Cheaper to buy Factory Ammo??

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Reloading 9mm always has the lowest % cost savings vs factory bulk 9mm compared to other cartridges. I never could get much below about 70% of 9mm bulk retail price by reloading (using plated or fmj bullets). However, If you cast your own bullets you can.
 
I don't think that will happen for a long time.
Are you seeing any 7.62x54 ammo anywhere?

Georgia Arms had Tula 148gr FMJ on the shelf. Not sure if it’s mail order. Prices weren’t too bad. HP38 and others we available (1lb only). They had a variety of primer sizes. Unis Ginex spp were available at $80/1000, limit 2,000.
Seems we’ve turned the corner...
 
Far as I know, the only one that stopped production was Remington due to the bankruptcy handover...but its been back up and running for a few months now. The rest have been balls to the wall.
Most of these companies were operating near peak capacity before the pandemic anyway and then when they're met with labor shortages and supply issues of course it's going to be harder for them to make vast quantities.
 
Uncertainty with supplies = buy at sale prices!

like I said, 2022 will be a year of stocking up on whatever is for on Sale. If 9mm goes down below $300/1000, I’ll get one or two
 
Take the factory NEW brass out of the calculation. Who buys 9mm brass??

It's more like $220 for primers, bullets and powder. Using todays prices (100 +100 +20
Even less if using coated lead bullets.
Agreed, although my recent costs show it closer to $200 per 1000 for my 9mm reloads. Free brass, of course. So about half the cost of new. And it's not the crappy, lowend range ammo. It's tuned loads.

The thing missing from this discussion is quantity of rounds fired. If you shoot a lot, the savings really add up fast. If you don't, yeah, the economics probably don't work out well.
 
I don’t know guys, If these prices keep dropping, it might be cheaper to buy factory practice ammo and only load the special stuff.
I see nothing wrong with the idea. A while ago (2019 I think) I quit reloading 'practice ammo' for .45 ACP and .38 Special and bought it mail order. (Okay, internet order.) Cranking the handle a gazillion times for duplications of .45 hard ball and .38 Special 'service load just got old. Loading for some specialty loads - can't buy "Super Police" .38 Special ammo these days (I'm not aware, anyhow).
But that idea is not so convenient at the moment. I tend to shy away from using the word 'change' to describe economic conditions. I prefer the term 'cycle' as things continue to fluctuate up and down. (Yes, I do feel 'fluctated' from time to time.) So this concept is useful depending on economic conditions.
You opine some prices are reasonable. I'm a bit tighter than you. Others vary as well. The reality is everyone decides for themself and there is a 'range'.
But your thesis is a valid concept at the core.
 
For awhile in the pre-Brandon era, I quit reloading 9mm and was buying the bulk factory stuff linked in the OP for $150-180 per 1000. My reloads were costing me ~15 cents a round, so the bulk stuff made sense with the bonus of stocking up on truly once-fired brass.

I’m back to reloading 9mm using my old stock of components, so my cost per round is the same, but when that runs out it’ll just be a matter of which is cheaper to buy, components or bulk ammo.


 
I like a few here didn't reload 9mm or .223 (except for the heavy more accurate stuff for my kids varmint/target bolt action rifle) because it was cheap to buy, hopefully those days come back. While I had a die I picked up cheap, I did not reload 9mm until a couple years ago - will prices and availability for primers get better? Maybe, but I am not holding my breath, until it does, I hope I have enough supplies to get me through.

When I first started reloading it was due to the cost of factory .45 Colt, did the CBA, figure out I could load my own and pay for the single stage, scale, etc in about 500 rounds. So, for me there was a cost factor initially, probably still is to some extent, now it is mostly about being able to create more accurate rounds for the rifles I like to shoot (223, 6.5, 243) and being able to have ammo to shoot when factory ammo is not obtainable (like the last couple years).

IF prices come back down, I am not opposed to picking up some more factory range ammo to add to the cache, if prices don't come back down, or primers and powder don't return to being readily available, then I have other options with stuff I have stocked up on over the last 5-10 years.

I do buy factory ammo though to answer your question, and lately for me it is factory .22LR or .22WMR I have not desire to learn to load rimfire ammo at this point and time and probably won't in the remainder of my lifetime.

For trigger time these days, I have been shooting rimfire and have assembled (purchased, upgraded, etc) a few fairly accurate rimfire rifles and scopes, I don't compete with anyone but me and maybe a little friendly competition with my son and friends here and there so no voodoo rifles for me yet but I have an RPR, a Mark II BTVSS, a Savage precision, and I have a bit of .22 LR stashed away in several different flavors of both .22lr and .22 WMR so I can see what shoots best in each rifle I have or purchase and go from there.

a .22lr at 100 or 200 yards with a little crosswind is a good trainer for shooting my bigger rifle at 500, or further, also I can spend several hours at the range and not burn up a lot of money like I would with the 6.5 or other bigger caliber rifles.

