Current reloading costs

[Noxx]

After plugging everything into a reloading calculator, and double checking, I find it's costing me 8.9 cents per round to reload 9mm (not including brass, for various reasons).

This seems a lot steeper than I expected. How are you guys making out?

 

[Eagle103]

Using plated Rainier's or Berry's it costs me in the same ballpark and going higher every day with the price of lead going up. 9mm is a tough one to save much money on but it is still cheaper than store bought.

 

[rr4406pak]

.0111 cents for 5.2gr Unique.
.058 cents for one Beak Creek Moly RN Lead bullet.
.03 cents for one .45 ACP brass.
.02 cents for one CCI-300 primer.
-----
.1199 cents per bullet.
$5.995/box of 50.

Take away the initial cost of brass (paid $30 for 1000pcs) which drops the price (more realistically) to:

.0899 cents per bullet or
$4.49/box of 50.

 

[baz]

Looks about right. .09x50 works out to $4.50 a "box." The cheapest loaded ammo is about $15/100, or $7.50 a "box." So you are saving some money. For many of us, there are other factors we consider besides saving money. I like a milder load than the commercial loads, and can tailor the load to my liking. Plus, put a premium bullet in the picture -- like a Speer GDHP -- and the savings go up dramatically.

 

[alucard0822]

I would be around .10 per rd(if I bought stuff today). but then again I am still working through 4000 win fmj that I bought from midway for $200 with free shipping a year or so ago. I like the rainier/berrys plated bullets in just about anything I can get them for, but the FMJ seem to shoot better out of my M9, 124gr fmj at about 1100fps, feeds and functions flawlessly with good accuracy.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I don't care what it cost. I just enjoy doing it and it gives me an excuse to shoot. Without reloading, my wife and I couldn't shoot Cowboy Action.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[caz223]

$3 in bullets, $1 in primers, then $1 in powder for 50 rounds. That's about 10 cents a round.
You can't buy 9mm for $5 a box anymore. Not where I live.
But the ammo I load is premium 124 grain JHP for $5 a box.
You might have been able to buy blasting ammo for $7 or even less, but you won't find good JHP ammo for anywhere NEAR $5 a box, not any more.

If you really must spend less than what you are now, then price lead bullets.
I personally found it wasn't worth it.

 

[BruceB]

Follow me through, here...

$50-$70 for a Lee electric furnace

$20 for a Lee 2-cavity mould

Using wheelweight alloy at the "price" I paid LAST WEEK, $13 (two cases of Pepsi to the tire-shop guys) for 160 pounds of REFINED alloy, or about EIGHT CENTS per pound, and

1000 120-grain 9mms cost $1.60 for alloy, while 1000 .45/250s cost about $3.20 for the metal.

1000 primers...$20.00

3/4 lb of powder...$15.00

For under $125, you can set up to cast, AND load the first 1000 rounds of 9mm or .45. For the NEXT 1000 rounds, you're looking at about $40.00.

Don't try to say it can't be done, because thousands of us ARE doing it. Yes, there's some learning to be done, but it's not difficult and it's very rewarding. Don't believe old-wives' tales of how looooooong it takes to cast a thousand bullets. Do it right, after some research, and you can do as I do...my two-cavity Lees can cast over 400 bullets per hour, NO BS.

I have over 5000 loaded .45 ACP cartridges on hand right now, and if my total investment in those rounds is much over the figures above, I'd be very surprised indeed. Brass will last practically forever, and usually my autoloader brass gets lost before it wears out. Twenty or more loadings per case is certainly not unusual.

Buying bullets when we could be making our own is pure foolishness. Many people will throw up all kinds of excuses about "why *I* can't cast", but if one is intent about getting more "serious fun" out of a given amount of money, then the excuses won't matter and casting will work for us.

 

[davinci]

you can buy 1000 cast lead 9mm 125gr RNFP from brassmanbrass.com for $34 including shipping, and you don't have to buy a furnace or molds, or bribe your auto shop guys. (1000 125 grain bullets is about 18 lbs) so, look at it like it's $2 per pound. Not too mention, if you do find any tire shop fellas that do happen to have weights laying around that they just give away for a case of soda, you're in the money. Around my parts, they "reuse those things" or "we already give them to so and so." I've called half a dozen shops and four of them said "what are you talking about?" Maybe you'll have better luck if you just show up and drop a $20 bill on the counter and say "you got any wheel weights?" That approach didn't work for me, but I only tried it at one shop. He said "well, I don't usually sell those, I'll have to look up the prices. What weight do you need?"
"No, your used weights. I'm going to melt them into fishing sinkers."
"oh. *pause* we don't have any of those."
"I'll give you cash for them."
"Like I said we don't have any used ones...we just re-hang them and put them on the next tire. I order them occasionally, but they aren't cheap."
"Ok, I'll give you 25 cents per pound for any you do come across." left him my number. It's been over a week, no response.

I load my 9mm at $70 per 1000 or $7 per 100. I use components from powder valley /brassmanbrass.com to the tune of something like this...
case - free
primer - 1.85 cents from powder valley, wolf brand.
powder - 1 cent at most, again powder valley titegroup 12.50 per lb.
bullet - you just saw the 3.4 cents above. ($34 per 1000)

so, 6.25 cents a piece. Seriously, if you listen to what other reloaders tell you about good deals, you'll get good deals that will cut your costs in half. I almost bought everything from midway before I heard about powder valley and that deal at brassmanbrass.com from this forum.

 

[Outlaws]

Where do you all get brass so cheap?

 

[RustyFN]

I load for about the same price as davinci, around $7 per 100.

Outlaws: Where do you all get brass so cheap?

