Why the disbelief?

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Texas10mm

Texas10mm

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I'm loading 9mm for well under $0.05 a round right now. I cast my own bullets, I'm using S&B primers and Vectan A1 powder.

Primer $0.0175
Powder $0.006
Bullet $0.004

Total $0.0275 per round or $2.75/100

Yet people always question the cost.

Just because they can't do it doesn't mean it can't be done.

9mm brass is free. I normally pick up somewhere between 500-1000 every trip to the range. You can get Fiocchi primers for $0.026 each if you buy a case. The Vectan powder is $14.99 for 1.1 lbs. I'm paying $0.25 a lb for wheel weights.

I can understand if if your idea is to go to Cabela's and buy a lb of powder and a brick of primers and some Berry's plated bullets. You will have a hard time believing that someone can do it so cheaply.

Also I've noted that many people have no real idea of what their reloads cost them vs the cost of factory ammo. We always hear it's not worth reloading 9mm because it's so inexpensive. I say that's BS because it's really easy to cut the cost in half by reloading.

So, I guess what we need to do is break down the cost of our reloads so we can show people the savings.

My .45 ACP loads are broken down like this.

Primer $0.0175
Powder $0.0125 Winchester WST 4.4 gr, I bought 14 lbs for $19.99 a lb when Gander Mountain went out of business.
Bullet $0.007 200 gr SWC that I cast.

Total cost $0.037 each or $3.70/100

If I go with replacement costs then it breaks down like this.

Primer $0.026
Powder $0.0133
Bullet $0.007

Total cost $0.0463 or $4.63/100

If I had to buy casting metal from Rotometals the bullets would cost $0.0623 making the cost of 100 rounds $10.16. That would be a worst case scenario for me.
 
Excellent points.

In my old age, I've become too lazy to cast. So I buy FMP or Rainier 115 plated bullets in lots of 2,000. Primers, S&B, in sleeves of 5,000 and powder, HS-6, in cases of four, 8lb bottles.

9MM costs me roughly $125/thousand, but that's still a helluva lot cheaper than over $200/thousand for factory.
 
I can still beat the cost of factory ammo here, even without casting and I pay more for powder and primers than most of you. Even if I couldn't, I would still reload, because I enjoy it. It has always been the case, better ammo for less money. Since it is a hobby, my time doesn't count, but for many reloading is tedious that is where the "it's not worth it" enters the picture.
 
When one looks to purchase "low cost" 9mm factory ammo, just exactly what are they getting?

Answer: low cost ammo.

So, even the intrepid smart shopper who scores a deal on 9mm isn't getting anything approaching premium ammo, the kind of ammo some of us want to use. It isn't always about saving money, sometimes it has to do with quality and availability.
 
WW are pretty much picked over around here. Have to buy lead at about a buck a pound. Haven't decided if it's worth the trouble to cast yet. If you wait you can get plated 9mm for about $.065/ea shipped.

$3/100 for loaded ammo is pretty dang impressive.
 
thomas15 said:
When one looks to purchase "low cost" 9mm factory ammo, just exactly what are they getting?

Answer: low cost ammo.

So, even the intrepid smart shopper who scores a deal on 9mm isn't getting anything approaching premium ammo, the kind of ammo some of us want to use. It isn't always about saving money, sometimes it has to do with quality and availability.
Click to expand...

I agree
I say if you load you know exactly what you have. You can spec the bullet, the primer and the powder. The load can be made exactly for your gun and shooting style.

You can’t do those things with premium ammo.

That said, when hand loads are cheaper then the cheapest ammo you can find it’s worth it, but comparing price to premium ammo would show a better savings.

As for OP, I think the numbers are a little low, but it does show that with smart purchasing, planning and such huge savings can be had even at twice those quoted.
 
If reloading becomes a PITA for you, as it did for me after 30 years, get a Dillon 650 or 1050.

On my 650, I load about 550-600 rounds per hour. I'm seriously considering an automatic bullet feeder that will double that rate.

(But they ARE NOT cheap)
 
My headaches with the dumpster-diving, “freegan” reloaders are multiple.

1) It’s a hell of a lot of work, both in sourcing and reclaiming supply.

2) It’s inconsistent. Whether it’s range brass, sale powder or primers, or random source lead, it’s variable over time.

3) It isn’t scalable. If too many folks relied upon throw away brass, paid at retail by others, the system would fall apart.

So what we really have is a few guys around the country building their cars from junkyard parts, and thumbing their nose at folks who buy one off of the lot.
 
Casting your own bullets is a money saver. I don't, but I shop the sales for plated and mostly look for free shipping.

When ammo became more available after the Sandy Hook panic, components were still in short supply so I mostly bought my 9mm. Now that things are stable with components, I'm able to load 9mm for 11¢ a round. That's with buying good amounts of bullets,powder and primers on sale and always looking for shipping deals.