YMMV

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I guess that depends what your buying. There was a split before and its coming back on the NATO cartridges where not a lot is saved. 357 was never a good value from the store and I doubt it will ever be again. I mostly moved away from common calibers minus 308 and the 6.5 market is doing a job on 308 popularity so it seams my value for reloads stays very high. I dont expect anyone is stockpiling factory 45-70 either.
 
I see nothing wrong with the idea. A while ago (2019 I think) I quit reloading 'practice ammo' for .45 ACP and .38 Special and bought it mail order. (Okay, internet order.) Cranking the handle a gazillion times for duplications of .45 hard ball and .38 Special 'service load just got old. Loading for some specialty loads - can't buy "Super Police" .38 Special ammo these days (I'm not aware, anyhow).
But that idea is not so convenient at the moment. I tend to shy away from using the word 'change' to describe economic conditions. I prefer the term 'cycle' as things continue to fluctuate up and down. (Yes, I do feel 'fluctated' from time to time.) So this concept is useful depending on economic conditions.
You opine some prices are reasonable. I'm a bit tighter than you. Others vary as well. The reality is everyone decides for themself and there is a 'range'.
But your thesis is a valid concept at the core.
Back around Y2K+1 I stocked up on factory Speer and CCI 9mm blasting garbage; aluminum case and 115gr FMJ. Did the same thing with some surplus .38Spl - French Gevelot and USAF M48. Come 2020 I sold all (well, most;)) to a LGS for 10x what I paid. Sold my box hunting ammo I got on sale for $4-5/box around the same time to a hunt club for $20/box. The advantage to buying box ammo is you can resell it for a good profit later on and still not be gouging.
 
The Price is a bad way to judge the need to reload. I reload because I can make way better ammo for less than I can buy match ammo for. If you only load practice ammo it may be cheaper to buy than reload but then you wouldn't get the satisfaction of making it your self. Yes there is more to reloading than just making something that goes bang.
 
I don’t know guys, If these prices keep dropping, it might be cheaper to buy factory practice ammo and only load the special stuff. Hear me out and look at my math ...
That's the intelligent way to approach the issue.

I have always thought of it as Reloading Math. One of the many things that Dad taught me when we started walking down the reloading trail together in '68.

I just retrieved one of his annotated reloading-data pages from the old Herters reloading manual.

7.92x57 Mauser
46gr of propellant = 1.5¢
Primer = 0.6¢
Bullet (150gr Jacketed FBSP spitzer) = 2.9¢

= 5¢ per reload

He taught me to keep a current Cost-per-Cartridge in my head so that I could judge whether I was better off reloading a particular cartridge or buying something factory-made.

As a result, for a LONG time I reloaded 8mm, since both commercial & milsurp (the rare times that it was available) 8mm prices were prohibitively expensive, MUCH more than 5¢/rd. :)
 
The Price is a bad way to judge the need to reload. I reload because I can make way better ammo for less than I can buy match ammo for. If you only load practice ammo it may be cheaper to buy than reload but then you wouldn't get the satisfaction of making it your self. Yes there is more to reloading than just making something that goes bang.

I'd say price matters to me in choosing to reload. No denying it. Part of the price consideration is being able to load cheaper than I can buy equivalent ammo. But another big angle on price is the ability to buy components at the right time. For example, I tested my elk load with 165 grain partitions in 30-06 and was happy with it. This will always be a low volume thing for me, but I hunt elk and deer every year and would have no issues using this on pigs or pronghorn. Since bullets don't go bad, I figured I should buy a bunch at a good price. In the slack market of the trump years I stumbled across an overstock sale of these bullets for under $40 a box with free shipping. I will never need to buy them again unless I use them in a culling operation (for years).

Oh, and for a little over $20 a box of shells I shoot one of the best regarded big game bullets in a load tuned to my rifle.
 
8mm is what got me into reloading. Well that, .30 carbine, and .357 magnum. Those were too expensive and hard to find locally (except for .357). For the longest time I bought mostly commercial ammo except for those on the endangered list, but then I started branching out and expanding as I found dies on sale. At the current time, I don’t shoot that much, and I reload nearly everything because our local gun shops that sold ammo have gone out of business, and Wally World went all woke on guns and ammo.

Honestly though, I think I like reloading nearly as much as shooting. I like being able to load what my guns like, and I like the ability to load reduced loads that don’t take as much of a toll on my aging muscles and joints.

Here’s my opinion, and it and $1.50 will buy you a Coke. If you view reloading as only a means to be able to shoot, then commercial ammo is probably the way to go for you. If you view reloading as an interesting and enjoyable hobby on its own, then you should continue reloading (or I should say hand loading) as long as supplies permit.
 
I'm seeing prices go up over the last couple months, not down.

Academy was at .36 to .37 for WWB 9mm,>> now .40.
BassPro had boxes of Blazer aluminum for $17.99,>> now $19.99.
Midway was $19.99 for 9mm, >>now several options all at $22.99.
SGammo was somewhere around .37, >>now .43 at best for brass case.

TargetSportsUSA seems to be holding prices low but we'll see what happens when their current stock sells out.
 
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