be able to shot their lifetimes and not have to spend a penny. Hopefully every time they reload a new box they will remember me and smile and enyoy the hunts. Good Shooting.

My main problem with reloading is I spend too many hours in the shop during a Idaho winter, so I reload thousands of calibers, then sell the gun and whiz bang I have all this ammo, but it was a life saver during the shortages, I spent the following winter unloading all that stuff and ended up with lots of powder, brass and bullets..sold the primed brass...

Reloading is an investment. You don't see the return or profit until later down the road. If you are just reloading less expensive calibers like 223 7 62x39 etc then its further out. But the larger cartridges or anything else it is definitely cost savings over time. Plus the satisfaction and pride of making something you built

quote:

Originally posted by Snowwolfe:
When you see components on sale you stock up. I still have 30-50 pounds of powder that cost $15 a pound, LR and LP pistol primers that cost $15-17 per brick. Still have a bunch of Nosler partition seconds in 30 caliber 180 grains that cost me $11.99 per 50. Think I bought 60 bags.
Always buy more than you think you will use as the stuff is great for trading.
I still remember buying a bunch of Sierra .223 bullets for $2.99 a box on close out maybe 20 years ago. Finally loaded some of them up last month. I can easily load up a box of .270 or 30-06 for under $10 using the same brass.

For years my friend and I would buy supplies in Dec. and Jan. SHOT show specials.

Trouble is just like firewood they tend to go up in smoke.

Don't get wrong for normal putting meat on the table I have plenty.

But my supplies for high volume practice hundreds of rounds a week. Has been cut way back.

This topic keeps popping up these hunting and shooting forums.

I started reloading in 1967 when I bought my first centerfire rifle. Then in the early '70s when I bought my first centerfire pistols, I started casting my own lead bullets. And then in the mid '80s I started making my own lead shot for Trap and Skeet shooting.

Like other long time reloaders have posted, my reloading equipment has paid for itself many times over.

I know that when I bought 3 or 4 of my rifles I also bought 100 or 200 new cases for them, but I've always been a brass scrounger, and I now have literally thousands more cases for each of the rifles, pistols, and shotgun gauges than I will ever shoot.

When I started reloading I would buy my bullets and primers in boxes of 100 and my powder in 1 pound cans. In the '80s and '90s I started buying my rifle and pistol primers in bricks of 1000 and my shotshell primers in sleeves of 5000, and powder in 8 pound kegs.

Five years ago I started buying my rifle and pistol bullets in bricks of 1000, Now I wish I would have bought them in sleeves of 5000.

Every year I dig about 400 pounds of bullets out of the berms at our range and after I melt them I sell the copper jackets at the recycling center for more than the cost of the propane used to melt them, so the lead for my cast bullets and shot is essentially free.

My time whether I am reloading, on the Internet or watching TV all costs the same, so it is essentially free.

So to the original question of the price of reloading...
I can reload target 12, 20, 28 ga or .410 shotshells with my homemade shot all for $2/box of 25.
Our gun club sells re-dropped shot for $30/25 lb bag for $30. My reloading costs using that shot would be just over $4 for 12 ga down to $3 for .410 shells.
Our gun club sells all 4 gauges for $10/box

My .223 reloads with 55 gr Hornady FMJ bullets cost me $4.80/box of 20.

My .38 Spl and 9 mm reloads with my cast bullets cost me $2.20/box of 50.

My .44 Spl and .45 acp reloads with my cast bullets cost me $3/box of 50.

My .308 Win reloads with 150 gr Hornady HPBT bullets cost me $10.20/box of 20.

My 7mm Rem mag hunting reloads with 160 gr Accubond bullets cost me $27.30/ box of 20.
Practice reloads with Sierra 160 gr HB bullets cost me $12.30/box of 20.

My .300 Wby hunting reloads with 180 gr Barnes TTSX bullets cost me $24.00/box of 20.
Practice reloads with Nosler 168 gr HPBT Match bullets cost me $12.32/box of 20.

And my .375 RUM hunting reloads with 270 gr Barnes TSX bullets cost me $29.88/box of 20.
My practice reloads with 250 gr Sierra bullets cost me $25.40/box of 20.

Began reloading in the mid-60's for my Dad's .22-250. He told my brother and I he would
buy components but not new rounds for our prairie dog hunting. I later got a Rem700 in
.25-06 and Shotgun News had ads for military .30-06 brass for a nickel a pop. It was
easily transformed to .25-06 and that was a savings even back then. I had the "bug" and
have been reloading ever since.

I could get a job at McDonalds making minimum wage. With the money I have invested in reloading equipment and the time involved, I would have less money and less time into it by taking my McDonalds pay check and buying match ammo. ...and I would probably have more money.

Reloading is therapeutic though.

I recall a conversation with a fellow behind a gun counter in Wisconsin. He had just bought a 44mag wheelgun, first load he tried was 'touching holes' at 50 yards. "What fun is that?" he bemoaned.

He lost the fun of that journey. That's why I reload, fun. Inflation has many things crazy high priced. Entertainment has cost, and those costs increase.

I’ve been reloading since the mid 1960s. Can’t remember the last time I shot a factory metallic center fire, decades for sure.
I was lucky enough to “stock up” on components when Obummer was elected.
I’ll keep reloading as long as I live.