Anybody Do Reloading?

Lee Load Master complete kit for one caliber $220 (Factory Sales)
The Bullet Works plated bullets $70-80/1000
Buy primers and powder locally to avoid haz mat shipping charges
CCI sm pistol $35/1000
Titegroup or Unique, etc $30/lb... A thousand rounds or more (7000 gr/lb, used at 3-5 gr/ round)

I do 9mm using mixed (free) range brass for 10 cents/round... Half of the cost of cheap factory ammo. Once I get going, I can do a couple of hundred in an hour.

One but of advice: when using the Lee progressive press, I de-prime and size a bunch of brass, doing nothing else at that time. Discard brass which had crimped primer pockets (Win 9 mm NATO, or surplus military rounds.). It's easy to mess up your workflow with a jam or primer feed problem with a messed up primer pocket. I think the priming system is a big issue why people dislike the Lee press.

The inexpensive Lee works pretty well once you get things adjusted. I really like the Auto Disk powder measure, and it does have it's limits, but it is very consistent with Titgroup (small charges of powder with a small particle diameter.)

jmar254 said:

I can reload 1000 for $98.40 = .0217 Primer, .0087 worth of powder and .068 bullet.

Now if I fire up the lead caster, I can pop a round off for .034 a crack. I've made 4300 rounds of cast lead for $ 145.61.

Overall between my cast and Jacketed bullets, I've made 14,750 at a cost of $1,051.89 or roughly 7 cents a piece.

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What are your costs after you factor in the ammortized costs of your machine and dies?

Keens, I shoot about 300 rounds per year, which is nowhere near enough to justify the expense of reloading.

Regardless, even at 7 cents a piece, I couldn't justify the time it takes by any stretch other than to call it a "hobby," and it's not one of my hobbies, so I just buy my 9mm target-plinking ball ammo for about 12 cents a piece and call it a day.

ETA: Unless you consider firing black powder as "reloading." If so, then I'm a reloader, as I have to load before I can fire!

since9 said:

What are your costs after you factor in the ammortized costs of your machine and dies?

Keens, I shoot about 300 rounds per year, which is nowhere near enough to justify the expense of reloading.

Regardless, even at 7 cents a piece, I couldn't justify the time it takes by any stretch other than to call it a "hobby," and it's not one of my hobbies, so I just buy my 9mm target-plinking ball ammo for about 12 cents a piece and call it a day.

ETA: Unless you consider firing black powder as "reloading." If so, then I'm a reloader, as I have to load before I can fire!

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The way I have figured it, had I bought that many rounds from Bass Pro, granted I haven't checked their prices in a while, 14,750 rounds would've cost me over $5000. The excel spreadsheet I have says I paid for all of my expenses, machine, dies, powder, primers, everything in 11,300 rounds, this changes everytime I buy more components.

since9 said:

What are your costs after you factor in the ammortized costs of your machine and dies?

Keens, I shoot about 300 rounds per year, which is nowhere near enough to justify the expense of reloading.

Regardless, even at 7 cents a piece, I couldn't justify the time it takes by any stretch other than to call it a "hobby," and it's not one of my hobbies, so I just buy my 9mm target-plinking ball ammo for about 12 cents a piece and call it a day.

ETA: Unless you consider firing black powder as "reloading." If so, then I'm a reloader, as I have to load before I can fire!

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We are shooting more ammo than the previous months and it just goes higher each month! Shooting is fun! I'm unloading about 300 rounds a month now. Mostly we shoot .40's, and would like to start for now with reloading those. Then eventually buy dyes for.223, .30-30, 9mm. Searched Wally-Marts all last weekend for some .40 Tulammo for the NF, at about $12-13 a box, found none! This weekend, going back to the NF to shoot, I'm gonna just shoot the Walther P22 (needs broken in more, fairly new) and Marlin model 60, cheap to shoot after spending too much on ammo last weekend! Last weekend I shot a .500 mag for the first time (indoor range!), and...Wow!

I have about 1500 in loading and casting equipment. It was definitely worth the investment. I've used RCBS, Lee and Dillon presses. I like Dillon the best.

jmar254 said:

The way I have figured it, had I bought that many rounds from Bass Pro, granted I haven't checked their prices in a while, 14,750 rounds would've cost me over $5000.

