Is reloading worth it threads....

Yep. My LGS has pallets of 9mm and .223 sitting in the middle of the lobby. I could beat that price with handloads by a few pennies, assuming I don't attach any value to my time.

Keeping my .416 Rigby (or .500 S&W, or .44 Special, or 10mm, or...) fed is a different matter.

That’s an eye opener for sure! One thing is for sure, if you spend any amount of time shooting big bores it quickly pays off to reload even in the best of times. I have paid for all of my reloading gear multiple times over in .44mag alone, not even to speak of .45Colt, .454Casull, .475Linebaugh and 45-70.

NATO or not.......Any firearm I have, I'm gonna reload/handload for it.........minus the rimfire stuff..

Well anything not used alot will be a savings money wise for sure. Things like 22 Hornet. 410 anything, 35 Remington, 25-20 SS, and the like. Still some of us also realise that making a better round than cheapo factory ammo for the same price or less is also a win. Then as I mentioned in a in a different thread being able to make any sort of ammo at all when the ability to purchase anything at all is not going to happen is priceless. Many reasons to load other than cost of cheap ammo in times of plenty LOL.

AJC1 said:

The radio just stated a special of 50 9mm for 13.99.

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What brand, bullet type, bullet weight, case material, and where? Not factory seconds or reloads? There are specials and then there are specials.

It's worth it to me, for some things, especially for the hard to find calibers. $40 for twenty rounds of factory vs. $7.85 (or thereabouts) for my handloads is a no-brainer.

Or 185gr swc for my 1911, 370gr rnfp for the .480 Ruger with a mild recoil, and the list goes on.

9mm, not so much. .223/.556 is the same. I can load for each, but I'm not sure if it's worth it if I'm just counting pennies. Better ammo (more accurate) makes it worth it sometimes, but all I do is punch paper and some cans, so it's a bit of a toss up. The upside is I'm in control of the QC on my handloads, and I know what I'm shooting and that each shot is going to be the same.

chris

As I get older I need simple easy to answer questions like this one requiring equally simple one word answers—Yes

I stated this in another thread recently......I never saved a dime reloading.......

But.....I sure as heck loaded 3-4 boxes of ammo per caliber for the same price as a box of factory

Comparing the price of bulk NATO ammunition to custom handloads is an unfair comparison. A more fair comparison would be comparing the price of, say, 1,000 rounds of high end match grade factory ammo with the cost of 1,000 well made custom reloads that shoot just as good if not better than that factory ammunition. Brownells has Nosler match grade .223 for $45.49 for 20 rounds or $2.27/round. I'm pretty sure I could beat $2.27 per round pretty easily and end up with more accurate ammunition even with today's ridiculously inflated component prices. As it is, I don't need to buy primers, powder or cases as I am well stocked so I could probably beat that price by quite a lot since I am unaffected by this inflation. My ammo cost is whatever the cost of components was 5-10-15 years ago. pretty good investment really.

I just finished 1,000 9mm



Round numbers here:

1,000 RMR 124gn FMJ = $110
1,000 CCI primers = $90 (current price, I didn’t pay that)
0.614 lbs of HP-38 = $27
1,000 mixed range pick up brass = free

my hand load total = $227
OP’s commercial deal = $280

Satisfaction making it myself > driving to Academy, fighting holiday shoppers and paying more for dubious rock bottom range fodder

Bottom line: it’s a hobby, you ether enjoy it or you find something else to spend your free time on

Soonerpesek said:

NATO or not.......Any firearm I have, I'm gonna reload/handload for it.........minus the rimfire stuff..

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Or at the least have the ability to. Otherwise, what are your options when the store shelves go bare? And stay that way?

Is a thread about"...is reloading worth it threads..." worth it in a reloading forum? j/k

I don't reload 9mm Luger - but I do all of my other cartridges (rimfire excluded).

"Worth it or not" threads almost always ask solely about the cost per round. To be honest, cost per round is pretty low on my list of reasons to reload. I usually will respond to those threads to point out that there are some good reasons to reload other than price. Much higher on my list of reasons I reload are, improved accuracy, felt recoil and the pride of "building" something all my own. ONly then do I start looking at CPR.

