Breaking even! Woo hoo!

[jr_roosa]

I'm in striking distance of breaking even on reloading!

When I divide the total money I've spent on everything I've bought to reload by the cost of buying similar ammunition, I'm within $20 of breaking even, and I'll hit that with my next batch of .30-06 that I'm loading this afternoon.

It took $1119 and a 17 months. Round count is 1894. Overall cost per round is $0.59. It's about 1/3 rifle, 2/3 pistol. Maybe 300 rounds of home cast bullets.

Caveats:

Most of my hardware was hand-me-down from dad: press, some dies, powder measure, scale, some components, lead pot, lead, molds...probably $300 to $500 worth of stuff.

I'm not counting the cost of building the bench itself...$250

I don't count my time as cost.

I shot a small fraction of 2000 centerfire rounds in my entire life before starting to reload...no way I would have spent anywhere near a grand on ammo in the last year.

I don't count the cost of firearms I bought because I could reload for them (a rifle and a revolver)

The ammo shortage helped a lot. Walmart WWB going away bumped the value of my reloaded rounds quite a bit.

In my favor, I have enough stuff on the bench to reload at least another $800 worth of ammo without any new components.

Not too shabby.

-J.

 

[oneounceload]

COOL!...once you have the cost of the gear amortized out, your cost per round will drop more, allowing you to shoot more, which means you'll need to reload more....which in turn lets you shoot more and thus you'll need to reload more......

I'm starting to see a pattern here!.....

 

[UltimateReloader]

It's all about saving money, making better optimized ammo (seating depth, etc), and having fun!

**Also- what a lot of people don't factor in is the resale value of their equipment. Example: buy a progressive reloader, and sell it for at least 2/3 of what you bought it for. Not a bad investment! If you buy used, you can usually get back what you paid.

 

[jr_roosa]

Well, I also just opened my last sleeve of Win large rifle primers, and I'm down to 5 sierra match kings. On my last pounds of all of my powder but Bullseye.

Guess I'm going to need to drop a couple benjamins at Powder Valley. Back in the red again, it looks like.

-J.

 

[TimRB]

"I don't count my time as cost."

You can't. If you do, your savings go out the window. Better just to recognize handloading as an enjoyable hobby in its own right.

I never thought about it, but I guess I broke even recently, too.

Tim

 

[GaryL]

Another way to look at the time is that you're working to pay for the press, and then you are working to buy (make) ammo. Sure the pay isn't great, but if you're making premium ammo, you can figure you are also getting a discount on the good stuff.

 

[Clarence]

Heck man, I reload so much that I get a check in the mail for all the money I'm saving. The more I shoot the bigger the check..........at least I've got my wife convinced of it.

 

[qajaq59]

I started to load in the mid sixties. Over that time I've probably spent more on primers then my equipment cost. It really is a good hobby and once you retire it's a Great hobby. It eats time. You get to exercise your brain. And your legs get a workout when putting up targets..... Plus, since you're on a pension you can shoot on the cheap. I don't have a clue what factory ammo costs, but I'd bet I couldn't afford to shoot the amount of rifle ammo I go thru every week if I was buying it.
Stick wirh it and you'll never regret it.

 

[ranger335v]

"Breaking even! Woo hoo!"

Keep shooting! I haven't done the math to see at what point I will start turning a profit but I have to be gitting pretty close now....? I can hardly wait, I need the money!

Those who say "time is money" are silly. By itself, time is worthless; just try to buy a cup of coffee with a bit of your spare time! But, what we do with our time may have value ... reloading has value, sitting on our fannies watching TV has no value.

 

[Schutzen]

Listen son, your talking to reloaders and shooters in this section. You may sell that story to your wife, but not to a true reloader. I've ben reloading 39 years and there is always another piece of reloading gear I "need". You never break even, but you shoot a hell of a lot more and enjoy it more.

PS 2 benches, 5 press, 3 lubersizers, 2 tumblers, 2 lead pot, 1 lead smelter,and more accesories than my garage can hold.

 

[oldreloader]

I actually find it to be theraputic for me. It seems to sooth my frazzeled nerves to just sit at the bench and deprime,resize,clean pimer, pockets ECT. I enjoy doing it and have since I started back in the late 60's.I stopped for a while and when I started back it was like a tranqulizer!LOL.

 

[Noveldoc]

In my area an hour's psychotherapy with a clinical psychologist costs $170.00. Multiply this by hours spent at the bench to figure your true total savings.

;-)

Tom

 

[jr_roosa]

OK, went to Sportsmans and they had (Gasp!) Winchester Large and Small rifle primers! Got 1000 each, couple boxes of bullets, and more rifle brass and boxes.

Back in the hole again, but not by much.

-J

 

[rfwobbly]

I'm broke too. Now we're even.


Congrats. Tell us when you've saved $5000 !!

 

[FROGO207]

The way you figure it I broke even the first two months that I was reloading. Now 40 years later I find that the lead seems to flow out of the brass at a much faster rate than it can be replaced.:banghead: Still it is a good stress reliever to reinstall lead in brass. As they say in so many adds lately. PRICELESS

 

[qajaq59]

Back in the hole again, but not by much.

Ok then. As soon as you are even again you can buy some molds, a pot, etc, and get back in the hole again. Why should the rest of us be the only ones in a hole?