You always want to figure on paying for equipment. It's usually and ongoing thing for lots of us but Christmas is always less than a year away!. I like this calculator for beginners.
http://dillonprecision.net/break-even-calculator/

Dave
 
Bulk is always the answer for expense. Bad thing about bulk is it takes more money up front to do it. If I could buy 10k bullets from somebody for every caliber I load I could significant cut my cost to load per round. That’s just not realistic though. I do try to bulk buy stuff in sensible quantities. Missouri Bullet discount, sales, free shipping, free hazmat, buying open containers from guys retiring from the hobby... I’m reloading 9mm, 38, and .357 for about 9 cents and I don’t cast. I don’t track my other rounds very well price wise, but I do the same there. I feel like my .32 loads are going to be in the 7 cent range.

Rifle rounds fit that same process, but rather than sourcing decent cheap cast bullets I look for deals on “blemished” bullets similar to what I load. Last I checked my .270 and 6.8 I was about 23 cents per shot.
 
Good for you, Texas10mm! :)

That detail reminds of the Reloading Math that my Dad taught me in the 'late `60s. O'course, he actually factored in (on a sliding scale) the cost of the Lee (Whack-a-Mole) Reloading Kits, too.

Casting my own bullets is one aspect of the hobby in which, decades ago, I decided to not get involved ... although I must confess that it has always intrigued me (and probably most of us) to some degree. I just didn't like the idea of what could result from a Loss of Focus, and as I age those are more frequent ... Oh! Look! Something shiny! ;)
 
You're able to get the cost so low because you have opted to scale up to a large degree, because you've chosen to make-rather-than-buy one of the major components in a labor-intensive-but-cash-cheap approach, and because (in pursuit of the prior item) you've restricted yourself to a type of component that some people don't want to use for some or all applications. That doesn't make your math wrong, nor does it mean you're not doing something smart. It just means that lots of people aren't going to be able to hit the same numbers because they don't want to do some of that.

For instance, I'm not going to cast bullets for my highest-volume shooting (USPSA). The smoke from regular lubed lead is just not a good mix with that game and its required rates of fire; similarly, the volume of my shooting that is at indoor ranges makes me uncomfortable with the lead vapor exposure issues. So an approach that turns on casting my own bullets is not one I'm going to pursue. And I'll never hit your numbers as a consequence.
 
Sometimes, it's a fun game to see how far you can push cost down, and enjoy yourself in the process. I have lead, linotype, and casting tools, and had fun learning how to use them. But I've decided to afford the luxury of purchased plated bullets.

Xtreme 9mm 124 grain: $.010 each if you watch for the free shipping offer.

CCI 500 primers: $.035 each. Ran out of the ones marked $1.79 per 100.

Powder: $.02 per load.

As mentioned, brass is practically free.

So I'm paying a lot more than some, but $15.50 per 100 for excellent quality ammo and no lead streaks in the barrel works for me. The day may come that I crank up the casting equipment again, but I don't think that will be soon.
 
I have actually cast 1000 115 gr 0.356 bullets in one sitting. . . it was a valuable experience, and I have always been happy to buy commercial cast pistol bullets since then.

I'll gladly cast rifle bullets, but no more semi pistol calibers.
 
Your primer cost is 50% under the average primer cost, your powder is an obscure powder with minimal load data, and your lead cost is under 25% of the average realistic price. Those are the most obvious reasons I see for the disbelief.

I reload quite a bit of 9mm with my own cast bullets, but honestly you need to include the time and cost of smelting down your wheel weights, the time spent casting bullets, the time spent sizing the bullets, and then the time spent reloading the rounds. On top of all that you will probably have a couple $1,000 invested in casting and reloading supplies. For the average shooter who shoots 5-10 boxes of ammo per year it makes more sense to just buy ammo.

FWIW - In my reloading stash I've got a couple thousand primers I received for free, wheel weights my dad gave me from his shop, powder from a friends Dad and brass I've scrounged over the years. In theory I could make up some ammo that cost absolutely nothing. What does that mean to the average shooter? Nothing, because it took years to accumulate that and I've spent $1,000's on overhead in order to be able to turn those into a usable product.
 
For me, lead is the wild card and one of the bigger costs of reloading. I have a constant source (for now) at $1/pound so a 120g bullet costs 1.7 cents a round, name brand primers are 3 cents each and I figure powder is 1.4 cents per round @ 5g/shot and $20/#. That translates to 6 cents per shot for 9mm to as much as 7.6 cents per shot of 45ACP. My typical weekly sessions are 200-250 rounds so I usually spend $12 to as much as $18/trip (I almost never shoot a full 250 rounds of 45ACP in a setting).

Lead is really expensive when loading shotshells. I use the same source at 3/4 ounce which is 328 grains/shot. No need to shoot 1-1/8 oz which translates to 492 grains.
Rifle rounds cost about the same in lead (150g) and primer as pistol, but you increase the powder by about 6-8X but that's less than an additional 10 cents per round.
 