To be honest, some of my favorite loads cost more than factory loads, but I like shooting them much, much more, which has its own value. So what if my favorite handload costs 2 cents more than Winchester white box from Wally World? Mine is more accurate and shoots softer! I also know where the brass will land!

As I've said before, Game killed with your own reloads tastes better. How much is that worth?

Buy them cheap & Stack up Deep!

I would not give up on reloading, but don’t forget, 2 years ago factory ammo was 2-4x now! If you a smart man/women Gets some and put it away. Some crisis show happen eventually and cause another Fire Buy

I’m waiting for $200 9mm, $300 5.56, and $30/100 12 gauge

Nature Boy said:

I just finished 1,000 9mm

View attachment 1120807

Round numbers here:

1,000 RMR 125gn FMJ = $110
1,000 CCI primers = $90 (current price, I didn’t pay that)
0.614 lbs of HP-30 = $27
1,000 mixed range pick up brass = free

my hand load total = $227
OP’s commercial deal = $280

Satisfaction making it myself > driving to Academy, fighting holiday shoppers and paying more for dubious rock bottom range fodder

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Not to mention the high probability of having a more accurate ammo.

I spent about a whole 30 mins doing load work up with some lead SNS 135 9mm, it outshoots any factory ammo I've tried
3.6 grains of sport pistol
Federal spp
Mixed range brass
And about .015 off the rifling of my shadow 2.

Cheaper and more accurate, yep its still worth it.

If you reload for accuracy it's worth it. If you like shooting odd calibers it's worth it. Most of the time if you hunt it's worth it.
If you are just wanting to save money it's NOT worth it.
Learn to buy it cheap & Stack up Deep!

It cost me 12.00 per 100 to load 9mm based on what i have in stock before the world turned upside down.

$14 / 50 rds for 9mm. I want to buy some of those $.04 primers they are using to load them.

Doesn’t have to be cheaper to reload. What ya going to shoot when the shelves are bare? And they can be empty in a heard beat.

Lower 9mm prices may give me pause using the primers I have to reload 9mm, especially if they are just target plinking ammo. My notes say I’ve reloaded about 6,500 9mm rounds since I started (March 2020). I enjoy the process so unless 9mm ammo is $.18 per round or less, I’m probably loading it.

At $5/50-ct box for 9mm or the same for 20-ct boxes of 5.56mm, I’ll stock up and package them in water proof containers, vacuum sealed and buried in the insulated shed. That way next shortage I can wait until the LGS shelves go bare and swap it for a couple of good quality holster revolvers. The revolvers plus some quality hunting ammo I can swap for half a cow, a whole goat, a few dozen eggs, maybe some fresh greens to blanch and freeze… Not all of the above, of course, but pick 2 at least.
That’s what I did in 2020.
I also bought multiple boxes of rifle hunting ammo on clearance and put them back. When the hunt club needed ammo I swapped it for other stuff we needed.

GeoDudeFlorida said:

I can swap for half a cow, a whole goat, a few dozen eggs, maybe some fresh greens to blanch and freeze

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So------------ how many chickens for that brick of LRP..............??

I’m not opposed to factory ammo. I have a bunch of factory NATO ammo I’ve picked up over the years, stored in their original packaging, in sealed ammo cans. A few boxes of CCW ammunition in 3 different calibers.

One place I used to qualify didn’t allow reloads (but they didn’t check either). I used to shoot cheap factory 9mm to qualify.

That said, 95% of my shooting is done with what I made.

Center fire rifle (except.223) I almost never shoot factory. The last 4 boxes of factory rifle ammunition I shot was a box each for 4 different rifles to break the bore in while I waited for UPS to deliver my dies, brass and bullets. My bore break in process takes 15 rounds. 3 of those 4 boxes still have 5 rounds left in them.

I’m with the “I’ll have ammo when the stores don’t” and the “accuracy” crowd.