I pick mine up out of the gravel at the outdoor range. In the las year I have picked up around 10,000 9mm, 1,200 45 auto and around 2,000 223 cases. The only brass I have bought so far is two boxes of WWB 9mm and 200 38 spcl cases, the 38 are just too hard to find. Nobody drops revolver cases.
Rusty

 

[davinci]

outlaws: what do you need?
I get 45acp brass, 1400 pieces for $53 shipped from a fella in CO. I can give you his email if you'd like it. He's a pretty good guy.

A friend just stumbled upon 2000 9mm cases from a LEO range and an LEO friend of his who gave him his old Lyman tumbler. Those LEO's seem to have a really friendly bond as they're always giving stuff away to each other.

otherwise, pick it up from folks who don't know any better....like at your public range. We have a state-run public range here, and I've contemplated bugging him to just share whatever brass is in there or spotting him a $20 or something to keep the state from selling it off as scrap brass.

Get yourself some shooting buddies, they'll find it for you a lot of times. I've got a reloader and I sometimes trade loaded ammo for empties with my pals, or let them reload on my press and we shoot together and I'll pick up all their brass and tell them and let them load up on my ammo the next weekend.

Never underestimate the power of a friend when it comes to finding junk. I've had family members call me from auctions asking me "well, there's something that looks like bullets here, it's a coffee can full of them" "read off the bottom of one for me." "says 44 magnum" or garage sales. Or friends of friends who stumble on guns in their late grandfathers house and don't know what to do with it.

Be the local "gun nut" and folks will always think of you when they run into stuff that looks like a bargain. I ran into a relative who had a .38 in her drawer that she had gotten in the 80's and only fired a few times. She woke up one night across the street, sleep walking and had no idea how she had gotten there. She figured it a good idea to get rid of her gun before she ended up in trouble, so she called "what do I do with this? Can I give it to the police or something?" "No, you can't just give it to the police. You can give it to me and I can take it off to a pawn shop or sell it and give you the cash." "i don't care about the money, I just don't want it around." "take the bullets out and put them in a jar full of water now, they're worthless if they're that old...and just leave the gun where it is, I'll come out this weekend and get it."

I know the bullets were still good, but I couldn't make it all the way out there that night and she was seriously scared she would hurt someone as she was going the direction of schizophrenic and delusional in the middle of the night. I also drilled and tied her kitchen knives to the counter.

 

[jhansman]

Said it before, so I'll say it again: I no longer care what it costs to reload, I ain't going back to factory ammo. I'm learning too much and having too much fun shooting my own to stop or go back. In for a dime, in for a dollar.

 

[Redneck with a 40]

I'm loading 40 S&W right now, for about $5.50/50. Compare that to $12-16/50 for factory ammo, the savings are huge in 40 S&W.

3000 Rainier 155's from Midway = $225 with free shipping
4 lbs Unique = $58
3 bricks of primers = $60.

Grand total = $343/3000 rounds or 11.4 cents/rounds. This comes out to $5.50/50. Pretty good deal.

 

[Mr.Revolverguy]

I do not live in california but I still get the feeling I am living in the wrong spot to support my reloading addiction A brick of primers here locally is 25.99 a box now, and 40S&W is 16.99 now from Gander Mountain as of this weekend which is way cheaper than the mom and pop gun shops I visit. I figure I do my part by purchasing my weapons from them so I do not feal as bad going some place else to get my reloading gear. Heck these shops do not even carry reloading gear. I am almost embarrassed to walk in and ask about it because I think they look at you like hey there is one of those cheap reloading guys and no we do not carry that crap.

As others have stated I do it because it is something I like to do but I also know that on 40S&W, 45ACP, 38spl, 357Mag, 44Mag, 460S&W, 454Cas and 500S&W I save a ton of money but it has been a long time since I calculated it up because I just do not care anymore. It is reload or do not shoot for me. What is really funny about my approach is that my friends now all say it is no fair he reloads and I use factory when I am kicking their butts at the range, sort of like I have some black magic or something. What they do not realize is that yes I tailor the rounds specifically for my weapon but what it really boils down to is that I get more practice time because of the ammo I have on hand.

Start reloading you will save a bit but most of all the feeling of accomplishment out weighs the money aspect of it, at least in my eyes.

 

[Noxx]

I certainly agree with you guys that the satisfaction level of loading your own beats the heck out of buying WWB, I just wonder if I'm overpaying for components.

Apparently I'm spending too much on bullets at $30 / 500 plated. Gotta find a new vendor there.

 

[scott5]

Hello all,
I know a fellow at the Flee market that is selling wheel Weight Lead that he pours into ingots.
What should I pay per pound for it?

 

[evan price]

I've worked in tire shops. Yes there are weights there. Usually there is already somebody who is buying them. We had this one guy who came out once a month with a hand truck and scales and weighed out the lead and paid cash. Left empty 5-gallon buckets for the lead, took the full ones.

Brass? Ha! I get all the brass I ever want for free from the public range. I choose times to go shoot that coincide with the tail end of busy shooting periods, show up with my guns, a few ammo cans of ammo, and a empty 5-gallon bucket. Shoot a few hundred, pick up a thousand empties. Continue until I run out of time or new ammo. It's not uncommon for me to pick up 5-gallons of mixed brass in an afternoon. Rifle, pistol, whatever. I've been stockpiling for a month and I have literally buckets full of various calibers I have hand sorted. I figure for the price of scrap brass even if I don't shoot it I can sell it. I started volunteering to police the club range too, and that brings lots of brass. Be creative. Try asking people when you are at the range, last week a guy saw me picking brass up, asked me if I reloaded, and when I said yes, we made some small talk, when he left, he handed me (250) 38 +P once-fired casings, he'd even put them all back in the boxes.