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I get 9mm in 100-round boxes for $23, or $0.23 per round. At that rate, your 14,750 rounds would have cost me $3,392, not $5k+.

Regardless, you're not factoring in TIME. How long did it take you to sweep, clean, prep the brass and load those $14,750 rounds? Let's say you're amazing and can whip out 1 round every 5 seconds (don't forget the prep time). That's 73,750 seconds, or 20.5 hours. You didn't provide in-house cost factors, but a previous gent said he was cranking them out for about $0.10 per round, a savings of $0.13 per round over bulk store bought.

Crunching 20.5 hrs, 14,750 rounds, and cost savings of $0.13 per round tells me the total cost savings for 14,750 rounds was $1,917.50. At 20.5 hrs, you're working for $93.50 per hour, so that's not bad at all!!!

Getting back to my measly 300 rounds per year, even if I did it for 10 years, I wouldn't be a third of the way towards your break-even point of 11,300 rounds. Thus, it wouldn't be worth my time from a cost-savings point of view, as I'd either have to forfeit time spent on hobbies I enjoy much more, or I'd have to forfeit time spend working at a superior rate

But I'm glad to see you enjoy it. And at the rate you go through ammo, it's obviously worth your time and effort.

Still not a lot of time to properly write up my opinions on this. This is why I reccomend the Classic Lee Loaders. For the cost of a couple dies you have pretty much all you need. It's a way to see if it's a hobby you can get into. They are slower, but that is even better. You can be more precise and decide if it's really worth the effort. The Lee Anniversary kits are a bit more fancy and go for around $1-200. Not the greatest, but you can put your foot in the water before investing thousands.

Since9, what's your source?

mahkagari said:

Since9, what's your source?

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Source for what? The loading costs were from the posts of others here in this thread. My only input was for 100 rounds of 9mm at the price I pay for it and some basic number crunching (add, subtract, divide, multiply...)

since9 said:

My only input was for 100 rounds of 9mm at the price I pay for it and some basic number crunching (add, subtract, divide, multiply...)

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Yes, what is your source for your ammo supply? Or is that your reload price?

mahkagari said:

Yes, what is your source for your ammo supply? Or is that your reload price?

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Oh, no, that's store-bought. Just generic ball ammo, 100 rounds a box. I'm always keeping my eyes peeled at Sports Authority, Walmart, Cabella's (mail order), Paradise, Sportsman's Warehouse, and other locations. I only buy when it's significantly cheaper than average.

since9 said:

Oh, no, that's store-bought. Just generic ball ammo, 100 rounds a box. I'm always keeping my eyes peeled at Sports Authority, Walmart, Cabella's (mail order), Paradise, Sportsman's Warehouse, and other locations. I only buy when it's significantly cheaper than average.

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Can't forget Cheaperthandirt.

Academy sells WWB 9mm for $23/100 all day. That is my preferred factory ammo and I have had only 3 or 4 bad rounds in thousands thru my pistols (some of those may have been operator error.)

nonameisgood said:

Academy sells WWB 9mm for $23/100 all day. That is my preferred factory ammo and I have had only 3 or 4 bad rounds in thousands thru my pistols (some of those may have been operator error.)

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You made a good point about bad rounds. I use the cheapies only for target practice. I never use them as my carry loads. Only the best I can afford for that, and those cost a little more than $50 for my 16x4+1 (65 rounds).

All were obvious defects which would be found by inspecting and chambering each round before putting it to your defensive use queue. There might have been a light squib or something else, but no more than with any other manufacturer, and nothing memorable.

I reload to reduce my marginal cost per round, but also to let me load a light practice load which works well for IDPA and static target practice. My setup allows me to load about as fast as I shoot.

I also trust my skills to load match-grade rounds, which would be ideal carry loads (with the usual caveat that I don't/wouldn't load defensive loads which are intentionally destructive.) If I weight it, load it, and measure it, I know it is right. I have had serious problems with Hornady defense rounds. (like bullets setting back into the case - a serious safety problem)