Time is money too. For the amount of time It would take me to load 100 rounds of 9mm ammo I can earn enough money working a part time job to buy 200-300 rounds of 9mm ammo. Or spend the time remodeling my house, or repairing my vehicles, instead of paying someone else.

I do load for my center fire big game rounds such as 308, 30-06 etc. Not necessarily to save money, but I can load better ammo, using premium bullets for about the same cost as cheap factory loads. For 9mm, 45, 223 etc., the time to load it isn't justified. At least to me.
 
jmr40 said:
Time is money too. For the amount of time It would take me to load 100 rounds of 9mm ammo I can earn enough money working a part time job to buy 200-300 rounds of 9mm ammo. Or spend the time remodeling my house, or repairing my vehicles, instead of paying someone else.
Click to expand...

If I assume that I replace reloading time with more time billing at my customary hourly rate, there's literally nothing I should be handloading. But I'm not substituting reloading time for work. I'm substituting it for sitting on the couch watching TV, or maybe doing another hobby. The only times I have ever, ever come close to doing any more reloading than I wanted to do was just before a big USPSA match or weekend class where I needed to have 1k+ rounds on hand right now.

I suspect the same is true for most reloaders... they reload just as much as they want to.
 
It doesn’t have to take forever to make your own bullets.



Or load you own ammo.




My lowest cost record was in 2005 before BA10 wasn’t imported for a number of years, $18 for 1000 rounds. I can still stay in the $30/1000 range today though.
 
With hardly an exception, all 'very low cost per round' reloading claims always involve some ~free~ components and the investment of a lot of time.
After you've seen enough of those claims, most (like myself) just mark it up as another "Good for you, but not gonna happen in my world'' kinda thing and move on,,,

On a side note, my Dad is 'pleased as punch' to save a couple tenths of a cent per round on 22LR ammo,,,, Shoots most of it through a Heritage Single action revolver. I can guaranty you 'lack of funds' has absolutely nothing to do with those choices. He just likes to do his shooting 'on the cheap', and seems to get as much enjoyment from saving those pennies as he does from shooting, so,,,,,, 'good for him'.
 
I reload pistol ammunition to get what I need for competition the cost saving are secondary and mostly get burnt in the fact that I can shoot more for the same money. But its primarily to get exactly what I want. You can't find factory 38 Short Colt loaded to 135 Power factor you can't find 180gr 40S&W loaded longer than SAAMI for a double stack 1911, you wont find 45 ACP loaded down to 135 power factor etc. That said my Dillon 650XL paid for itself many thousand of rounds ago.

I am just starting into loading rifle and that is again to get what I want with cost saving being secondary. Heavy bullets in 450 Bushmaster and specialized subsonic hunting bullets in 300 BO. The one place I am hoping to really save money is on subsonic plinking ammo for the 300BO. There are no cheap sources of 300 BO subsonic and many of them are not sub sonic in my gun. I have worked up a load I can make for about $0.30 a round using Berry's plated bullets and I have the parts coming to convert my 650XL to load 300BO. Hopefully the next carbine match I shoot will be suppressed subsonic.
 
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I'm retired. Time is nothing to me. If I spend 5 hours melting down wheel weights it's 5 hours. I've got nothing but time.

I stocked up on primers about four years ago when Cabela's had the S&B primers for $17.50 and free hazmat, I purchased multiple cases.

The Vectan powder has plenty of data, ya just need to look for it. I could use Promo, $16 a lb, cost would be very close to the same.

I've got three tire shops I get wheel weights from. I pay them $15 for a full five gallon bucket. The time to sort them means nothing to me. I sell the steel and zinc to the scrap yard. I can buy scrap lead from the scrap yards for $0.70 a lb. 50 lbs of that, 5 lbs of Rotometals super hard, and a lb of pewter would raise my bullet cost to $0.02 each.

If I were forced to buy 9mm cases they would run me $0.02 each. At that price I don't even bother to calculate their cost per reload. I can also buy them as scrap brass from one of my scrap yards. $1.60 a lb, figure 115 per pound for a cost of $0.013 each, again that is a one time cost as they rarely wear out and I can always pick up more than I shoot.

My equipment is long paid for. I ordered a new NOE mold during their sale this weekend. That's $80 delivered. It will cast a 128 gr RN 9mm bullet. Since I'll be saving right at $0.09 per bullet it will take me 888 bullets before I break even on that mold. It's a four cavity so that's one afternoon session of casting, I can pay off that mold in one afternoon. I use either Hi-Tek or powder paint to coat the bullets. There's no smoke that way.

I can load 100 rounds of 9mm on my 650 in about 10 minutes. If you have a job that will pay you enough to buy 200-300 rounds of 9mm in 10 minutes you've got a damn good job. That would be $240-$360 an hour.
 
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