I'm going to disagree here. It is much cheaper to buy in bulk (not half million primers, but a lot). I was buying the fiocchi primers that come 1500 to a brick (and in the obnoxious 150 per sleeve in that brick) but those were about same cost as a 1,000 brick of other brands. This was 2019 - not decades ago. But not that big a deal to go grab a few thousand primers once a month. I live driving distance from Outdoor Limited so sales tax, but no hazmat shipping. $35 for 1500 SPP - 2.3 cents for a primer. SPP and SRM were same price. This drought hasn't bothered me a bit yet because I was continually buying primers I didn't need at the time. Powder I do a little different. I'll get as many 8# jugs as I can have on 1 hazmat fee. So yeah, that's a bigger spend all at once, but compared to buying 1lb at a time - esp walk into LGS and buy it - that's a big savings. 8lb jug of W231 is roughly 11K pistol rounds - why screw around with smaller amounts and pay a premium to do so? Having the stockpile on hand for a drought is just an added bonus, but for me it's just the economy of the bulk purchase. Bullets too - the more you buy, the cheaper they are to a point. But that point is usually around the 6k mark. Even just saving a penny (it's more) that's $60 off the bullets just cuz you bought a bigger box.
Way off topic, hindsight 20/20, shoulda coulda woulda.....but even with a limited budget anyone who has been reloading....or shooting....or buying guns....for more than a short time has seen scarcity and panics and droughts. If you
need a pound of powder, you need an 8lb keg. If you
need a brick of primers, you need a case. If you
need a box of bullets, you need a bulk pack of 3-6k. That's the way I think anyway - at least for what I use the most - I wouldn't buy 5k Hornady SST just to save a few cents per if I only wanted to make 100 rds hunting ammo, but in general anything I shoot & load in volume, my wanting to have the lowest cost per round by default builds stockpiles too. I'm late 40's so the AWB of the 90's was all I had to live through to understand building up a stash. And for stuff I don't load like 22LR and 12GA.....well if I ever have grandchildren they'll be shooting from that stash. But I didn't go out one day and buy it all. Just a some here, some there, but always, always, I bought it at a good sale price
when I did not need it. The only times I ever bought anything reloading related when I needed it was initially starting out and then when starting a new caliber.
This is an email receipt from Jan 2019: 4200 FMJ projectiles + 6k primers for $443 total incl tax. Add 1.4 or 6.5 cents of powder (pistol/rifle) and that's a pretty low cost per round for not using cast or plated bullets. 12.5 cents for 45ACP, 10.1 cents for 9mm. On the previous trip there I got Wolf 55gr 223 bullets for $60/1000 and that puts .223 at 14.8 cents. So other than saving up to get 3-6 8lb kegs of powder at once, the remainder of that could have been bought 1-2 things at a time every payday or something. Also below is powder purchase from Jan 2020. I have no idea what a single pound of H335 typically costs but have a feeling it's a lot more than $17.58. This isn't a flex or bragging - just trying to illustrate how much cheaper it is buying a lot vs buying a little and the benefit to the play money budget of not needing anything at panic prices. Plenty of other times all I had $ for was a brick of .22 and a brick or primers.....but even that accumulated with $65 spends.
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